Chapter 6
JUNE
June saw Holt before he saw her as she drove up the driveway.
He walked through the door of the lighthouse cottage with that same contained, purposeful stride he’d always had, even when he was younger and more reckless with it.
Age had not slowed him so much as disciplined him.
He moved like a man who knew where every part of his body was, including the places that hurt.
He looked like his mind was far away, turning scenarios and solutions over.
Then Holt lifted his head and spotted Carmen’s car as June pulled to a stop in front of him.
Warmth moved through June before she could stop it.
It wasn’t a sensible reaction. It belonged in the dangerous pile with everything else she’d been refusing to examine too closely since Holt came back into her daily orbit.
June had deliberately developed a system lately to keep herself on track and focused.
Dangerous thoughts, feelings, and memories were sent to the back of her mind and stacked neatly in labeled boxes.
Each one was tied shut and pushed to the farthest corner, where they couldn’t interfere with the things that mattered.
That smile of Holt’s, however, did not care about labels.
June tightened her hands on the steering wheel and pretended she had not felt the little shift in her chest at all.
Holt opened the passenger-side door and eased himself into the seat.
“Good morning.” Holt was still smiling.
“Good morning.” She waited until he’d pulled the door shut and fastened his seat belt before pulling away from the curb. “How was your date?”
Holt gave her a look. “You couldn’t even wait five minutes to bring that up?”
June glanced at him, trying to keep a straight face at his expression. It looked like he’d been tortured.
“Sorry. I just thought it would be best to get it out of the way so we could settle into our day.” She kept her mouth very straight for perhaps two seconds before the corner of it twitched.
Holt exhaled through his nose.
“One thing I do know for certain,” Holt stated. “I never want to do that again.”
A soft laugh slipped out of her before she could stop it.
“It couldn’t have been that bad?” June looked at him in disbelief.
“It was worse than bad.” Holt shifted carefully against the seat, already sounding aggrieved on principle. “I stayed as long as I could without creating a diplomatic incident.”
That made June laugh properly, and privately, her heart gave a little jolt of joy that he had not enjoyed Victoria’s company. In fact, June quietly felt ridiculously glad. But she caught the feeling just as quickly and slid it into the dangerous feelings pile in her mind where it belonged.
She was too old for this foolishness. Much too old for these feelings.
This was the type of feeling she’d expect Grace and Katey to have over the boys they liked.
June’s heart thudded again, but for a different reason this time.
She didn’t want to think of her sixteen-year-old granddaughter being old enough to date.
June shook off her thoughts and focused on the present.
“Did you learn anything?” June kept the conversation mission-appropriate.
“Not much.” Holt looked out the windshield, his jaw tightening. “Just what we already know. That Victoria doesn’t like Lacey, Lucy, or you.”
June glanced at him and saw that hard line settle in his face.
“I won’t lose any sleep over that,” she assured him. “The feeling is mutual.”
The last part slipped out before June could stop it. She really was digressing back to her teenage days here.
Holt didn’t smile. His voice changed instead, losing the dry edge and turning quieter.
“There was something of interest.” Holt turned his head to look at her. “Victoria had scratches on the back of her hands.”
June’s foot eased off the accelerator for a fraction before she corrected herself. “Really?” Her eyes widened, and her heart slammed against her rib cage. “Did you find out how she got them?”
“She said they were from her daughter’s cat.”
“Do you believe her?” June asked, knowing it was a plausible explanation. She had met that particular cat at the vet. It was not a pleasant creature.
“Honestly, I met the creature, and it really could be.” Holt glanced back at the road ahead, his brow furrowing thoughtfully as he considered it.
June nodded once. “Yes, I know the cat. It is quite a hostile character.” She turned a corner. “So what do we do?”
“Proceed with caution. She’s the police chief’s ex-wife, and we continue to gather evidence.” Holt huffed a small laugh, though it did not fully soften him. “Either way, we still need to find out if that crazy, murderous, furry creature of Sienna’s really did scratch Victoria’s hands or…”
“If Victoria kidnapped Judy,” June finished for him. “Which, when I say it out loud, sounds absurd.”
“I know.” Holt nodded in agreement.
For a few seconds, only the hum of the engine filled the car.
The morning had already warmed, that soft Gulf Coast brightness stretching across the roads and low buildings of Sandpiper Shores as the town came awake around them.
A woman in tennis shoes walked a golden retriever along the sidewalk near the harbor.
Two men stood outside the bait shop with coffee cups in hand, deep in the kind of conversation that probably involved weather, fish, and local politics in no particular order.
A delivery van rolled past Teacups more slowly than it needed to, because this was still a small town and people couldn’t help looking.
Normality, June thought. Always normality on the surface.
Then Holt shifted beside her again.
“Also…” He cleared his throat. “I, ah…”
June frowned and looked at him briefly before returning her attention to the road. “What is it?”
“I might owe your sister an apology.” Holt’s eyes met hers as she glanced at him.
“Why?” June asked. “What did you do to her this time?”
“Nothing,” Holt said quickly. “Well, not recently, anyway. It’s what I did when… when my sister was dying.”
June’s brow furrowed. “What did you do to Carmen?”
He gave her a flat look. “You know exactly what I mean.”
Then she did. Recognition came over her in a slow, unpleasant wash.
“Oh.” She took another glance at him and then back at the road, giving a slow nod. “That.”
It was the incident that had led them to agree never to speak of it again after the initial fallout it had caused between them.
She had been angry with him for days afterward, and she never carried anger around with her.
Once she had aired her grievances, June usually let things go. But not that time.
“Yes. That.” Holt swallowed and looked out his window for a second. “When I accused her friend of stealing my sister’s jewelry. When I all but ended any possibility of friendship between Carmen and me.”
Her brows lifted at Holt actually voicing what he had done out loud.
June let out a quiet breath. “Right. Not your finest moment around my family.”
“In my defense,” Holt said, and she could hear the old frustration still tucked beneath the guilt, “I knew Annie Smythe a little better than Carmen did.” He paused. “I had grown up with Annie, and she’d always been the town rebel since the minute she learned to walk.”
That pulled the faintest smile from June despite everything.
“Annie was quite the rebel.” The smile faded into something sadder. “I still can’t believe she died in that yachting accident when she was only twenty-five.”
“I know. Annie loved to sail, and for the town rebel that she was, she won all the sailing competitions for the town.” Holt rubbed a hand over his jaw. “But her death makes my feeling of guilt even worse now, because I can’t apologize to her.”
“Yes, but you didn’t accuse Annie directly,” June reminded him. “I don’t think she even knew you’d accused her.”
“That’s right. Carmen threatened me with grievous bodily harm if I said a word to Annie without concrete evidence. She reminded me in no uncertain terms that she was an EMT with a father who was a criminal attorney.” Holt shifted in his seat again, adjusting the seat belt across his lap.
“Carmen said that?” June gaped. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to upset you any more than you already were after I accused your sister’s best friend of being a thief,” Holt said quietly. “I attacked your sister for bringing Annie into our house while my sister was dying and for stealing a terminally ill person’s valuables.”
“That did give you one more black mark with Carmen,” June admitted. “But I’m sure she forgot about it long ago.”
That was not true, and both of them knew it. Her sister had a memory like an elephant. She never forgot a thing.
Carmen had never truly trusted Holt before that incident, and not at all after it. She had tolerated him when required, and in more recent years she had been polite on June’s behalf, but Carmen never forgot.
Holt shook his head. “I don’t think so. She’s tolerated me because of you. That’s not the same thing as forgetting.”
June kept her eyes on the road. “What brought this on?” Her eyes met his for a brief moment. “Why are you bringing up the jewelry now?”
Holt was quiet for a few seconds.
“I believe you and Rad took Margo to Teacups last night,” he told her.
June’s brows shot up in surprise, and her head turned toward him so fast she went slightly over the middle line, then quickly corrected the car.
“Excuse me?” June spluttered. “The bracelet we found in Teacups was Carly’s?”
“It was,” Holt confirmed. “So I guess it was a good thing you went against my orders to Cedar Key and then Teacups without me.”
“Yes,” June admitted, giving him a quick smile. “I know you told me not to go, but…”
“I know,” Holt said. “Rad told me everything.” He looked down at his hands for a second, then back up. “I’m not angry, June. In fact, it was lucky you did.”
That eased something in her at once.
“So I take it Rad showed you the smartwatch as well?” June asked.
“He did,” Holt answered.