Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
Wren blinked in surprise. Her boyfriend? Why hadn’t Nora ever mentioned him before?
“I’m Jacob Morgan,” he started. “Sorry to surprise you.”
“These are my sisters, Wren and Marlowe,” Nora said, gesturing toward them. “Jacob and I had lunch plans, but with everything that’s happened, it slipped my mind.”
“Not a problem. It looks like you have a lot going on, so I won’t stay.” Jacob patted Nora’s hand on his arm. “I’ll call you later.”
Nora nodded. “Sounds good.”
He nodded at the crowd of onlookers on the porch. “Good to meet you all.”
“You too,” Wren murmured.
Just as quickly as he’d arrived, he was gone.
Nora exhaled as she turned back to her sisters.
“Nora,” Marlowe started. “A boyfriend. Since when?”
“It’s only been three or four months.”
“Four months and not a word?” Wren asked. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
Nora shrugged. “I was waiting to see where we went first. No need to get things stirred up if we didn’t work out.”
“Well, you look pretty happy,” Marlowe murmured.
Nora grinned. “I am.”
“What does he do?” Wren asked, curious about this man who’d captured her sister’s heart.
“He’s a claims adjuster over in Sevierville. We met at the hospital—he was visiting his aunt. I was on shift. We just started talking, and . . . we made a real connection.”
As Wren watched his sedan go, something in her went cold.
Dark. Four doors. Sitting low.
She remembered the sedan she’d seen yesterday. The one that had been on the side of the road.
It looked a lot like Jacob’s. She wished she’d gotten a better look at the license plate. Certainly it wasn’t the same vehicle . . . right?
Wren stared at the taillights until the trees hid them.
It was nothing. It was a car. There were uncountable dark sedans in Fog Lake. She couldn’t have named the make of the one on the shoulder yesterday if Luke Wilder asked her under oath.
Besides, Nora was dating the man who drove this car. The last thing Wren wanted was to be suspicious of him. She was simply looking for danger at every turn.
“Mom.” Mason tugged at the hem of her shirt, pulling her from her thoughts. “You’re squeezing my shoulder.”
“Sorry, Bug.” She let go of his shoulder and tried to let go of her unease as well.
Cody’s truck came up the drive twenty minutes later, right on time. Mason had his bag over one shoulder before it fully stopped.
Cody climbed down and left the door hanging open behind him, the engine still running, the way he did everything lately—half-committed to being anywhere, though he’d been on time for every weekend he’d been given. Wren had to give him credit for that.
“Daddy!”
“Hey, Buddy.” He caught Mason in a hug and lifted him off the ground.
“Don’t forget my bike!”
“Never!” Cody lowered him back onto his feet.
Together the two of them grabbed Mason’s bike and wrestled it up over the bumper.
Cody turned back to Wren. “I’ll have him back by dark so he can get plenty of sleep before school in the morning.”
“Sounds good.” Wren leaned toward Mason after he climbed inside. “Hey, I love you.”
“Love you too.” He was already reaching for the seatbelt and facing his dad. “Can we get milkshakes?”
“You know it.” Cody climbed in.
A moment later, they slowly backed out. Mason’s hand came up in the window in a wave and dropped again before the truck cleared the bend.
Wren stayed in the driveway until they disappeared.
Marlowe stepped back outside and came to stand beside her. “You’re thinking about something. I just don’t know what.”
“Cody’s got Mason for a few hours,” Wren murmured. “I want to use that time to see what I can find out about Roy’s death. I can’t just sit here and wait on other people to update me.”
“That sounds risky.” Nora frowned as if she didn’t like the idea.
“I’ll be smart about it. In fact, I don’t plan on doing this alone.” With that thought, she started across the yard toward Nash’s place.