Head over Heels for the Holidays

by Jennifer Bernard

  Also, she was stunningly beautiful, in his biased old-friend opinion. Her rich brown skin glowed with an extra sheen of dark gold. Her eyes were a few shades lighter, warm and sparkling. She moved with confident grace through the station—it was her domain, after all, and it showed.

  Outside, she gestured toward a patch of birch woods behind the station. A signpost marked the start of a walking trail. “We can walk for a bit if you need some time to tell this story of yours before we see my dad.”

  He checked his watch. Cara was waiting back at the hotel they’d checked into—the Eagle’s Nest Resort. He’d splurged so she could have some fun before school started up in a few days.

  “Sounds good,” he agreed. She tucked her hands into the pockets of the jacket she’d pulled on over her police uniform. Even though it was late August, the chill of fall added a bite to the air, especially on an overcast day like today.

  “So, your sister…” Maya screwed up her face, obviously searching for a name.

  “Cara. She wasn’t born yet when you were in Hawaii.”

  “Oh. Good.” She smiled at him. “I can skip feeling guilty for not remembering her name. So she travels with you for your job?”

  “Sort of. She’s going to start at Lost Harbor High in a few days.”

  “Oh yeah? Junior, senior?”

  “Senior.”

  Maya’s eyebrows lifted. “Usually kids like to finish high school with their friends.”

  The trail wound through a stand of birch forest that stretched between two neighborhoods. On either side, he could see houses through the dappled woodlands. Nice backyard for a police station.

  “Yes, but that’s not an option.” He hesitated, then decided there was no need to delay this explanation any longer. “The past five years or so, I’ve been working on the mainland as an EMT and paramedic. Two years ago, Cara came to visit me. I was living in Montana at the time, and she wanted to see the snow. The only time she’d seen snow was when we went to the Big Island one winter and it snowed on Mauna Kea. We drove up and filled the bed of our truck with snow, but it melted by the time we got back.”

  “That sounds like something Jay-Jay would do. We have snow here,” she pointed out. “You could have reached out to your old friend.”

  “I didn’t know if you’d even remember the rascally boy you had to keep out of trouble.”

  “You mean the one who saved my life?” She nudged him with her elbow, making his muscles tighten in reaction. Even though it was a playful gesture, it still had an impact on him.

  “So you finally admit it. It only took you twenty years.”

  She gave that rich, bubbly chuckle that he’d always loved inspiring. It sounded like sea water rushing over lava rocks.

  “Anyway, go on. Cara came to visit you.”

  “Yes. She was fifteen. It was the end of summer and I was working. When I was on shift, she was on her own. She used to go to a coffee shop down the street. She’s very social, very friendly, heart of gold, but a little bit naive. When this older man started talking to her, she was kind to him. He would come to the coffee shop and rant about politics and other stuff.”

  “I know that kind,” Maya said. “Not entirely all there, is that what I’m getting?”

  “Worse than that. He started following her around. He’d lurk outside my apartment all night long. He was obsessed, even though obviously there was never anything more than a conversation between them.”

  “You called the police, right?”

  “We talked to them. There wasn’t much they could do. They talked to him and warned him off, but he made up some story. He knew how to talk to police. I think he was former military. I sent her back to Hawaii early. She never even got to see the snow.”

  This was the part where it got truly scary.

  Maya was listening closely. “Don’t tell me he followed her back there.”

  “Oh yes. He turned up at my mom’s house when she was at work. Grabbed Cara and put her in a car. She got away from him with the help of a bottle of body spray she had on her.”

  “That was quick thinking.”

  Rune nodded. He’d heard the story later, and been amazed at how a fifteen-year-old could keep her head like that.

  “My mom, on the other hand, lost her shit. You know how she is; she went straight for the white wine spritzers. Cara’s father left a few years ago, so he wasn’t much help either. We all agreed that she’d better come back to the mainland where I could watch out for her. But since he knew where I lived, I left my job and moved cities. My life changed overnight. I went from a fun-loving EMT to a full-time bodyguard. I finished my LPN certification. The two of us changed our names. Her birth name is Torrey, by the way, but she likes Cara better. She started going to school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Then he showed up again out of the blue.”

  “Some stalkers are very persistent and clever.”

  “I don’t know his background. I don’t even know his real name. All I know is that he told Cara his name is Chad. That’s it, Chad. I do have a picture of him but it’s blurry.” He dug out his phone and pulled up the photo of the asshole.

  Maya stared at it for a long moment, then sent it to her own phone and handed it back. “Chad. Such a white-bread name for a scary stalker.”

  “We don’t know his real name. The ID he gave the police in Montana was fake.”

  “He’s younger than I pictured.”

  “I’d guess he’s in his mid-thirties. I believe he has military experience, like I said. He’s able to blend in really well. Maybe he had undercover expertise too, I don’t know. I’ve tried to find out more about him but he’s a wily bastard.”

  “So you’re afraid he might follow you here?”

  “Yes. There’s a good chance. After he found us in St. Paul, I signed up for the travel nurse agency. That way we have a chance to stay ahead of him. It takes him some time to locate us when we move. This is my fourth assignment since I signed up with the agency.”

  Out of habit, he scanned the bit of road he could see through the trees. For the last two years, he’d gotten used to scoping out every place he went as if he were in the secret service.

  “How did you get assigned to Lost Harbor?”

  “I chose it because of you. I don’t always trust law enforcement to deal with the situation, but I trust you.”

  She quirked her eyebrows at him. “Based on fourth grade?”

  “You were a pretty badass fourth-grader.”

  They reached a fork in the trail; one path headed up a hillside, the other paralleled its base.

  “How’d you even know I was the police chief here? Are you stalking me?” She made a face at her own joke as soon as it left her mouth.

  But he chuckled at it anyway. He’d always liked her dry, understated sense of humor. “I saw Lost Harbor on the list of locations the agency services. I remembered that’s where you lived, and did a little digging. Your photo on the town website doesn’t do you justice.”

  In the photo, she was staring directly into the camera without smiling—a stern, no-nonsense keeper of peace and bringer of order. There was no hint of the dance-crazy girl he remembered—the one who had once laughed so hard when he got a blueberry stuck up his nose that she’d peed her pants.

  “That’s my don’t-mess-with-my-town Police Chief Badger look,” she told him. “Never fails to get people’s attention.”

  “It got mine.”

  She shot a curious glance up at him. “In a good way or a bad way?”

  “A good way. I want to keep Cara safe. I might be a nurse—and a damn good one, don’t worry—but for now my main job is protecting my sister. That’s why we chose Lost Harbor. Not only is it very far away from…everywhere…but I have a personal connection with the police chief. Cara’s very excited to meet you, by the way. I told her about our bonfire dances.”

  She sighed. “Like I said, I don’t have much time for dancing lately. Between my job and my dad—”

  He lifted one
hand to stop her there. “Rune Larsen to the rescue. I can handle Mr. Badger, so long as he doesn’t still think of me as that skinny little kid.”

  “He has eyes,” she said dryly. “His heart surgery hasn’t affected his vision. You are definitely not that kid anymore. So what else can you tell me about this dude? Stalker Chad?”

  “I think he’s more comfortable in larger towns. He can hide better there. I think he has skill with vehicles. Cara said he drove like a race car driver. He’s also very good at blending in and disappearing into the background. He’s savvy about avoiding cameras. I don’t think he would hurt Cara, but I’m not sure. I’ve learned not to underestimate him. He’s good at earning people’s trust.”

  She frowned. “I don’t like the sound of that. This is a pretty welcoming community. We’re all the way at the end of the Misty Bay Peninsula. The road doesn’t go any further. And for some reason that makes people relax, like nothing bad can happen here.”

  “You do have a very low crime rate,” he pointed out. “But maybe that’s because you have such an outstanding police chief.”

  “Flattery, Jay? Really?”

  “Rune,” he corrected. “It’s my middle name. My mom chose it for good luck, so I’m hoping it helps.”

  She shook her head at her mistake. “Sorry. Rune. Now that I know why you changed your name, it’s even more important. I’ll remember, I promise. You’re Rune from now on. Anyway, we do have crime here. I can show you a whole police blotter full of calls. And then there’s the theft of Mrs. Holt’s yak. Crime of the decade right there.”

  He laughed. “You’re sure it didn’t just wander off, right?”

  “It’s a possibility, especially since Mrs. Holt is convinced that her dead husband has somehow been reincarnated into the yak. They used to fight a lot, so maybe the poor beast just had enough.”

  He snorted as they passed a gap in the trees, sunshine filtering through in a golden haze. He took a breath of the air—so pure it felt like liquid crystal—and a tiny bit of his habitual tension released.

  “I think I’m going to like my time here.”

  “It’ll be interesting, I can pretty much guarantee that.”

  Even more interesting now that he’d met the fascinating all-grown-up version of his long-lost friend.

  Chapter 3

  When they returned to the shared police and firefighter compound, Maya spotted a crew of volunteer firefighters cleaning the ladder truck in the back lot. It sparkled in the sunshine like a neon-yellow play-toy.

  “You should get to know these guys,” she told Rune. “They’re all first responders. And I’m sure they’ll want to meet you.”

  Already the firefighters were glancing their way. Awesome—more fuel for the rumor mill. The firefighters were notorious gossipers, rivalling the legendary stitch-and-bitch group of crafters.

  “Hi Chief,” called Darius as he emerged from behind the engine.

  “Hi Chief,” she answered in their traditional greeting.

  Honestly, being called “chief” never got old.

  “That’s our fire chief.” She lowered her voice for Rune. “Darius Boone. It’d be smart to bring him up to speed on the situation with Cara too. When calls come in, you never know where they’ll get routed.”

  “If you think it’s best.”

  A guy respecting her advice; another thing that would never get old.

  Maya beckoned to Darius, who loped over to them, washrag in hand.

  “Darius, this is Rune Larsen. He’s an old friend of mine. Rune, Chief Boone.”

  Maya caught the speculation in Darius’ glance as he surveyed Rune. Why was everyone so surprised by Rune’s presence? Just because she’d lived most of her life here in Lost Harbor didn’t mean everyone knew everything about her.

  “I’m a former EMT myself,” said Rune as they shook hands.

  “Is that how you know Maya?”

  “No, Maya and I met when we were kids.”

  Darius’ eyebrows lifted. “Huh. Are you from Lost Harbor?”

  Maya interrupted this completely irrelevant conversation. “Can we keep on track here? Rune has a situation he needs to discuss with the law enforcement community. What does it matter where we met?”

  “Is it a secret?” Darius asked. “Because that’s really going to get tongues wagging around here.”

  “It’s not a secret. It’s just irrelevant. Can we stick to the facts? He’s a friend, we met a long time ago, and now he’s here and he’s got a problem.”

  “Touchy.” Darius looked like he was trying hard not to laugh. He turned to Rune. “Go ahead, fill me in.”

  As Rune recounted the same chain of events he’d told Maya, she watched him covertly, marveling over how much a person could change. If she’d seen him walking down the street, she would have noticed that he was a beautiful hunk of a man. And then she would have kept walking, assuming they had absolutely nothing in common.

  And maybe she didn’t know him anymore. Obviously his life had changed a lot since the age of nine. So had hers. Police chief? Hello?

  But as she watched him talk to Darius, she kept noticing little things that felt familiar. The shape of his mouth, for one. The way he bent his head at a certain stubborn angle. The scar on his chin had survived the journey to adulthood. So had his friendliness and his sense of humor.

  That was what had drawn them together in the first place. That and the fact that they both felt like outsiders.

  Jay-Jay—no, Rune—had been one of the kids who hung around the base but didn’t really belong there. His mother worked in the commissary, and they’d lived in a little abandoned beachside shack until it got torn down by the county. And then there was his size—at that time, he was smaller than other kids their age. He liked to wear his hair long, to his shoulders. That had changed, but maybe that was because he was hiding his appearance from Stalker Chad.

  Despite his size, he was a scrapper, and he was constantly getting into fights with bullies and other kids who were bigger than him. Sometimes she got dragged into it too, trying to defend him, which always got her in trouble with her dad.

  Eventually, Harris had sat them down and laid down the law. “If you get Maya into any more fights, you can’t come around here anymore. Got it?”

  “But they keep saying shit about my mom.”

  “You think that’s bad? You should hear what got slung at me all these years. Brush it off, kid. Or no more hanging out with Maya.”

  Rune had torn at his hair in that funny way he had, gone for a quick jog around the block—he always had to work off his energy—then come back and plopped back down at their kitchen table. “Okay, Mr. Badger.”

  “Okay, son. I’ll be watching.”

  “Maya? You with us?” Darius was addressing her. She shook herself back to attention.

  “Yeah. What’s up?”

  “Rune’s going to volunteer for a few shifts with us. It’s great to have another trained paramedic in town.”

  She glanced at the grownup Rune, with his strong build and long, powerful legs. He could have used all those muscles back in his skinny-kid days. With all his excess energy, it made sense that he’d chosen to work as a first responder. In Hawaii, that probably meant a lot of ocean rescues.

  “Sounds good. We can always use help.”

  Darius snapped his fingers. “Hey, you should bring Rune to the party.”

  “What party?”

  “Kate’s calling it the ‘Never Want to See Another Peony Party.’ It’s to celebrate the end of the harvest.” He turned to Rune. “My girlfriend has been helping her grandmother at her peony farm. I’ve barely seen her for the past month. I know she’d love to meet any friend of Maya’s.”

  Maya could see where this was headed already. All of her friends would be micro-analyzing Rune and trying to figure out what their relationship was. She had to put this to rest before it snowballed out of control.

  “I probably won’t be able to make it,” she told Darius. “I�
��m very busy between the Lost Souls investigation and my dad’s recovery, and some new cases that have come in.”

  “Sure, sure, I get it. You’re probably burning the midnight oil trying to locate that missing yak.”

  She glared at him while Rune chuckled softly.

  “You’re invited whether or not Maya can make it,” Darius told him. “If you’re new in town, it’s a good opportunity to meet some people. Now that the summer’s just about over, people have time for their social lives again. From now until New Year’s, it’s one party after another.”

  Maya’s heart sank at that reminder. Everyone else loved the holidays, but for the past five years—ever since her ex dumped her on Christmas Eve—they’d been nothing but depressing.

  Rune glanced at Maya and must have read her ambivalence on her face. Without her having to say anything, he picked up on that cue. “I’ll be busy getting settled in. I have to find a place, get my sister enrolled in school, meet the patients I’ll be working with.”

  Darius didn’t push it, which Maya appreciated. If Kate had issued the invitation, it would have been a whole different story. She would have approached it like the lawyer she was and interrogated poor Rune into accepting the invite.

  “We need to get going,” she told Rune. “My dad’s nap is going to start soon. If there’s one thing he’s always on time for, it’s that nap.”

  After a few more words with Darius, she led Rune to her beloved Chevy Silverado crew-cab truck. She’d bought it when she got the police chief job and loved it like a firstborn.

  At this rate, it might be the only kind of firstborn she’d have.

  Rune stopped to check a message that had come in on his phone. “Cara’s getting bored in the hotel room. I’ll pick her up and meet you at Harris’ house.”

  She felt a twinge of disappointment that they wouldn’t be driving together. Being with Rune brought back a time in her life that she’d completely forgotten about. Hawaii had been such an adventure. Going to a place where no one knew her had been wildly freeing. In Lost Harbor, everyone knew the Badgers. In Hawaii, she could be anyone she chose. She’d even told one kid that she was a Haitian princess.