Logan opened the SUV’s cargo hatch and removed two shopping bags.
“What is that?” Tessa asked as he approached.
“A few gadgets I thought might be useful to you.” He set the bags on the porch and lifted out a small box. “These are contact sensors. I can install them on your doors, including your mom’s bedroom door. You can program an audible sound to signal that one of the doors has been opened. You can also have a notification go on your cell phone, and you can set each sensor separately, depending on the time of day.”
“I’d know if she left her room or the house.”
“Yes.” Logan lifted a small white camera. “Motion-sensing cameras. In the event that your mother does leave the house, you’ll be able to see which way she went. I can mount these at each exterior door. I can also put one or two inside so you can check on her while you’re at work. You can watch a live feed on your phone.” Next, Logan held up a slender silver bracelet. “This looks like a piece of jewelry, but it has a GPS tracker inside. You can find your mother anywhere as long as she’s wearing it. The clasp is very hard to open. I doubt she’d be able to get it off by herself.” He paused. “We don’t have to use anything you think is too intrusive.”
“I don’t think any of this is intrusive.” Tessa remembered the sheer panic at thinking her mother might have headed for Widow’s Walk. “I want to keep her safe and at home as long as possible.”
“She comes home tomorrow, right?”
“Right.”
“Then I’d better get busy installing these devices.”
Gratitude overwhelmed her. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t need to say anything.”
“I disagree.” Tessa stared at the shopping bags, then raised her gaze to meet his. “Just tell me what this all cost, and I’ll repay you.”
“No.” His chin went up. “We might have had a murder or two, but this is still Widow’s Island, not Seattle or Afghanistan, where we can be in a crowd of people and yet still be alone. We might be isolated out here, but we help each other.”
“‘Thank you’ doesn’t seem like enough.”
Logan’s eyes shifted away for a second, as if he were debating something important. “How about you make me a home-cooked dinner, and we call us even.”
“One dinner?” Tessa laughed at the absurdity of balancing a pot roast against a few thousand dollars in electronic gadgets.
Logan shrugged. “I’ll be here all day installing these devices. I’ll be hungry.”
Tessa shook her head. “All right. One pot roast it is. I’ll head to the grocery store now.”
“I’ll get busy.” Logan turned back to his SUV. After looping the handles of the shopping bags over one arm, he grabbed a toolbox. “Could you close the hatch?”
Tessa did. Then she looked up at him. “But I still say dinner isn’t enough.”
She rose onto her toes and kissed him. The soft press of her lips against his lasted just a few seconds. When she dropped back onto her heels, her cheeks heated with a blush.
At Logan’s easy smile, more warmth rolled through Tessa. There was something between them that hadn’t been there a few days ago—or ever. She didn’t know what it was or where it would lead, but for today, knowing it existed was enough.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
After writing ten Rogue River novellas, we were ready to write about new characters and a new location. A trip to the beautiful San Juan Islands convinced us a Pacific Northwest island would be a fabulous setting for more mystery and murder, and the concept of Widow’s Island was born. We carried over a couple of characters from Rogue River—we weren’t ready to leave it completely behind. Thank you to Montlake and our editor, Anh Schluep, for your enthusiasm about this project. Thank you to Charlotte Herscher for helping us sound like we know what we’re doing. Thank you to our readers who loved our first novella series and constantly begged for more. We hope you enjoy Widow’s Island as much as we do.
Kendra Elliot
Melinda Leigh
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2016 Jared Gruenwald Photography
Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh is a fully recovered banker. A lifelong lover of books, she started writing to preserve her sanity when her youngest child entered first grade. During the next few years, she joined Romance Writers of America, learned a few things about writing a novel, and decided it was way more fun than analyzing financial statements. Leigh’s debut novel, She Can Run, was nominated for Best First Novel by the International Thriller Writers. She has also garnered Golden Leaf and Silver Falchion awards, along with two RITA nominations and three Daphne du Maurier awards. Her works include the She Can series, the Morgan Dane novels, the Scarlett Falls novels, the Midnight novels, and the Rogue River novellas. She holds a second-degree black belt in Kenpo karate, teaches women’s self-defense, and lives in a messy house with her husband, two teenagers, a couple of dogs, and two rescue cats.
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