Falling in Love on Willow Creek

by Debbie Mason

  A hulking shadow moving to the side of the building caught his attention. Nathan Black. Chase sighed and pulled out onto the road, making a U-turn to drive up to the front of the building. He powered down the passenger-side window.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked as his partner stepped from the shadows.

  Black wore a patched motorcycle jacket, his hair and beard just as long and unkempt as when Chase had dropped him at his jeep yesterday. “Taking care of Drew for Sadie. Same thing as you, I’d wager.”

  “I don’t know about that. I plan on threatening him with jail time unless he leaves Sadie and the baby alone.”

  It wasn’t an idle threat. The guy had racked up complaints of stalking and harassment from women throughout North Carolina and Tennessee. He seemed to be good at disappearing when things got hot. The complaints weren’t serious enough to warrant Chase tracking him down, but Drew didn’t know that. There was also the matter of him using Sadie’s credit card without her permission, which Chase could use against him. Chase bet Sadie wasn’t the only one who’d found herself up to her eyeballs in debt thanks to the man.

  Black rolled his eyes. “Okay, choirboy, you do it your way, and I’ll do it mine.”

  “Yeah, what are you going to do? Make him disappear?” He narrowed his eyes when Black grinned.

  “You want me to work Brodie’s case with you, we do it my way,” Chase said. “I don’t want this blowing back on Sadie. She’s got enough to deal with.”

  “Fine.” Black looked up at the building. “Doesn’t look like he’s going to be back for a while. Any idea where he might be?”

  “Yeah. Follow me.”

  They found him at the second strip club on Chase’s list. As agreed, Black went in ahead of him. Chase waited an extra five minutes before going inside. Black sat at the far end of the bar. Everyone gave him a wide berth. He met Chase’s gaze and nodded at a table where Drew sat with a scantily clad redhead on his lap, leaning toward the stage with a fistful of twenties. Chase was tempted to let Black do what he wanted with him. Instead, he walked to the table and grabbed the twenties from Drew’s hand before he stuffed them in the G-string of the blonde on the stage.

  “Sorry, he’s got a baby at home to feed,” Chase told the blonde.

  “Hey, wait a minute. Who do you think you are?” Drew blustered at Chase.

  “Your worst nightmare if you don’t do exactly as I say.”

  Chapter Five

  Three months later

  Every head in Spill the Tea turned when Sadie walked into the bubblegum-pink tea shop. She looked down at herself, checking for spit-up or spilled coffee. No stains, which was kind of amazing. As amazing as looking semi-presentable in a crocheted green top and a khaki skirt paired with wedge sandals.

  The effort to get dressed and get out had exhausted her. But she was on her own for the first time in three months, and she planned to soak up every second of peace and quiet as if her life depended on it. Because lately, she felt like it did.

  She glanced around, avoiding eye contact with the women stuffed into pink velvet booths with clear acrylic tables between them and the women sitting precariously on pink leather–topped stools with ballet-slippered feet, who leaned in to catch every word of the latest gossip from Babs Sutherland’s red-slicked lips. From where she stood behind the shiny, white tea bar, Babs, a buxom fiftysomething blonde, glanced at Sadie, nodding at the other women in a way that seemed to say, Look at her, out for tea without her darling baby girl.

  Sadie’s cheeks warmed. Everyone knew, that’s why they were looking at her. They all knew her daughter hated her.

  She was about to head out the door and across the street to I Believe in Unicorns, where her grandmother was looking after Michaela, when she spotted a familiar head of long, curly red hair in the far right-hand corner. Sadie made a beeline for her best friend Abby.

  “Oh my gosh,” Abby cried as Sadie slid across from her in the booth. “Are you okay? I was so worried about you.”

  “I’m fine. You know my grandmother, she exaggerates. I didn’t have a crying jag, and I’m not suffering from postpartum depression.” When Abby frowned, Sadie elaborated. “She caught me at a bad time. It wasn’t easy moving back home. To be honest, I feel like a failure.”

  Abby reached for her hands. “That wasn’t what I was talking about, sweetie. But you’re not a failure. You’re a single mommy, who needs the support of her friends and family. You certainly weren’t getting any from Drew.”

  Wasn’t that the truth. After a brief hospital stay without a word from Drew, she’d arrived home with their daughter to find he’d cleared out of her apartment in Charlotte. The only thing he’d taken that didn’t belong to him—well, aside from the items he’d maxed out her credit card to buy—was her TV. He’d sounded terrified when she’d finally tracked him down. The next morning, she’d opened her door to find her TV. He hadn’t even stuck around to see Michaela.

  “And don’t get me started on your boss,” Abby said. “You’d think a woman would be more understanding about the difficulty of finding reliable, affordable childcare. You can’t just leave your baby with anyone.”

  True, and it wasn’t like Sadie had intentionally blown her presentation by having Michaela early. But if she was honest, her lack of childcare prospects wasn’t her only problem. It was like her brain had gone on vacation. The simplest tasks were beyond her.

  She couldn’t do anything right, even breastfeed her daughter. At Michaela’s first-week checkup, the pediatrician had suggested that Sadie supplement with formula. Michaela had lost weight and had jaundice. Within days, it became obvious that her daughter preferred the bottle to Sadie’s boob.

  “You’re right,” Sadie said, “but at that point, I was at my wits’ end and would have settled for Drew as her caregiver. Not that he volunteered. But I can’t complain. She offered to lay me off instead of firing me and gave me some good leads on contract work.”

  “You don’t need contracts. You’re as much a part of the success of Abby Does Highland Falls as I am, and I have more than enough work for you.”

  “You’re the reason you’re a success. You and only you, Abby. I’ve hardly done any work for you in the past six months. And as much as I love you and appreciate what you’re trying to do, I can’t take charity.”

  “Charity? Sweetie, you’d be doing me a favor. You know how busy I am with the channel in the summer. I have a ton of stuff planned. Don’t I, Bella Boo?” she said to the eight-pound gold-and-tan Yorkshire terrier that popped out of her purse. Wearing a dress that matched the pink-velvet booth, Bella scampered onto Abby’s lap. “We have Summer Solstice, Fourth of July, the Highland Games, and don’t get me started on the Outlander stuff. The Bel Air Babes are driving me crazy. It’s like Abby Does Highland Falls has become their favorite tool in their Droughtlander survival kit.”

  The Bel Air Babes, who were huge fans of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, were Abby’s friends from her Hollywood days. She used to be a big-deal influencer until she divorced her husband. They were business partners now, with profits from Honeysuckle Farm shampoo going directly into the charity Abby had established in her aunt’s name.

  “And those are just, you know, what subscribers expect to see,” Abby continued as she dug a gourmet doggie treat from her purse and gave it to Bella. “If I’m going to grow…if we’re going to grow,” Abby corrected with a smile, “I have to come up with a couple of fantabulous ideas every season. So what do you think of”—she held up her hands like she was holding a sign—“Falling in Love on Willow Creek?”

  Abby had enough sparkle in her green eyes to make Sadie nervous. “Falling in love with what?”

  “You, silly. We’ll do our own version of The Bachelorette. We’ll start auditioning—”

  “No way. Not happening.” Sadie glanced around for a waitress. She could only leave her grandmother alone with Michaela for so long. Not that Sadie didn’t trust Agnes; she didn’t trust her daug
hter not to exhaust her grandmother.

  “Trust me,” Sadie continued. “Even if I wanted a man in my life, which I really, really don’t, no one would sign up with me as your bachelorette. I’m a mess, and not a hot one.”

  She wasn’t being completely honest though. Not about being a mess—she definitely was. But she wasn’t telling the truth about not wanting a man in her life. Except she didn’t want just any man. She wanted one man, and one man only. Michael Knight.

  What she wouldn’t give for him to magically appear in her life. She’d even prayed, and she hadn’t done that in a long time. She’d prayed that, just like he’d walked out of the woods on Valentine’s Day and come to her rescue, he’d walk back into her life again. And it had nothing to do with the man being drop-dead gorgeous. He’d made her feel like she could conquer the world on her own but that she wasn’t alone. He’d been there for her to lean on.

  She thought about him constantly. When she paced the floors at night, trying to calm her daughter or get her to sleep, she’d talk to him, in her head and sometimes out loud. She had no way of contacting him, him or Eddie. Michael didn’t know she’d named her daughter after him, a man she’d fallen in love with.

  She didn’t believe in love at first sight. Honestly, she hadn’t thought she was capable of falling in love with a man. Sure, she’d had relationships with men, plenty of them. But they were short-term relationships, like one month short, and she’d never been invested enough to care when they ended.

  Her relationship with Drew had lasted the longest, and the only reason it had was because she got pregnant. She’d been ecstatic, completely over the moon at the news, and she’d made the mistake of conflating her happiness about the baby with her happiness with the baby’s daddy. Looking back, she’d never been happy with Drew. He must have felt the same since he’d upped and walked away without a word or explanation. Which didn’t bother her. But it did bother her that he didn’t care enough about his daughter to stick around.

  She glanced at Abby, who was looking at her as though seeing her for the first time. “You’re not a mess. You’re…We’ll schedule it for July.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Maybe August. You won’t look so pale and…drawn then. You’ll be all glowy with a nice tan, and your hair will be even more gorgeous than it is now with all those fantastic highlights.”

  Sadie glanced at the hank of long, dull chestnut locks falling limply over her shoulder. “I have a mirror, Abs. I know what I look like.” And she didn’t care. She didn’t care about a lot these days.

  “You’re just tired, sweetie. And I’m not trying to body-shame you or anything, but you’ve lost your baby weight and then some. You need to stop dieting.”

  She looked down at herself. “I’m not dieting. The weight’s just kind of melting off me.” Half the time she was too tired to eat, let alone cook.

  “No wonder you look like death warmed over. You need to eat.” Abby waved over the waitress, who happened to be Brooklyn. She looked like Brunette Barbie with her frosted-pink lipstick, pink ruffled dress, and hot pink stilettos.

  With a smile pasted on her face, Abby said through clenched teeth, “I also have to do another segment on Spill the Tea because Babs took over the first one and spilled the beans about Brooklyn’s breakup, which, by the way, was messier than mine and yours, so now my subscribers want her back on.”

  “What does…Oh, hi, Brooklyn,” Sadie said, surprised she’d made it to their table that quickly in those heels. “How are you?”

  “I’m fine, but what about you, darlin’? You must be absolutely terrified.”

  “I was a little terrified at the beginning. I think most new moms are, but we’re starting to get the hang of it.” A derisive snort almost popped out of her mouth. Like heck she was getting the hang of it.

  Brooklyn frowned and glanced at Abby, raising a questioning brow.

  “I don’t think she knows,” Abby said to Brooklyn, reaching for Sadie’s hands like she had when she’d first sat down. “Sweetie, this is why I asked you if you were okay earlier. They—” She looked around and leaned closer, lowering her voice. “They found a body in the woods near your cottage last night. Didn’t you hear the sirens or see the police?”

  “Uh, no? Should I have?” She tried to think back but the night was a blur. Everything seemed like a blur since she’d had Michaela, and it had only gotten worse when she’d moved into the cottage three days ago. She’d yet to unpack ninety-nine percent of the moving boxes.

  From Brooklyn and Abby’s expressions, they expected her to have heard something. “I have blackout drapes on all the windows, and I keep them shut.” The last thing she wanted after managing to get Michaela to sleep was for light or sound to wake her up. “Was it a hiker? Did they fall?”

  “No, it was a deputy from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department,” Abby said.

  “He was murdered. Execution-style,” Brooklyn stage-whispered.

  Sadie glanced around. Everyone was looking at her while at the same time pretending that they weren’t. “They don’t think I did it, do they?” she asked Abby.

  At least Sadie knew why everyone at Spill the Tea had been staring at her when she walked in. Surprisingly, she was relieved that they hadn’t been staring at her because they thought she was a bad mother but because they thought she’d killed someone.

  Chase took a seat at the table with Agent Black and Highland Falls’ chief of police, Gabriel Buchanan. To ensure they weren’t seen together, Buchanan had suggested they meet at his father-in-law’s place. Located halfway up the mountain, the log house was miles from anyone. Chase wasn’t comfortable bringing someone else in, but he’d acquiesced to the chief’s request.

  “Thanks for letting us use your home to meet, Mr. Carlisle. I’m sure the chief has impressed upon you the need for your utmost discretion in this matter,” Chase said.

  The older man turned with a coffeepot in hand. Tall with a rangy build, he had a full head of dark hair just starting to silver at the temples. He looked younger than his sixty-two years.

  “Call me Boyd, and yes, he has. I’ve got things to do out in the shed if you’d prefer me to get gone,” he offered, filling Black’s mug with the aromatic dark brew.

  Chase’s partner hadn’t said much since they’d arrived. He looked different now than he had three months ago, his dark hair cut military short, his strong jaw no longer covered in a long, bushy beard.

  “Sorry for your loss, son,” Boyd said to Black as he moved to fill Chase’s mug.

  Brodie’s body had been found in the woods near the Grays’ cottage on Willow Creek. Neither he nor Black had discussed the coincidence of Sadie moving into the cottage just two days before the discovery. They would though. They had to lay out everything for Buchanan. The body was found in his jurisdiction. If they were working a case undercover in his backyard, they’d need him to sign on.

  “I’d like you to stay, Boyd,” Chief Buchanan said. Then he added, for Chase and Black’s benefit, “My father-in-law knows the area and the players. I think his expertise could be beneficial to your case.”

  “What Gabe is too polite to say is I used to have an illegal still.” Boyd patted his son-in-law’s shoulder. “I had customers from Jackson County. Once in a while, I ran moonshine out Whiteside Mountain way. I had a couple run-ins with the boys you’re looking at. Gotta say, I’m surprised they’d be involved in something like this. They might have new players though.”

  The chief sat back in his chair and raised an eyebrow at Chase. “He hasn’t sold shine in more than a year.”

  “I never said anything,” Chase protested.

  “You didn’t have to,” Black said. He turned to Chief Buchanan. “He can’t help himself. He’s by the book and doesn’t play well with others. He likes to do things on his own. Sort of like the Lone Ranger.”

  “As I understand it, that’s mostly worked out for him,” Buchanan said. He raised his mug, moving it between Chase and Black with a grin. “You two a
s partners? I’m having a harder time seeing.”

  “You looked into us.” Chase didn’t like it, but he would have done the same in Chief Buchanan’s position.

  “Yeah, but don’t worry. I know how to do it without raising suspicions.” He glanced at his cell phone vibrating on the table. “Sorry, I have to take this. Hey, Teddy, what’s up?” The chief’s mouth twitched. “Is that right? Well, you tell your brothers you won the bet fair and square so they have to do what you say. Within reason, buddy. Put Mom on the phone. Hey, honey, everything okay there? A spa?” He laughed. “I’m sure it did. Tell the boys I’ll make it up to them later. I shouldn’t be long.”

  Something tugged inside Chase’s chest at the way Buchanan’s face softened when he spoke to his wife. Love and family, the man had it all. Instead of examining why the thought caused a twinge in his chest, Chase went over what he’d found out about the chief. Buchanan wasn’t the only one who’d run a background check.

  The former New York City homicide detective had married Boyd’s daughter last month, not long after they’d met. They were a blended family. Three boys from his previous marriage and two from hers. They had a baby due in the fall, the reason for fast-tracking the wedding, Chase supposed.

  Buchanan listened to his wife and nodded, his gaze moving from Chase to Black. “Yeah, I’ll stop by and check on her. You know I can’t discuss an ongoing investigation. Yes, I know that too.” He sighed. “Honey, don’t call Eden. Sadie doesn’t need a lawyer.”

  Chase shared a glance with Black. They may not have had the opportunity to discuss the possibility of Sadie’s involvement in Brodie’s death, but they both knew, no matter the experience the three of them had shared, they had to look into her—Chase because that’s who he was, and Black because nothing, not even the bond that had developed between Chase, Nate, and Sadie that day back in February, would stand in the way of him finding out who’d murdered Brodie.

  Buchanan caught their silent exchange and sighed. “I’ve got to go, honey. Take care of my girls.” He disconnected. “You can’t seriously be looking at Sadie Gray for this.”