Falling in Love on Willow Creek

by Debbie Mason

  “He should be scared. He’s gotten himself mixed up with some very bad people. You should be scared too. Because if those same people discover you’ve been hiding him, they might come looking for him here.” She honestly hadn’t considered that her grandmother might be in danger until that very moment.

  The thought rattled her nerves, and she jumped when the door opened at the end of the hall. It was Michael. He glanced from her to her grandmother. “Everything okay here?” he asked, walking toward them. His concerned gaze went to the office. Michaela’s crying was audible through the closed door.

  Her grandmother crossed her arms. “No, laddie, it’s not. You entered my apartment without my permission.”

  “I’m sorry about that, ma’am. Sadie was worried about you. She thought her brother might be hiding in your apartment without you being aware of it.”

  “Well, as you saw for yourself, she was worrying for nothing.” She gave Michael a speculative look. “But it seems my granddaughter has been keeping secrets from me. I didn’t know she had a young man in her life. I can’t understand why she’s been hiding you away though. You’re—”

  “Granny, Michael’s a friend, not a boyfriend.” Sadie prayed that he didn’t think she’d inferred otherwise.

  She couldn’t tell by his expression because he’d turned when Nate opened the door with a wailing Michaela in the crook of his arm, holding up the bottle with his other hand. “She won’t stop crying long enough for me to get the bottle in her mouth.”

  “Here, give her to me.” Michael reached for her daughter.

  Sadie felt guilty for not being the one to take Michaela but right now finding Elijah won out over comforting her crying child. Besides, she had no doubt her daughter preferred being in Michael’s arms to being in hers. She watched him snuggle Michaela against his chest and gently pat her back, Michaela’s cries subsiding to soft whimpers. Sadie didn’t blame her. She wouldn’t mind being in his arms either.

  “I don’t get it,” Nate muttered. Sharing a glance with Michael that Sadie couldn’t read, he added, “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll take a break, Mrs. M. Have a smoke and calm my nerves.”

  “Take all the time you need, Nate. With all the commotion, you didn’t get your lunch break,” her grandmother said distractedly, her attention on Michael and Michaela. She looked intrigued, which at any other time would have had Sadie grabbing her daughter and Michael and heading for the door.

  “I might just take you up on that, Mrs. M. Thanks.” He handed Michael the bottle.

  As their new employee went to walk away, Sadie asked, “Nate, before you go, do you remember the customer that you thought might have called the police?”

  “Not off the top of my head. I’ll give it some thought while I’m on my break.”

  “I’ll take a look at the cash register. It can be finicky.” Her grandmother followed Nate down the hall, glancing over her shoulder at Sadie, probably expecting her to call her back so she could continue her interrogation. But Sadie knew her grandmother well enough to know she wouldn’t get anything else out of her.

  “Do you mind hanging around a little while longer?” Sadie asked Michael. “Maybe give Michaela her bottle? There’s something I need to take care of.”

  She hated to ask. She already owed him so much. But getting in touch with her brother was too important to put off. Hopefully, Michael’s boss still assumed he was off chasing a “moose” down Main Street. They wouldn’t expect him back anytime soon.

  “Does that something have to do with your brother?” He glanced at the phone in her hand. Unlike Sadie’s plain black phone case, her grandmother’s case was sparkly and embossed with unicorns.

  “No, just store business. Trying to keep the lights on, you know.” She held his gaze, hoping he’d miss her sliding her grandmother’s phone into her pocket as she did so. “Why would you ask?”

  “I think the better question is why didn’t you ask what I found in your grandmother’s apartment?”

  “I just assumed you didn’t find anything. You didn’t, did you?”

  “There’s definitely been two people in the apartment. There were two cups of tea on the coffee table. One with lipstick and one without. The tea was lukewarm.”

  “I don’t want to discount your powers of observation, but one of my grandmother’s friends could have stopped by for a cup of tea. In fact, I’d say there was a ninety-nine-point-nine percent chance that’s what happened. They’d want the inside scoop to take back to their mutual friends.”

  “That might be, but there was a razor on the bathroom counter that was filled with auburn stubble. So unless your grandmother has short strands of auburn hair growing from her face or legs, I think we can safely rule her out. I also can’t see your grandmother owning an Xbox on which she plays Fortnite. And not only does she play the game, she goes by Godric Gryffindor and her team is the top scorer on the leaderboard. There’s also a very large steak in the fridge and the faint smell of marijuana in the air.”

  “Two for three. The marijuana could go either way. Agnes has been known to smoke pot on occasion for her arthritis. Elijah’s a vegan but Granny loves her steak. You got my brother on the razor and Fortnite game. Although Granny does play, and she’s probably a member of his team. Elijah goes by Godric Gryffindor online. He’s a big Harry Potter fan. And you’re impressively observant for someone who was in my grandmother’s apartment for under ten minutes.” She smiled.

  He didn’t return her smile. “I am, which is how I know you’re hiding something. What’s going on, Sadie?”

  “Nothing. Nothing at all. I just need a few minutes.” Before he could ask anything else, she walked into the office and closed the door. She leaned her back against it and retrieved her grandmother’s phone, scrolling through the call log. Just like she’d thought, there were a whole lot of calls to Payton Howard. Her brother had been using her grandmother’s cell phone.

  Sadie went to retrieve her own phone and frowned at her purse lying open on the desk. She didn’t remember leaving it like that. Her first thought was Nate. She grabbed her wallet. Her credit card was still there and so was the twenty-dollar bill she’d taken out last Sunday. Okay, one outlaw at a time, she thought, and took a screenshot of Payton’s number. Then she went through her grandmother’s most recent texts.

  Agnes hadn’t been lying. Sadie was just glad her grandmother’s attempts at sexting with Mr. Murphy were more G-rated than X-rated. She scrolled to the text messages between Agnes and Payton. They were way worse and most definitely from her brother.

  “You sound like you’re seventeen and in love for the first time, baby brother,” Sadie murmured, embarrassed for him. He seemed a lot more invested in their relationship than Payton was. Sadly, Sadie could relate—on Payton’s end, not Elijah’s.

  “Okay, baby brother, let’s see if I’m right and you spoofed Granny’s phone.” She sent a text message to her grandmother.

  Granny says you’re trying to make things right. Give me one reason to believe you.

  She didn’t say everything she wanted to. She didn’t tell him how angry she was at him for putting their grandmother in danger, for putting I Believe in Unicorns and the apartment upstairs at risk.

  Dots showed up on her screen and then disappeared before showing up again moments later.

  I’m sorry about Granny. I didn’t know what else to do or who to turn to. Meet me at the rock in the woods at ten tonight. I’ll tell you everything. Come alone. BTW, you’ll need to buy Granny a new phone.

  The screen went black. He’d trashed the data and any evidence that was on the phone. She should have anticipated that he would. If her brain had been functioning instead of being half-asleep, she would have. It had been his endgame all along, which meant the only reason he hadn’t trashed the phone earlier is because he was waiting for her to contact him.

  They’d played her. They were in on this together. She wished she could throw up her hands and walk away. They knew she wouldn�
�t. Honestly, she must have a neon sucker sign stuck on her forehead. Everyone saw her coming from a mile away.

  She sighed, forcing a smile as she opened the door. At the sight of Michaela, head lolling with the bottle in her mouth, the smile was no longer forced. She glanced at Michael. “I have a feeling I’ll be up late tonight. Any chance you feel like hanging out? We can work on improving your knowledge of Highland Falls’ flora and fauna. Unless you have other plans.”

  “No, I’m free for the night.”

  “Great. How does nine forty-five sound?” If she hung around with him for too long before her scheduled meet with Elijah, she was afraid she’d tell him the truth. She’d already seen how well that worked out.

  “Suspiciously specific.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Chase sat in his car on the side of the road, just out of view from the cottage on Willow Creek. He’d been there for more than an hour. His cell phone rang. It was Black. He put him on speaker.

  “What’s up?” Chase asked.

  Black was sitting in his jeep across from I Believe in Unicorns. Both of them were feeling the sting of underestimating Sadie’s grandmother. They didn’t plan on letting it happen again.

  “I’ve just had a visit from our friendly neighborhood chief of police. Seems he’s been getting calls about me from the concerned citizens of Highland Falls. Here I thought I looked all friendly and trustworthy without the beard and the hair. I even put on my best law-abiding-citizen act, smiling and waving at the passersby.”

  Chase snorted. “They probably thought you were casing the joint.”

  “Yeah, that’s what Gabe said.”

  “Has he been able to track down the location where the bomb threat came from?” Someone had called in the threat around the same time Sadie’s grandmother had left her apartment to come down to the store.

  “Not yet, and if it was Elijah as we both suspect, I doubt they’ll be able to.”

  “You’re probably right.”

  “You could have made our job a hell of a lot easier if you’d just bugged Mrs. M’s apartment. I don’t know how I ended up with a by-the-book partner.”

  “We’re even then. I don’t know how I ended up with a partner whose brain works more like a criminal than law enforcement.”

  “Good thing I like you, Mikey.” Black laughed. “Anything happening on your end?”

  “No, all quiet here. I take that back,” he said as something howled in the woods, drowning out the incessant croaking of frogs and chirping of crickets. “Did you hear that?”

  “Yeah. Coyotes making you nervous, city boy?”

  “No, of course not.” He powered up the window, deciding a change of subject was in order. “If Sadie made contact with Elijah to arrange a meet, it doesn’t look like it’s happening tonight.”

  “We know she reached out to him, and we know she used her grandmother’s phone to do so. Thanks to Mrs. M, we also know she somehow managed to wipe the evidence from her grandmother’s phone. Which, just for the record, puts a big question mark beside Sadie’s name in my book.”

  “You didn’t see her face when she realized her grandmother’s been hiding Elijah all along or when she discovered Agnes is at risk of losing her home and business because of him. Other than trying to protect her grandmother, she’s not involved in this, Black.”

  “So, if you’re right, why do you think she set up a meet with her brother instead of handing over her grandmother’s phone to Gabe? I talked to him. He hasn’t heard boo from her. I would have been able to tell if he had.”

  The fact that she hadn’t reached out to her best friend’s husband bothered Chase too.

  “Don’t let your feelings for her get in the way, Roberts.”

  “I don’t have feelings for her, Black. Not in the way you’re suggesting.”

  “Yeah? So you don’t mind me asking her out when this is over?”

  His gut clenched. “You just said you suspect her of being involved in Brodie’s death, yet you want to date her? I really don’t get you.”

  “Good try, Mikey. We both know she had nothing to do with Brodie’s murder. But what we don’t know is how far she’d go to protect her brother.”

  Chase pushed down the emotions roiling inside him at the thought of Black dating Sadie. The other agent was right: Chase couldn’t let his feelings for her get in the way of bringing Elijah and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department to justice. It wasn’t just about the successful culmination of the case being his ticket back to DC. He was invested now. He wanted to see justice done for Brodie. There was nothing he hated more than dirty law enforcement.

  “She’ll go far enough to put herself at risk of ending up in jail for aiding and abetting,” Chase said. She already had one strike against her. She’d destroyed evidence in their investigation. For her sake as well as her daughter’s, he had to make sure she didn’t go further.

  “Mrs. M’s already got that one covered. I still can’t believe that sweet little old lady fooled us all.”

  “It’s always the sweet ones you’ve got to watch out for,” Chase said, thinking of Sadie. “I’d better go. Stay close to your phone. I might need you.” The silence on the other end dragged on. “Black?”

  “Yeah, I heard you. Looks like Mrs. M has a gentleman caller. I’m going to check it out.”

  “Let me know what you find out.” Chase disconnected and pulled away from the side of the dirt road. He was ten minutes early for their study date. Study night, he corrected, giving himself a mental shake. It wasn’t a date. He had to get his head on straight. He had a feeling he’d need all his wits about him when dealing with Sadie. The woman was running on empty yet she’d still managed to outmaneuver them. It was probably in their best interests if she remained sleep-deprived. Otherwise, she’d run circles around them.

  The curtain in the front window of the white stucco cottage moved as Chase pulled alongside Sadie’s SUV in the driveway. It was hard to tell whether the silhouette was male or female. Chase hadn’t been able to reach the cottage to see if her brother was inside before she got home that afternoon, which is why he arrived ten minutes before she wanted him to. He stepped out of the car, listening for the sound of Elijah making his escape.

  The yellow door opened, the outside light shining down on Sadie’s long dark hair. She had Michaela in her arms, bouncing the baby on her hip. They both looked exhausted and maybe a little frantic.

  “Sorry, I’m early.” He held up a takeaway bag from the local bakery, Bites of Bliss. “I was told brownies and fudge were your favorites.”

  When he’d walked into the bakery, the owner, along with several of her customers, had greeted him like he was a hero. It seemed Abby had stopped in on her way to pick up her dog from the spa and shared that Chase, or Michael as she knew him, had been Sadie’s knight in shining armor on Valentine’s Day. The owner and her customers couldn’t have been friendlier or more welcoming, but he’d been uncomfortable with the attention. He disliked lying to them almost as much as he disliked lying to Sadie. But he wasn’t above taking advantage of the situation or the Highland Falls rumor mill.

  The women had no problem answering his subtle questions about Sadie. They were worried about her, her and Agnes. Their feelings on Elijah were mixed, which worried Chase. He didn’t trust that they’d turn him in if they saw him.

  She made a face. “What else did Bliss tell you?” she asked, handing him the baby to take the bag. She opened it and peeked inside, humming with what sounded like pleasure.

  “Just that she and your friends are worried about you.” He followed Sadie inside, smiling at Michaela, who was trying to shove her hand in his mouth. He nibbled on her fingers.

  At her daughter’s giggle, Sadie shook her head and sighed. “You probably won’t believe this, but less than two minutes before you arrived, she was in the middle of a crying fit.”

  Noting Sadie’s red-rimmed eyes, he said, “It looks like you were too. Why don’t you sit down and put your fe
et…” He trailed off, unable to find the couch or coffee table he’d seen when he searched the cottage earlier that morning. It looked like she’d started to unpack. The couch and coffee table were buried under piles of clothes, bedding, and towels, while empty boxes were tossed haphazardly on the floor.

  She glanced around, biting on her bottom lip like she was holding back tears.

  “Don’t cry,” he said, a note of panic in his voice. Crying babies he could handle, but he didn’t think he could handle a crying Sadie without taking her in his arms to comfort her.

  Holding her, touching her, had become something of a habit for him. His go-to response when she was upset. It was a habit he couldn’t afford, especially now.

  She looked surprised. “I wasn’t going to cry. I was going to laugh. Maybe a laugh laced with hysteria, but a laugh just the same. In my book, that’s a step above tears. We’ve cried enough for one day, haven’t we, baby?” She leaned in to nibble on the hand her daughter had just stuck in Chase’s mouth.

  She froze, her eyes wide as she looked up at him. She was so close that he could count the gold flecks in her irises and see the slight curl at the ends of her eyelashes. Instead of jerking back like he fully expected her to, she surprised him by burying her face in his neck. He didn’t know which was worse—her warm, soft lips touching his mouth, or her warm, soft lips pressed against his neck.

  Even while he savored the feel of Sadie’s lips on his skin and the way her body felt pressed against his side, his brain was holding up a stop sign, flashing all the reasons why he should step away from her. Right now. This very minute. For the sake of the case. But before he had a chance, Michaela intervened. She took her hand from his mouth to grab a hunk of Sadie’s hair, and pulled.

  “Ouch.” Sadie jerked back, releasing an even louder ouch.

  “Hang on a sec,” Chase said, working to free the long, silky chestnut strands from Michaela’s grip. “Let go of Mommy’s hair, sweetheart. That’s a good girl.” She let go of her mother’s hair to gurgle up at him and pat his face.