Right now, she felt more chaotic than she had just after Mom had died.
And the small town nestled beside the lake that was its namesake was only another mile ahead.
Apparently, her dawdling had attracted attention, and not the good kind. Blue and red lights flashed, and a siren gave a short whoop, whoop from behind.
Biting her lip, she put on her blinker and pulled off the shoulder, tires crunching in the gravel.
She was cranking down her window by hand when the officer approached. He was clean-shaven with a military-precision haircut and metallic reflective sunglasses that hid his eyes. It was really too late in the day for glasses like that.
No matter that he was handsome, like a young Tom Cruise. His expression revealed nothing as he halted next to her open window. That blankness gave her a little shiver.
Snow barked once, and Kylie shushed her.
"Is everything all right, Officer?" she asked.
"You've got a brake light out. You aware of that?"
She ground her back teeth together. "No, sir."
He waited as if he were expecting her to say more, but years of experience living with her mother had taught her when to keep silent.
Finally, he spoke again. "You've got out-of-state tags. What brings you to town?"
An inquisition was the last thing she needed. She forced her lips into a semblance of a smile. "I remember this highway being a speed trap, but I didn't realize it was a free-for-all to pull people over."
Shoot. She hadn't meant to mouth off like that. Her hands trembled but, she clutched the bottom of the steering wheel with both hands until her knuckles turned white.
He looked down his nose at her, mouth twisting slightly. "See your license and insurance, please?"
Snow panted in Kylie's ear as she reached over to pop the dash console and flipped through the tire and oil change receipts to find the insurance paper. Why did they make them so tiny? Expired. Expired. There it was. Current.
Her hand still had a little tremble as she passed the paper and her license to the cop. Prayed he wouldn't notice.
He took the documents. "Keep your car parked."
Officer Nick Harris tapped the woman's license and papers against his opposite hand as he strode back to his police cruiser.
He hated being assigned to the speed trap. The one-mile stretch leading into Bear Lake was the worst assignment on the small-town force, and everybody knew it. A lot of sitting in the patrol car and not much else. He'd been stuck on ticket duty for months. And he deserved it, but when was penance enough?
When would it be enough to absolve him of the guilt that chased him at every turn?
The little gal was pretty enough, and it irritated him to have to pull her over. The attitude should have been a turn-off, but something about her called to him. Beneath the sarcasm, there was a hint of vulnerability in her eyes. The car gave off clues. An older model, not in very good shape. But the dog was well-cared for. White and clean—when it would be so easy to let it get dirty. The backseat had been littered with fast food bags. Where was she coming from?
She'd said she remembered the speed trap. So she'd been here before?
He glanced at her photo on the Illinois license. Dark blonde hair, pale blue eyes, and pixie features—the photo was attractive but didn't do justice to the woman in person.
Then he read her name.
Kylie Winters.
His Kylie?
His hands shook as adrenaline rushed through him, heating his face.
By rote, he typed the license number into his dashboard computer. Even if this was the girl who’d haunted him for twenty years, he couldn't afford another mistake.
Her record was clean, insurance current. Thank God, because his curiosity was about to kill him.
He went back to her car and extended her license and insurance through the window.
Her delicate eyebrows went up. "That's it? No ticket, no warning?"
"Do you want me to write you a ticket?" he asked with a smile.
She was quick to shake her head. "No, thank you."
He put his palm on her open window. "You said you remembered the speed trap. I don't suppose you're the Kylie who used to beat up her next door neighbor."
Her eyes widened slightly, and then she squinted at him, tilting her head to look more closely.
She bit her lip, color creeping into her cheeks. "I do remember an annoying brat who followed me around constantly."
She paused, probably searching her memory for his name.
"It's Nick," he said. "Nick Harris."
I've searched online for you. I've missed you. Where have you been all these years?
Words pressed against the back of his throat, but he knew better than to let them out. All that would accomplish would be to overwhelm her or scare her off.
Her gaze slanted forward through the windshield. He remembered that micro-second of vulnerability he'd seen in her face earlier.
"If you want to get that taillight fixed, I know a guy who can help." He didn't say it was himself.
"Oh, um... Thanks."
Her hand flexed on the wheel. She was impatient to get away.
His heart was still thundering in his chest, and he dared one more question. "Where are you staying? Need directions?" There. Make it sound like he was only interested in helping her, instead of just plain interested.
Her lips pinched, and his gut sank like a fishing weight on the line.
After an extended pause, she said, "I'll be at the campground."
Camping? By herself? A fission of unease shot through him, but she was a grown woman. Capable of making her own decisions.
The state park was two miles out of town, directly on the lake. It was usually quiet, but occasionally, the department caught drug deals going down up there.
Maybe he could make a sweep or two of the area after his shift was over.
And if he happened to run into Kylie, maybe share a s'more and a campfire...that would be a bonus.
The thought buoyed his spirits. "Welcome back to Bear Lake."
Gideon Hale, former Navy SEAL and now an official prince of Glorvaird, thanks to his recent marriage to Princess Alessandra, stepped off the charter plane onto Oklahoma soil. The tiny airport was surrounded by wheat fields and not much else. It also appeared empty, save a small steel hangar and the guy approaching the pilot. Near the hangar, an older model pickup truck waited. Their ride.
He took a deep breath of the rich autumn air. It was hotter than he'd expected.
It was good to be back in the States, but he hated being away from his wife. He let his thumb rub over the gold ring on his finger. Life was...different being married now. Having someone depending on him—someone who wasn't his brother or sister or niece. Having someone to lean on.
Normally, he and Alessandra would travel together, but her father, the king of Glorvaird, had recently died after a long battle with MS, and they'd both agreed she needed to stay with her two sisters in their kingdom.
Gideon hoped to bring home their missing half sister—the lost princess. They'd been searching for her for almost a year, ever since the king had revealed her existence.
Gideon felt so impotent to comfort Alessandra. She'd had a difficult relationship with her father, which made her grief more poignant, wishing for things that could have been. He didn't know what to say to her, how to ease her grief. All he could do was hold her when she needed a shoulder.
But he could do this. His former career as a SEAL gave him the skills he needed to track and find the missing girl.
Pieter followed him off the plane. "That's our rental?"
Gideon shot a look at the guy. Pieter was the princesses' cousin and a prince in his own right, though he was not in line for the throne. He’d been reunited with the family after decades of estrangement.
But the guy's mom had tried to kill Alessandra, and that wasn't something Gideon found easy to forgive. So far, Pieter had proved himself trustworthy, but Gide
on preferred to keep him close. Having a thousand miles between the prince and Alessandra seemed about right.
Gideon didn't trust easy. That was part and parcel from his SEAL days.
Pieter would just have to live with it. Hopefully, it wouldn't be long until they found the missing princess.
Kylie's insomnia kicked in hard, and she tossed and turned in the sleeping bag and bivouac through the darkest part of night. Beside her, Snow snored softly, oblivious to the whippoorwill calling out, the crickets chirping all around.
She'd always had trouble sleeping, even as a child. It had only grown worse after her mom's death a year ago.
Mom's passing had been a wakeup call of sorts—shown Kylie that she was unhappy with her normal life. She'd taken a leave of absence and gone on a road trip. Something she'd never considered, not since she'd broken ties with Mom years ago.
She hadn't really planned to return to Bear Lake. It was the first place in her memories living with her mom. She never would have planned to run into Nick. He'd been an ornery runt of a boy back then, shorter than her with freckled cheeks and bright eyes.
Now he was all grown up. She hadn't recognized him with the military-style haircut and sunglasses. And that uniform that hinted at his physique.
She wasn't sure what to make of the encounter. He'd seemed...interested in her. Curious, or more than that? She didn't know what to think.
Sleep remained elusive... What was she really doing here? #
2
The day after he’d pulled her over at the speed trap, Nick got lucky during his patrol and saw Kylie and her white dog eating lunch at Pops, a local cafe with an outdoor patio shaded by a large elm tree, now turning colors.
His own stomach rumbled, and he pulled over his patrol car to park on Main Street, parallel to the brick-paved sidewalk. He’d been busy with a fender bender late into the evening last night and hadn’t wanted to seem like a stalker, so he hadn’t headed out to the park after all to look for Kylie.
If there was an emergency, he'd get a call on his shoulder-mounted radio and be able to get moving quickly, which was what mattered.
Of course, they rarely had real emergencies in Bear Lake. Mrs. Hannaman's lost cat was the most excitement he'd seen last week.
Kylie being here was excitement enough. He hadn't been able to sleep last night thinking about her. Why was she here? Why now?
And why did it feel like the second chance he'd been waiting for?
The cafe had a front entrance, but he chose to use the wrought-iron gate that separated the outdoor seating from the sidewalk.
There were a few other patrons enjoying the brisk mid-morning sunshine, and he nodded to the local florist sipping her coffee and eating a cinnamon bun.
The dog noticed him first, its ears perking and its chin coming up off its paws. Then Kylie lifted her eyes from the paperback she had spread next to her menu. Which one was she focused on?
"Hey." He pretended casual. She didn't need to know his heart was beating up in his throat.
"Hey." She didn't seem unhappy to see him, even if her greeting was quiet.
"I thought I might grab a quick bite for lunch. Do you mind if I join you?"
"Um, okay."
He took the seat caddy-corner instead of the one across from her, and her eyes widened infinitesimally, but she didn't frown or say anything to discourage him.
Her dog sat up between their knees and nosed into his pant leg.
"Snow," she cautioned, but Nick smiled.
"It's all right." He reached out and let the dog have a good sniff of his hand before he ruffled its ear. It leaned against him, and he spared a thought of the white fur that was now adhering to his uniform. It was worth it. "Snow?"
Kylie shrugged slightly. "She used to belong to my mom. Mom named her. Not very original, but it fits."
The dog was obviously well cared-for, its fur almost blinding white. Maybe this wasn’t one of those animals that loved to get dirty.
The waitress appeared with a familiar, if subdued, hello for Nick and a glass of iced tea for Kylie. She ordered the Reuben—a good choice—and he ordered the same with a Coke. The waitress disappeared again, but not before she'd raised one penciled eyebrow in Nick's direction.
He did his best to ignore it. Still felt the hot sting. Ironic how the people he'd tried so hard to protect didn't trust him.
"How is your mom, anyway?" he asked, trying to brush off the feeling of being watched. The florist could probably hear everything they said.
Kylie's expression shuttered, her expressive blue eyes darkening before her lowered lashes hid them completely.
She picked at a rust spot on the wrought iron tabletop. "She passed away." Her throat worked as she swallowed. "Just over a year ago."
She blinked rapidly, and he instantly felt like a heel, even though there was no way he could've known. Instinctively, he reached for her, letting his hand close over hers on the tabletop. Her skin was cool and dry.
She jumped slightly at the contact, her eyes flicking to his before she looked away. The tears that shimmered there reached a long dormant corner of his heart. He thought maybe that image would be lodged there forever.
"I'm sorry." He wouldn’t leave his hand on hers too long, was too afraid of making her uncomfortable, considering they hadn't seen each other in such a long time, but he couldn't excuse himself from making the contact, not when it was obvious her grief was still potent. He squeezed her hand and let go.
She went back to playing with that rusty spot, running the pad of her finger over it again and again. She didn't look up at him as she said, "It was...really unexpected. She was healthy, but... A brain aneurism. That’s what the doctors said."
He resisted the urge to reach for her again. Barely. "That must've been really tough on you. I remember how close you guys were."
A shadow passed over her face, some hidden hurt that made her expression crumple for the briefest moment.
When she looked up, he saw the brittleness, glimpsed the hurt behind her shored-up smile. "What about you?” She motioned with one hand to his uniform. "You're a cop now? Seems like you always wanted to play spies, not cops and robbers."
He leaned back in his chair, allowing the subject change. "That was kid stuff." Sort of. When he'd been ten, an only child, he'd been lonely and obsessed with Kylie, his next door neighbor and best friend. He'd spied on her more than she'd known, watching between their backyard fences when his parents had been home, and he’d been ordered to stay in the yard.
She'd caught him a couple of times, and he'd made something up about wanting to grow up and be a spy.
He had had dreams of something bigger than being a traffic cop in their small town, but since Farah, those doors were closed to him. His chief wouldn't recommend him for much beyond writing tickets.
"I bet your parents are proud of you."
She couldn't know how much those words punched like a bullet against his flak jacket. He'd let them—and everyone else—down, and sometimes it was still hard for his dad to look him in the eye. "I guess. They still live over on Maple. You should come over and say hi before you leave town. Oh! You should definitely visit your old house. Ella Mae Jenks teaches third grade at the elementary and lives there now, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind."
Kylie smiled that fragile smile again and shrugged her slight shoulders. "We'll see."
Their sandwiches arrived, along with a basket of fries and bottle of ketchup to share, and Kylie was grateful for the reprieve, even if it was only momentary.
She knew Nick was just trying to be friendly, but his innocent questions were hitting her in soft places.
Bear Lake was her last stop, and until she'd hit town, she'd fully intended to visit her childhood home. But now that she was here, even with his encouragement to do so, she wasn't sure she could.
Everything was too sharp, too painful, like bright colors behind your eyelids when you'd been lying in the sun too long.
It hurt to re
member being with her mom here. How they'd been before everything had begun to unravel.
She didn't know what she was doing. Wandering, when that was one of the things she'd hated most about her flighty mother.
Nick seemed oblivious to her discomfort, or maybe he was really good at pretending, because he popped a bite of French fries into his mouth.
"You know what I do," he said when he'd finished. "What are you up to these days? Did you ever become a veterinarian like you wanted?"
She couldn't help an absent smile at the decades-old childhood dream. "Once I realized I wouldn't be able to save all of the animals, the shine wore off that idea. I'm an accountant—an auditor for a CPA firm."
At least she had been, up until a year ago. Her boss had graciously allowed her a leave of absence to grieve her mother's death, but no one—especially Kylie—had planned for it to carry on this long.
It was as if she'd dived beneath the water and couldn't find her way back to the surface. Grief and indecision still clung to her like seaweed, trying to trap her in the depths.
And she didn't know how to escape it, any of it.
She couldn't continue in this state forever. She knew it. Her boss had begun calling her twice a week, though she'd avoided the calls and ignored the voicemails. Surely her time was up, but she couldn't think about that, not now.
Or about Michael, who'd been so quick to let her go.
"That sounds..."
"Boring?" she finished for Nick, because that was what most people held back, behind their "nice" or "interesting" or "safe" comments. She'd fielded them enough times to shrug it off. "It's steady work. I like it."
She'd learned to stop apologizing for the choices she'd made. She couldn't please everyone, and CPAs would always be in demand.
She didn't have to apologize for enjoying the stability and steadiness of a career, no matter if some people thought it was boring.
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