Secrets at Cedar Cabin

by Colleen Coble

  He didn’t have to wonder long, because she stood on her tiptoes and brushed her lips across his. She started to pull away, but his hands moved to her waist and he pulled her back against him for a better taste. Her kiss was like honey, sweet and innocent. His fingers tangled in her damp hair, and the towel dropped to the floor. Her wet hair tumbled onto her shoulders, but he didn’t care. He could drink of that sweetness all day long.

  She made a small sound, and he instantly let her go. Her fingers went to her lips. “Um, that was supposed to be a thank-you kiss.”

  “I’d take another thank-you like that anytime.”

  “Maybe one more.” She stood on her toes again and wrapped her arms around his neck.

  He pulled her back into his arms and was shocked to find the second kiss even better than the first. Passion sparked between them, and he forced himself to release her. “I’ll fix us some breakfast.”

  “A man who cooks. Can you get any better?”

  “I whip up a mean omelet. Or pancakes, whichever you prefer.”

  “Omelets sound good. I’ll be fast.” She sent him one last glance, then stepped into the guest room and shut the door.

  He exhaled. Wow. Feeling a little shaky, he stumbled to the kitchen and got out the fixings for omelets. Mushrooms, spinach, jalapeño, broccoli, bacon, and cheese were his favorites. He’d see what she liked when she came out. He put some sausage links in the skillet and began to cook them, then got out another skillet and put it on a burner to heat.

  He heard the patter of her bare feet on the wood floor only minutes later. Her hair was still wet but up in a messy bun. She wore the same skinny jeans and lace top from last night. “I have clean sweats if you need them. Not that I’m complaining. You look stunning.”

  She smiled. “These weren’t really dirty. I can change when I get home.” She perched on a bar stool at the island where the cooktop was located. “I like your kitchen. Dark cabinets, marble counters—just beautiful.”

  “It’s why I bought it. Nice, masculine kitchen. What do you like in your omelets?”

  “The works. Whatever you’re having. There isn’t much I don’t like.”

  He nodded and assembled the first omelet. “Want jalapeños?”

  “Doesn’t everyone? The hotter the better.”

  He slanted a grin her way. “Like your kisses.”

  She flushed. “I’d say that was your department.”

  So this was what dating banter was like. There’d been nothing like this with Kim. He was already in trouble when what he really wanted to do was let the omelets burn while he kissed Bailey until they were both breathless again.

  Focus.

  He cracked the eggs into a bowl with cream and whisked them to a froth, then dumped the mixture into the vegetables. In moments he served up a fluffy omelet dripping with cheese. He slid it across the counter to her. “There’s sour cream in the fridge if you want any. Avocado too.”

  “This looks perfect. A restaurant couldn’t have done a better job.” She grabbed the pepper mill and ground some on her food, then tucked into it. “Yummy. I was starving.” She stared at the forkful of food. “This pepper is good.”

  “It’s Khmer pepper. Best pepper in the world. When I use it, I think of Ava. Our mom is from Cambodia, and she looks just like Mom, while I have more of our dad in me. Using the pepper is one small way of being close to her.”

  “That’s a lovely thing to do.”

  He finished cooking his omelet, then took sour cream out of the fridge and carried it to the counter. They ate in companionable silence as the coffee brewed.

  When the coffeepot beeped, he poured them both a cup. “Cream?”

  “Black.”

  “The perfection just keeps on going.” He put the coffee mug in front of her.

  Her smile faltered. “I’m far from perfect, Lance. If my mother were here, she’d tell you. I speak my mind. I’m opinionated, bossy, and I like things to go my way.”

  “Don’t we all.” He reached over and curled a strand of loose hair around his finger.

  She batted his hand away. “I’m serious. I fail the Lord every day. Which reminds me, I haven’t even asked how you feel about God. That’s a nonnegotiable as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t ask Kyle about it because I was too awestruck. I won’t make that mistake again.”

  He grinned. “I’m auditioning for the role of boyfriend? I can tell you with total truth that I love the Lord. I may not be perfect either, but I try to follow the path Jesus laid down for me. At least your mom raised you right.”

  She shook her head. “It had nothing to do with Mom. She didn’t have much use for God. I started going to church with one of those neighborhood grandparents I found. I’ve been a Christian since I was nine. Mom was horrified when I told her, but at least she didn’t forbid me to go.”

  “I was ten.”

  She relaxed. “I’m glad. I would have hated to break up with you before we even got started.”

  “It would have been a tragedy.” He leaned in closer. “How about one more kiss? Then we have to behave ourselves.”

  A dimple appeared by the corner of her mouth. “Just one more.”

  Bailey’s spirits were high as she drove to check on Jason. Sheba had been all over her the minute she walked in the door, so she brought the cat with her again. Jason had liked Sheba.

  Another car sat in the drive when she parked. The wood door was open but the screen door was shut when she approached with the cat in her arms. She heard the sound of voices.

  “Hello,” she called. “It’s Bailey.”

  “Come on in,” a woman replied.

  Bailey stepped inside and put squirming Sheba on the floor. The cat pounced like Tigger across the floor and leaped onto Jason’s lap. The place looked bright and airy today. Someone had done a major housecleaning job, and she smelled cleaner and lemon wax.

  Jason scratched Sheba’s ears. “You brought my friend back to see me.”

  He seemed to be in a good mood today. Bailey walked into the living room. Mac, her employer, sat in a chair. “Well, hello again.”

  “Jason tells me you have him on the straight-and-narrow path to independence,” she said with a smile.

  “It’s early days yet. I have much more torture in store for him.”

  He laughed. “I think I’m scared. She’s quite the disciplinarian, Mac. You don’t know her very well.”

  “But I’d like to know her better. I was going to call you today, Bailey. I’m having a crab boil on my ship tonight and I’d love you to come. Some of my friends will be there.”

  “I’d love to. What’s a crab boil? And do you mind if I bring a guest?” She told Mac about Lance. He wouldn’t want her to go anywhere without him.

  “The more the merrier. And you’ll find out what a crab boil is when you get there.” Mac rose and went over to touch Jason on the shoulder. “I’ll pick you up at five, and you can help me.”

  His expression darkened. “A lot of help I’ll be.”

  “You just wait. I’m going to put you to work.” She wiggled her fingers at Bailey as she went out the door.

  “What’s going on with you? You’re actually smiling,” Bailey said. “And someone’s cleaned the house.”

  He kept his face averted. “Mac came yesterday.”

  “You seemed a lot angrier at her the other day. Not that it’s any of my business.”

  “Yeah, well, she apologized when she came by. We’re going to try to get along. So what’s on the agenda for today?”

  “The kitchen. I’m going to organize it so you can find things easily. And I brought your cane and some other supplies. Let me get them out of the car.” She walked back outside and retrieved the cane.

  He was still playing with the cat when she brought the cane to him. “I want you to try this. Move it back and forth in small sweeping motions in front of you. If it knocks against something, you’ll know there’s an obstruction and can find a way around it.”

&nbs
p; He put the cat down and rose. She placed the cane in his hand and showed him how to move it. “Let’s go to the kitchen. I’ll tell you what I’m doing and why.” She carried her box of supplies.

  He made a pretty good job of moving slowly with the cane into the kitchen. “Start counting your steps and mapping out the walls and distance in your head. It will become second nature eventually.”

  She touched his shoulder and ran her hand down to his fingers. “The chair at the breakfast bar is to your right. Three steps.”

  She guided him to it and placed his hand on the seat back. He fumbled awkwardly onto the seat and leaned the cane against the counter.

  “Great job. Okay, I’m going to put rubber bands on your canned goods as I organize them. Let me see what you’ve got.” She opened the pantry and perused the contents. “Vegetables, legumes, soups, sauces, canned meats. Here’s what it’s going to look like. You’ll find one rubber band on vegetables, two bands for black beans, three for canned meats, four for soups. So it goes by plants, then meats, then soups. Think you can remember it?”

  “I think so.”

  She pulled open a drawer. “You’ve already got dividers for your cutlery. Do you know how they’re organized?”

  “Knives on the left, then forks, then spoons.”

  “Right! I’m putting your spatulas and things like that in a bucket. All you’ll have to do is feel for what you want. And I’m putting your pots in the drawer to the right of the stove. The skillets are in the tray under the oven.” She busied herself for a few minutes rearranging things.

  “Now to your stove. Luckily it’s electric. I’m putting little tactile dots by the different temperatures from low to high. One dot for low, two for medium, and three for high. Sounds easy, right?”

  “Yeah.” He was beginning to sound a little interested.

  “Almost done. Stay with me.” She opened the refrigerator door and nearly fainted. It was packed with fresh food. “Mac’s been here, too, I see. I’ll buy some special containers to store different types of food in, but for now, she’s got your vegetables in the veggie tray and the fruit in the fruit tray.”

  “Why are you doing this?” he blurted out. “Have you heard I’m not going to see?”

  The desperation in his voice tugged at her heart. “Not at all. But new skills are never wasted. Maybe by the time you learn all this, your sight will be back.”

  “I sure hope so.” He hopped off the chair and stumbled over his cane, crashing to the ground. She rushed to help him, and he waved her off with a grimace. The bleakness on his face pained her.

  Chapter 28

  With Bailey gone to check on her patient, Lance walked with Daniel out onto the pier. He sat on the far edge and dangled his legs above the waves to watch sea otters frolic in the water. The sounds of birds in the trees mingled with the rustle of leaves from the wind. He liked the smells too—the salty brine in the air and the rich scent of the forest all around him. This place was special with its varied wildlife and sea animals. He wished he could sit here for hours and let his cares slide away.

  Daniel dropped down beside him. “I don’t know if or when we’ll get any kind of ID on the skeleton. I did some research on the background of this house.” He pulled out his phone. “Before Baker Holdings acquired it, it belonged to Lily Norman. Her parents built it in the twenties. At the time they owned the property where the Diskin house sits too. According to utility records her daughter, Olivia Norman, lived here starting in 1993. She left in 1995, just days after an earthquake damaged the town, including this cabin. Lily couldn’t afford to have it repaired, so when Baker Holdings offered to buy it, she sold it. She sold off the undeveloped land between her house and this one at the same time, also to Baker Holdings.”

  “Do we know who approached her to buy this?”

  Daniel shook his head. “It would help if she could remember that.”

  “When she’s having a good day, I’ll see if she remembers anything.” Though Lance had never seen one of those good days yet, he hadn’t been around her as much as Bailey.

  “Once we date the skeleton, we’ll be able to figure out who was living here.”

  Daniel glanced at his phone. “We do have a hint about that. I called the ME before I came out here. He found a folded-up paper in the vic’s pocket. The paper was mostly decayed and in tatters, but he used some kind of technique to read bits of it, enough to get a date off it. He couldn’t read the month or day but the year was 1995. So he thinks it likely the person died about then. It’s a male. That’s about all we know so far.”

  “That’s when Olivia left here, after the earthquake. Coincidence? Maybe, but maybe not. It’s possible she killed the vic, then vamoosed.”

  Daniel nodded. “A good chance of it, I’d say. Too bad she’s dead and we can’t talk to her.”

  “But we can investigate those who were her friends when she lived here. Did anyone go missing back then? Was there any talk of her being involved in something shady, that kind of thing?”

  Daniel put his phone away. “Olivia’s at the heart of all this somehow. If we could just connect all the dots.”

  “Yeah. Learned some interesting stuff last night.” Lance told him about Bailey’s talk with Kyle. “While he didn’t say she’d be sold into the sex trade, when Bailey jumped to that conclusion, he didn’t deny it and seemed shocked she knew. So something’s there. Kyle knows who’s behind this. Which means he knows who has my sister.” Lance squeezed his hands into fists. It had been all he could do not to charge in there and throttle Kyle when he’d heard what he said. And his tone. He clearly knew something.

  Daniel grimaced. “Maybe we should bring him in for questioning.”

  “I don’t want to spook him and scare off whoever has Ava. She’s somewhere nearby—I can feel it. The leader of this might decide to cut his losses and dispose of the girls. We can’t let that happen. Any results from the wiretap and the tail on him? Maybe he will lead us to the kingpin.”

  “I had a bit of trouble getting a judge to sign the warrants, but we’re on him as of last night. What’s next for Bailey? I have to say I’m not really comfortable with her staying out here by herself. It’s too remote.”

  “I already told her the same thing. She’s going to stay with Lily and so am I. Where she goes, I go for now.” He grimaced. “Except to a crab boil. She invited me, but I’m not crazy about them.”

  “It would do you good. You’re too obsessed. Go and have fun tonight.”

  Was Daniel right? Lance rubbed his face. It had been ages since he’d done anything for fun. “Maybe you’re right.”

  “I can take a turn keeping watch over her tonight.”

  Lance tossed a leaf into the water to watch it swirl in the eddies. “You’ve got a little guy at home who’ll be disappointed if you’re not there. I can handle it by myself for now. You know I sleep with one eye open.”

  “You’re like a cat.” Daniel nodded. “So where’s Bailey now?”

  “Checking on her patient, the guy who was blinded in the takedown of the EMP bomb threat last month.”

  “He’s still blind? I heard it would be temporary.”

  Lance rose and brushed off his hands. “Yeah, it hasn’t lifted yet. But it still might. She’s showing him how to get around and do things for himself. Bailey’s making headway.”

  Daniel rose too. “We’ve been friends awhile now.”

  Lance lifted a brow and waited. His buddy had something to say. “So?”

  “You like Bailey.”

  “Well, sure. Don’t you?”

  “I don’t watch her like a drowning man grasping for a floatation device.”

  “Hey, neither do I.”

  Daniel grinned. “You haven’t seen yourself, my friend. Watch yourself. A damsel in distress is hard to resist, especially one as pretty and vulnerable as Bailey.”

  “We’ve had our share of damsels in distress.” Lance chuckled, hopeful the diversion would work.

  “I�
��m serious, Lance. You don’t know much about her yet, and you’re planning on spending even more time with her. You could fall hard really fast.”

  Did he dare tell his friend it might already be too late? One look into Bailey’s green eyes had started the slide. Maybe he’d go to that crab boil after all.

  The evening couldn’t be more perfect for a meal out on the water. Bailey stood with Lance aboard the ship in the dimming sunshine. She’d never been on a tall ship before, and Lavender Lady was beautiful. Mac had Jason at work husking corn, a job he seemed content to do. After his dark mood earlier today, she wasn’t sure how he would act tonight.

  She’d asked Lily to come, but her grandmother just wanted to sleep, so Bailey left her at the house snoring in bed.

  Bailey smiled at Mac. “We’re the first ones here?”

  “Yep. My sister and her boyfriend, Grayson, are coming. Also a good friend and her husband, Shauna and Zach Bannister. You’ll like them. Shauna has a five-year-old boy, but he’s at his grandmother’s for the weekend. They are very close. Her first husband, Jack, died in a climbing accident, and his mother, Marilyn, is crazy about Alex. So it’s all adults tonight.”

  Lance looked up. “Shauna Bannister? The helicopter pilot?”

  Mac’s eyes brightened. “You know her?”

  “She helped me out the other night. Nice lady.”

  “The best.” Mac nodded.

  “I don’t suppose Grayson’s last name is Bradshaw?” Lance asked.

  “It sure is. You know him too?”

  Lance grinned. “Yep. I consulted with him on the EMP threat last month. We’ve been colleagues a long time.”

  “At least you’ll know a few people,” Bailey said.

  Mac looked beautiful tonight with her brown curls contrasting against a brightly colored top. The wind kicked up and Bailey tugged on her zip-up sweatshirt. The temperature had hit sixty today, but when the sun set, it was going to get cooler. Voices from the shore snagged her attention, and two couples headed down the dock to the other boat tied up there.