Jake ran his tongue over his teeth, pausing before he pulled into a spot.Maybe Bennet had just come into work despite the roads.It wasn’t that early.Jake didn’t have to jump to conclusions.
Not that any of his conclusions mattered.He’d moved on.
Mostly.
Jake eased into a spot.Then decided better safe than sorry.He pulled out his phone and typed out a text.He paused again.He didn’t have to give Samallthe information he had if Bennet was around.
But he’d at least give her some, enough to protect herself.Then see what shook out because of it.
Got a few minutes?I’m in the parking lot.
*
Sam’s phone dinged.She still hadn’t come up with anything to say.
She told Cal to get him far away from here.
But what the hell did Glenda Harrington know about Bo Lake?Could there be some… long-lost familial connection there?Why did Glenda know some connection that Bo didn’t?And why did he look like a Bennet?A scared, lost Bennet who people thought was trouble, apparently.
And she still couldn’t get there.No matter how her mind told her she should.Hergutdidn’t fullytrustBo, but it didn’tdistrust him either.She felt this… need to protect him in some way.Like an injured baby bird who’d fallen out of his nest right at her feet.“He’s not a… bad guy, Nate,” she said, grabbing her phone off the counter to see who texted her.
“Your hesitation doesn’t fill me with relief.”
She didn’t know how to explain it to Nate and have him actuallylisten.He’d hear she had doubts and jump on them, instead of letting her exist… in the middle.Cautiously optimistic, maybe.Not drawing conclusions until she had facts to back them up.
“I can’t jump to all bad or all good without proof.But he’s lost.Maybe he’s not all good, but he deserves answers.The truth.You keep telling me I shouldn’t blame myself for needing to find the truth.”
“I don’t think you should blame yourself for it,” Nate returned.He had that stock-still posture, but his gaze was intense.Notblank.“I can disagree with you, Sam.I can think Bo is trouble and not think that’s something you need to blame yourself for.It’s a difference of opinion.Not a reason to bail.”
God, she hoped that was true, with an alarming amount ofyearningshe hoped that could possibly be true.But she didn’t know if she could believe him.Didn’t know if that meant whatever they were doing here was just… doomed.
So, she looked at her phone screen and pulled up the text to deal with anything else.
A text from Detective Jake Hayes.Got a few minutes?I’m in the parking lot.
For a second, she could only blink at it.Jake was here.And Nate was here.Andbuy a clue, Sam.
She tried to push all thatpersonalmush out of her brain.What Nate had said yesterday morning had no bearing on… whatever this was.“Detective Hayes.He’s downstairs and wants to talk.Maybe it’s about the break-in.”
“Maybe it all connects.Glenda to Bo to the break-in.”
Sam opened her mouth to tell him he could head back to his cabin if he was going to keep harping on Bo, but Nate kept speaking before she could.An expression of perfect military stoicism taking over his face.It had been gone pretty much since last night.
She didn’t like it being back.
“He text you a lot?”Nate asked.
She just stared at him for a full minute.She knew he’d beenweirdabout Jake since Jake asked her out this past summer.She hadn’t really fully been able to absorb jealous.Mostly because there was nothing to be jealous about.“You can’t really be jealous.”
He shrugged.“Why not?”
She hadnotexpected that.She’d expected denials and… maybe some condescension.But there he stood.Why not?“Because I haven’t gone out with him once, even though he asked a few times.”
“You said he was hot.”
It actually made her laugh, which was a relief.Maybe this wasn’t totally shot over Bo Lake.At least not yet.“Well.He is.”
Nate scowled, no military blankness forthatanswer.“So why didn’t you go out with him?”
