She was still standing there when her phone buzzed with an incoming text. It was from an unknown number.
Parts will be here tomorrow at 9 am. Car will be done by noon. Snow should be over by then. Don't be late.
Then, a second later:
Wear something warm. Garage gets cold.
Jules stared at the messages. He was worried about her being cold?
Because she couldn't think of how to respond to that, she typed back:
Fred says thank you for noticing him.
Three dots appeared immediately. Then disappeared. Then appeared again.
Fred?
My succulent. The purple one in the sunflower pot.
A longer pause. Then:
Tell Fred he needs more sun. East-facing window would be better.
Jules laughed out loud, standing in her driveway as snow gathered in her hair. Lex Chapman, the scary tattooed man who barely spoke in complete sentences, was giving her succulent care advice.
I'll let him know. See you tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
She started to put her phone away, then saw the three dots appear one more time.
Lock your doors tonight. Storm's going to be bad.
Something about the way he phrased it made her shiver. Not from cold, but from the feeling that he wasn't just talking about the weather. Maybe she was losing her mind, but she would've sworn there was something protective in that warning, something that went beyond casual concern.
Inside her cottage, Jules went straight to the kitchen, setting Fred on the counter while she checked the mousetraps under the sink. Empty, thank God. The kitchen faucet dripped steadily—another thing she couldn't afford to fix properly—so she positioned her water-catching bowl underneath it. Why waste all that water by just letting it go down the sink when she could use it to hard boil some eggs or something?
The furnace kicked on with its usual wheeze and clank. She'd nursed it through last winter with YouTube videos and prayers, but this year it sounded worse. Another expense she couldn't handle. Not with the electric bill already stretching her budget and her hours at the shop cut back until after the holidays.
Maybe she could pick up some extra work helping Faye at the coffee shop or something.
Pushing those worries out of her mind for another time, she moved to the window that faced the road, watching the swirling snow as it began to fall. Her skin still tingled where he'd touched her. And her body still hummed in a way she didn't understand.
Jules pressed her fingers to the glass as the snow erased his tire tracks. Whatever secrets Lex was keeping, she had the strangest feeling she was about to find out.
A little thrill ran through her at the thought. This was the most excitement she'd had in years.
Tomorrow couldn't come fast enough.
Chapter 2
Jules
Tuesday morning, 5:27 AM
The sound that woke Jules wasn't her alarm. It was water. Violent, rushing water that, for a moment, made her think she was still on that beach beneath the waterfall in her dream.
"What in the hell?—"
