Laurel should say no. Makeanyexcuse to avoid this task until she could add her missing signature to the papers. But a steak sounded so much better than squabbling over leftovers at home while Mom was at her book club. “If you overcook it, I’m out.”
“That’s fair.”
They stood awkwardly on the steep incline, Chase on the sand, Laurel on the grass. The hill put them at eyelevel. Both searching for words, but neither finding the right ones. “I need to talk to Cody,” Laurel finally said.
“I need to pay for my rental,” Chase added, following her to the door.
“He’s not going to charge you,” Laurel said as they stepped inside, interrupting a conversation between her brother and a man in a white collared shirt and tan slacks. His belly bulged a good deal over his belt. If she had to guess, she would say he was in his mid-to-late forties.
“Chase, this gentleman says he’s looking for you.”
Laurel read nothing but confusion on Chase’s mostly blank expression as he stepped forward. “Can I help you?”
“Chase Monroe?”
Chase nodded.
“I’m Tuck Granger. Insurance adjuster. Just had a couple questions for you about that cabin fire. The one on”—he lifted his clipboard, reading off the address—“1547 Jack Rabbit Creek Road.”
For the briefest of moments, Chase looked back at Laurel and they shared a gaze that spoke volumes. A language only the two of them could understand. Laurel didn’t know much about structure fires, but something about this strange man in town raised the hairs on the back of her neck. Chase sensed it too. She could read it in his eyes.
“Say six tonight?” Chase said to Laurel.
“Okay.”
Chase led the insurance adjuster out the door, leaving her alone with Cody.
“What is that about?” Cody asked.
Ordinarily, Laurel told Cody everything. If there was one person she had no secrets from, it was him. But this wasn’t hers to share. “I’m not entirely sure,” she finally answered. “But something tells me it’s not good.”
“Sis?”
Laurel tore her gaze from the front door and dropped it on Cody. “Yeah?”
“Be careful.”
“About this or Chase?”
Cody’s expression was far too serious to provide much comfort. “Both.”
Chapter Six
Chase
Chase raised the sledgehammer, ready to bust through the back of the closet wall. He probably hadn’t watched enough YouTube videos to take the swing, but he’d decided on a larger guest suite and the wall had to come down one way or another. The end result would give his parents a place they could stay when they visited Sunset Ridge. Ava would thank him tenfold for that.
Watching too many online videos was only keeping him from bringing his vision to life. Or perhaps they were robbing him of the joy of smashing through a wall. He felt certain it would make him feel better to take a few swings.
“Stand back, Zeus,” Chase said, holding the sledgehammer over his shoulder like a baseball bat. Mid-swing, Zeus started barking. Chase fought to pull back his swing, but the unstoppable force put a small hole in the wall anyway.
The pup ran circles around the room whining excitedly, periodically stopping at the window.
“Laurel here?” He’d lost track of time after he picked up the steaks. It was only by a miracle that he avoided Glenn today. The chief would be upset with him for delaying his inspection report another day, but he couldn’t in good conscience sign off on it as-is.
The old shack having insurance at all was mind-boggling.
What company would even insure such a place? It was a losing bet, and from his experience, insurance companies rarely took on losing bets without wildly high premiums. He couldn’t imagineanycompany insuring that shack Tuck Granger had called a cabin. That red flag he couldn’t so easily ignore. Hopefully Glenn would understand.
