“She was?”
“Yeah. We were together up the hill.”
Eastern nodded slowly. “Okay. Well, that takes her off the list of possible suspects. We’ll still need to interview her though.”
“Yeah, I get it. But she might be a bit rattled.” He turned to look at her, his gut clenching at the pale color of her skin.
Tilly tooka right turn as she headed home. The sun was just starting to set, but she felt like she’d been awake for so much longer than she had.
Shot. Jake had beenshotright there in the mountains beyond the visitors center.
Her fingers tightened around the wheel. After what had felt like hours of questioning from an officer who clearly didn’t like her, Tilly had been ready to go home and collapse. Particularly because the questions hadn’t just revolved around Jake’s shooting, but also her whereabouts from the previous evening.
Even though she’d wanted to go straight home, she hadn’t. She hadn’t been able to, not knowing Jake was on his own in the hospital. He had no family here in Misty Peak, and no part of her had wanted him to be alone.
It had taken a while to find out which room he was in, and she understood why. She wasn’t family. She’d waited, though. And when a shift change had come and a nicer nurse came on, she’d finally found out what room Jake was in.
Just about every nurse and doctor who’d walked into the room had looked at her like she was a pariah. She didn’t care.
God, he’d been so pale.
She’d sat with him for hours, waiting for him to wake up. But he hadn’t. The entire time, the same question had been flickering through her mind…what had he found in those mountains? What had been so incriminating that it had almost cost him his life? Because surely that was why he was shot?
She didn’t have answers. No one would know until he woke up and told them.
She turned down her driveway. The second her house came into view, her heart slammed against her ribs.
Because there, sitting on the steps by her front door, was Kayden.
What was he doing here, and how long had he been waiting?
She parked the car in front of the house and climbed out. He rose, and like every other time her gaze fell on him, her breath stuttered at just how big he was—wide shoulders, thick chest, tall…
“What are you doing here?”
He waited until she was at the top of the steps to answer. “I needed to check that you were okay.”
Her pulse picked up speed, her belly warming at his easy admission. No one really checked on her anymore, not since her mom had died.
Her gaze lowered to the paper bags in his hand. “What’s in there?”
“Takeout. I guessed you hadn’t eaten and thought we could eat together.”
Another rippling of her heart. Because he was right—she hadn’t thought about food all day. And she probably wouldn’t have made herself anything tonight. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I wanted to. It’s been a long day for everyone…especially you. And I didn’t want you to be alone.”
This time, it wasn’t just her pulse that sped up, it was her thoughts.
She wanted to let him in and allow his gesture to wipe away the horrible day. But… “I can’t just forget about our argument this morning, Kayden.”
She’d felt betrayed. Worse than that, she felt stupid and embarrassed that she’d trusted him after such a short amount of time.
He inched closer. “I told you, I’m an ass. But I’m an ass who’s trying to be better. Let me be better.”
Christ, how was she supposed to say no to that? And the argument did feel kind of trivial after seeing Jake bleeding out on the ground.
“So…are you gonna let me in?” he asked when she hadn’t said anything.
