His mouth thinned at the sight of him.Did Willow know the truth?No.There was no way she would, or she wouldn’t be down there with him right now.
The dog had found something in the rocks.The others gathered around to look as Willow pulled it out.
Given that the sheriff was involved, Earl had a pretty good idea of what it was.
He lowered his binos, mentally compiling everything to include in his log once he got back to the RV.But he’d seen enough.
He and Tripp might have their own issues, but they were also bound together by certain events in their pasts.This wouldn’t end well, and Tripp had to know as well as he did.
Trouble was brewing on the island.And not just because Willow’s group had found what they’d been looking for.
He watched them for another minute before turning around and walking back to where he’d left his car parked out of sight.A familiar heaviness settled in his chest.An ominous weight that warned bad things were about to happen.
The fuse had been lit.The clock was ticking, and it was only a matter of time before the bomb went off.
The question was when, and who would be caught in the blast radius.
FIFTEEN
“S
o, that was Tripp,” Bronwyn said from the passenger seat as Willow turned out of the sheriff’s station parking lot.
“That was him.”She turned the AC on full blast, trying not to think about him or the things he still made her feel.She aimed the vents between the front seats to blow at Rufus, sitting upright in the back.He sure loved being in the car.
“I feel like I already know him a bit because of everything you’ve told me about him.He seems like a good guy.”
“He is.”It bothered her to know he’d been hurting so much that he’d wound up in rehab.While she was glad he’d gone for help, she felt awful for pretty much abandoning him when he’d needed all the support he could get.
Bronwyn was quiet a few seconds.“Any old...feelings stirred up after seeing him?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because there were definite sparks happening between you two on that beach.”
A wry smile tugged at her lips.“I won’t deny feeling some things.”As for sparks?Hell yeah.All he had to do was be in her line of sight, and she got swarms of butterflies in her stomach.
