Memphis chuckled as he stood too. “Not that Betty would tell if he did.”
And as Emmitt watched the group disperse, Maverick by himself, the others coupling as they left, that spark of longing inside him grew. He could picture Sloane joining them at the roundtable one day. Entertaining them with her witty comments. Rubbing Emmitt’s arm when he got worked up about something. And holding his hand when they brought up notes of concern.
He thought back on the first day she’d walked up to him at the inn. Emmitt had told Maverick that he’d manifested something special into his life, and just like that, she was there. Call him hopeful or naïve or just plain crazy, but Emmitt had to wonder if he and Sloane were somehow already written in the stars.
Chapter 14
Sloane clenched her eyes shut, desperate to block out the task before her. Never had she felt such a wrenching resistance to do what her job called her to do.
Her chest ached with the breath she held as she dared herself to follow through.
You must do this, Sloane. You need to know.
That was the truth. She and Emmitt only had four lessons—a total of eight mandatory hours—to go.
She released a pent-up breath and flicked open her eyes as it fell, jagged and hitched, from her lips. There on the table, her laptop glowed with a blinding light. In the search bar of North Carolina’s public records was the name Richard Duran. A glance at the selected document search showed she had, in fact, highlighted the one she was looking for: Marriage License.
She stared at the too-bright screen as the letters slipped into a blur. The entire week, packed with family gatherings, showed just how close the Durans really were. And what a wonderful family it was.
Upon first meeting Andie and Trenton, Sloane felt they were too good to be true. Add to that Maverick, Memphis and his girlfriend Ty, and Ty’s adorable son, Lucas, and you had some of the kindest people Sloane had met. And she’d seen more than just the surface over the last few days. Between the craft for the ornaments, the party at the ice rink, the Sunday dinner that followed, and the emergency they’d run into when a frozen pipe burst, she’d gotten a well-rounded picture of Emmitt’s siblings, clear down to his unruly brother, Maverick.
But there was something missing in each of these events. Someone,to be more precise—Richard. It was one thing for Emmitt’s oldest brother to duck out of get togethers. If he wasn’t into social gatherings, who could blame him? But to skip Sunday dinner with the family? And worse yet, not show up when emergency strikes?
Emmitt had been at Sloane’s when the call came in, and she hadn’t hesitated to help out.
Either Richard was seriously rude and disturbed, or he was hiding out someplace.
Sloane thought back on the moment her suspicion was piqued. She’d been in the foyer of the inn, helping Lucas hook his ornament onto the display board, when Betty took a call up front. The familiar scenario put Sloane’s investigative skills on high alert. There Betty stood, assumedly in the same place she had when Sloane called to ask about Anna Fielding.
From what Sloane gathered by listening to Betty’s end, the inn had been forced to cancel a reservation at The Homestead’s very own honeymoon cottage. The sweet woman apologized up and down in that southern tone, saying it couldn’t be avoided and that no, sadly, she couldn’t give the next date of availability. They wouldn’t be booking the place any time in the foreseeable future.
That’s when the pieces started to collide.
From Sloane’s perspective, there weretwomissing people. Richard Duran and Anna Fielding. One supposedly lived at the inn, and the other was believed to have been there too. Hearing about this little cottage had Sloane’s mind racing in full and forceful speed. Was it possible that the two had married, the way Trenton and Andie had? Did they, upon getting Sloane’s fateful call, duck and cover, so to speak?
She’d been tempted to go back to the basics—drive out to the cottage with her camera in hand, and catch a shot of those dwelling within. Too bad the fallen snow hadn’t allowed for it.
There was a list of variables, of course. The couple may not be married at all. The two could be hiding out together, unmarried. Or they could be miles and miles away, soaking up sun on a beach in Jamaica after eloping in Vegas. Or she was way off, and they were living separate lives with nothing to do with one another. That is, if Anna was still living as Wren believed.
But she had no way of confirming any of that.
Sloane rubbed her hands along the back of her neck as she stared at the return button. The only thing shecoulddetermine—right there and then—was whether Richard Duran had recently filed a marriage certificate in that county. Chances were, she was wrong about the whole thing.
So why couldn’t she just get herself to hit that key?
A bolt of fear—prickly and cold—flashed over her skin. Because she didn’t want to know.
With that, Sloane reached out, shut her laptop, and proceeded to put the horrible thing back into its case.
She heaved out two pent-up breaths, staring at the case before backing away from it in long, desperate strides. Already, her heart’s heightened pace was starting to slow.
“It’s fine,” she assured herself. “It doesn’t have to be now.” She should get a good night’s sleep first and tackle it first thing in the morning. Yes, she’d hop in the shower and let the hot stream of water ease the knots in her back.
Sloane was quick to start the water, toss her sweats in the hamper, and retrieve fresh clothes before ducking beneath the heated stream. “It is okay,” she assured herself, talking softly into the shower’s hush. “But if I find out I am right…if I discover that Richard recently married Anna Fielding…what then?”
Then her mission here would be over. She would be forced to reveal the couple’s secret, and soon Anna would be arrested for theft and heaven knew what else. Emmitt would hate Sloane forever for ruining his family. All of them would.
But how likely was that, anyway? Not very. Yet the mere idea of losing what she’d found there at the inn made her stomach coil and clench. She did not want to lose this, any of it. For the first time in a very long time, Sloane finally felt like she had a home.
