“Of being raised with the three of you jackasses.”
My jaw dropped at her words. “Little Lizzy, did you just call me a jackass?”
She flushed red, but fought the overwhelming desire to backpedal. “Serves you right for staying away for so long.”
“I’ll be around for good now. I just got a job working at the department.”
“You did?” she squealed. Rushing over to me, she jumped into my arms.
“Yeah, yeah, but don’t tell anyone. I haven’t even told Blake yet.”
Stepping out of my arms, her smile beamed bright. “I bet she’ll be so happy for you. She really does seem like a nice woman.”
“That’s because you don’t know her that well.”
“Michael Parker, I may not know a lot about love, but I have never seen you so obsessed with a woman before. Besides, I heard she pushed Maverick through a window. She’s gotta be amazing.”
“And did you run over to him and patch up his wounds?”
Blushing, she turned away from me. “I’m not a gawky teenager anymore. Maverick is nothing more than a friend.”
“Yeah, just keep it that way. He’s not nearly good enough for you.”
“As far as you’re concerned, no one will ever be good enough for me.”
“Got that right.”
“Well, as much as I would love to sit around and talk all day, the lunch rush is gonna start soon.”
“I’ll leave you to it. And Lizzy?—”
She spun and smiled at me, but the words died on my lips. There wasn’t a single thing I could tell her that she didn’t already know. She’d taken this town by storm while I cut and run. She was long past needing my advice.
“Love you.”
“Love you, too, Mike.”
When I walkedthrough the door, the last thing I expected to see was Blake on the floor with papers spread out all around her.
“What are you doing?”
I stood over her, looking down at the gruesome images of a dead little girl. Okay, this was definitely not what I expected her to be looking at.
“You know, when you said you were catching a ride with Liam into town, I assumed you were going to see Mayor Cameron.”
“Uh…yeah, I did,” she answered distractedly.
“And…you picked up a murder case along the way?”
“Mayor Cameron asked me to look into it.” Holding up a photograph, she pointed to the girl’s neck. “Does that look like it could be an indent from a ring?”
I wasn’t squeamish in the slightest, but this was a kid. How could she look at this? “I don’t know. Maybe?”
I took a seat, staring at her as she lost herself in the file. It was like I wasn’t even here. Not that I minded. She seemed to be enjoying herself. Grabbing the file, I started reading the introduction, surprised that this was from around here.
Not just from around here.
It was at Murky Falls. And there were only two ways to access the falls. One, from our ranch, and the other, from the Callahans.
