I’d almost forgotten her obsession with him around the time Jake went missing. How insistent she’d been. Scared, even.
And then—nothing.
“You ready?” Scott popped his head in.
“Yeah,” I said, carrying the drawing with me into the hall. Scott leaned over my shoulder as we walked.
“The Reindeer Man?” he said with a soft laugh. “That’s a blast from the past.”
“I know. It was taped to the inside of her closet. Looks like Santa was at the North Pole. She drew an igloo.”
Scott took the paper from my hands.
“That’s not an igloo,” he said, tracing the shape with his finger. “It’s a baseball cap.”
I frowned.
“And those aren’t just antlers,” he went on. “They’re part of a logo.”
The image tugged at something in me—familiar, but just out of reach.
“What?” Scott asked.
I shook my head, folding the paper a little too quickly. “It’s nothing,” I said, though the feeling lingered.
Scott grabbed my shoulders from behind and steered me toward the door.
“C’mon. My garages are waiting.”
44
SCOTT: HOW YOU REMIND ME
“Mark, stop licking yourself,” I called, raising my voice to compete with the waterfall.
“Scott, I beg you,” Michelle whispered, horrified, as I waded us through the shallows. “We have nosy neighbors.”
“That’s the point of naming the dog Mark. If I can’t interact with my neighbors like a normal person, I’ll find another way.”
“By making them think we have men wandering the property pleasuring themselves?”
“Michelle, he’s my dog. I’ll embarrass him however I see fit.”
“Well,” she said, tightening her legs around my waist, her voice dropping sexy low, “if we’re already giving the neighbors a show, we might as well make it worth their binoculars.”
Challenge fucking accepted.
I carried her straight into the shadow of the rocky grotto and pressed her back against the cool stone, mouth already on her neck when—
“Mom? Dad?” Quinn called from the house. “I touched something, and now it’s making a beeping noise.”
“Do not respond,” I warned.
“He’s our child.”
“And if he were injured, absolutely. But for a beep? Hard no.”
“You know he’s going to come looking for us.”
