He lifted a brow, inching closer.
“Josh.”
“That schoolteacher tone doesn’t work on me.”
“We have work to do and it’s getting late. Plus, I’ll tell your mom you sneaked out of the house for that Nickelback concert senior year.”
He leaned back. “You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
“You’d ruin a mother’s perception of her perfect angel-child?”
“In a heartbeat.”
“Uncle Josh, I found the giraffe book! Come read to me and turn on my princess light.”
“Magic word,” Maggie called.
“Please!”
Josh studied Maggie, narrowing his eyes. “You’re just lucky I have a date with a cute little four-year-old right now.” He turned to go.
She snapped him in the seat with the towel.
He whipped around, fingers wiggling.
She screamed, leaped behind a chair.
But he was already heading toward Zoey’s room, laughter ringing out.
***
Josh leaned over Maggie’s shoulder as he homed in on the laptop. Will’s job application sat on her lap. A list of articles and social mediaaccounts dominated the screen. “It’s hard to tell which ones are him and which ones might be some other Will Jennings.”
“Also, there are multiple entries for William Jennings.”
“He put Will on his application, but I guess that doesn’t mean that’s his full name. Try enclosing his name and location in quotation marks.” They’d already found his Facebook account, but he’d only posted two pictures and hadn’t filled in any information on his About page. He didn’t seem to be on any other social media sites.
Maggie ran another search. “There, that’s better. This one has a picture.” She clicked on it and a photo of Will wearing a basketball uniform appeared.
“Wow, he was all-state.”
“And he attended John T. Hoggard High School.”
“That might be helpful.”
She opened more web pages, but either they were dead ends or they couldn’t be certain if it was the right Will. “I’d love to find his mother’s name. You might recognize it.”
“Maybe we can get access to his senior yearbook. His parents’ names might be in there.”
“Do they put yearbooks online these days?”
“Only one way to find out.”
As she typed into the search window, Josh became aware of the way his arm pressed against hers. She smelled like sunshine and coconut—she always had. The image of her in that modest red suit flared in his mind. He’d seen her in a swimsuit a million times before—at swim meets, at the beach, at Erin’s—and managed to keep his eyes and thoughts where they belonged. Mostly.
But she wasn’t married to his brother anymore and he wasthisclose to telling her how he felt. The sweet recollection of that kiss they’d shared washed over him, bringing every cell to life. He’drelived every second of that kiss a thousand times. Dissected each glance, each touch, each sweep of her lips. The memory was as worn as a well-read love letter and just as treasured. There had to be something here, didn’t there, for her to have kissed him that way?
