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I hitched a thumb toward the car, having already collected all of my things. I didn’t know why, but part of me wanted to stay. That familiar sensation hit me again as if I’d been here before, but I pushed it aside because the exhaustion was creeping in again.

“Is someone coming to get you? You must be exhausted,” he asked.

“No, I live about forty-five minutes away so I’ll be home soon.”

“You can’t drive this tired.” His brow lowered, and the hard lines from earlier found his face again.

“I don’t have a choice,” I rebuffed.

“Let me drive you home. Lane or Jonah can follow and bring me back.”

“No,” I clipped. My pride prevented me from burdening this man with one more thing today. “No, you’ve done enough,” I reasoned.

His face darkened and something resembling a growl escaped him.

“Give me your phone.” He held his hand out expectantly as if I’d simply obey. I furrowed my eyebrows. “Please.” That without question was a growl.

“You’re not my keeper.” My hands found my hips. I normally had a hard time standing up for myself, but there was something about him that made me want to be braver than I typically was.

“Give me the phone or I’m following you all the way home to make sure you get there safely.” He tilted his head in challenge.

I squinted my eyes because even in the short time I’ve been around him, I knew enough to know he would. Jerk. I handed over my unlocked phone, albeit as slowly as possible. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but he scrolled a few seconds then held the phone to his ear. What?! Who was he calling? I reached for my phone and he shifted away.

“Hey!” I shrieked. At this point, I was an ankle-biter dog trying to scale this mountain of a man—avoiding contact but still reaching for my phone.

“Hey, Talia. It’s Soren from earlier.” Oh, good grief! He paused as if he were listening.

“Oh, yeah. She’s fine, but she’s being stubborn. Hey, since she won’t let me drive her home, do you think you could talk to her on the drive home to make sure she doesn’t fall asleep?” Now I growled. Ugh. Double jerk. Soren smiled a deeply satisfied smile as he paused and listened, as if he chatted with my best friend all the time.

He flicked an amused glance at my grabby hands and shifted away. His eyes sparkled with delight. His smile temporarily stunned me into silence. He was entirely handsome.

“Mmm-hmm. She does like her questions,” he responded cheekily.

“Yeah, she’s looking sorta . . . grumpy,” he remarked with a smirk, making a show of looking me up and down like he was assessing my behavior. I crossed my arms across my chest.

Talia must be chatting away because he smiled, nodded, and remarked with affirmatives occasionally.

“Yep. Sounds good. Here she is.”

He held out the phone and passed it to me. I swiped it up as fast as possible.

“Here ya go, Pretty Girl. Drive safe.”

Soren winked at me, a smirk on his lips as he inclined his head and confidently walked away toward his porch. He watched me connect my phone to the car, buckle, and drive away. He raised a hand like he was the cowboy king of front porches, and he’d done me a favor by contacting my friend. I pushed aside the feeling that I liked how concerned he was about me driving home safely.

Chapter

Six

Sawyer

After falling into bed with my clothes still on, I slept for a solid twelve hours Thursday night. On Friday, I baked while watching multiple YouTube videos on how to stop your toilet from constantly sounding like there was running water in the tank. I still wasn’t sure if I had figured that out, and I hated to bother the landlord if it was something I could figure out myself. It was one of those things that I could ask Talia about, but she and her husband Rob already did too much for me. Later in the day, I went for a run and read a few chapters of a middle grade book I was buddy reading with one of my pre-teens. By Saturday morning, I was a brand new woman, refreshed from having a day that wasn’t complete chaos. I had baked dozens of oatmeal butterscotch cookies as a thank you to Soren, Officer Fulton, and the volunteers, along with a chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake for Talia.

Baking was comforting to me. It forced me to think about something unimportant and allowed my mind to take a break. I liked the certainty of measuring ingredients to produce a desired outcome. Baking was so much easier than people. If only I could apply the same goals to situations and get the desired outcome every time. I planned to deliver the cheesecake to Talia, take some cookies to the sheriff’s office, and then drop some off at Soren’s house. It was presumptuous, especially since I didn’t have his contact information to ask if it was okay. Although, after wrecking almost his entire day on Thursday, I thought cookies were a nice gesture to say thank you for his help. Mrs. Bailey had called on Friday to say that Connor was in better spirits and had been building a wooden birdhouse with Mr. Bailey.

Once the fog of extreme exhaustion had cleared, I couldn’t stop thinking about how familiar everything seemed in that part of Rhodes County, especially in the town of Kennedy. I had visited the Bailey’s house multiple times to transport children, but never from the direction I drove on Thursday. I had no recollection of having ever visited the picturesque small town of Kennedy, but there was something about it. After I dropped off the cookies and expressed my appreciation, I wanted to drive around and see if any memories surfaced. It was like a splinter in my memory, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it because it all struck me as being just out of reach. But first I needed a shower, because after the hot mess I was on Thursday, I wanted to look nice when I dropped those cookies off. By 9 a.m., I was freshly showered, with my hair down in soft waves. I spent entirely too much time on a face of makeup that was purposefully meant to appear as though I wasn’t wearing any. According to the videos I watched online, it was the go-to makeup application technique. I completed the outfit with thick black leggings and an oversized chambray shirt rolled up at the elbows that covered my bum. I pulled on light brown knee-high boots and added a pair of small, star-shaped gold studs. My chain always stayed beneath my shirt, so there was never a need to try to match metals. Although, according to my ever-present online research, metals could be mixed. I just didn’t understand the rules of when it worked and when it didn’t. As with all things I didn’t fully understand, I avoided even attempting it.

After I placed the cookies and cheesecake into containers, I drove over to Talia’s. She was returning to her porch after a jog, pushing her athletic stroller that held her daughter, Ava. She swiped an arm over her glistening forehead and chugged a few sips of water. Today’s ensemble was cobalt blue yoga pants with a cheetah print crewneck that had cobalt blue seams that matched her pants. She smiled brightly, eagerly waving me over.