A sharp rapping sound had them jumping apart like two teenagers. Harley Ann’s aunt stared out the kitchen window.
“What are you two doing out there?” She shouted through the glass.
Jesse took a deep breath and laughed. What else could he do? He really liked the old lady. She had a lot of spirit.
“Your niece is showing me the flowerbed.” He shouted back. “We’re leaving now.”
She nodded and moved away from the window.
“You don’t want to worry her?” Harley Ann asked. “I was all over her case before you got here about people spying on us and keeping the doors locked.”
“And what did she say?” he asked.
With a frown, Harley Ann admitted. “She thinks I’m nuts. Said that nobody is interested in what the two of us are doing.”
“I don’t think she’s the target of what’s going here. And probably isn’t in any danger unless she gets between you and whoever is stalking you.”
Harley Ann stepped back. “Stalkingme?” Her hand went to her throat and her eyes darted around the yard as though she expected someone to pop out of the bushes at any moment.
He reached for her hand. No heat this time. Just comfort. “Come on. Let’s go to Ian and Piper’s. The cookout is just a cover for your aunt. I’ve been talking to Ian and we’re working on a plan to figure out what’s going on here.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the bug. Showing it to her, he said. “I found this on the underside of one of the booths at the farmer’s market after you left. Piper said it’s the booth you use.”
Harley Ann’s face went pale as she picked up the bug with trembling fingers. “Who could be doing this?”
“Do you think it could have anything to do with whatever happened in your past that no one in town knows about?”
She closed her fist over the bug so tightly her knuckles showed white. “Maybe. The timing could be right.”
He led her back to the street where he opened the car door for her. “Let’s get to Ian and Piper’s. Then, I think it’s time you told us about that mysterious past.”
“Yes.” She agreed. “I guess it’s time.”
Chapter 9
As they drove in silence,Harley Ann mentally went over the situation. Could it be? Nausea roiled in her stomach.
“You didn’t send the flowers.”
He glanced at her. “No.”
“I just realized that every time I brought them up, or my aunt, you avoided saying you sent them.”
He reached across the console, took her hand in his and rubbed his thumb across her knuckles.
“Don’t worry. Ian and I will figure this out. You’ll be safe.”
His words comforted her in a way she hadn’t been comforted in a long, long time. Her aunt loved her, but she was an old woman and Harley Ann felt like she was the protector in that relationship.
So, this.
This moment right now.
She mentally grasped it to herself, as the first time in a very long time that she’d felt as though she had someone who would stand between her and all the bad things that lurked in the world.
Seated in the living room of her friends’ home a short time later, their eyes on her as they waited for her to begin her story, her courage nearly failed her. Was her nightmare of ostracism about to come true?
She clasped her fingers together and pushed her hands between her knees to hide their trembling.
