“Speaking of what’s right, I guess I can turn the checkbookfrom that fund to take care of this place over to you now if you’re going to be living here.”
“Or maybe I should let you hang on to it. I might need a little help now and again.”
“You don’t know how happy it would make me if you’d let me help. I owe that much to Jeremy.”
“You don’t owe us a thing, but I would appreciate it.”
“The guys and I have enjoyed being able to use it, but it’s yours.”
“I feel a little funny about this. Like I’m taking something from you.”
“Don’t. We knew it was okay to use, but we also knew it would end one day. We’re even. Don’t think another thing of it.”
She couldn’t contain her joy. “I can really live here.” Sheila was not going to believe this. She’d have to come up and see for herself. She lifted her phone and took some pictures.
“You can definitely live here,” Tucker said. “You should. It’s a great town. I’d always hoped you and Jeremy would move back.”
“I’m excited.” She looked at her watch. “Oh gosh, the time has flown. I didn’t mean to keep you away from work for so long. Take me on back. Now that I know the way, I can get here. I’ll just drive really slow until I figure out something about the car.”
Tucker raised his hand in the air. “You’ll figure it out. If rain moves in before you get the car situation taken care of, give me a call. If I’m too busy, one of the guys from the hunt club or the fire station will shoot up here and take you where you need to go. Really, it’s no bother.”
“That’s very generous of you. Thank you.” She had no intention of being helpless, no matter how many things she had to look up on the internet to figure things out.
Chapter Fifteen
WHOEVER STARTEDthatout of sight, out of mindrumor had never met someone like Natalie Maynard. Even though Randy hadn’t spoken to her since the day she decided to move to the mountains, she was always on his mind.
He’d been hoping for a lead or some reason to call her to see how things were going. It would’ve been nice if the excuse would’ve come a couple weeks before Natalie decided to leave town for that little cabin hours away from here, but finally he had some good news and that made him happy just the same.
Maybe she hated it up there in the mountains and had already nixed the plan entirely, to come back to Richmond.
That’s a terrible thing to hope for.
He understood her wanting to move on and put this whole thing with Swindell behind her. Living with a friend, even a best friend, would get old after a while.
Natalie had been the bright spot in a lot of his weeks this year, and just knowing she was miles away had played on his mind more than he liked to admit.
Yeah, it sucked to be the one to tell her over and over there wasn’t much hope in running down that con man, but knowing he was trying to help her made him feel good, and in this casehe was realizing it was more than just doing his job. He liked her, and the last two weeks he’d had to admit that to himself.
If only they’d met under different circumstances…
Bad timing. That’s my specialty.
He picked up his phone and dialed her number.
It only rang twice before it went to voice mail. Just hearing Natalie’s voice made him smile, though.
She’d warned him that she might have spotty connectivity in the mountains.Guess you’re still there.
The voice mail message ended, and following the beep, he kept it short and all business.
“Natalie, this is Randy, yeah, uh, Detective Fellowes. We’ve made some progress. It’s good news about one of your stolen vehicles. Hopefully this will help us get a little closer to finding Swindell too. Give me a call when you have service.” He got ready to hang up, then added, “Hope you’re doing okay. Are you still in the mountains? Look forward to talking to you. Bye.”
He hung up, wishing he’d stuck to the facts and hung up when he’d meant to.
He tapped his keyboard to bring his computer screen back to life, and typed in the make and model of her other vehicle. If Swindell was in a rush for money, maybe he’d sold the other one too, or even ditched it by now if he caught wind they’d recovered the truck.
Not today.
