We both skimmed it, but there was no mention of Parker’s Landing or any of its residents.
He moved ahead, and we read the updates, but those, too, were devoid of any clues that would lead us back to town.
For each of the subsequent names, we found more of the same. Nothing that tied any of them to Parker’s Landing or Mr. Shuman.
“Well, that was a bust,” I said as we left the library.
“No. We can cross all those names off the list.”
I raised a finger. “Ozzie would tell you no one is off the list untilprovenotherwise.”
Luke’s mouth tipped up on one side. “Okay, we can knock those names down, then. Pin them as highly unlikely to be the woman in your wall. You have to admit, it’s better than where we started.” He stopped in front of his truck.
“I guess so.” I gripped the strap of my bag hanging off my shoulder. “Sorry. I’m just upset we didn’t find a smoking gun.One thing you’ll learn about me is I’m not the most patient person. And after all I went through to get that building, having to wait even longer is driving me insane.”
“I get it. And I’ll have a crew on standby, so we can get in there as soon as Detective Quartermaine gives you the all-clear.”
“I appreciate that.” I would be badgering Ozzie every day about releasing the scene. He’d probably get sick of me, but I didn’t care. The café renovations needed to happen sooner rather than later. If it wasn’t open, it wasn’t making money, which meant the mortgage on that part of the business was coming out of my coffeeshop profits and my savings.
“Try not to stress, okay?”
Warm fingers briefly touched my crossed arms, glitching my brain. It took me a moment to register that he was still talking.
“… tomorrow night?”
I blinked. “Sorry. I spaced out.” I waved my fingers. “Thinking. Can you repeat that?”
That same look he gave me last week when he showed up in place of his dad entered his storm-gray eyes. The one that said he felt the spark too.
Like the last time, he ignored it. “I asked if you want to come back tomorrow night and look at more names on our list.”
“Oh. Um…” I ran through my calendar in my head. There wasn’t anything special going on, so I nodded. “Sure. Maybe a little earlier, so we can get through more names, though.”
“I can do that. How about we grab dinner first, then come here?”
The glitch from earlier returned and shifted into a full-on meltdown. My mouth worked, but nothing came out.
He chuckled. “We don’t have to.”
“No!” I shot a hand out, then reeled it back in and cleared my throat.
Dial it back a notch, Mina, sheesh.
I wanted to roll my eyes at myself, but didn’t want Luke to think it was aimed at him. His request took me by surprise, as did my response to him backpedaling. Apparently, I was more eager to see where things could go between us than I thought.
Inhaling, I tried again. “Dinner sounds fine. I can be in Juneau by five-thirty.”
A slow smile broke over his chiseled features. Those stormy eyes warmed as his grin grew. “Okay. How about we meet here? I’m pretty familiar with the city, but I don’t know about you.”
“That’s fine. I don’t come here much.” I knew where the big box stores were, but that was about it. I avoided Juneau. Cities weren’t my thing. “Just don’t pick anything fancy for dinner. I’m coming from the coffeeshop and will likely still be in my usual work uniform of jeans and a t-shirt.”
“That works. I’ll be coming from work too.” He took a step back toward the driver’s door of his truck. “So, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
I backed toward my car. “Yep. Tomorrow.” With a quick flip of my hand, I spun on my heel just as the eye roll finally released. I couldn’t hold it back this time. I sounded like a teenager with her first crush, not a thirty-two-year-old woman who’d been on her fair share of dates.
But none of the men from my past made my insides liquify the way one lopsided smile and a heated look from Luke Decker did.
“Be careful driving home.”
