Kay waltzed in a few minutes later, floating like the breeze had carried her in.
“Kay!” Gus cried in her breathy voice. “Thanks for coming to sit with me, but you don’t have to.”
“Don’t be silly, Gus. You know I love visiting. We’ll have fun!”
Mia thanked the woman profusely and rushed out the door.
She pulled into the coffee shop parking lot as her phone chimed. Glancing down, she noticed that the money from summer camp had been delivered to her checking account.
She frowned. She was happy to see the money, but it still struck her as strange that the foundation hadn’t reached out to her. Not even a generic email.
She put her phone in her purse and headed in to where Jackson waited. She’d worry about signing up for her class when she got home. Right now, she needed to focus on helping him find his brother.
Mia didn’t feel like coffee, but it would be rude to take up space and order nothing. She settled on an iced passion tea with a little sugar, and a mixed-berry muffin.
Taking her treat back to the table where Jackson sat, she noticed he’d purchased a bottle of spring water. When she set her plate down, he eyed her muffin hungrily.
She broke the muffin in half and set it on a napkin in front of him. When he opened his mouth to protest, she glared at him. “Don’t even try to tell me you weren’t ogling this.”
Holding his hands up in surrender, he shook his head. “Peace. I’ll admit it. It looked good. I haven’t eaten since breakfast.” As if to prove his point, his stomach grumbled. She snickered. He merely shrugged it off with a grin before ripping off a hunk of the muffin.
“Mmmm.” He nodded, chewing. “It’s good.”
Mia set her oversized purse on the chair next to her, then opened it and selected a fine-point gel pen and a notebook. She found the next clean page, dated it, then titled it.
Meeting with Jackson re: Dylan.
Then she glanced up to find Jackson staring at her.
“What?”
He slowly shook his head. “I’d forgotten how organized you were. You were always ready for everything.”
“It only looked that way.”
In real life, she was just struggling to have some kind of control in her overly restricted world. But he didn’t need to know about her home life. She hadn’t even shared how bad it was when they’d been dating.
He gave her a strange look. “We went out for almost a full year. I never sensed you being anything but organized.”
She set her drink back on the table. “You knew my parents.”
“Yes, but not well.”
That was a diplomatic answer.
“I had very little control in my life, so I controlled what I could.” She shrugged, but in reality, admitting that made her feel vulnerable.
His hand slid over hers. She wanted to snatch hers away, but didn’t. The warmth soothed something in her soul. When his hand lifted away, she scolded herself for wanting it back.
“I talked with a couple of Jackson’s friends, kids in my class. One of them seemed to think they might be heading to someplace known as Bear Cove to camp. I’ve never heard of it, but she said it’s in the northern woods area, about fifteen miles from here.”
“I know it. It’s a popular camping area. Perfect for setting up a tent and roughing it. I’ve been in the area a time or two myself to hunt, but not recently.”
“Okay. Let’s go there and check it out.”
“Hold on.”
She braced. Here it comes. He was going to say it was no place for a woman, or that he appreciated her help but didn’t need her.
