Page 33 of Tracking Wolfe

Which was a lie. I was very worried. I was worried he was still hurting. Worried he was happier without me. That he’d gotten over that kiss or that it hadn’t ever meant as much to him as it had to me.

Worried about the way that man had looked at him, had gone out of his way to protect him as if pissing in a circle around the guy.

Jake.

I pulled out my phone and began researching again, starting with the Jake’s Place hashtag. Jake Mason didn’t seem to have social media himself, but he ran a very simple account for his bar and restaurant, posting hours and menu updates periodically. I shot the name over to JJ at On Your Six and asked him to run a more thorough background check on the guy.

JJ

What’s this for? Something to do with Wolfe? Any luck finding him?

He’s in Hush, Colorado. Safe and sound.

JJ

And?

I sighed and glanced up at the blue sky as if it would give me the right lie to tell JJ. When I didn’t answer him quickly enough, JJ called. I put in my earbuds and answered.

“Talk to me,” he said. The familiar sound of his voice made me smile. JJ’s parents were Joel Healy Marian, the founder of On Your Six, and Simone Marian, Jude’s sister and Wolfe’s aunt. If he didn’t take his job in personal security so seriously, including the confidentiality that came with it, I might have held back.

“I’m worried about him,” I admitted.

JJ and I had worked together briefly before I’d moved to Montana and started SERA. I’d been in charge of training new hires at On Your Six when JJ had come on board. The two of us had known each other for years at that point, but we hadn’t become friends until we’d worked together. When I’d left the company, JJ had looked at me like he’d somehow known about the situation with Wolfe. Like he’d been able to see through me and clock my move as running away from something rather than running toward something else.

“And you think this Jake guy is a threat?”

“No. Nothing like that. Maybe the opposite.”

“Mm.” Keyboard strokes took the place of his commentary as he began his search. As usual, his deliberate lack of talking caused me to fill in the silence.

“I was looking for food. Went to the only place in town that served it. And Wolfe was there. I said hello, he basically told me to fuck off, and then this guy took issue with me.”

“He’s cute,” JJ said, as if that was relevant.

“Mm.”

He let out a huff of laughter. “Okay. Well, he is.”

“Your wife know you find guys hot?” I griped.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but she does. I’m secure in my masculinity, asshole. And I’m not one of those idiots who thinks calling another guy hot makes me gay.”

I muttered an apology and slumped over my second sandwich. “I could tell Jake was into Wolfe.”

“Ah. And you didn’t like that?” More keyboard clacking. “Interesting.”

I sucked in a breath. “Can you just tell me what you’ve found, please?”

“You know Wolfe has a crush on you, right? Ever since he was, like, fifteen. It’s like the worst-kept secret in the family.”

My heartbeat sped up a little, and my eyes flicked to the entrance of the campground as if I’d somehow missed Wolfe’s van entering, even though it was impossible from where I was sitting.

“I can’t see how that’s true in the present,” I said. “Even if it was in the past.”

So maybe I’d been the last to know about Wolfe’s crush on me. Probably because I hadn’t wanted to see it. But also because he’d been so firmly in the category of my best friend’s kid that until Wolfe brought it up six years ago, the idea hadn’t even crossed my mind.

Since then, I couldn’t get it out of my mind.