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Chet turned to Sara and looked her up and down again, only this time in a predatory way. “Yeah? Boxing?”
When Jack started to say something, Kate stepped in front of him. “You like the plans? You should see the Morris community. Jack is making it into beautiful affordable housing. They have a clubhouse and a pool.”
Chet was looking at her fondly. “I saw it yesterday. Flynn drove me over there.”
Jack’s face had not lost its look of contempt. “Sheriff Flynn showed you my work? That’s hard to believe.”
Chet’s handsome face turned serious. “He had nothing but good to say about you. He told me of your father and how you overcame everything to become a leading citizen of Lachlan.”
“A...? Leading?” Jack just blinked, unable to speak.
Chet turned to Kate. “And I hear you’re Kirkwood Realty’s number one salesperson.”
“Well...” she said modestly. “I’ve had help. I—”
Jack put his arm around Kate’s shoulders in a possessive way. “Don’t let her fool you. She eats, breathes, talks her job. A snowbird family drives through town and Kate is there telling them she can rent them an apartment cheaper than a hotel.”
She slipped out of his grasp. “Not quite, but I do look for opportunities.”
Sara spoke for the first time. “Is there food in that bag? Why don’t we eat while we talk?”
Kate began rolling plans while Jack pulled plastic containers out of the bag. She nudged him to look at the kitchen. As though they’d known each other for years, Sara and Chet were preparing drinks. She pulled lemons from the fridge and he smashed them down over the juicer.
It didn’t take long before they were seated at the round table. Outside was the pool and Sara’s beautifully landscaped terrace. In other circumstances they would have eaten out there, but they all knew that there were serious things to discuss. Palm trees and warm breezes didn’t lend themselves to talk of murder.
“When did—?” Chet began.
Jack cut him off. “Tell us about yourself.” It was spoken like an order.
Chet’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Jack in amusement. “Been a cop since I was a kid. Never known any other job. Married my high school sweetheart when we were twenty-two and—”
“Married?” Kate sounded alarmed.
Chet went on. “Not blessed with children until we were early forties. A daughter.” He looked at Jack in an appraising way. “She’s twenty-six now, a lawyer. Tall and blonde like her mother. I spend a lot of my life nagging her to give me grandkids.”
Jack blinked a few times then looked down at his plate.
“Your wife?” Kate asked again.
Chet looked away.
Sara’s voice was soft. “She died three years ago. When she was diagnosed with cancer, Chet resigned as the chief of police in Atlanta and moved to Sarasota. It’s where his wife grew up.”
Chet looked back at them. “Where she lived until the tenth grade anyway. Her dad’s company transferred him to Atlanta. Carol Jean walked into my English class and that was it. Neither of us ever looked back.”
Like now, Kate thought. With my aunt. She glanced at Jack and knew he had the same idea. She looked down at her plate, piled high with guacamole. What about the romance that Sara’s one true love was Jack’s grandfather? she thought. Something had separated them so they didn’t spend their lives together, but Kate had been told they spent a lifetime yearning for each other. Jack had even hinted that maybe his grandfather and Sara had met at times during their lives. Maybe—
Everyone was looking at her. “Did I miss something?”
“You just looked a million miles away,” Sara said. “Chet was telling us that his daughter works in Miami and he’s been thinking about moving closer to her.”
“Think you can find him a house?” Jack asked.
Before Kate could speak, Chet said, “How about Janet Beeson’s house? I’d like to buy it and take it apart. I’d put it under a microscope.”
“Got a million and a quarter?” Kate asked.
“That’s not what Beeson paid for it.”
