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Ohmygod! Jack Patriot was standing right in front of her. Jack Patriot was talking to her! She scrambled to her feet. She wheezed for air, choked on nothing, and started to cough. He waited patiently, the silver skulls turning to rust in the sunset. Her eyes began to tear. She pressed her fingers to her throat, trying to clear the air passage.
Rock star legends understood overwrought females, and he took in the house while he waited. She balled her hand into a fist and struck her chest. He finally spoke again in the familiar smoke-and-gravel voice that still held remnants of his native North Dakota. “Could you get Riley for me?”
As she struggled to pull herself together, the front door opened, and Riley came out. “Hi,” she muttered.
Only his lips moved. “What’s this all about?”
Riley gazed toward the silent entourage gathered around the SUV. “I dunno.”
He tugged on his earlobe, the silver skull disappearing between his fingers. “Do you have any idea how worried everybody’s been?”
Her head came up slightly. “Who?”
“Everybody. Me.”
She studied the toes of her sneakers. She wasn’t buying it.
“Who else is here?” he asked, scanning the house.
“Nobody. Dean drove away, and April went to her cottage.”
“April…” He spoke her name as if he were conjuring up a nottoo-pleasant memory. “Get your things together. We’re leaving.”
“I don’t want to go.”
“I’m sorry about that,” he said flatly.
“I left my jacket at the cottage.”
“Go get it then.”
“I can’t. It’s dark. I’m too scared.”
He hesitated, then rubbed his hand over his jaw. “Where’s this cottage?”
Riley told him about the path through the woods. He turned to Blue. “Can I drive there?”
Yes, you sure can. Take the lane back toward the highway, but just before you get there, you’ll see a road going off to your left. It’s not much more than a track, really, and easy to overlook, so keep your eyes peeled. But none of that came out of her mouth, and he looked back at Riley, who shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess.”
Blue had to say something. Anything. But she couldn’t adjust to having the man she’d had a crush on since she was ten years old standing in front of her. Later, she would ponder the fact that he hadn’t kissed or hugged his daughter, but for now, she focused on willing her mouth to open.
It was too late. He’d signaled both Riley and his entourage to stay where they were and headed toward the path his daughter had pointed out. Blue waited until he disappeared, then slumped down on the top step. “I’m an idiot.”
Riley sat down next to her. “Don’t worry. He’s used to it.”
As dusk settled in, April finished her last phone call, slipped her cell into the beaded pocket of her jeans, and wandered down to the edge of the pond. She loved it here at night, the soothing lap of water, the throaty croak of a frog striking a bass note against a cricket chorus. The pond smelled different at night, musky and fecund, like something feral.
“Hello, April.”
She spun around.
The man who’d shattered her world stood in front of her.
It had been three decades since she’d seen him in person, but even in the dusky light, every feature in that angular, excess-lined face was as familiar as her own: the long, aquiline nose; the deep-set eyes, black at the rims but with golden brown irises; his swarthy skin and knife-blade jaw. Silver threaded the dark hair that used to fly in a midnight storm cloud around his head. It was shorter now—just above his collar—and wirier, but still thick. She wasn’t surprised he’d made no ef
fort to cover the threads of gray. He had little personal vanity. Although he’d always been tall for a rocker, now he seemed even taller because he was so thin. The sockets beneath those gaunt cheekbones were deeper than she remembered, the grooves at the corners of his eyes more sharply etched. He looked every one of his fifty-four years.
“Hey, little girl. Is your mother around?”
