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“What are you doing stalking my car?” she joked.
He laughed. “I’m heading out of town for a few days, actually. I wanted to let you know, and let you know that the officers will stay on patrol for a few more days, but so far they’ve seen nothing unusual.”
“Thank you,” she said, looking up at him. “I feel like valuable resources are being wasted on my surveillance.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Not for a second have I thought it’s a waste.”
“May I ask where you’re going? Or can’t you say?” she asked.
“St. Louis,” he said, running one hand through his hair. “We want to talk to Lana’s colleagues and the students who were there with her. They were questioned by police when you lodged the missing persons report, but the police reports have less detail than I’d like. We’re going to ask some additional questions.”
She nodded, agreeing with the decision.
“When are you leaving?” she asked.
Mitch looked past her. “Now. Jackson was just picking up some food from the bakery.”
“Hey,” Jackson said from behind her.
She turned, looking at him and he did a double take. For a moment she’d forgotten she’d cut her hair.
“I’ll put this in the car,” he said.
Mitch nodded. Once Jackson walked past them he leaned in and said, “By the way, your hair looks amazing.”
His lips felt like they brushed her cheek, but she wasn’t sure if she imagined it. Then he turned and walked away.
CHAPTER25
MITCH
“Well...” Jackson said.
Mitch focused on the road ahead; he didn’t need to look at Jackson to know where this conversation was going. When he didn’t respond, Jackson continued, “The haircut suits her.”
“Mm,” Mitch said as he turned onto the highway.
Jackson scoffed. “Are you really going to deny there’s something going on there?”
“I’m not denying anything; I just don’t want to talk to you about it,” he said, the corner of his lips turning up.
Jackson whistled. “You really do like her then.”
“What?” Mitch asked, his eyebrows weaving together.
“You only talk about the ones you’re not serious about,” Jackson said, and Mitch looked at him now.
“I rarely talk about women at all,” he said, before returning his eyes to the road.
“I didn’t say you did, but when you say nothing at all, that’s your tell,” Jackson said. “I’ve known you a long time—we grew up together. The only other person I’ve seen you look at the same way was Chiara, and you didn’t talk about her either—you never did, not at the start. I had to pry information from you.”
It had been a long time since Mitch had heard her name aloud. He thought of her every day, but barely anyone talked about her. Perhaps they thought that helped Mitch, but it didn’t.
Chiara had been his first true love and, for a long time, he’d believed he could never love anyone like he’d loved her. Six months before they were to be married, she was diagnosed with melanoma. She died two months after their wedding. He married her knowing she was going to die, but even knowing how their story ended, he would do it all over again. To love someone completely, and to be completely loved by them in return, was the greatest gift.
That’s why he wondered if Zoe could love someone else as much, if not more, than she’d loved her late husband. Was she ready? He knew how hard that was, because he’d been there. He saw the pain in her eyes like he was looking at his own in those first few years after Chiara died.
But five years had passed now since Chiara’s death, and it was only when he met Zoe that he felt like he could love again—love her.
