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Harlee
The easiness of being with Brax made me feel both happy and sad. I could get used to spending my days and evenings with him. I’d never had so much fun as when I was standing in that river with him earlier. When he’d wrapped his arms around me to show me how to cast, it had felt so damn good. It had been the first time in ages that we didn’t pick at one another or bring up the past. It was beautiful. And I wanted more days like this. I craved them.
At one point this afternoon, while watching Brax get lost in his fishing, I’d had the strong urge to tell him I was Ms. Seaside. It suddenly seemed wrong for me to keep it from him, and I wasn’t sure why. I knew that the moment he found out he’d be pissed. Might never forgive me for it, especially since I was leading him on a wild goose chase.
Call me greedy, but we were finally getting along, and things felt so good between us that I wasn’t about to risk losing this feeling.
I sliced the tomato I was holding and drew in a slow, deep breath. I had been dreading asking him a question all day, but I knew I needed to. Brax was taking a batch of bacon out of the pan. There wasn’t going to be a good time to ask, at least not in my eyes, so I might as well get it over with while he was distracted.
“How did things go last night with Kelsey?”
He paused for a moment, and I swore I felt my heart jump into my throat. Had something happened between them?
“I don’t think it’s her,” he finally said as he took out the last of the bacon. “I think this is enough bacon, don’t you?”
It took everything I had not to demand he keep talking about his dinner last night. Glancing at the bacon, I replied, “Looks like more than enough. Um, why don’t you think it’s her?”
After he finished putting the bacon on the paper towel, he turned and faced me. “First, she absolutely hates Ms. Seaside. And when I say hates, I mean she really, really dislikes her. Second, she had her little notebook with her last night, and she pulled it out to write down a reminder. The woman’s memory is bad for someone so young.”
“She could be trying to throw you off. I mean, by hating Ms. Seaside that is, and using her notebook in a way that would make you suspect it’s not what we think it is, but it really is.”
“I’m a little worried I understood that.”
I let out a nervous laugh as I pulled the toast out of the toaster oven. “Did you mention the notebook to her?”
“Nope.”
Frowning I said, “Not at all?”
“Not at all. She actually let me see it herself when she caught me looking at it. I thumbed through the entire thing. No paper was torn out, and there wasn’t a single bit of gossip. Just lists. Lots and lots of lists and little drawings of random things, like birds, the sunset, a tire swing.”
“A tire swing?” I asked with a slight chuckle.
Brax nodded and laughed. “Anyway, she’s not quite intelligent enough to be Ms. Seaside. She doesn’t have the quick wit. Also, when I asked when the town was first formed, she had no idea.”
“What does that have anything to do with Ms. Seaside?” I asked.
Looking directly at me, he said, “She mentioned it in one of her articles. The date the town was founded.”
I raised my brows in surprise, quickly racing through my past articles to remember when I’d said that. “Did she? Wow, I must have missed it.”
“Let’s make our sandwiches. I’m starving.”
Two hours later, we were both curled up on either side of the sofa in front of the fire. I yawned, then noticed how Brax followed suit.
“Are you tired?” I asked. “Do you want me to get off your bed?”
“No,” he said with humor in his voice. “You’re fine.”
“What are you reading?” I leaned his way to get a peek.
“A book about the end of times. It’s about a fisherman who’s faced with saving his small oceanside town before a tsunami hits.”
I crinkled my nose. “That sounds depressing.”
He shrugged. “Thomas told me to read it.”
“Ugh, I should have known.”
I could feel Brax’s eyes on me. “Did you and Thomas end things on bad terms?”
Shaking my head, I said, “No. He wasn’t a good match for me at all.”
“He said the same thing.”
I snapped my head up, and our eyes met. Before I had to chance to ask questions, he went on.
“He said you were too kinky in the bedroom.”
“What?!” I exclaimed. “Kinky? That asshole wouldn’t know kinky if someone spelled it out and showed him pictures!”
