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Well, she was still out there dancing with the dude who did look like he could use some medical intervention. “I think she’ll be cool. She told me she was thinking about hanging around for a while. She’s in between jobs. She might try to find some temp work and see how things go with her dad.”
“You don’t say.” Cam nodded as though he approved. “Well, that’s good news. I’ll have to think about that. Now, I came over here to talk to you about something else.”
Elisa might stay for a while, but where the hell would he be a year from now? There was nothing for him professionally in Bliss. He hadn’t gone back to college so he could work at a bar. It would be a complete waste of his degree and his brother’s money and faith in him. There wasn’t a lot of need for a marketing specialist here in Bliss. It wasn’t like there were offices here. Every business was a small business, and they tended to do all their own work.
“Van?”
Had he missed something? “Yeah?”
“I lost you for a minute. I wanted to tell you that I went out to the lodge today and it turns out someone was looking for you. Someone went in a couple of days back and asked about you and Hale,” Cameron said. “Lucy remembered a woman coming in and asking the front desk about you, but she didn’t remember who. She’s going to find out and hopefully get back to me tomorrow. I’d like to talk to whoever met with the woman who asked about you.”
Damn it. He’d managed to forget about what the sheriff had said. “So you think someone came looking for me, the lodge gave them my forwarding address, and then they trashed the place when they couldn’t find me?”
“I don’t know,” the deputy admitted. “But I don’t like the coincidence. It’s been quiet around here for a while.”
So the deputy was bored. “The murder at the lodge a couple of weeks ago wasn’t enough for the season?”
Cameron’s lips quirked up. “That didn’t even involve a citizen. It was only coincidence that Lucy got pulled in the middle of that mess. This feels more like it’s directly attached to you or Hale.”
“Well, if it’s a woman angry at me for something, I don’t know who it could be.” It wasn’t like his sex life had been going crazy while he was here. “I’ve had my head down, man. I’ve been either working or going to class. Hale’s spent pretty much every minute fixing something. We had a couple of hookups at the lodge, but they weren’t serious, and any woman from there would know exactly where to find us so she wouldn’t need to ask.”
“And if she works there, the front desk would know her,” Cam pointed out. “Anyone in the last couple of years who seemed like they might be unstable?”
Van smiled because the only unstable one here was Hale on his feet. He jerked to the music and kind of stumbled but then unsuccessfully tried to make that shit look cool.
He might fall in love with Elisa simply for the fact that she brought out another side of Hale.
Cam had asked him a question. “Uhm, are you asking if I ever slept with a crazy chick?”
“No, you are absolutely the dude who sleeps with crazy chicks. I’m asking if any one of them stands out,” Cam corrected.
It was sad when the question had to be asked that way. “Hale and I had a relationship with a woman in Dallas who was upset when we left, but I don’t think she was violent. She just didn’t believe we would actually leave. It wasn’t love or anything, but she liked being able to say she had two boyfriends. There’s probably more over the years, but I can’t imagine anyone actually being angry enough with me to tear up a place where I used to live.”
“And Hale?” Cam asked as the music started to fade and a slower beat took its place.
Out on the dance floor, Rafe took the wife he shared with the deputy in his arms and started to dance with her.
No one thought a thing about it. When Jake went out with Adam and Serena, they always got looks. There might be some from tourists here, but for the most part, Bliss seemed like a haven for the kind of relationship he wanted.
“Hale doesn’t ever piss anyone off. He doesn’t honestly connect with a lot of people. He sticks to himself.” Except here in Bliss, Hale had actually made friends. He had the weirdest relationship with Max Harper, who seemed to think of himself as Hale’s mentor.
Hale didn’t need a mentor. Hale had him. Hale had always had him.
“Well, I’ll let you know what we find out from the lodge.” Cam straightened up as he looked back at the dining room. “It looks like Sierra is up. Gemma was watching her, but she’ll want some dinner now. It’s been a rough couple of nights, man. Kids are hard and there are three of us. I have no idea how two people handle it.”
