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“Will do, but are you okay to be at home on your own? Is there anything you need me to pick up for you? Any food or medicine?”
“No. I’m all set, and I can order in food.”
“Okay, but if something comes up, I’m only a call away,” she said.
“I know. Thanks, Leslie.”
The call ended as Leslie was getting in her car. She rushed around doing everything Sam asked and drove back home for a couple more hours of sleep. She was drifting off when it dawned on her that she could pay a visit to Kevin today.
They’d been seeing each other off and on for almost five weeks, although their dates had been spur-of-the-moment and random. He had his research and she had her job, and she already knew he’d be leaving the area before the end of the year. He was sort of cute and seemed really nice, and it was hard to find someone to date when you were related to over half the population.
She fell asleep thinking of how fun it would be to surprise him.
***
Kevin Vanzant was in his bathroom, shaving. The battery-powered razor was doing its thing, but it had been so long since he’d had a haircut that he’d gone the ponytail route.
He wasn’t Hollywood handsome, but his blue eyes and broad shoulders were a draw, as was his easy laugh. He could get a girlfriend when he wanted one, so he wasn’t hurting for female companionship, but he was sick of this place. Sick of this little travel trailer and all these damn trees. If it hadn’t been for Emily, he wouldn’t even be here, but he was making some spare change, and his time was nearly over. Only a couple more weeks and he’d be gone.
He’d made all his usual rounds in Jubilee yesterday and then spent this morning on a “walk” around the campground, seeing who was new and who was gone, and had plans to spend the rest of the day in the trailer organizing photos from the past few days and saving them to his laptop.
He stopped to eat a sandwich about midday and drank his last beer with it, then took the SIM card from his camera and popped it into a port in the laptop and began uploading all of the images into a new file. He was entertaining himself watching TikTok as he waited for the upload to finish, when he heard a car drive up.
“Who the hell?” he muttered, and stayed seated, hoping whoever it was would just go away. And then he heard a couple of knocks at the door and Leslie’s voice.
“Hey, Kevin! It’s me, Leslie!”
He frowned, then got up and opened the door. “Uh…hi! What brings you out here today? I thought you were at work.”
Leslie came in talking, explaining about what had happened and how she came to have the day off, and then hugged him.
“I thought if you were free, we could do something together.”
He frowned. “Gee, I wish I could, but I’m really busy today. I have tons of data to sort today. I’m really sorry. That would have been fun.”
Leslie sighed. “I should have called,” she said, and then turned toward his desk and the open laptop and saw a wall of faces on the screen. “What’s all that have to do with your research?”
Kevin’s heart skipped a beat. The only thing he’d been warned about this job was keeping it on the down low. “Oh, that’s just some random pics I took while I was in town the other day. It’s a way to make a little extra money. You know how people are…always wanting special photos.”
Leslie saw the panic in his eyes and knew he was lying. “Nobody hires people to take pictures of them on vacation. They use their own cell phones for that,” she said.
Kevin shifted his panic into defense. “Are you calling me a liar?”
“Did you hear that word come out of my mouth? I just made an observation for which you seem to have no answers, and I’m sorry I bothered you!” Leslie snapped.
She turned to walk away and he grabbed her by the arm.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
She twisted out of his grasp. “You’re busy, remember?”
Kevin reached for her again, but she ducked beneath his arm and ran out of the trailer with him right behind her, yelling at her to stop.
And then all of a sudden Jack Barton was rolling up in his golf cart, and Kevin froze while Leslie kept going. She jumped in her car, made a U-turn at the campsite, and sped past Jack without looking back.
Kevin was pissed and Jack Barton was approaching. He had no option but to hear him out.
Chapter 8
