AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Those are the ones,” he said, then kissed her again, long and hard, before getting up and going across the hall to the bathroom.
When he came back, she’d turned the lamp on by the bed and was sitting up in bed cross-legged, wearing one of his old T-shirts that he’d obviously left behind. She had his clothes neatly laid out for him to put on.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I found it after you left, and when I sleep in it, I pretend I’m sleeping with you.”
A muscle jerked at the side of his jaw. “Jesus, Dani. It already hurts to leave you, and now I gotta be jealous of a damn T-shirt?”
She smiled.
He eyed the dimples as they appeared, then shook his head and dressed before he changed his mind, then tucked her in as he was leaving.
“Sleep good, sweetheart. I’ll text you in a bit to let you know I got home. Talk to you tomorrow, okay?”
“Watch out for deer on the road, and drive safe,” she said, then watched him walk out of her room, turning out the hall light as he went.
She heard him reset the security system and lock himself out as he left, but she still listened, waiting for the sound of his car until he drove away. Only then did she relax and close her eyes. But her hand was on the phone beside her pillow. She wouldn’t sleep until she got the text.
Twenty minutes later, it came. She rolled over on her back to read it.
I’m here…but my heart is still there with you.
Dani smiled, sent him a whole row of heart emojis, and then put the phone on the charger and fell asleep.
Chapter 17
Shirley Pope hadn’t stopped thinking about the revelation of Dani Owens’s part in the Charlie Raines investigation and woke up with a certainty that, while the rest of the world might never find out, their family needed to know.
So, she called Cameron.
Rain was predicted for later in the day, so Rusty left early to go into town to pick up groceries and have brunch with her cousin Liz Caldwell at the Serenity Inn, where she worked.
Cameron was in the backyard with Ghost, hanging a gate on the privacy fence he’d just finished. At first, he’d fenced in the yard for Rusty’s peace of mind about having a safe place for their baby to play, but the longer the fence was there, the more he liked it. Now, he didn’t have to worry about Ghost dashing off into the woods, or anything bigger than squirrels coming into the yard.
He’d just put the last screw into the latch when hiscell phone rang. He saw Shirley’s name pop up on caller ID and put down his tools to answer.
“Hello?”
“Cameron, it’s me, Shirley. Got a minute?”
“Sure thing,” Cameron said, and started walking back to the porch to get in the shade. “What’s up?”
“Did Sonny Warren ever tell you how he came by Brendan Pope’s journal?”
“No. He was vague about how they acquired it, and said it was part of the ongoing investigation into Charlie being shot. Why?”
“They had a witness. Her name was Dani Owens. And, as Aaron told us last night when he brought her to supper, if it hadn’t been for her, the authorities would still be looking for leads.”
Cameron was stunned. “I had no idea.”
“No one did. At the time, keeping her anonymity was important to her own personal safety. Someday you’ll find out what she’s been through, but I wanted you to know that she sacrificed her safety to help our family and to help find the man who left Charlie to die.”
“Thank you for letting me know. I’ll talk to Aaron,” Cameron said.
“Give Rusty my love,” Shirley added.
“I will,” he said, and as soon as they disconnected, he called Aaron.
It didn’t take long for Aaron to fill him in on the details, and by the time he’d heard the story, he was shocked.
