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“Sorry, I wasn’t intentionally going through your things. Who is she?” I hold up the photos.
“She’s…she’s my niece.”
“You have siblings?” Jess has never mentioned her family, other than she lived with her grandparents as a kid, and her parents abandoned her at a young age.
She nods, a single jerk of her head, but doesn’t elaborate. She takes the photos from me, and her gaze drops to the picture of the girl making a funny face. Pain, deep and bleeding, cuts in Jess’s expression. She returns the photos to the drawer, her fingers lingering on them.
I take her hand. She doesn’t yank it away, but she also doesn’t look at me.
I dip my head and try to catch her eye. “Is something wrong? Is your niece okay?”
“Why were you snooping in my stuff?” Fear flares in her eyes and in her tone.
Fuck. Fuckity. Fuck.I can already see her wall going up again. “I’m sorry, Jess. I shouldn’t have looked in the drawer. I was putting the extra condom in there. I figured your drawer was empty like mine is at home.”
I pull her onto my lap. She doesn’t resist, but her movement is stiff, her expression guarded.
I kiss her temple. She doesn’t resist that either. “I really am sorry, Jess. Do you want me to leave?”
Her silence lasts a beat, long enough for her hesitation and doubt to drill deep in my bones. “No.”
“You sure?”
She’s quiet for another beat. “Yes, I’m sure.” Her voice is soft, but her tone is more certain this time.
She moves off my lap and sits on the bed. Her gaze locks with mine, her pain still clouding her eyes. “I want you to stay the night, Troy. If that’s what you want. But please promise you won’t go looking through my stuff. If I can’t trust you, then this, what we have between us, is over.”
I’m not exactly sure what we have between us, but I nod because whatever it is, I’m not ready for it to end.
* * *
My phone ringsnear my head, the sound jolting me from my sleep.
Jess’s sleepy groan vibrates through my chest. “It’s too early for someone to be calling.”
I have to agree with her. Beams of sunlight are sneaking through the slits in the blinds. It must be around 8:00 a.m.
Normally, I’m up before sunrise, even on the weekend. But Jess and I ended up having sex a second time last night, and then she woke from a nightmare. I held her until she finally fell asleep once more.
The phone stops ringing.
“That’s better.” Jess’s sleepy voice is a new level of sexiness.
Smiling, I lean in and gently bite the shell of her ear. “Mornin’. Why don’t you sleep a little longer, and I’ll walk the dogs? I’m sure they’re more than ready to go outside.”
I’m surprised they haven’t already been demanding our attention.
My phone rings again, and this time I check who’s calling. Maple Ridge’s Search and Rescue dispatch.And my body goes from sleepy to alert.
I answer the phone. “What’s up?” Concern coils deep in my tone.
Jess turns, and her eyebrows knot into a worried frown. My question is mirrored on her face.
“We have a report of two missing campers,” Sheldon says. “A father and son. They were last heard from three days ago. The son is only nine years old.”
I scramble out of bed. “Okay, I’m on my way.”
He tells me where the meeting point is, and I end the call.
