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“True.” She brightened, her mouth curling into a smile. “Let’s go,” she said, catching her lush lower lip between her teeth. “She won’t be grumpy if you’re with me. Just remember to keep up the pretense.”
Like he was suddenly an expert in fake dating. Oh, he’d stepped into the boyfriend role a time or two at the client’s request, but it wasn’t his preferred mode of protection. It had certainly never been something he’d instigated.
Until Lila.
Which only painted his decisions last night as more extreme.
Holding hands, they crossed the street and into the coffee shop. The short line moved quickly and he ordered two black coffees while she greeted… everyone. Everyone seemed to know her and seemed genuinely pleased she was home. He was introduced, ogled, and hugged while she was embraced and showered with compliments.
If this was small-town life, he wasn’t sure how anyone coped with it.
“Overwhelmed yet?” she murmured as they headed toward the bakery.
Before he could answer, the front door of the flower shop, Island Blooms, swung open. A woman with long dark hair trailing behind her nearly tackled Lila. “Ohmygosh! It’s really you. You’re home!”
Lila, clearly a pro at exuberant greetings, pushed her coffee cup safely into his free hand before she wrapped up the other woman in a big hug. When she stepped back, her arm still around the dark-haired woman, she beamed at Travis with a look that made him feel like her hero. “Nina, this is Travis Upton. We went to high school together.”
“Best friends since tenth grade. And not just because of her twenty-four seven access to Connie’s strudel.” Nina stuck out her hand. “A pleasure to meet you, Travis.” Her gaze, full of questions, locked with Lila’s. “We need to catch up,” she said in a mock whisper.
His phone rang and he apologized as he returned Lila’s coffee. Tugging his phone from his pocket, he saw Connor’s name on the screen. “Excuse me a minute?”
Lila nodded. “We’ll be inside.”
“Perfect,” he said, walking a few paces from the door as the women went into the shop. Swiping the screen, he said, “I’m here. Any news?”
“Not the kind you’re hoping for,” Connor replied. “They chased an intruder off the yacht early this morning.”
A chill that had nothing to do with the brisk January morning skated across the back of his neck. “Why am I just hearing about it now?”
“The initial assumption was an attempt to get to Juliet. You’re not…”
“I’m not on her detail,” Travis finished for him. “I get it. What changed?”
Connor cleared his throat and Travis imagined him in a dark room, hunched over his keyboard, the glow from his monitors reflecting on his glasses while he pulled up a report. Of course, it was purely speculation. For all he knew the guy was working on a sunny beach in Bora Bora. He’d never met Connor in person and video calls were rare among Guardian Agency personnel.
“Nothing. It’s just a hunch. I, um, tapped into security from another yacht. Physically, the intruder fits the build, but so do a lot of other people, especially in a wetsuit. Intruder ducks into the galley, creeps along the lower deck, and through the salon before being spotted. Then they’re over the side and into the water.”
“They don’t surface?”
“Not that we’ve seen. It was dark, hard to see anything in the water though.”
Travis didn’t like it. His instincts were humming. “Anything taken or left behind?”
“No and no. And that’s what bothered me,” Connor admitted. “The jetboard was on the lower deck and a set of his and hers watches had been left on the bar in the salon. Worth about six grand combined, they belong to another couple that Juliet is connecting with while she’s in town.”
“Okay, explain your theory.” If the intruder was also the thief, leaving behind a potential payout didn’t make sense. Money was money. Which meant the specific items Lila had found were of greater significance.
The chill on the back of his neck slid down his spine as he listened to the research expert echo his own thoughts. “Want me to coordinate with the insurance company?”
“Not yet. They’re out for blood when it comes to stopping this theft ring. I’ll reach out when we have something more than our hunch. Keep digging.”
“All right. And Jess Keller asked you to reach out as soon as you have a minute. By phone or drop in at her new office. I sent you the address.”
“Thanks.” Travis glanced into the shop where Nina and Lila were having an animated conversation. It didn’t seem like the old friends wanted to part any time soon. “My next call, I promise.”
Before that, he needed to get back to the charade of devoted boyfriend. Ducking into the flower shop, he apologized and requested a fresh bouquet for Connie. “Need to make up for last night,” he reminded Lila as he tucked a wayward curl behind her ear.
“Everything okay out there?”
