TWENTY-ONE

Harper

Stone closed the door behind his two brothers and turned to me.

“Thought they’d never leave,” he joked as he took a step closer.

I forced a smile. The fact this hot man was standing in front of me and I felt no urge whatsoever to tear his clothes off was evidence of what kind of night I’d had.

He took another step forward and dipped his head lower to catch my gaze. “You all right?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.” I swallowed, realizing how dry my mouth was.

Stone drew in a deep breath and shook his head. “No, you’re not.”

His body language screamed anger, from how he pressed his lips tightly together to how he broke eye contact with me to stare blindly, absently, at the corner of the room. As if he were playing out in his head the fantasy of killing my intruder with his bare hands.

I reached out and touched his arm. “Stone, really. I’m okay.”

It felt like I needed Stone to believe that or we’d all regret it. He had acres of land and probably a bunch of tractors with which to bury a body.

Maybe it was my writer’s imagination working overtime but he was obviously the protective type. Who knew what he was capable of when it came to protecting someone important to him.

I kind of liked that caveman side and truth be told I was enjoying being the recipient of his protection, but not if it resulted in bodily harm to Joe, even if he had broken in and scared the hell out of me.

Stone watched me, as if evaluating my answer.

I thought I was in the clear, having convinced him things were good, until he shook his head. “Nope. I don’t want you in this house alone tonight.”

“Why not?” I laughed. “The sheriff has the guy. I doubt there are two people in Mudville who are desperate to rob Agnes’s attic on the same night.”

A sudden loud knock at the front door made me jump and also ended further debate with Stone when I turned to see Red peering through the glass at me.

Might as well put on the teakettle and break out some of Bethany’s cookies. It seemed I was bound to have company tonight. No sleep, but lots of companionship.

I wrestled with the lock and pulled the door open for her. “Hi.”

“Oh my God, is everything all right? I saw all the trucks parked here and the sheriff’s car and got nervous.”

I let out a laugh. “Yeah, I’ve had more company tonight than I’ve had in the week since I moved in. But everything’s fine.”

Stone folded his arms across his chest. “Not exactly fine. There was an intruder in the attic while Harper was sleeping in the bedroom.”

“Holy crap.” Red’s pale blue eyes grew wide. “You said you heard noises and I told you it was just the old house creaking. I should have believed you. You could have been killed and it would have been all my fault.”

“No, really, you were right. There was normal old house creaking all week. Tonight’s noises sounded different than before. I ignored them because I thought it was the cats. One of them came in to sleep with me.”

Red’s expression morphed from looking horrified at my near miss with death to cute and squishy. “Aww, the cats finally came around. That’s so nice. I know you really wanted them to come in.”

“I really did. It was nice,” I agreed.

Stone’s huff had me glancing his way to see his scowl. “I’m still not happy about you sleeping here alone tonight.”

If we kept talking he wouldn’t have to worry. I wouldn’t be sleeping at all. It would be morning in a few hours.

“I’m f—”

“Fine. I know. You keep saying that. Maybe I’m the one who’s not fine. Okay?” He pinned me with a stare from beneath lowered brows.

I caught Red’s smile out of the corner of my eye. If she hadn’t suspected that Stone and my relationship had changed before, she must now.

“How about I spend the night here so Stone’s not worried? Girls’ sleepover. Harper, me and the barn cats. Heck, we’ll invite Petunia too.”

“Would she really come inside?” I spun to ask Red. 

“Agnes brings her inside. Honestly, I think she’ll go anywhere there’s food.”

“And of course you can stay over,” I said. “It’ll be fun. I’ll make us a frittata for breakfast.”

“No, don’t go to any bother for me. A cup of coffee in the morning and I’m good.”

I waved away Red’s concern. “It’s no bother at all. I’m up to five dozen eggs in the fridge so I’ve got to do something.”

Stone watched the conversation ping pong back and forth and finally raised his palms in surrender. “Okay, I see you two are good here. I’m going to go.”

I couldn’t help but smile. He was so damn sweet. How had I ever thought otherwise? I took a step toward him. “Thanks for everything tonight.”

“It was no problem at all.” His reply felt heavily loaded, as if he was remembering everything, not just the parts I was thanking him for.

I wasn’t sure if his smile looked mischievous to Red too or just to me because I knew all that had happened between us tonight.

“All right. So goodnight.” He moved toward the door.

I followed and opened the front door for him. “Good night, Stone.”

“Good night, Stone,” Red said overly sweetly behind me.

He shot an amused glance over his shoulder then he was gone, heading toward his truck parked along the curb across the street.

The door was barely closed and not quite locked when Red said, “Oh my God, something happened between you two. Tell me absolutely everything.”

I turned back to her. There was a lot to tell. “This might require I open a bottle of wine.”

Her eyes widened. “Yes!”

I laughed. I could sleep late tomorrow. One of the benefits of being self-employed was that I set my own hours.

As it turned out, Red and I didn’t sleep late in the morning. I was used to waking early, no matter what time I fell to sleep, and she had to get to the store to open for the day. So we had coffee and a six-egg frittata for breakfast, then she was off and I was left to my own devices.

I could have gotten right to work. Make that I should have gotten to work, but there was something nagging at me that wouldn’t let my mind settle.

I’d never be able to concentrate on the book until I knew why. Why did that man break into Agnes’s attic and what did he want with Rose’s diaries?

Since Rose’s journals were the basis for my story, maybe I could count this as book research, which would make it qualify as work.

I liked that idea. Liked it enough that I got dressed—in real going-outside-in-public clothes—and after a quick online search to find out where I was going, I headed for the sheriff’s department.

When I arrived, the deputy who’d been at the house last night was no longer on duty.

That was fine with me since he’d been replaced by a handsome guy who looked so good in his uniform it made me wonder why I’d never written a deputy hero before.

“Um, hi. I was wondering if you could help me?” My gaze dropped to his name. “Officer Bekker.”

“Deputy Bekker. But most people just call me Carson.” He smiled. “What can I help you with?”

“Well, I’m not sure if you’ve been briefed on the calls from last night, but I’m Harper Low—insky.” I almost delivered my pen name and had to shift gears quick and remember that for the official sheriff’s report I’d be Harper Lowinsky, not Lowry. “There was an intruder in the house where I’m staying on Main Street.”

He nodded. “Agnes’s place. Yeah, I heard. It’s a small town, Miss Lowinsky.”

So I’d discovered.

“Yes, well I was wondering if you still had the, uh, alleged perpetrator in custody?” I’d written a character who was a lawyer so I was pretty confident I had the lingo correct, in spite of his frown.

“I’m sorry. No. Joe was released on his own recognizance pending charges. Deputy Callahan didn’t anticipate that being a problem.”

“No, it’s okay. I just . . . actually, I wanted to talk to him.”

“To Callahan?”

“No, to Joe.”

Carson drew his brows low. “Um, all right.”

“Do you know where I can find him?” I asked in spite of him looking at me like I was a nut.

“I would think he’d be at his mother’s place. It’s the blue house next to the pharmacy on Main Street.”

The burglar lived a quarter of a mile away from me? Small town life definitely had its good points and its bad points. But I knew one thing. I was going over there.

I needed an answer to my question. Why had he gone to all that trouble to get his hands on those journals?

“All right.” I nodded. “Thank you very much for your help.”

“Um, Miss Lowinsky—”

“Call me Harper, please.”

“Harper. You’re not going over there to hurt him or anything, are you?”

I laughed. “No. Why would you think that?”

“Well, I heard your boyfriend was close to wringing Joe’s neck last night. Is your intention to do Joe harm?”

My boyfriend? I nearly choked.

Was Stone my boyfriend? And did it matter if he was or wasn’t if all of Mudville believed he was?

I decided the safest thing to do was ignore that part of the deputy’s statement and answer the question. “Uh, no, deputy. I’m not going to hurt him. I just want to ask him a question.”

“Okay. I guess you’re entitled to that.”

“Thank you for the information.” I turned to go, then turned back. Apparently I was incapable of letting anything go. “Who told you Stone was my boyfriend?”

Carson grinned. “Boone. Saw him at the bakery this morning.”

Stone’s brother thought we were dating.

This time I really was without words as the questions spun through my brain.

All I managed to do was tip my head to the deputy and get out the door without walking through the glass.