“Kill you?” Lindsey cried.

“Shh,” Jack hushed her.

She lowered her voice and asked, “But why?”

“Would you believe for my love of coffee?” he asked.

He was being cryptic and it was annoying. Lindsey opened her mouth to say so when she saw the front door open and Sully entered the café.

“Is that the boat captain who broke your heart?” Jack asked, following the line of her gaze. He looked like he was going to go over and bust a Three Stooges eye gouge on Sully.

“We’re friends now,” Lindsey said. “Stand down.”

Jack made a growly noise in his throat and Lindsey huffed an exasperated breath.

“Really?” she asked. “My broken heart is more of an issue for you than a man trying to kill you?”

“Well, he didn’t,” Jack said. “Primarily because another man climbed through the window after him and the two of them started to fight. One of them yelled for me to run, and I didn’t need to be told twice.”

“Did you see the man get murdered?” Lindsey asked. She was horrified.

“No.” Jack shook his head and his too-large pith helmet swiveled on his head. Lindsey reached up to straighten it and met his gaze. He looked distraught.

“I would have stayed and helped if I’d known it was going to go that way. One of the men was my contact, but having never met him, I didn’t know which one. I figured the best thing I could do to help would be to get away and then they’d have no reason to fight. Obviously, I was wrong and a man is dead because of it.”

“Contact? What do you mean? Why were you meeting a contact here? Why is someone trying to harm you?” Lindsey asked. “You’re an economist; how is that a life-threatening occupation?”

“I work for people who have a lot of money, a lot of power, and not that many scruples,” Jack said. “One of them might be the teensiest bit unhappy with me right now.”

“Then they sue you, they don’t kill you,” Lindsey said. She was going to say more but Jack spun her away and then pulled her back.

While spinning, Lindsey saw Sully leaning against the bar watching her. She felt her face flame hot at the thought that he might think she was flirting with teenagers. Then she shook her head. It really did not matter what Sully thought. Jack was obviously in serious trouble and her number one concern had to be helping him.

As she was swept back into Jack’s arms, she frowned at him. “Tell me who’s after you.”

“Sorry, Linds, it’s too dangerous,” he said. “The less you know, the better. In fact, I was planning to spend the holiday hiding out here, but now that they’ve found me, I’m gonna have to bounce.”

“No, you need to go to the police,” Lindsey said. “Chief Plewicki is amazing and she’ll help you, especially if you can help identify the dead man or at least give her a lead. I know she will.”

The corner of Jack’s mouth turned up in a half smile. “Linds,” he began but she interrupted. She knew that look. He was about to completely blow her off.

“No, Jack, you listen to me—”

“Can’t,” he said. “You’ve got a new partner.”

With that, he spun Lindsey right into Sully’s arms while he snagged Beth, who looked delighted, and twirled her away from Dylan. Lindsey kept her eye on them, making sure Jack didn’t disappear without telling her again.

The fact that he had dumped her into Sully’s waiting arms when he’d wanted to stomp Sully just minutes before indicated to her that he was avoiding her suggestion to talk to the police.

“Problem?” Sully asked.

Good manners forced Lindsey to take her attention off Jack and look at Sully, whose blue eyes were narrowed with concern.

“It’s not what you think,” she said. She returned her gaze to Jack, following Sully’s movements from sheer memory of the days when they had gone dancing while they were dating. Mercifully, not being a power dancer, Sully had always kept it to a simple two-step.

“Should I be worried that you have such a fascination with one of Beth’s teens?” he asked. “I mean I really thought the flirting Englishman was enough.”

Lindsey was only half listening. Jack leaned close to Beth’s ear and whispered something that made her eyes go wide and then she tipped her head back and laughed with abandon. Oh, no! He was not working his charm on her best friend. Lindsey frowned. If anyone was going to get a butt kicking tonight, it was going to be her brother Jack.

“I’m not fascinated,” Lindsey said, still watching Jack. “Irritated, more likely, and he’s not a teen. He’s a big, grown-up jackass.”

“And you’re irritated with donkey boy, because . . .” Sully prompted her.

“I just . . . I don’t think he’s a very good influence on Beth,” Lindsey said. “She’s always had a soft spot for him and he’s, well, unreliable.”

“Please do not tell me he is another ex-boyfriend,” Sully said. “Really, what is it about Briar Creek and ex-boyfriends?”

This brought Lindsey’s attention to him. Over the past few months, they had tiptoed around this particularly thorny bush in the garden of their relationship.

“Do you really want to discuss that now?” she asked.

He glanced around the room. “Well, it’s the first time I’ve been able to get you alone in months, so it seems as good a time as any.”

“You know, for a former Navy man and a boat captain, your timing is singularly awful,” she said.

“Is it because of the body in the library?” he asked. “Is that too much on your mind right now?”

“Among other things,” she said. Truth be told, she was a little alarmed that she wasn’t more fixated on the dead man in the crafternoon room. She blamed Jack.

“Well, if you could just let me plead my case,” Sully said. “Before you get caught up in another murder case, I just want to tell you that I miss you. I miss us. And I’d like a do-over.”

Now he had her attention. She stared into the face that had captured her heart so many months before. Oh, she had missed him, too, more than she had thought possible. Still, he had cut her loose. He had decided that she had feelings for her ex, when she did not, and he had stepped out of their relationship with no discussion, no input from her, nada. How did she know he wasn’t going to do that again?

“No,” she said.

Sully looked surprised. His voice was low and full of regret when he asked, “So you’re calling it for good?”

“No,” she said.

At this, Sully heaved the sigh of the beleaguered male and said, “No what? Are you trying to torture me?”

“No,” she said again. Then she laughed. “I’m sorry!”

“For?” Sully asked.

“I don’t want to call it quits,” she said.

“Okaaaay.” He drew out the word as if by the end of it, he would understand what she was talking about.

“But I’m not ready for a do-over either,” she said.

“So that leaves us where exactly?” he asked.

“Friends,” she said.

“Friends.” He wrinkled his nose like he smelled something bad. “Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?”

“Sort of,” she said. “But real friends tell each other everything, their innermost deepest, darkest, hairy-scary thoughts and feelings. If we can learn to do that as friends, then we’ll have a relationship where no one will bail. At least, I hope they won’t.”

“Um, in case you haven’t noticed”—he paused—“I’m not much of a talker.”

“That’s okay, it gets easier with practice,” she said. She gave him her brightest smile, and he looked momentarily blinded.

“All right, I’m in,” he said. His tone was grudging. “So long as I don’t have to fight off that other guy, too. The tea tippler is bad enough.”

“The tea tippler has a name,” she said.

Remembering her brother, she glanced over Sully’s shoulder but didn’t see Beth or Jack on the dance floor. She twisted around and glanced behind her.

Charlie was up onstage and he was grinning like an idiot at the two of them. He even gave Sully a thumbs-up. Lindsey shook her head and spun back around. She stopped dancing, causing Sully to stop, too, which caused another couple to bump into them, creating the dance floor version of a four-car pileup.

“Come on,” Sully said. He led her off the floor.

Lindsey was scanning the café, hoping to see Jack and Beth holed up at their table. No such luck. Beth was sitting there all by herself. Lindsey hurried across the room, praying that Jack had only gone to use the restroom.

Beth looked glumly up from the table, where she was contemplating the bottom of her mug of root beer. “Yes, I did it again.”

“Did what?” Lindsey asked.

“Drove yet another man away from me as far and as fast as his feet could carry him,” she said. “It’s a gift, truly.”

“Where did Jack go?” Lindsey asked.

“I don’t know,” Beth said. “One minute we were talking and laughing and then she came in.”

“She? Who is she?” Lindsey asked.

Beth shrugged. “Don’t know. She was all big hair and bodacious curves. She was definitely not dressed like a steampunk virgin.”

Lindsey could hear the lack of self-confidence in her friend’s voice, and it made her want to kick her brother’s patoot.

“Well, I think you’re stunning,” Sully said. “But then I tend to go for that whole female adventurer thing.”

Beth gave him a watery smile. “You’re not just saying that, are you? Don’t answer that. If you are, please continue to lie to me.”

“I’m not. Captain’s honor,” Sully said with a salute. “You’re a smokin’ hot aviator chick.”

“Did Jack know her?” Lindsey asked, forcing them back to the more pressing subject.

“He seemed to,” Beth said with a frown. “Come to think of it, he really did not want to go with her, but she whispered something in his ear that had him moving out that door pretty quick. I assumed it was a proposition, but now that I think on it, he looked pretty worried.” Beth’s eyes went wide. “Maybe she threatened him.”

Lindsey had the horrible thought that Jack’s mystery woman had something to do with the dead guy in the library.

“I think you’re right. I don’t think Jack left by choice,” she said. With that, she spun on her heel and hurried toward the door.

Sully caught her arm. “Lindsey, what are you doing?”

“Going after him,” she said.

“I thought you didn’t like him,” he said. “I thought you didn’t think he was good for Beth.”

“I don’t think he’s good for Beth,” she said. “But as crazy as he makes me, the truth is, I love him.”

Sully sucked in a breath as if she’d punched him in the solar plexus. Lindsey shook her head.

“No, not like that.” She waved her hand as if she could wipe away the thought. “Sully, Jack is my brother.”