Not his business, really.
“Everything looks okay from here.” Elsie spoke up beside him. He hadn’t even seen her walk over from where she’d tied up her boat at her small dock. He needed to be more situationally aware as long as they were involved in whatever kind of investigation this was.
“That’s good.”
Conversation was awkward, like they’d been through too much too quickly but that was outside of town, outside of places that made up their normal life. Now it felt like they were almost starting over.
“Ready to go check it out? You still don’t mind? You don’t have to.” Her words were almost shy.
“I want to help.”
“Why? Why are you helping me so much? Yeah, we both know your sister, but we barely know each other.” The urgency in her tone wasn’t demanding, just curious. Wondering.
Did he even have an answer? Wyatt himself wasn’t sure.
“Maybe...” He trailed off. “Maybe it doesn’t make a lot of sense. To me, either, to be honest, but I wanted to help the other night and now it’s even more important to me to keep you out of danger.”
“Why?”
“Because I...” Care about her? He did, but the words would sound empty, especially coming from him, or would sound like a flirtation he didn’t mean.
Instead he didn’t say anything, just shook his head. “It’s just important, that’s all.”
That seemed to be enough for Elsie. She nodded once, and they walked to her cabin. As she reached to open the door, Wyatt took a fortifying breath. The way danger seemed to be growing, his self-imposed task of keeping her safe seemed to be getting more and more difficult.
He could only hope—maybe even pray—that he would be able to protect her.
Elsie was confident in the search she and Wyatt had done of her cabin hours before, but that wasn’t making sleeping any easier. She couldn’t even seem to find comfort in the fact that Willow had gone to sleep peacefully, giving no indication that anything was out of place.
Every settling noise that the cabin made, every call of an owl from outside her window, all of it heightened her senses and put her on edge. It had been all she could do to convince Wyatt not to sleep on his boat, which she’d discovered had been his initial plan.
She and Wyatt searched the cabin, and then she’d made them each a cup of coffee. They’d sat in relative silence while they drank their coffee, which she’d appreciated. It was rare to find another person who didn’t mind some silence, but Elsie needed it in her life, for reasons she couldn’t quite explain. When coffee was finished, he’d told her good-night and left.
It wasn’t until later that she’d realized she’d never heard his boat. Unease swirling in her stomach, worry for him and his safety rising in her, she’d walked with Willow down to the beach, vigilant the entire way for anyone who might be lurking among the spruce trees. She’d found no one with ill intentions, just Wyatt’s boat right where it had been earlier.
“I thought you were leaving,” she’d called from the beach.
“What if I just sleep on my boat?”
Sweet man. It was the first thing that came to mind and the thought startled Elsie, though she knew it wasn’t a bad description for him. “I’m fine, Wyatt. Go home.”
It had taken a little more convincing, but eventually he’d pulled up his anchor and headed back into town, and Elsie had gone back into her quiet cabin.
That he’d been willing to sleep in a too-small area on a too-small-to-be-comfortable-to-sleep-on boat in the open to keep her safe meant a lot. She wasn’t used to anyone taking care of her. Oh, her foster parents had been fine, no neglect or anything. But she hadn’t felt...cared for. Not in the way other kids seemed to. She’d always felt just a bit like she was on her own, even as a very young child.
Now Wyatt was making that untrue. She wasn’t facing this danger alone.
It couldn’t mean too much to her. She couldn’t let it. Being in close proximity to Wyatt so often was bound to resurrect the ridiculous crush she’d had in high school, which was all the more dangerous since he seemed to have changed. Did people change, really, though? Or would she be a fool to ignore his past?
Elsie was confident she knew the answers to those questions, whether she liked them or not, which meant she was going to have to do a better job of keeping some defenses up, not letting him get too close.
So she’d sent him home and she was alone in her cabin with her dog, her mind replaying the night of the break-in and the encounter in the woods on repeat.
Maybe she should just give up on sleep and have another cup of coffee and read. At least then that way danger wouldn’t catch her unprepared. Would that really be better, though?
She needed to sleep. Elsie took a long breath in, thought of her dog and the way Willow trusted her when it was time to rest. She needed that, too, to be able to trust that it was safe to sleep.
Again, she thought of Lindsay, whom she’d texted earlier with only vague descriptions of the trouble she’d been in. Lindsay was going through her own stressful time at work; it wasn’t fair to burden her too much. Besides, she still felt funny admitting that she was hanging out with her friend’s older brother.
And enjoying it more than she would have expected. Wyatt had a special kind of calm about him, a confidence, Elsie guessed, that seemed to rub off on her. She felt safer when she was with him, braver.
But was that safe? She couldn’t afford to get her heart broken and already she could feel fascination with him growing. The image of his eyes, kind and intriguing, flashed into her consciousness.
Exhaling slowly, Elsie did her best to put it all out of her mind. Nothing was going to make sense to her tonight—there was no amount of thinking or overthinking that she could do. Relieved, she felt herself start to drift off.
The voice from her past, the man who’d been in her house, echoed loudly in her mind.
Who was searching for her? Why had they been searching?
And how did that tie into the darkness she remembered as a kid? The closet where she’d been...playing? Hiding?
Yelling.
What had she experienced as a young toddler? And was it going to impact the rest of her life?
Elsie woke when the weight that had been stretched across her legs went away. Willow must have lain down across her, she thought wearily as she struggled to wake up. Then she remembered all the events of the last few days and her eyes shot open.
She glanced at her watch. Just before 5:00 a.m. She’d had maybe four hours of sleep. Not enough, but more than she’d expected to get. She’d take it. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she went through the motions of dressing for the day, gathering the gear she’d need. She and Wyatt hadn’t discussed what time they’d be leaving, but the day before it had been seven. She wanted to be ready if he showed up early.
