“Yes, thank you.” Her words came out breathlessly. From the possibility that the prowler had been inside, she told herself, not from Josh’s proximity.
Becki hurried out after Neil, before he got too curious. One time she’d caught him peeking in her desk drawers while he waited for her to finish getting ready for a date. He’d said he’d been looking for scissors to clip off a loose thread, and maybe he had been, but he had no sense of boundaries. Clearly.
If he did, he wouldn’t be there.
It was one thing to stop by her desk and chat for a few minutes every day. It was entirely another to drive three hours to do it.
She’d appreciated that he had the self-confidence not to let their breakup ruin their working relationship. And okay, it had been really thoughtful of him to bring over supper and flowers from everyone at the office after she’d gotten word about her grandparents’ deaths and left work so suddenly.
But now that their professional relationship had ended, she really didn’t want to deal with him anymore.
“What does your neighbor do for a living?” Neil asked, passing her with an armload stacked even higher than Josh’s had been.
She grabbed the top two boxes. “He’s a police officer.”
Neil gave a start. “That’s handy.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you have any trouble.”
She pressed her lips closed, loath to admit she’d already had some. That was just the kind of thing Neil would latch onto to try to change her mind about moving here. He and her sister should start a club.
Josh met them at the door. He waited for Neil to pass by, then pulled her aside. “I need to go. They’ve found a submerged car in the old quarry and need a diver to check for...anything suspicious.”
She gasped, certain he’d been about to say bodies. “I didn’t realize you were a diver.”
“Trained in the military.” His eyes were shadowed. “Will you be okay?”
“Of course. Go.”
“There’s no sign your prowler got into the house, and I don’t think he’ll come around in daylight, especially with a couple of cars in the driveway. But if you see anything suspicious, don’t hesitate to call me. Okay?” He pressed a business card into her hand with a number scrawled on the back. “That’s my cell number.”
For some reason Josh’s protective concern didn’t feel so condescendingly suffocating as Neil’s always had. Maybe because the concern didn’t seem so irrational coming from a cop. “I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He lifted a hand to Neil, who’d stepped back into the foyer from wherever his curiosity had taken him while she’d been distracted by Josh. “Nice meeting you, Neil. See you around.”
Neil sidled up to her as she watched Josh jog across the driveway back to his house. “He sounds worried about you. Not on my account, I hope.”
She let out a puff of air—half cough, half snort. “Uh, no.”
“Then why?”
“It was a little unsettling being back here for the first time with Gran and Gramps gone,” she said evasively.
“I’d be happy to stick around for a while. Keep you company.”
“Actually, I’d rather be alone right now.” She tilted her head and added softly, “You understand?”
He clasped her upper arms and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Of course. Let me just grab the housewarming gift I brought you.”
She stood in the doorway, her arms wrapped around her waist, feeling like an ingrate, as he hurried to his flashy Mustang. He’d driven all this way to extend his help and friendship. The least she could do was offer him a cup of coffee before he left.
He opened his door and pulled out a hanging basket overflowing with fuchsia-colored dianthus. He strode toward her with a wide grin. “Do you like them?”
“They’re beautiful. Thank you.”
“I remembered you telling me how your gran used to have them hanging from the beams of the wraparound porch.”
“You remembered that?” He’d never seemed to be listening.
“Of course.” He patted the rails. “It’s just like you described.” He reached over her head and looped the basket onto a hook in the beam. “There.”
“Would you like a glass of lemonade before you leave?” she blurted on impulse. Lemonade at least would be quicker than coffee. Gran always had a mix in the cupboard.
“That’s okay. I know you have a lot to do. I just wanted to make sure you got here all right. And let you know that if you change your mind about staying...”
“I won’t.”
His eyes flicked around the yard, to the fields surrounding the two houses and to the thick stand of trees beyond. “It doesn’t scare you to be out the back of nowhere? With next to no neighbors?”
“I won’t change my mind,” she said more adamantly.
He held his hands up in surrender. “Okay. I’m just saying if you did, no one would blame you. Not with who knows what kind of wild animals stalking those woods. Or creeps prowling for easy prey.”
THREE
Josh shone his waterproof flashlight in, under and around the submerged car, fanned the search out another ten yards in every direction, then kicked to the surface. Hailing the officer in charge of the recovery, Josh pulled the regulator from his mouth. “It’s clear.”
“Good.” Walt passed Josh the tow cable. “Hook her up. Then check the rest of the pit.”
Josh reinserted his mouthpiece, then dived to the bottom with the cable and secured the towline to the car’s frame. It’d take him another hour at least to thoroughly search every corner of the former quarry. Most of it was under eight feet or less of water, but one of the guys had said it got as deep as forty in the northeast corner. He kicked out of the way of the vehicle and surfaced long enough to signal it was okay to start towing.
He didn’t want to spend any more time out here than he had to. He couldn’t get that Neil guy off his mind. Bec hadn’t seemed all that comfortable with him, and Neil clearly hadn’t been deterred.
Josh didn’t like how fidgety the guy had made her. Thanks to her prowler, she’d been jittery enough already. She didn’t need an unwelcome wannabe boyfriend insinuating himself into the situation. And any guy who traveled this far just to check up on her had to have been more than a colleague, or wanted to be.
Josh clawed through the water, scoping every rock crevice. Had he been too quick to take Bec’s word that she was okay being left alone with Neil?
He
