lawman Monday afternoon when she arrived in Rumor. He’d told her of the arrangements for her work at the morgue and directed her to the lake house Kelly had put at her disposal. Chelsea had liked the deputy’s no-nonsense directness and his easy mannerisms.
After he ambled off, Pierce looked her way. “Is the cabin satisfactory? You have everything you need?”
“Yes, it’s a lovely place. I’m quite happy there.”
“Good. Call the office if something doesn’t work. They’ll send a man over.”
She realized the cabin must belong to the resort, rather than to Kelly and Jim as she’d thought, and therefore to Pierce. He was her host for the duration of her vacation.
“Thank you,” she said, and smiled graciously while her heart jumped in alarm. This could get complicated.
Pierce gave her a keen glance as if noting the lack of real warmth in her thanks, as if he knew she wouldn’t have accepted accommodations there had she known it belonged to him. His gaze hardened.
Kelly gave him a poke in the ribs. “I hate to mention this, oh great chef, but the hot dogs are burning.”
He moved the blackened ones to the back of the grill. “Ring the dinner bell, smart mouth,” he ordered.
Chelsea smiled at the teasing between the two. Unlike her family, the Daltons were closely knit. Their father had died when Pierce was thirteen. He and Kelly had pitched in to help their mom make ends meet on her housekeeping earnings. Kelly and Pierce had made being poor sound like an adventure. Chelsea knew it must have been hard.
Her own family had been split by divorce when she was four. Each parent had remarried and had two other children, leaving her the odd man out in each family.
Poor, pitiful me, she mocked the odd sorrow she couldn’t quite shake.
The ringing of the bell brought a flock of hungry kids and parents to the table where she and Kelly toiled for the next two and a half hours, keeping everyone supplied with napkins, paper plates, tons of chips, mustard, relish and mayo while the men served an equal amount of meat.
“Hey, the end of the line,” Kelly sang out in relief. “We can fix a plate and sit down.”
Chelsea had to admit she was happy for a respite, too. Holding a soda can in one hand and a full plate with the other, she glanced around the picnic area.
“Come on,” Pierce told them. “There’s a table on my deck where we can sit.”
His house nestled in the trees that screened the resort from view. Like hers, it was made of stone on the bottom and logs on the top half with lots of windows to let in light. The deck wound around several trees near the edge of the creek. They settled in padded chairs at the patio table.
“Hi, Dr. Kelly,” a little boy called out.
“Hi, Dr. Kelly,” a girl around the same age echoed.
“Two of my favorite patients,” Kelly said, waving at the pair. “They’re twins and just full of mischief.”
Chelsea noted the longing on Kelly’s face as she watched the twin brother and sister run across the lawn and join a man and woman at a table by the lake. They looked like a happy family.
“Shall we tell them our surprise?” Kelly asked her husband.
“Sure.”
“Jim and I think we’re going to become parents in about eight months,” Kelly said softly.
Chelsea’s throat closed up at the exchange of gentle glances between husband and wife. Kelly was also thirty-four. It was time they were starting their family.
“Congratulations,” she said, truly glad for them, but envious, too. They’d married right after Kelly got out of medical school. Her residency had been hard on the marriage, but they had gotten through the tough times. Now they radiated quiet happiness as they shared their news.
Pierce laughed. “Wait till Mom hears she’s going to be a grandmother. She’ll buy out the toy stores by Christmas.”
“We’re thinking of adding on another bedroom to the house,” Jim said. “You think your construction crew could work us in?”
“Sure. You need to finish replacing the plumbing in that old barn, too. And the wiring. How about moving to one of the cabins and letting us do it all at one time? It’ll save you money in the long run.”
“Talk to your sister,” Jim said.
“Sis?”
“You know I hate moving,” Kelly wailed.
Chelsea knew the family had lost their home after their father had died. Finding places they could afford to rent had been touch-and-go during those early years until Pierce got out of high school and started working full-time.
He’d gotten his real estate license and started his own construction company by the time he was twenty-one. At twenty-five, he’d moved his mother into a brand-new home of her own, and she’d never had to move again.
When he’d bought the lake property, he’d built this marvelous home for himself two years ago. When Kelly had told her about it, Chelsea had thought he would be bringing a bride to his secluded retreat soon.
Why hadn’t he ever married?
She stared into the distance as she contemplated the question. No answer came to her. After a bit she watched the scene by the lake while she finished the meal. Seeing the twins, she smiled as they organized a game of tag with several other kids, the brother and sister ironing out the rules between them, while the others waited for the final decision. Born leaders, they were.
Her eyes misted over. She wasn’t getting any younger, but a family wasn’t in the cards. Her gaze swung around like a magnet pointing to the lodestar.
Pierce was watching her, an unreadable expression in his eyes. For a moment, she couldn’t look away. Then she did and hoped he hadn’t detected the longing that filled her to the point she hurt someplace deep inside.
Life was what it was, she reminded herself. She hadn’t time for adolescent yearning. She had a job to do—help the police find the person who would take the life of a woman and her child, then hide it as a suicide.
A local, she’d concluded. A stranger would have simply left the area. Only someone who lived there would need to cover his or her tracks. She wondered if Pierce had figured that out.
Chapter Two
Chelsea didn’t want to be at his house, Pierce realized when she announced she should get back to the other cabin. She didn’t want to be around him, period.
For some reason that made him angry. It also stirred up a demon that made him want to make sure she was as aware of his presence as he was of hers.
He cursed long and silently, but it did no good. All the old feelings she’d once evoked in him were on a rampage. He wanted to kiss her, to yell at her, to…to… Hell, he didn’t know.
“You
