CHAPTER ELEVEN
Reese was hot as a firecracker, and it had nothing to do with the sun beating down on her as she lay on the beach towel she’d unpacked from her bag.
Noah Kendall’s gaze generated enough heat that she was surprised she hadn’t burst into flames. The sensual warmth had been there from the moment he’d walked into the diner that first day. The temperature only continued to climb with each passing minute.
The happy laughter of children as they ran in and out of the water, the sounds of splashing under bare feet, and the constant hum of conversations surrounding them by beachgoers enjoying the beautiful weather combined with all the other distractions were the reasons she could still breathe.
Here she was, dressed in only a tiny bright red bikini, displaying herself to a man with the tightest body she’d ever seen in person. Her libido cried out in surrender to end her stretch of celibacy she’d had for…well, way too long.
What would her answer be if he asked her out to dinner tonight?
Could she last through the meal without proposing dessert at her place?
Spending the day together in this manner was extremely different than an intimate meal at a fine city restaurant. Various scenarios came to mind on how she could answer without making a fool of herself.
It did dawn on her that she was most likely completely out of her head and fantasizing about something that would never materialize. Noah was trying to make up for yesterday. Friendship was all that was on his mind.
He was currently lying next to her, leaning up on his elbow as he surveyed the collective sunbathers and the swimmers. She noticed that he was constantly on alert for threats without seeming too preoccupied. Was that from his time in the service or was his antenna up because he concerned about the most recent events?
The eerie memory of the man she saw in the woods last night overshadowed her worry about a possible offer of dinner. She honestly hadn’t thought about him since Noah had pulled into her driveway this morning. Now, the idea put the brakes on her daydreams.
“Noah, welcome back!”
Noah expressed his appreciation for the greeting, as he’d done numerous times to many of the well-wishers in the last thirty minutes. Several people had gone out of their way already to stop by their small patch of sand to welcome him home, though it was obvious their interest lay more with what he’d discovered in his new house. Each of them had wanted to be introduced to his companion, as if there was no motive to their actions.
Noah was an expert on diverting the conversation, as well as effectively sending them on their way with little more information than they arrived with. These people really knew how to pour ice on a poor girl’s promising moment.
The overt female attention he’d received hadn’t been much of a surprise. It had finally prompted her to continually remind herself that she’d come to Blyth Lake for a reason. It was true that she was technically here for a vacation, but meeting a man the likes of Noah Kendall hadn’t been in the plans.
What was it about him that made her want to get to know him much better?
“Do you see that pier?” Noah asked, causing Reese to snap out of her mixed bag of emotions that had her twisting in the wind. He was pointing toward a distant pier on their side of the lake. She leaned up on her elbows and peered through her dark sunglasses, following his line of sight. “My brother, Lance, thought it would be a great idea to impress the girls by doing a somersault off the end. He must not have tied his swimming trunks tight enough, because they were at least ten feet from where he finally surfaced.”
“That’s horrible. Did the girls get an eyeful?” Reese joined in his laughter, imagining the scene unfolding in front of her. “Do you and your brothers look alike?”
She thought she was quite successful in keeping the flush from flooding her cheeks. He most likely thought it was from the sun, anyway. She hadn’t asked about the resemblance for anything other than helping her think back to a carefree summer that no doubt had included Sophia at one point.
“Pretty much. We all have black hair and blue eyes. We take after Dad, though Gwen looks more like our mother with the higher native cheekbones.” Noah lifted his mirrored sunglasses so that they rested on top of his head. Those blue eyes he’d just mentioned zeroed in on her gaze behind her own dark lenses. “You’re getting a little red. Are you sure you don’t want me to put some sunscreen on you?”
Reese was saved from answering when a pretty blonde interrupted, standing in the sand at the bottom of their towels. This woman only had eyes for one of them.
“Noah, I heard you found Emma Irwin’s body. It’s just terrible what happened, and to think she’s been here all along.”
“The police don’t know for sure who it is, and it will probably take a few weeks before they can make a positive identification.” Noah sat up and laid an arm over one of his knees. He appeared casual, but she could see it was also his way of protecting his personal space from someone he identified as an intruder. “Whitney, this is Reese Woodward. She’s here on vacation. Reese, this is Whitney Bell. We attended high school together.”
“You’re the woman who was asking around about Emma Irwin before the body was discovered.”
Whitney had formed her words into a sentence rather than a question. She wasn’t being rude, but then again, she wasn’t giving Reese a warm and fuzzy reception either. It was rather amazing, really. Whitney Bell was on her list of attendees that summer with Sophia.
Something held Reese back from asking Whitney any questions, though.
“Reese is originally from Heartland, just up the road a bit. You remember the camp that Birdie used to run here at the lake? Well, Reese’s cousin attended one the year before she also went missing.” Noah really shouldn’t have made the connection, but it was the reason he’d brought her up here today. Reese couldn’t be mad at him for introducing her to the very same people she expressed an interest in speaking with. There was just something about this woman that set her on edge. “You went to camp that year, didn’t you?”
“Who was your cousin?” Whitney asked, taking a seat on the bottom of Noah’s towel as if she were going to stay awhile. She wasn’t dressed in a swimming suit, but instead wore a pair of short shorts and a white tank top. The skimpy outfit made Reese believe the blonde hadn’t yet accepted the idea she’d outgrown her teenage years. “I have a pretty good memory.”
“Sophia Morton.” Reese reached for her lightweight flannel shirt, slipping her arms inside the short sleeves. She wasn’t about to talk about something so important while she was sitting here in a red bikini. She tied the bottom halves of her shirt together, ignoring the material that now stuck to her skin as she rolled the sleeves up to her elbows. “She and Emma formed a friendship that summer, from what I’ve gathered thus far. I was hoping to find some type of understanding of my own.”
“Sophia Morton.” Whitney repeated the words as if she were trying to place a face to the name. She even went so far as to rest her finger on her chin. “I think I remember her. She was rather tall and lanky, but had the most beautiful brown hair down to her waist.”
Reese’s heart ached at the description. A picture of Sophia’s radiant smile after getting her braces off materialized as if she were standing in front of them at this very moment.
“Yes,” Reese answered after clearing her throat a couple of times. “I’ve heard that Sophia and Emma became fast friends that summer.”
“Emma and I really didn’t hang out much,” Whitney revealed with a frown, though she waved at someone she recognized walking by them. “I was closer to Shae and a few other girls. Speaking of which, I’m going to have to give her a call after everything that’s happened recently. Do you think the police have gotten ahold of Mr. and Mrs. Irwin yet?”
“I’m sure they are waiting on an identification of the body.” Noah reached for his t-shirt and drew it over his head to successfully bring this small reunion to a close. He caught his sunglasses before they fell into his lap. He folded them and hooked them to the neck of his shirt. “How is your dad doing today? I heard he had a dialysis treatment this morning.”
“He’s home resting, but I should be heading back to check on him.” Whitney gave Reese the impression she’d rather do anything else than head back home to check on her father. That was unfortunate. She must have a strained relationship with her dad. “I have a friend coming to town who is interested in renting one of the cottages here. Unfortunately, Rose said four of the five cottages are being renovated right now. She’s completely booked through the rest of the summer. Any ideas when you’ll be heading out of town, Reese?”
“She’ll be here as long as she likes, thank you, Whitney. I’m sure you’ll figure something else out for your friend,” Noah said with a tight smile. “Tell your dad I said hi.”
“It was nice meeting you.” Reese tried to inject as much truth into those words as she possibly could without sounding disingenuous. Did it make her a bad person to want to retract her statement when Whitney purposefully rested her hand over Noah’s and suggested they get together for a drink sometime? “I hope your father feels better.”
“Sorry about that,” Noah muttered, not bothering to watch Whitney walk away. His attention was solely on Reese. “Whitney is…well, let’s just say she’s a malcontented character.”
“The two of you were involved in high school, unless I’m mistaken. Weren’t you?” Reese guessed with a smile, relaxing somewhat now that it was just the two of them. She’d learned days ago that asking questions about Emma and what had happened wasn’t the best way to make new friends. “Prom King and Queen, maybe?”
“Lord, help me. You’re a physic, too.” Noah flashed a smile her way, but it was the crinkles around his eyes that were a dead giveaway that she’d gotten at least part of summation right. “I might have gotten to second base with her in our sophomore year, but she had her sights set on Billy Stanton by our senior year. I was nothing but dust in her rearview mirror by then.”
Reese didn’t even have time to flinch when a Frisbee came sailing through the air, straight for her head. Noah reached up and knocked it onto a new course before she could react. His quick thinking had kept her from getting a black eye at the minimum.
“Heads up!” Noah called out before turning his head to track down the errant player. A father who was playing with his young son were the guilty duo. It was easy to recognize the wordless exchange between the hapless father and Noah, as they both quickly dismissed the near miss as unintentional. “We’ve only been here for a half hour, but I’m getting rather hungry. What about you? Could you eat?”
Reese had ridden with Noah in his truck, but that meant stopping by his dad’s house for him to grab a change clothes. He’d donned a pair of black swimming trunks with a basic white t-shirt, exchanging his work boots for a pair of leather flip-flops. She’d had to do a double take when he’d walked into the kitchen. There was a lighter air about him that was very fetching.
He’d taken the time to show her around the house, including his dad’s workshop and the surrounding property.
To say she was impressed by the furniture displayed in his childhood home was an understatement. The beautiful pieces were handcrafted and the precision in the smallest details was astounding. It was no wonder Noah wanted to renovate his crumbling home on his own.
“I could definitely go for something to eat.” Reese glanced over her shoulder to see how long the line was to the concession stand set up on a grassy knoll with a deck overlooking the water. “We could leave our towels here and walk on up to the—”
A man with a ball cap leaning on the wooden railing caught her eye. His expression was hidden behind a pair of black sunglasses. She’d never seen him before, but she could have sworn he was staring directly at her. His gaze unlocked the faintest shiver of fear, similar to that which she’d experienced last night.
“…what is it?” Noah had finally caught her attention. She glanced at him to find him switching his gaze from her to the small concession area. “Reese?”
“That man over there,” Reese began as she looked back over her shoulder to point him out. He had disappeared as quickly as she had noticed him. She scanned the people, looking beyond the beach and out into the car lot, but she was unable to spot him. “He’s gone.”
“Who’s gone?” Noah used his hand to push himself off his towel into a standing position. He shielded the sun with his hand and skimmed over the occupants coming and going. “What did you see?”
“Nothing, really.” Reese brushed off his concern, feeling somewhat embarrassed that she was this jumpy over someone who’d done nothing wrong. She wasn’t even sure he’d been looking at her, and that certainly didn’t constitute a crime anyhow. “I’m just a little jumpy after yesterday.”
“Understood.” Noah offered her a hand, helping her stand. He took her by surprise and stole her breath when he didn’t release her right away. He lifted her dark sunglasses and set them gently on top of her head. He gazed deep into her eyes from no more than six inches away and said, “I am sorry about yesterday. And today. I know Whitney made things uncomfortable with the way she handled my inquiry on your behalf.”
“You’re not responsible for Whitney or anyone else in this town, for that matter.” Reese didn’t like that he could read her so easily or swing her emotions quite so readily. She thought she’d hidden her discomfort rather well. “I came here asking questions about Emma. Now, I’m half-responsible for the hidden body of a possible murder victim being discovered after twelve years. I’m sure I’m not the most popular tourist in Blyth Lake at the moment.”
“You forget I’m the party responsible for the second half of that equation,” Noah said wryly, finally allowing her fingers to slowly slip from his. Her skin still retained the heat of his touch. “Come on. Let’s see if we can’t find Rose and get some of your questions answered. Besides, we’re attracting the attention of the entire population of Blyth Lake.”
Reese quickly stepped into her jean shorts, buttoning them over the bottom half of her bikini. She then grabbed her tote and picked up her flip-flops. She found herself scanning the people in line, those coming in from the beach, and the surrounding tables for the man she’d seen just a few minutes ago, but he was nowhere to be found.
The light touch of Noah’s hand on her lower back chased away all the stress that had settled in her muscles. It was as if her ears popped after a long flight in midair. Children’s laughter rang out as they splashed in the water, the bright sun continued to warm the sand, and today was meant to be enjoyed by even the most ill-fated summer vacationer.
Reese couldn’t help but wonder what the night might hold for them both.