CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Noah Kendall was your first kiss, huh?” Reese asked before she tossed a peanut into her mouth to prevent Noah from seeing her smile. She raised her eyebrows in a dare, taunting him to deny what the pretty redhead at their table had just divulged with the help of her second draft beer. “You know, my cousin had a crush on you back in the day. Tanner attended summer camp two years in a row to try and garner your attention.”
There was a country music band set up on a small stage in the back. The bass was loud enough that she could sense the deep-toned reverberations through the soles of her flip-flops. She and Noah had decided not to head back to the house to change clothes.
Most of the patrons were dressed casually, though some of the older residents were outfitted in their business attire. It seemed that some had come directly from work, such as Harlan and his wife.
Laughter and conversation could be heard over the upbeat tempo of a popular song. Glasses and bottles clinked together every now and then, as well as the occasional knocking of pool balls from where the bar’s two tables were currently in use.
It was as if a body had never been found, nor had the murder of Deputy Wallace ever been committed. Reese wondered how his family was coping with his death while everyone carried on as if nothing evil had touched their town.
Maybe it was the residents’ way of carrying on and celebrating the deputy’s memory. She knew first hand that the world didn’t stop spinning when hers had come to a complete stop. Life carried on.
“Tanner Morton was your cousin?” Beth Ann asked in surprise with a laugh, nudging the man beside her. Her question certainly brought Reese back to the present. “Jack, this boy would leave me flowers on my cabin doorstep every morning. I didn’t figure out who it was until Julie set her alarm for some ungodly hour and sat by the window, peering through the curtains to see if she could catch whoever it was.”
“Let me guess,” Noah chimed in as he rested his arm across the back of Reese’s chair. “You thought it was Chad Schaeffer.”
Even in the dim lighting of the bar it was easy to catch the slight flush on Beth Ann’s cheeks as she feigned innocence.
“I have no earthly idea what you’re talking about.”
Jack leaned in toward Beth Ann and pressed a kiss to her temple. His love for her was evident, and it wouldn’t surprise Reese if he put a ring on Beth Ann’s finger by the end of the year.
Conversations broke off into smaller groups, leaving Reese to observe old friends getting reacquainted. She hadn’t grown up here and didn’t know the majority of the crowd, but it was easy to distinguish who had remained close and who hadn’t.
Noah had pointed out a few classmates he’d graduated with, though they stayed at their own tables minding their own business. Billy Stanton was at the bar talking with two women no one at their table seemed to know of, while Whitney danced in the corner with the same man she’d been seen with most of this week. Chad was throwing darts with a man who went by the name of Irish. She was relatively certain it was some type of nickname, but no one at her table could confirm that.
Reese was honestly surprised to see so many of the locals attend a celebration that was in name only. Brynn Mercer had signed the papers to buy this place over a month ago. Maybe tonight held a special significance that Reese wasn’t aware of, but it sure had everyone involved.
Jeremy Bell sat at the bar talking sports with Miles and Gus, while Brynn Mercer stood behind the bar serving up drinks almost nonstop. Calvin, Harlan, Rose, Tiny, and Cassie were all congregated around a round table in the corner.
Harlan had brought his wife, who seemed nice enough, while Cassie had shown up less than an hour ago. She’d closed the diner early and joined in the festivities.
The only time everyone had abruptly stopped talking was when Pete Anderson had opened the door and crossed the threshold. Reese didn’t think the man looked like a killer. He had a receding brown hairline and wire-rimmed glasses that didn’t hide his soft demeanor. His stride wasn’t mercenary, but more of a man who was determined to find answers. Everyone seemed a bit surprised when he tapped Chad on the shoulder. The two of them then grabbed a table in the far corner away from prying ears.
“Shit,” Jack muttered with a shake of his head. “Vultures. Every last one of them. Can’t Brynn throw them out or something?”
Them turned out to be one of the media teams that were residing in the B&B on Main Street. There were three of them total, with the lone woman being the face of the crew. They scanned the place and it wasn’t long before they spotted Pete Anderson. Surprisingly, they stayed far away and proceeded to the pool table area where a group of men had laid down their sticks in favor of the dartboard Chad and Irish had vacated.
“As long as they don’t cause any trouble, Brynn will take their money.” Noah tilted his beer bottle back and took a swig as he monitored the situation. “Besides, Tiny is keeping an eye on them. They won’t get away with anything.”
Reese remained silent, rolling her right shoulder in an attempt to relieve the disturbing sensation that had settled over her. She tried to casually look around the room once more in an effort to find out who was making her uncomfortable. The hair on the back of her neck had been standing at attention for quite some time, similar to what she experienced that night in the woods when she’d caught someone watching her.
She met gazes with a few people, such as Harlan and Cassie. She even caught Pete Anderson glancing her way, but he seemed to be observing the group rather than her specifically.
“Are you okay?” Noah murmured, leaning in so that no one else could hear his question.
“Yeah,” Reese assured him, tucking the strand of hair that had fallen out of her scrunchy. She wasn’t about to worry him when this was the first time he’d really been able to connect with a lot of his old friends. It hadn’t been until this evening that she realized how much of his time she’d monopolized. “I’m fine. I’m going to go use the restroom, though. I’ll be right back.”
It didn’t surprise her that Noah shifted in his chair so that he could keep an eye on her as she maneuvered her way through the crowd. She’d never seen such a small area packed with so many people. Wasn’t there some sort of fire code? It wouldn’t surprise her if the fire marshal were in attendance, cutting Brynn Mercer a little slack due to the reasoning behind such a crowd.
“Excuse me,” Reese muttered, slipping in between two parties who were immersed in their own separate conversations. “Sorry. Excuse me.”
After repeating that mantra until the small hallway appeared in the back, Reese finally had a clear line of sight to the women’s restroom. This direction led her straight past the small table that housed Chad Schaeffer and Pete Anderson. Irish was nowhere to be found.
It wasn’t until she was a few feet away from the duo that she could see the anxiety and concern in Pete’s eyes as to what had transpired in the last few weeks.
Reese didn’t want to interrupt, so she nodded an acknowledgement to the men before continuing across the hardwood floor. The band started to play another song, this one even more popular, garnering cheers from the crowd. She had just finished crossing the dance area when a lot of the women had taken their positions to do some type of line dance.
It didn’t take her long to enter the narrow hallway where she could no longer distinguish between the bass of the music and the rumbling thunder outside. The back door was maybe ten feet from the two restrooms sitting opposite one another. She resisted the urge to look outside to see just how bad the weather had turned, her body signaling that hearing the rain would only make her troubles worse.
“Oh!”
Reese put a hand over her heart when the door to the women’s restroom opened. A pretty blonde stepped out with a friend, the two already singing along with the song. They looked to be barely twenty-one years old, and she hoped they lived in town. They had definitely had one too many.
She stepped inside the small restroom, noting that there was a stall. This allowed others to come in and wash their hands without having to wait for someone to use the toilet. Well, it was a good thing that stall was empty, because her bladder wasn’t going to hold itself much longer.
Reese flipped the latch on the door to the stall, grateful to find that the restroom was kept clean. She quickly relieved herself and was buttoning her jean shorts when the outer door opened and slowly closed behind whoever had entered. Reese would have stepped out had she not heard the sink start to flow with water.
Great.
She grimaced, recalling reading once about bathroom etiquette. Had there been three stalls, one should always use the outer ones for more privacy. The situation here was vastly different, but seeing as there was only one stall, the woman who entered should have wanted to use the toilet. Instead, whoever had entered clearly only intended to wash her hands.
Should she wait here until the woman was done?
“You can come out.”
Reese tilted her head back in disbelief, wondering what she’d done to deserve such a bad luck streak. She really wasn’t looking forward to having another confrontation with Whitney Bell.
She sighed in resignation and flipped the lever, allowing the stall door to gradually open.
Sure enough, Whitney stood at the sink. She shut off the water and reached for the brown paper towel contraption. She pulled a few out and wiped her hands as she met Reese’s gaze in the mirror.
This was not the Whitney she’d met at the beach, nor the Whitney she’d run into at the diner.
“I wanted to thank you for how you handled my dad at lunch today.” Whitney dropped her gaze to the brown paper towels as she finished drying off her hands. She then tossed the remnants into the trashcan beside the sink. “He’s made some mistakes in the past that he’s accepted he’ll never overcome. He acts a certain way, but he really has been a very good father to me.”
Which would explain why Whitney had felt the need to return home. She wanted to be there for her father in his time of need. It didn’t matter that she became frustrated with Jeremy Bell’s inability to stop drinking or the way he carried himself around town. The bottom line was that he was her father.
Reese had misjudged the woman.
“You’re welcome,” Reese replied in kind, thinking all the while it was only human decency to be kind to one another. While small towns were known for their tight-knit community, there were times when too much knowledge stained their opinions. “You shouldn’t worry about what others think, Whitney. I’ve been fighting against what people assumed about Sophia for most of my life.”
Whitney nodded her understanding, but she didn’t stay behind to listen to Reese’s advice or share her troubles any more than she already had. The blonde exited, leaving Reese alone in the small restroom. She made her way to the sink and washed her hands, using the pink soap from the dispenser attached to the wall.
Reese glanced at herself in the mirror and decided to take her scrunchy out so she could run her fingers through her hair, trying to look somewhat decent. Noah liked it when she wore her hair down. It was almost the end of June, meaning she had less than a month here in Blyth Lake. After that, she was due to visit Heartland for a week before heading back to Springfield to get ready for another school year.
The thing of it was…she wasn’t ready to leave this small town.
She wasn’t ready to leave Noah.
It was getting harder and harder not to call her mother for advice. Besides Sophia, Gail Woodward was the only one who wouldn’t cushion the truth.
Had Reese fallen for someone in the span of three weeks?
And what was the next step? Should she extend the invitation that he could visit her in Springfield when time allowed? Was it bad-mannered for her to invite herself back here on the weekends?
What if she was walking away from the one?
It wasn’t as if she needed to figure it all out tonight. There was still quite a bit time between now and then. He might be the first to bring it up, offering both of them a solution. That would certainly tell her they were on the same page.
As of right now, tonight was about forgetting responsibilities. It was a celebration for the town, for Brynn Mercer, for Tiny and Rose, and even for Reese and Noah. There were moments that everyone needed a break from reality, and this was one of those times.
Reese slid her hair scrunchy into the front pocket of her shorts. She’d leave her hair down, and a shiver of excitement ran over her spine in anticipation of seeing Noah’s blue eyes glisten with arousal when she finally returned to their table.
Yes, she would forget about everything tonight and just enjoy his company.
Reese opened the door, allowing the muffled sounds of the bar to become somewhat deafening. She stepped out and was about to make her way back to her table when she froze.
At the end of the hallway stood a man…the imposing man she’d seen at the beach. He had the same build as the one she’d seen in the woods that night.
And he was blocking her way back to Noah.
The man took a step forward, his words muffled by the booming bass coming from the band. At least, she thought that was why she couldn’t hear him. It might also have to do with the fact that her heartrate had accelerated to the point of physical pain in her chest.
Blood rushed through her ears and perspiration instantly coated her body as she struggled with her fight or flight instinct.
Flight won out, this time around.
Reese spun around and headed for the exit. In the back of her mind, she was telling herself to take this route around to the front, where she could reach Noah. It never occurred to her that the man might reach her before she made it that far.
Her palms hit the silver bar in the middle of the door, causing her body to spill out into the night. Rain was coming down in torrents, hitting the pavement in a unified sheet of water. She was soaked to the skin before she even took one step forward.
She didn’t have to look behind her to know that he’d decided to follow, closing the distance between them.
Thunder rolled across the darkened sky above while lightning streaked through the blackness. The pelting and tinging sounds of the rain striking the blacktop were diminished by the smacking of her flip flops.
“Hey!”
Reese could sense him closing in on her before she had a chance to exit the alleyway onto Main Street. His fingers slipped off her shoulder, though she wasn’t sure it was due to the slickness of the rain or the fact that she forced her legs to run faster.
Her attempt at reaching Main Street came to an end when she stumbled forward due to the front of her flip flop catching on something and folding underneath her foot. She instinctively shielded the fall with her hands.
She experienced no pain as the rocks and gravel dug into the skin of her palms. All she could think of was that she couldn’t allow this man to kill her in a dark alleyway during a thunderstorm. No one could hear her scream, and no one was coming to her rescue.
Reese could see the man’s hands coming toward her as she flipped over so she could keep him in her line of sight. She blinked away the rain to focus, only to then have a sheet of lightning illuminate the sky above them.
“You don’t—”
The crack of thunder surprised them both, but it gave her the advantage in addition to the surge of adrenaline rushing through her bloodstream. Her flip flop had come off somewhere between falling and her shifting over so that she could face him, so it was the heel of her foot that she used to bring the man to his knees.
Reese kicked him in the groin as hard as she could and then waited for her next opportunity. She then instinctively landed another kick to his jaw the second he leaned over in pain, allowing her heel to connect with his jaw.
Hell, it might have been his nose, but she was too busy trying to stand up to take stock. She hadn’t even taken a step backward when the side exit of the bar flung open to reveal Noah. The street lamp provided enough clarification that she could make out his features. He was by her side before she ever said his name.
“Darcy!”
Cassie and a few of the other patrons had followed Noah outside, though it was Gus who was holding his cell phone to his ear. Everyone else looked on in shock as Cassie hovered over the man who was still huddled on the ground with blood trailing down his face.
A rage unlike anything Reese had ever experienced flooded her body, but Noah maintained his hold on her.
“Darcy? This is Darcy? The man who takes care of your mother?”