Three hours later and I had but a few piles of useless papers to show for it. My notebook had random facts spewed across it, but nothing new. It told the story I already knew. My grandfather died in a fire while waiting for his sentencing. Somehow his wandering upon a dead body turned him into the prime suspect for the murder, a murder my grandmother swore until her dying day that he didn’t commit.

From the little I had found, the case was weak and wreaked of a set-up, something I hoped to prove in my thesis, or as I liked to call it, “my ticket to law school.”

Liam’s cooperation in my dream of scholarship awesomeness stunk. He had what my mom called “small man syndrome” and he used his power to show his worth. It annoyed the daylights out of me, and I tried my hardest not to let it show, which would in essence give him more power. Keeping my voice sweet and the thank yous coming at every little tidbit he acquired for me took most all of my energy.

It didn’t help that I spent the majority of my time actively trying not to think about Knox, and failing miserably. Every time Liam made me work for a file instead of simply telling me I had the name slightly off or needed to sign it out, I wanted to scream because he was stealing my Knox time. Which was crazy because Knox shouldn’t be my focus. He shouldn’t be my anything. Yet something kept me from believing that.

Pulling up the largest pile, I perused the police reports once again, determined to keep Knox out of my brain long enough to make some actual progress. There was something off about it, and I couldn’t place my finger on it.

Suspect Johnah Kingston was seen entering the woods by Mariam Jones at approximately ten pm. According to the witness he was stumbling out of Dolly’s and shouting back at the door in anger. The witness stated she couldn’t hear the words clearly enough to understand them but that there was hostility in his voice. Mariam called the police station at that time to report his erratic behavior stating she was concerned he was going to get hurt in the woods alone due to his apparent intoxication.

This paragraph felt odd and dishonest. I read it word by word and eventually copied it in my notebook knowing that any requests to photo copy would be denied. Liam the jerk. That was his new name in my head.

After copying the text I began to circle and underline anything that stood out to me. Was it possible Mariam Jones was still alive? In technical terms it wasn’t that long ago; it just felt like it to me due to my age. I needed to find her.

It hit me as odd that Mariam was mentioned numerous times throughout the entire report, but I couldn’t fine one signature of hers or even her personal information. Was she home when she saw my grandfather walk into the woods? Was she going to the bar herself? I read her name initially and pictured a little busy body old lady on her front porch spying on the entire town in the guise of knitting or reading. But that many years ago Mariam might have been a more common name and not that of just little old ladies.

Since my mom never really knew her father before he died, the only stories I had of him were the ones Grandma had told about their courtship, which were her version of glory days. Other than that, everything else she mentioned of him was shroud in her dementia and possibly inaccurate, especially near the end when she talked about my grandfather, the dragon slayer. I was waiting for her to start singing Man of La Mancha at the rate she was spiraling downward. Watching her go from mean old lady, for she was always that, to forgetful, to incoherent was something that’d stay with me all of my days. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

I reread the paragraph for the twenty billionth time. Something felt off. I knew it. I closed my eyes, counted to ten, and repeated the process all over again. The key was in that paragraph. If only it were written in neon so I could find it.

“Almost finished in here?” Liam the jerk knew for certain sure I was not and his voice didn’t even pretend to care either which way. Why couldn’t they have a cute little old man running the place who thought I reminded him of one of his grandbabies and was helpful beyond helpful? That’s how it always worked in mystery movies. Either that or that the single town hottie who only had eyes for the investigator, and if that was Liam… double ewwwwww.

“Not really.” I bit my tongue so hard trying not to go off on him as I rose from my perch. True, it was a power move since he was no longer looking down at me, but it wasn’t as overt as me spouting back what I really wanted to say.

“I take my lunch break in fifteen minutes.” I crossed my fingers he wasn’t going to ask me to join him. Since Knox left, he hadn’t brought any flirt on, but when Knox was there, I could have sworn he was and that simply wouldn’t do. “Can you be out by then?”

And that was a big ball of relief followed by me calling him a very colorful array of names in my head.

“Yes, but I don’t plan to be.” My anger showed in my words, so I plastered on my smile hoping it covered up my pissiness.

“Excuse me?” Mission Fail.

“I can be out at any time, but that isn’t my plan. I plan to stay here until you close.” In for a penny… I dropped my arms to my side to give off the pretense of not being as bitchy as I was being. I was usually better at hiding my disdain from those who like to exert what little power they had over me. I saw it all the time at school and knew I would see it a lot more in my chosen field, so I decided early on to pick my battles. This wasn’t one worth fighting, especially since he didn’t say stay away for always. Maybe I was hungry and that was what had me in this pickle. Rhi always said I went straight to hangry.

“Let me rephrase this for you, city girl. I am going to lunch.” He pointed to himself before pointing to the door. “You will need to leave.”

“Are you saying you close the entire place for your lunch?” I started to collect the piles of paper, knowing the battle was lost and probably shouldn’t have been fought in the first place.

“Today I am.” He shrugged his shoulders, his voice void of the hostility I felt. I couldn’t place what had just changed but something had. We were no longer having a power battle, we were talking. What the hey?

“Why do you make this so difficult for me?” I asked during our new found truce. I had the police reports stacked up nicely and the second pile, which I had yet to open, was ready to go.

“You need to follow rules and be less difficult.” He took the second pile from my outstretched hand. He wasn’t wrong. But to be fair he was just as much of a jackass. I think.

“Sorry.” I meant it. I didn’t know what had turned me into the jerk I accused him of being. “I just really need this to work.”

“What to work?” He leaned against the door frame as if he had all the time in the world, contrary to the get out talk we had had only moments earlier.

“This is my thesis for class, but also my ticket to a scholarship,” I confessed. It was so much more than an assignment. It was everything.

“For?”

“For law school.”

“So you don’t plan to stay here?” It was such an odd question, and he leaned forward slightly as he asked it as if what I said mattered. Small towns were strange.

“No, of course not. Why would I?”

“No reason.” He shrugged while pushing off of the door frame.

“So can I stay and finish?”

“No.” And Liam the jerk was back. He stepped out of the door way before turning around and adding, “But I’m back at one.” So maybe he was only a partial jerk.

“Did we just have a conversation?” I teased before he left completely. Friendly banter could lead to a much better week.

“I think we did. I wasn’t trying to be a jackass.” He meant the words, I could feel it. What an odd little man, and not really little as much as just not tall. I let our initial interactions cloud my view of him. Not that I liked him, but he was less awful than I initially believed.

“And I wasn’t trying to be a bitch. This is just really important to me. If I can get things figured out, I can be out of your hair sooner?” It came out as a question and the two of us both knew what I was really asking: would he give me a hand instead of file-blocking me at every turn.

“Why this case?” He caught my eyes and I knew that if I broke contact, I would lose him. I also knew that I was a craptastic liar under pressure and if I held his eye contact he would likely see my deceit. I kept his gaze and went for a simple lie. They say those work the best.

“No reason. It just caught my attention and I knew most people were picking big cases everyone already knew.” Just enough truth to be semi believable. Or so I hoped. Everyone else was picking big cases and looking over the past recipients of the scholarship cases never won. The no reason part was a ginormous lie though, so I gave myself a twenty-five percent chance of him believing me.

“Five minutes and then you have to go.” Gruff, bossy little man Liam was back. He sensed my dishonesty, darn his perception.

“Weirdest conversation ever,” I mumbled to myself, pretty much trying to buy myself time to think of the best next move. I didn’t need to buy myself time though because he stomped down the hall, as if wanting me to know he was gone and displeased.

Liam seemed to actually kind of not hate me one minute and then wish I would disappear the next. Nothing I could do about it now. I had five minutes to figure out something because if I were a gambling lady I would guess that all of these files would need to be checked back in before I left, meaning I would have to check them out again after I got back, wasting a ton of time.

What was it about Miriam that had me in a quandary? I shuffled through the papers once again, stumped as ever. Liam called out a two minute warning, and I gave up, stacking the papers into their appropriate files. I jotted down the name of each file, hoping to cut down on time once I got back from lunch. Knowing Liam at least had a little bit of a human side made giving them up easier. I wished I hadn’t agreed to the no picture rule because snapping pictures of all the files would give me time to work on them during his break. Boo on rules and turning my phone off and placing it on the shelf as requested.

Before he could call out his final “you need to be out of here” warning, I scampered to the door, the remaining files in hand. He was definitely a honey over vinegar kind of person, sadly he ruffled my feathers and my vinegar tried to come out. He really wasn’t even that bad though. Maybe I just needed more coffee. Like a gallon.

“Here are the files. Do I need to check them all back in or can I leave them with you until I return?” Please say I’ll hold them aside.

“I need to refile them. Rules.” Ah yes, rules seemed to be huge in his world. I should have known. I did know, but a girl can dream.

“Rules.” I gave a hand wave as if brushing the entire thing to the side. “Thanks anyways. I’m going to the diner. Would you like me to bring you something back?” He looked puzzled by my offer. It was more the way I was raised mixed with a whole lotta kissing ass than it was kindness. He should see that, but instead he just stared. “Their cake looked good.”

“It is, but the pie is where it’s at,” he teased, my cake comment apparently breaking the spell my kindness cast on him.

“So pie?”

“Not today.” He turned from me, bent down, and reappeared with a lunch sack he must have retrieved from the shelf under the counter. “I brought a lunch.”

“Thanks. I’ll be back.” Why, pray tell, did he need to kick me out if he had a sack lunch? He didn’t smell like smoke, so smoking wasn’t it.

“This I know.” He smirked before dropping his lunch sack on the counter and tilting his head to the door. I took the hint.

Bounding down the stairs, I reached for my phone as I hit the first landing. My phone that I left in the stupid room. Making my way back to the office, I crossed my fingers that he was still filing and not already gone, if he was actually leaving that was. I needed that phone. Yes, needed because every last bit of me had to text Knox hoping he was going to eat lunch with me.

As I stumbled over the threshold, Liam was putting a paper back into a file as he stuck it back in the file drawer. There was nothing odd about this, per say, papers fall all the time and I could have easily put one in the wrong place. Except my gut told me that wasn’t what I was feeling. My gut told me it was more.

“Did I misplace something?”

He snapped his head back. I had caught him unaware.

“What?” He looked slightly above my eyes. The trick worked in presentations, but I was on to him. I took enough public speaking courses to know his game. “I told you it was time to go.”

“I did, but I left my phone here because of your stupid rule.” I needed to reel it in.

“Not stupid.” He spoke firmly as if to tell me End. Of. Story. I was so not playing that game. He was up to something, of that I was sure.

“So what was up with the paper?” Elbow now on the counter, I leaned into my hand trying to look nonchalant as I attempted to see a clue as to what the paper was.

“I have no idea what you are talking about. You need to leave.” He pointed toward the door and I knew I lost this round. Not that I would give up. Whatever he was hiding had to be the key to it all. At least I hoped it was because at this point my thesis had no actual meat to it. “The building will be open again at one pm unless you want it closed for the day.”

Subtle.

“No, sir.” I mumbled as I left the office and made my way out of the building. I was barely out of the building when my phone finally turned back on. It felt like a sock to my gut when not one notification appeared. I had thought of five thousand different messages Knox would’ve sent me while I was supposed to be concentrating. Not once had it crossed my mind that there would be none. It hurt.

Knox – I’m going to eat.

I typed out the words and hit send before I could change my mind. I went for facts with plausible deniability if he had plans. After all, I hadn’t actually invited him. Not really.

I’ll pick you up.

He’ll pick me up. That made it a date, right? Ugh, it couldn’t be a date. I was here for two weeks tops. Why did I want it to be a date so badly? I barely knew him and when we were together I either freaked out, acted like a B, or became this overly flirty weirdo I didn’t even know.

No need. Just walking to the diner. Liam was a jerk so I may dawdle if you want to join me.

It hurt to send the message. I wanted all the hearts and flowers him picking me up had created in my mind in the minute since he offered, but sitting outside the building like a stalker would only fuel Liam’s desire to keep me out. Meeting him there would do.

Within seconds of pressing send, my phone began to ring.

“Jerk how?” Came through the phone the moment I hit accept. I hadn’t even had time to say “hello.” His voice held anger, but somehow it completely dissipated mine and for the first time in hours I felt like myself, as if his voice was a magical balm.

“He tried to play me, that’s all,” I said and that was pretty much all it felt like now. Less than a minute before I was ready to rip him a new one and now I was all eh. Knox was dangerous and not in the serial killer way. He held a power over me, one I had yet to understand.

“Did. He. Lay. A Finger. On. You?”

Was he serious? I replayed the words in my mind trying to figure out what I did to trigger his thoughts. Play. Player. I was an idiot.

“Did he?” I had clearly taken too long to respond.

“No, he’s hiding something. That’s all. Lunch?” I spit it out as quickly as I could to alleviate his worry. Weren’t we a pair? Not a pair because I lived hours away and we had barely met.

“I’ll be there in a few minutes.” I heard the engine revving as he spoke. He was on his way. To me. For lunch. Just lunch. Why did it feel like so much more?