Reclaim My Life (18 page)

She nodded. “It’s all right. Jasper’s not that far.”

“We’d probably have a better shot at catching both women around lunchtime.”

“In that case, could you direct me to a good place to eat? I skipped breakfast this morning. I’m famished.”

“I’ll do even better. I’ll take you myself. I could use a cup of coffee, and our downtown diner serves the best.”

Her smile broadened. “It’s a date, Wil.”

Sitting at a table in Boyd’s Diner, Elizabeth dunked her teabag, watching the brew darken. The Weather Channel droned on in the background with its tropical update. Apparently the meteorologists had their eye on a hurricane, but it had to be headed elsewhere. The brilliant sunshine and azure sky looked as perfect and nonthreatening as usual in Drake Springs. Just another day in paradise.

Lorraine hovered at her elbow. “Ready to order, sugar?”

“Not yet.” She had no appetite but needed to keep up her weight, now more than ever. In truth, she stalled, hoping Wilson would show. Not that they had a standing date for breakfast, but he’d yet to miss a morning meeting her. “I think I’ll wait till the caffeine kicks in.”

“Gotcha.” Lorraine moved to one of the booths where new arrivals waited to order.

The door opened, bringing with it a gust of wind that rustled the napkin on Elizabeth’s lap. Rescuing the napkin, she glanced at the door and then did a double take. Averting her gaze, she swallowed her disappointment. No, the emotions roiling inside her went beyond mere disappointment. Hurt?

Wilson Drake, dressed in suit and tie instead of his usual uniform, escorted a knockout blonde into the diner and to the booth farthest from the door. He slid in the booth across from her, his gaze sweeping the room as it always did. One thing she’d learned about the easygoing sheriff was that he was ever alert to his surroundings. His gaze paused on hers, and he smiled. What choice did she have but acknowledge? She gave him a finger wave then looked down as if reading tea leaves instead of brewing them.

Seeing Wilson with another breakfast companion upset her far more than it should have. If Elizabeth needed a reminder of her foolishness, she had one now. Wilson was a flirt; she accepted that. Her pain rose from facing the brutal truth that she’d ignored her own warnings. She’d allowed herself to fall for a man she couldn’t confide in or trust, at least as long as she was in WitSec. She hadn’t so much as kissed the guy but already felt a connection. She’d thought he felt it, too.

Lorraine returned with her order pad, but Elizabeth shook her head. “I’ll just have tea this morning, Lorraine.” No way in hell she could swallow a bite of food now.

After cooling her tea with an ice cube from her water, she drained her mug in a few gulps. She avoided looking at the couple in the booth, although a surreptitious peek at the woman gave her the impression she was a law enforcement colleague. Elizabeth didn’t recognize her as one of Wilson’s deputies, though. If Wilson preferred breakfasting with the blonde, Elizabeth couldn’t fault his taste. Still, no amount of self-talk suppressed the barbs of jealousy eating away at her gut.

Gathering her composure, she forced rubbery legs to walk to the cash register so she could settle her bill. As she waited for her change, she caught a whiff of a familiar woodsy cologne. Wilson stepped in front of her, forcing her to meet his gaze.

“Good morning, darlin’.” Up close, she saw the gold star pinned to his lapel, a miniature sheriff’s badge. He looked too damn good in a suit.

“Good morning.” Amazed at how calm her voice sounded when her insides trembled, she forced a smile.

“Before you rush off, I’d like to introduce you to someone.”

“Sure.” She took her change from Lorraine, who blatantly watched the exchange between the two. Elizabeth couldn’t have the world and Boyd’s Diner see her acting like a woman scorned. She forced both her shoulders and her smile to relax.

Wilson cradled her elbow, leading her to the booth. “Elizabeth Stevens, this is Special Agent Ronda Lou Buckner. She’s with Florida Department of Law Enforcement.”

The glamorous blonde extended her hand to shake Elizabeth’s. She had a beautiful French manicure, and probably a pedicure to match. “Nice to meet you, Miss Stevens.”

“Likewise.” Up close, Elizabeth detected a few crow’s feet at the corners of the woman’s eyes, along with a permanent frown wrinkle between her perfectly tweezed eyebrows. Definitely older than Wilson—but what she lacked in youth, she made up for in looks. She reminded Elizabeth of Sunny, though Sunny was younger and more petite. Both women were blondes who knew how to use makeup to their advantage.

Elizabeth knew how to use makeup to her advantage, too, but didn’t own so much as a tube of mascara. Her drab, unnoticeable appearance distressed her now more than ever. She had to remind herself how her dowdy appearance kept her safe and off the radar for anyone hunting a tall, slender thirty-six-year-old woman with brown eyes and a long, brunette braid.

Like Kris? No! She pushed aside her fears about her missing friend and focused on Wilson’s words.

“Ronda Lou would like to talk with you about the case. What time works best for your class schedule today?”

Ronda Lou
sounded far too intimate when addressing a law enforcement colleague, but Wilson was a friendly guy. She reined in her jealousy and directed her smile at Special Agent Buckner. She refused to think of her as
Ronda Lou
. “I can meet with you between two thirty and four. At four, I need to be at the theater with the drama students.”

“Two thirty is fine. Where’s a good place to talk privately?”

“My office.” Just to be mischievous, Elizabeth laid a possessive hand on Wilson’s bicep—his impressive bicep—and smiled. “Wilson can show you where it is.”

He looked first at her hand on his arm then directly into her eyes. And winked. “I’m sure I can.” But he didn’t add
darlin’
.

With as much dignity as she could muster, she excused herself and fled Boyd’s Diner.

At lunchtime, Sunny waited for Elizabeth at the quadrangle, the park-like plaza in the center of campus that had the requisite statues and stone benches. For the first time in months, the temperature hadn’t climbed to the nineties. The light breeze carried no hint of rain, but at least it stirred the muggy air.

Sunny jumped from the wall surrounding the fountain, which had been turned off to conserve water, and waved. “Hey, Liz.”

Her bubbly smile temporarily chased away Elizabeth’s sadness. A black cloud of gloom had positioned itself over her shoulder, where it had hovered all morning, a constant reminder of her missing friend. She gave Sunny a tight hug. “How was the trip, girl?”

“All right. Let’s just say a little bit of Mother goes a long way.” Sunny fluttered her hand as if to brush away the subject. “Where do you want to eat lunch?”

Elizabeth didn’t want to eat anywhere but couldn’t afford to lose weight. “Dairy Queen.”

Sunny laughed. “That’s what I love about you—you don’t fuss about
diet
this and
diet
that, like Kris—”

“Kris is missing.” Elizabeth stopped suddenly, and Sunny had to backtrack.

“What?”

“Same as Cathleen. We’d made plans, I went to pick her up—she and her car both gone. No one’s seen her since Saturday afternoon. She didn’t show up for school today, either. I checked.”

Sunny, whose disposition usually matched her name, frowned. “What in the hell is going on around here?”

“Wilson said we should be careful and travel in numbers, keep our doors locked … that sort of thing.”

“Wilson?” A slow smile curved her lips. “Would this be the sheriff you feared I’d fixed you up with?”

They walked again, reaching Osceola Street, where they headed toward the Dairy Queen on Second. “The same sheriff you said is
so
not my type.”

Sunny laughed. “Apparently, I was wrong. So, spill. What did I miss while I was gone?”

Elizabeth told her about inviting Wilson to join her and Kris for pizza. She chose not to mention Saturday night’s date that didn’t happen or the emergency with Wilson’s dog.

“Are you two still doing the breakfast at the diner thing?” They turned on Second and reached Dairy Queen. Sunny held the door for her.

“Sometimes.” She didn’t want to admit her disappointment that he’d had breakfast with Ronda Lou. “This morning, he was with a state profiler—who, by the way, wants to interview us today.”

“Oh, her. She’s already been into the bookstore to schedule me. I’m meeting her at four.” Sunny dropped the subject to order her food.

Elizabeth didn’t plan to bring up the subject of Ronda Lou Buckner again. Maybe the woman was good at her job, but she seemed too interested in Wilson. Not that Elizabeth was jealous.
Yeah, right
.

After picking up her shake and fries, which was all she figured her stomach could handle, Elizabeth joined Sunny at a hard plastic table for two. In between bites, she asked about Ian.

“Ian’s Ian. You know.” She shrugged. What had happened to the gooey-eyed sigh that usually followed his name when Sunny spoke it?

“Uh-oh. Is the honeymoon over?” she teased.

But Sunny didn’t laugh. Or smile. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

“Well, that’s cryptic. But okay. Let me know if you ever do.”

Tears welled in Sunny’s eyes. “I think it’s just PMS, okay? Ignore me.”

“You can’t have a name like Sunny and suffer PMS. It’s … it’s not allowed.”

Sunny smiled then, but it was a weak and watery smile. Sunny stuffed the rest of her chicken sandwich into her mouth, preventing her from further talking. Elizabeth couldn’t suppress her curiosity, though. What was going on with the odd-couple lovebirds?

A short, stout man she’d seen before around the Osceola Street area waved at Sunny. “Hi, bicycle lady!”

Sunny cringed. “Hi.”

A middle-aged, red-haired woman pulled him toward the counter. “Don’t bother the ladies, Ralph.”

Elizabeth smiled at the woman. “He’s not bothering us.”

The woman nodded her thanks but continued to pull the man away toward the counter. “Let’s get you a Dilly Bar, son.”

Sunny’s stare followed the two until they were out of hearing range. “Eeeww. That guy creeps me out.”

“I think he’s mentally challenged. He seems harmless enough.”

Sunny shuddered. “Maybe so, but when I’m out riding my bike, he tries to ride with me. He can be very persistent.”

“You shouldn’t ride alone. I’ve told you that. Especially after Cathleen’s murder and Kris’s disappearance.”

Sunny paled. “You think Kris is dead, too, don’t you?”

“Oh, God, Sunny, don’t say that.” She figured if she didn’t verbalize the worst-case scenario, it wouldn’t come true. Superstition or denial. Or both.

“I’m as worried about her as you are.” Sunny sucked the rest of her drink noisily through the straw. “I need a refill on my soda, but I’m not going up there as long as Ralph’s at the counter.”

“He spooks you that much?”

“I don’t think you were with us the time that Cat and I stopped here for a dipped cone. Ralph was in here without his mother, pestering all the customers to buy him an ice cream. I don’t know why the manager didn’t toss his ass out. Anyway, Cat bought him a Dilly Bar. From then on, he seemed fixated on her. Every time he saw me, he’d ask about the pretty pet lady. I guess he called her that because she treated his dog or something. Who knows? You heard him call me ‘Bicycle Lady.’ I sure don’t want him fixating on me.”

“That is worrisome. Do you think he’s dangerous?”

“After what’s happening lately, why take a chance?”

“Good point.” She made a mental note to ask Wilson about the mentally challenged man, Ralph.

Wil managed to review the homicide case in depth with Ronda Lou, squeeze in a meeting to discuss preparedness in case the newly named hurricane struck the area, and coordinate with the multi-jurisdictional fire and rescue in battling the forest fire in Sticky Swamp. As if Wil’s plate wasn’t full enough, he now had a possible arson on his hands. Smoke was spotted in the morning. It was thought to be from an illegal campfire. By the time Foster County Fire and Rescue dispatched, flames had spread into Columbia County to the west and threatened Lowndes County, Georgia, to the north.