“This is six,” he admitted with a shrug. When had she become aware of his nighttime presence on her street?
“When you left earlier, I thought you were headed home for the night. Zach, you can’t keep this up.” She rubbed her hands down her arms in the cool air.
“I want to make sure you and Austin are all right.” It was the simple truth, but it was only part of the reason he wanted to be close to them.
She smiled at him then. “I told myself if you came back tonight, I’d invite you in since I know I can’t talk you out of watching over us. But you can do it more comfortably. I’ve got the spare room made up.”
“If you’re sure you don’t mind, I’d appreciate that.” At her nod, he clicked the button to lock his car before entering her house and dead bolting the door.
“You’re in the room next to Austin,” she said as he followed her up the stairs. They paused outside her room, across from Austin’s, and she surprised him by kissing his cheek. “Thanks for looking out for us. Good night.”
After she left him alone in the hall, Zach peeked in his son’s room, watching the boy’s little chest rise and fall, before going to the guest room. Sleeping in a bed during the night was going to feel good, and being close to his son felt right. The only way his situation could improve was if he were holding Carolyn in her bed. Soon, he decided.
8
“Like nothing happened,” Charlotte said as Carolyn turned in a slow circle, taking in every detail of All That Sparkles.
“Amazing,” Carolyn agreed. After a week of cleanup and repair, the store was set to reopen. Every sign of the incident was gone, and all the surfaces sparkled in keeping with the store’s name. But the closure had taken its toll on her bottom line and her employees. Jenna and Michelle seemed better now, after an initially shaky return to work. She smiled at Jenna, who was preparing a display case. “I wish people could recover so quickly.”
Carolyn had made sure they got counseling right away. Jenna had responded quickly, but Michelle was slower to recover. However long it took, the store would provide the counseling. It wasn’t cheap, and it stretched her finances even thinner than they already were, but it was the right thing to do.
“No ill effects for Austin?” Charlotte asked.
“Nothing. Not even a bad dream.” She’d been amazed at his resiliency, but then he’d had his daddy come into his life at the same time. Maybe the positive event offset the negative one.
“We were lucky,” Charlotte said, giving her sister a half smile. They didn’t need to say that it all could have been a lot worse, although Carolyn knew they weren’t out of the woods yet. A late evening call from her IT company had confirmed that.
“I hope our luck holds. Did you see the ads I placed?” Carolyn had made sure to advertise their reopening, offering some good deals with the hope that customers would come in. She wanted to get back to business as usual despite her worry about the possible saboteur.
“Good choices. My marketing professor would give you an A-plus.” Charlotte had one semester left in her MBA program.
Carolyn laughed. “Thank goodness for that.”
A knock on the front window drew her attention away. Zach waved to her through the glass, his smile disarming her as it always did. She hadn’t minded seeing him across her breakfast table that morning one bit, and Austin had been ecstatic about having his daddy with them.
“You’ve got company,” Charlotte commented. “The good kind.”
“The best,” she said before thinking how much her answer revealed.
Charlotte grinned at her but didn’t ask questions. “I’m going to prep inventory in the safe. Tell Zach I said hi.”
After her sister walked away, Carolyn disabled the alarm and let Zach in. He waited until she rearmed the system before drawing her into a hug. She half waited for his kiss, but with her employees only steps away, she didn’t think he’d repeat anything like the kiss they’d shared the evening before. It had been all she could do not to repeat it herself when she invited him to stay at her house, but she’d been too unsettled to risk it. The kiss unearthed feelings she’d long buried and thought dead. They’d burst back to life like a poppy opening in the June sunshine.
“Thanks for letting me sleep over last night,” he said quietly.
He’d already thanked her, so she just nodded. “Austin was happy to see you.” The boy’s smile had widened when Carolyn carried him into the kitchen where Zach was making coffee. And then her heart had melted as she watched Zach feed their son breakfast. They belonged together, all of them, but she couldn’t trust that the fairy tale of the happy family could come true for her.
No matter how hard she tried, how much effort she put in, her perfect life eluded her. She’d learned that lesson when her father ignored all her efforts to catch his attention. She’d thought if she could be perfect enough, he’d come home and be with the family again. It hadn’t worked. She feared the same might be true with Zach, so she didn’t want to get her hopes up despite how she felt about him.
“You’re doing me a favor,” she reminded him.
“It’s not a favor, Carolyn.” His eyes turned serious. “Can we talk in your office?”
“Sure,” she said and led the way. Her heart skipped a beat with worry. What did he want to say to her?
“I got a phone call not long ago from a buddy of mine on the police department.” The call had taken Zach by surprise. A former SEAL teammate at last night’s poker game was a police officer in Sheridan Falls and had recognized Carolyn when she went in to the station that morning.
“Oh?” She arched an eyebrow at him.
“We had a deal.” He gestured between them. “You’d let me be your sidekick during the investigation.” He was disappointed that she hadn’t told him about her plans.
“You went with me to Castle Jewels, and I let you spend the night. What more do you want?” She gave him an innocent look, all big brown eyes and dimples. She was beautiful, but he wasn’t going to be deterred.
“I want to know what information you shared with the police this morning,” he said.
She huffed out a sigh. “Fine. Late last night I got an email from my IT company. They found malware in my network, a particularly nasty kind that has to be implanted from the inside. This isn’t a random cyberattack. It’s personal and targeted at my business, which explains the canceled deliveries. I thought it might make the police take me seriously.”
“Did it?” he questioned.
“I got a ‘We’ll have our techs look into it’ response, which is better than nothing, I suppose. I just don’t know what to do now.” She paced in the small office as she spoke. “I can’t sit around and wait for whoever this is to come at me again. I’ve got to figure it out, and the police don’t seem eager to help.”
“Not enough evidence for them.” He understood that. The police had limited resources and couldn’t chase down a suspicion.
“I don’t know what would be.” She sounded exasperated, and he wanted to do something to assuage her worries.