Not paying attention to where she was going, Charlie plowed into a group of shoppers who’d stopped on the sidewalk. Off balance, she found herself falling again. Fortunately, this time, a couple of the women in the group steadied her and she managed to stay on her feet.
But when she looked back again, the woman was long gone.
Charlie hurried toward her apartment, wanting only to get inside and lock the doors. The woman had looked so much like Lindy. But ghosts didn’t shop or talk on cell phones, Charlie was pretty sure of that.
Still, she was shaken. Was it possible Lindy was alive? She recognized the blue scarf—just as Lindy would know she would. But if she was alive, then where had she been the past fifteen years? And whose body had been found if not Lindy’s?
The idea was preposterous that the cops had gotten it wrong. The woman she’d seen had to be someone who looked like Lindy. But if true, how did she explain the scarf or the woman’s expression when she’d seen her? Charlie had had the feeling that Lindy had been waiting for her to walk past.
As she neared her apartment, winter darkness settling around her with a cold that reached her bones, she couldn’t wait to get inside. She was digging out her key when she saw something that made her slow her walk to a crawl.
Someone was sitting on her front steps. From the size, it was a man. For just an instant, she thought it might be Daniel.
Then she saw the backpack on the step below him. As she stepped tentatively closer, she saw that he was leaning against the railing, his legs spread out in front of him on the step and what appeared to be a cowboy hat tilted down over his face as if he’d dozed off.
She took in the breadth of his broad shoulders, the length of the denim jeans to his cowboy boots. He looked like a man perfectly comfortable in his own skin and one who hadn’t minded waiting even in the cold.
As if sensing her, he slowly pushed back the hat and lifted his head, his blue eyes pinning her to the spot as her heart dropped.
* * *
WESTLY “SHEP” SHEPHERD couldn’t help but stare. The rebellious, adventurous, outrageous girl he’d known had turned into a knockout-gorgeous young woman. His surprised gaze met Charlie’s even more surprised one and shot off sparks.
“The judge sent you?” Her voice broke. “I told him I was fine. Why would he send you?”
Shep pushed to his feet, settled his Stetson on his head of dark hair and shrugged. “You know the judge. He does what he does and for some reason he seemed to think you needed my help.”
She scoffed at that and tried to step past him, but he grabbed her slim wrist, wrapping his fingers around it, stopping her. He felt a tingle move from his fingers up his arm.
“Charlie, you know how this works. The judge asks and we do whatever he wants because he saved our lives. He wants me to help you and that’s what I’m going to do, with or without your approval.”
She flipped her hair back. Snow crystals had settled in her dark curls like tiny fairy lights. “I should have never called the judge. It was a mistake. I’m fine. You can go back and tell him—”
“The judge wouldn’t have sent me unless you were in trouble. So you’re not fine. Remember, I know you.” His gaze locked with hers. He’d forgotten the warm honey of her eyes and what looking in them did to him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She laughed. “I’d forgotten how pigheaded you are.”
Her pulse pounded beneath his fingers as her laugh floated around him. He’d also forgotten that infectious laugh. It took him back to their first encounter all those years ago and what had followed. The memory sent a sharp stab of longing racing through his bloodstream. The girl had gotten under his skin all those years ago. He couldn’t imagine the kind of damage the young woman standing before him could do. He let go of her wrist.
“You need to go back to the judge and tell him that I’m fine,” she was saying. “It was a mistake. I thought I saw someone from my past but—” She glanced over her shoulder across the icy street and shuddered.
He heard her breath catch in her throat. Her brown, soulful eyes had widened into saucers. She swayed on the step next to him, then grabbed hold of his biceps, her fingers digging in as she tried to steady herself.
“That’s her.” The words came out in a low croak.
Shep followed her gaze across the street. Through the falling snow, he caught sight of a slim, dark figure in the shadow of a light pole. He had only a glimpse of long blond hair before the figure dissolved back into the darkness of the alley.
In those fleeting seconds, several cars roared past before he could pry Charlie’s fingers from his arm and race across the street, his boots slick on the gleaming black ice. By the time he reached the alley, it was empty.
When he returned to the stairs leading up to her apartment, Charlie was sitting on the step where he’d been. She looked up at him, snowflakes caught on her lashes, her brown eyes dark with fear.
“It was her,” she said, voice cracking. “It’s Lindy Parker. She’s come back to make me pay for what I did.”
* * *
SHEP HAD NO idea who Lindy Parker was. But whatever Charlie had seen, it had scared her. From what he knew of the incredible girl she’d been, scaring her wasn’t easy. By the time he’d met her at the judge’s boot camp—her sixteen and him seventeen—she’d already been toughened by life. She had that way of looking at a person as if she’d already seen too much, been through too much. But she’d never talked about it. Neither had he.
“Who’s Lindy?” he asked now.
Charlie stared at him in surprise. “The judge didn’t tell you?”
“The only thing he told me is that you needed my help.”
“And you agreed without even knowing what was wrong?” She looked as skeptical as he felt. “Why you?”
They were back to that? He shrugged again. “He said I was the right person for the job.”
“Are you a detective, a cop or something?”
Something. “I teach.”
She waited, obviously not letting him get away that easily.
“Middle school math.”
Her expression said it all.
“I believe the judge asked me because I’m a problem solver.” He figured that might be part of the reason. He didn’t want to speculate on the other. “I’m also reasonable and logical.”
Charlie scoffed at that as she started to get to her feet. “Like I’m not?”
Shep wasn’t about to touch that one. He reached out his hand to pull her up. She took it, but her gaze was on the other side of the street. Whoever had been there was gone but far from forgotten, given the fear still in her expression.