Page 66 of An Unexpected Home

Chapter 16

At the end of the week, Brandon was two things: ecstatically happy that he had Leah in his life, and stressed beyond belief at not being able to find Will Huntington.

How one man could fall off the face of the earth, he had no idea. And he had to be close. Sunday’s break-in proved that. He’d known that the girls were going to be out of the house all day at the opening and that practically the whole town would be there, too.

If he was going to break into a house, that would be the perfect time. No one would be around and he could get in and out almost undetected.

Logan’s friend Tony was finished installing the security system at the house and Brandon had asked him to install it covertly as possible just in case Will was out there watching. His hope was that he wouldn’t know they had it and he would try to break-in again. Making catching him a piece of cake.

As a precaution, he’d stayed at the house with Leah most the week. And while he loved Carly and Melanie, he was ready to have Leah to himself. And tonight would be their first real date. He was taking her to dinner at a nice restaurant in the next town over. She’d promised to wear a dress and his mind had been wandering all day with the image of her in it.

Since he’d first met her, she’d already put on a few pounds that she had apparently lost during her dad’s trial. She looked healthier now and not as fragile. He’d love her body no matter what, but the extra curves the weight gave her tiny frame made it hard to keep his hands off her.

He was just leaving the station to go home and change before their date when his friend and Deputy Tim caught him.

“I got some news, boss.”

Brandon shook his head at Tim calling him ‘boss’. “What’s up?”

“Mrs. Haggerty over on Meadow Court may have spotted your guy.”

His whole body went on alert.

“When?”

“This afternoon. She was outside doing some weeding and she went into her shed to get her tools and there he was. He ran away as soon as she opened the door, but she is pretty sure it was him from the picture we have been circulating.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he swore. “He’s squatting in sheds?”

“So it seems,” Tim said. “What should I do?”

He looked at his watch and swore. “I’m supposed to be picking Leah up in thirty minutes for our date but I guess I can cancel and go take a look.”

“I can do it,” Tim said eagerly.

Brandon thought about it. Tim was a good cop and he knew all the protocol.

“You call me if anything seems off or you find a single piece of evidence?”

“Absolutely,” Tim said.

“All right, then it’s all yours,” Brandon said.

Brandon trusted Tim and while he wanted to be there going over it himself, he really didn’t want to cancel on Leah unless he absolutely had to. Tim would keep him in the loop and, if anything came up, he’d give him a call.

Rushing home, he changed from his uniform into black dress slacks and a button-down that he rolled at the sleeves. If Leah was going to be in a dress for him, he wanted to be dressed nice for her.

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