Page 25 of Sweet Rivals

Chapter Nineteen

“This is good,” Cat said. We were speed-walking along the boardwalk. The light was fading, swallowing us into ever-growing twilight. She had her camera in her hand as she pumped her arms along her side.

“How is this good?” I asked. “I’m supposed to be taking him down, and I haven’t done anything aside from snoop on his computer.”

“That is good too.”

“You weren’t the one caught sneaking around on your knees, staring up at him, face at crotch level,” I said.

She waved that idea away, trying to breathe and talk, which was getting harder as we hoofed it toward the lighthouse. She had wanted to get there in time for the “golden hour”, but of course, we were running late.

“Did you see that?” Cat asked. I craned my neck to look behind me. October had been walking through the marshy overgrowth of protected land on this side of the peninsula where few tourists went aside from visiting the lighthouse or trying to climb through the old, rusted military base that had eroded in the sand.

“Sometimes I wonder if she really does know magic,” I said.

She laughed., “Probably. You know some of the old biddies swear by her ‘love potions.’ Maybe you should try one.”

I rolled my eyes. “The last thing I need is a love potion. Make your enemies leave town potion? I would consider it.”

“Anyway, listen. First, you need to take him up on his offer. He is right. You aren’t doing any legal sabotaging from outside the walls of that bakery. Once inside, you can reassess, or maybe you will find that it isn’t so bad. Maybe you can learn something from him.”

“You sound like my mom,” I said.

“I’m not insulted. Better than sounding like my mom.”

“Depends on your perspective, I guess. “Do I do anything with the email I saw on his computer?” I hated that I needed Cat to give me permission to break the rules and step out of my comfort zone. But baby steps were better than no steps at all. I liked to think that I wasn’t totally helpless in advocating for myself, but I still needed just a little borrowed backbone.

“You email the guy who emailed Jared,” she said.

“That is crazy, even for you,” I said. “What the hell would I say? Come collect Jared?”

“Sure, why not?” Cat said.

I shook my head. “Because that is crazy.”

Cat shrugged, slowing down to a more manageable pace as we came to the base of the lighthouse. The sun still lit the top in soft golden hews while the bottom sat in shifting shadows. “Sometimes you gotta be a little crazy,” she said.

I opened my mouth to say something when one of the shadows broke off from the others to form into a man. I gasped and nearly jumped out of my skin as my mind raced with thoughts of serial killers and demons made of dark.

“Didn’t mean to scare you,” came the now familiar voice.

“Jesus Christ,” I hissed. “You following me?”

“I could ask the same of you. Looks like I got here first,” he said, stepping into the light. “Maybe you are watching too many scary movies.”

“Maybe you are scarier than anything my imagination could cook up.”

“Ouch,” he said. “Hi, Cat.”

“Hey, Jared,” she said.

I was glad for the dusky light hiding my expression as I looked between them with a mix of shock and disgust.

“Seriously?”

“Well, you did it to me,” Cat said sheepishly. She was referring to the time I maintained a polite familiarity with her high school bully turned boyfriend who had spent a lot of time in town for years while she was away. I had maintained a friendship, if you could even call it that, simply because of proximity. I didn’t think it was exactly the same, but I didn’t plan on having that dialogue around Jared. “He came in for some prints for the bakery.”

I shouldn’t have been upset, but it definitely felt like a betrayal. Here we were, planning this man’s downfall, and she didn’t let me know that she had spoken with him and done business for the bakery. My bakery. This would have been valuable information in my pursuit of justice. I’m sure she didn’t want to jeopardize her own business, but still. She could have at least told me.

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