Page 16 of Rebels and Roses

She didn’t want to raise his hopes too far. After all these years, it would be a miracle if they found anything. Perhaps Lily Winslow’s mystery was destined to never be solved.

“Maybe we’ll finally get some real answers,” Cooper replied, his lips a hard line, his gaze flinty cold.

He only looked that way when he was thinking about his father.

“Zack’s going out of town for a few days.”

Cooper’s abrupt change of subject had her playing his words over in her head before she understood his meaning.

The coast would be clear. Zack wouldn’t be hanging around the theater they were renovating. She could come and go without worry. Except for one thing…

“What about your brother-in-law?”

“Ex-brother-in-law. I’ve given him some help. I’m not sure why he would hang around. Small towns with no nightlife aren’t his cup of tea.”

“You sound very sure.”

“The Kemp family doesn’t do boring and quaint.”

His sentiment only made Jane’s thoughts go back to the ex-wife. It was a good thing it hadn’t been Fiona, of course. Cooper clearly hadn’t been happy to hear from his ex-spouse last night.

But Jane still couldn’t help but be curious. Just what did Fiona Kemp have that had somehow persuaded the biggest hound dog to become a one-woman man and commit to marriage?

She must be one amazing woman.

“I’m sending Tom back to the apartment to get out of my hair, and then heading to Tate’s for lunch with Lucy and Zack. Did you want to go?”

Cooper’s question dragged her back to the present. It was just as well since thinking about his ex probably wasn’t the most productive use of her time. It didn’t matter anyway. Fiona was long gone, according to him, living halfway around the world.

“I’ll have to check with Lucy. It’s hard for both of us to be out of the store at the same time.”

“Katie’s here.”

Katie was a part-time employee who also attended the university. She did fine on her own as long as none of the customers became upset. If someone yelled at her, she’d tell them to go fuck themselves.

It wasn’t the sentiment that Jane disagreed with…she’d wanted to do the same on multiple occasions. Working in customer service, however, requires a person to keep their temper even when they wanted to let it fly. Katie was aware she had a short fuse and was actively working on it, but they still didn’t like to leave her in the store by herself too often.

“I’ll talk to Lucy. In the meantime, you might want to get back out there with your brother-in-law. You don’t want him trying to steal Lucy from your big brother.”

Cooper grimaced but reluctantly levered from his chair.

“I need to get that kid on the next flight out of town.”

Jane didn’t know why, but she had a feeling that getting Tom to leave wasn’t going to be as simple as dropping him off at the Departures doors of the nearest airport. He’d come to Cooper for help. If he thought someone was following him, he had to be scared.

In her experience, frightened and paranoid people didn’t want to be alone. Tom Kemp might be hanging around far longer than Cooper thought he would be.

Gettingboth Lucy and Jane out the door of the bookstore at the same time took a bit of finagling, but with Zack’s help Cooper had been able to make it happen. To be fair, the part-time employee Katie looked jubilant to be put in charge, if only for an hour or so. Almost like when a teenager’s parents go out for the evening, and they get the house for themselves for a change.

Tom had agreeably headed back to the apartment, claiming he needed to call Erica, or she might worry. Cooper told him that he’d bring him some lunch from the tavern. Tom had asked for one of those gigantic cheeseburgers he’d heard about fromKatie. He’d been flirting with the young woman while Cooper had talked with Jane in the back room.

Even though he’d said that he needed to phone his fiancée, he’d still been sitting in the coffee shop of the bookstore when they’d left.

“We can’t stay long,” Lucy said as they sat down at a large booth in the corner of Tate’s. “I don’t want to leave Katie on her own for too long.”

“Tom was keeping her company,” Jane replied. “I don’t think she’ll get lonely.”

“I need to talk to him,” Cooper ground out. “I think he does things without thinking it through, and then he panics when the consequences come knocking.”

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