Page 25 of One Last Promise

With her?

She looked back at him, her blue eyes twinkling, and for a moment, he thought she could see inside him, all the way in, where he didn’t have a hope of keeping his feelings for her tucked away.

Yeah.

See, this was why he had to tell her the truth. Because a year working with London Brooks had stirred up everything he’d been trying to forget and seeded new hope, a future he could no longer ignore. And didn’t want to.

“Ready?” She started to ease out of the shadows.

Just then, a car turned down the street, passed their SUV, and beamed light across the yard.

She whirled around and shoved him back into the shadows,against the house.

He put his arms around her waist and pulled her close as the car motored by.

Her hands gripped his arms, her head against his chest, and he could almost feel her heartbeat. Definitely slower than his.

The car passed. “Okay, let’s hurry.” She pushed away from him and jogged to the gate, then through it to the back of the house.

He didn’t know what to do with the rush of adrenaline that burned through him. One of them clearly had a knack for this sort of thing. . . .

Still, there he went, following her around to the back of the house.

A playset, blackened and still smoking, sat in the shadows of the yard, charring the air.

London was already moving patio furniture. “She said it was under the fire pit, right? Grab that side.”

He hustled over and grabbed the edge of a round fire pit, helped her move it aside. Then he dug his shovel into the patio paver. The sand chipped away, and he rocked the shovel as London got on her knees. In the wan light, her golden hair held back in a ponytail, wearing a light canvas jacket, she seemed every bit of the woman he’d met so many years ago.

And for a second, he was back in the chalet in Switzerland, working with her to dig them out of their icy tomb.

“Take this.” She’d pried up the square stone paver, and now he bent to grab it and move it aside.

Right. Focus. Not the kind of memory to take out and relive.

But he might never forget the blinding, terrifying moment he’d fallen in love at first sight.

She pried off the next paver, and he loosed another. Soon, they’d cleared a square area covered in sand. When he sank his shovel into it, it hit plastic.

“I think it’s a plastic bag, or the ground covering.” London had turned her phone light on but put it face downon the ground so only a bit of light pooled out. Still, he made out the hole as he dug, breaking through the plastic.

His shovel thudded on something hard.

“There’s a box here.” She pulled up another paver, then tore at the plastic covering with her hands.

He cleared out the area.

Indeed, an airtight plastic box, right where Tillie had said.

London sat back, gasped, and then looked up at Shep. “I have to admit, I wasn’t sure. I mean . . .”

“Her story was a little wild.”

“Yeah. Except she came to Moose. Which said she was serious. You don’t involve your friends unless you really need help.”

“After disappearing for a month first.”

“Yeah, there’s that.” She shook her head. “Clearly she’s desperate to come out of hiding.”

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