Page 36 of Love Me Fearless

“I heard about the search. That must have been awful,” she says at the crest.

I’m sure it’s going to visit me tonight in my sleep, but I don’t share that with Ava. “Any idea how she could have ended up in a situation like that?”

“She was a patient of Dr. Boone’s but she hasn’t been in since I took over.”

Meaning Ava didn’t have a relationship with her.

“What happened to her is bad enough.” Ava shakes her head. “But then she had to be…dumped like that. I can’t imagine what her family is going through right now.”

“There’s a candlelight vigil downtown at the waterfront tonight,” I say.

“Good,” Ava says. “Grief is hard enough alone.”

As we near the next crossroads, Ava says, “This is my street.”

“I’ll go with you,” I say.

She scowls at me. “I don’t need an escort.”

“Well, you’re getting one.”

“What if I don’t want you to know where I live?”

“Afraid I’ll come raid your fridge?”

She laughs. “Yes! My coffee fudge chunk is an important part of my self-care routine.”

My insides give a sharp twist because I’m the only self-care she’d ever need. “I would never dream of touching your stash.” Maybe I’ll be lucky and dream about her instead of what I experienced today.

“Pinky promise?” She turns up a narrow, paved driveway, and holds up her pinky.

My heart does a double thump inside my chest. I wrap my pinky around hers as we slow to a walk. “Pinky promise.”

Though her pinky slips free, a current of heat zips over my skin.

The driveway ends at a one-story house with a small yard bordered by giant pines and cottonwoods. The covered stoop is edged by tidy hydrangeas and peonies poking out of the bark. But my eye is immediately drawn to the front door that’s not completely shut.

“That’s weird,” Ava says, her body going still beside me.

“Did you leave it like that?” I give the yard a quick scan while also listening for movement. Did we just scare off a prowler?

“I don’t think so.”

I eye her.

“I leave from the back.”

“Is it locked?”

“Yes.”

“Okay if I check this out?”

She gives me a worried glance. “You think someone’s here?”

“No,” I say.

With a full breath, she nods. “I’m coming in, too.”

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