Page 126 of Long Road Home

Chapter Thirty-Five

Kenna had dried off and gotten dressed in just a couple of minutes after stepping out of the shower. No time for anything longer, not that she was a bathroom lingerer. Taking a shower wasn’t better than a full night of sleep, but it wasn’t nothing.

Jax had opted to use the bathroom in Forrest’s house.

As Kenna stood in the doorway of the tiny RV bathroom, wearing insulated pants and a short-sleeved T-shirt, he sat at the table with a cup of coffee. The back of her neck felt a little damp, her hair wet at the edge where she’d pulled it up in a bun.

Maizie’s voice came from his phone on the tabletop. “Jennifer doesn’t have anything other than that boat, so I called the main office for the place where it’s stored, and they told me she never comes by. The last he knew, that boat was in need of repair. He thinks it doesn’t even run, and he made a point to tell me no one has any business being out on the water in this weather.”

She closed the bathroom door.

He glanced over. “That’s probably smart.” As she movedtoward him, stepping from carpet to the faux tile of the kitchen area, he gave her a long appreciative look that she liked a lot.

The oddity of having a man in her RV wasn’t lost on her. She barely let Forrest in here, and her friend hadn’t made a habit of intruding on her personal space. Jax must’ve let himself in after he was done with his shower. He’d made coffee. Comfortable in the place where she tended to hide from the world.

Maizie’s voice jogged her from her thoughts. “So what do we do?”

Kenna smiled at Jax. He smiled back. They’d been staring at each other.

“She’s there, isn’t she?” Maizie’s tone sounded like teenage exasperation.

Kenna grinned. “Is there someone else I should know about? Some other ‘she.’”

Fire lit Jax’s eyes. “You’d know.”

Okay, then. He felt strongly about that. No need to joke about him and some other mystery woman. Probably because everyone in his life thoughtshewas the mystery woman.

This flirty thing they had going on right now was nice, but didn’t solve their list of problems.

Kenna leaned closer to the phone. “Maizie, did we get the address yet?” She’d ask Jax, only he looked a little distracted. She wanted to get Forrest back, and if whoever took her wanted a showdown, then she planned to be early.

“No.” The teen huffed. “So call me when you do.”

The call ended.

Jax chuckled. “Not a fan of us?”

Kenna liked the sound of “us” but had to say, “Relationships will probably always be a bit uncomfortable for her. Until she learns there are healthy ways to be together. Itmight take years, though.” And Maizie might never get to the point where she could have a long-term romantic relationship. That didn’t mean she wasn’t healed. It would simply be a choice she was able to make for her future.

“I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

“But you’re still great with her,” Kenna said. “She’s comfortable talking to you, which I thought would take a lot longer.”

He shrugged one shoulder. “I have a sister. It’s not that hard.”

Just like that? She got a cup of coffee. Leaned her hips back against the counter at the sink. “How long are we going to have to wait for this address?”

She’d never had a sister. Girlfriends were few and far between. And like her relationship with Cecelia Warren—or Taylor, her former therapist and former friend—things tended to not end well. She was trying not to get a complex about the fact that she was the common denominator.

Jax sat back against the bench seat, his steady gaze on her. “You realize it’s a trap.”

“Yeah, I’m the one springing it.”

“How’s that?” He frowned.

“You’re here. Obviously that’s like…the whole plan. We go in, and we catch whoever it is. My trap. They’re the one caught.” Did she need to explain it?

She couldn’t decide if Stan Tilley had taken Forrest to draw out Kenna—or if Jennifer Rayland had arranged it with Paulette so she could finish this a different way. Which would have to mean that Jennifer knew Forrest was going to be released. Her plan to have Forrest go down for murder didn’t work.

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