Page 22 of As Long As You Kiss Me

She shook her head. “No, I think we still need to keep up the ruse. Otherwise, he might become even more aggressive. But I’m thinking we should take things one step further.”

“Okay. What did you have in mind?”

“We need to figure out a way to get him to leave town.” She grabbed a pen and a notebook from her desk. “Got any ideas?”

Jackson was quiet for a moment, a small crease between his eyebrows like he was concentrating. “Do you know where he’s staying?”

“I’m not sure. We can ask Mrs. Wheaton if she knows. She’s always informed about people’s business.”

Jackson laughed. “It’s absurd that she would randomly know that, but I can totally see it being a likelihood.”

“It’s not as absurd as you may think. She’s friends with everyone.”

“If she doesn’t know, we can always follow him home,” Jackson suggested.

“That’s not a bad idea. But why do you want to know where he’s living?” Sully asked.

“Because then we can scare him off.”

Sully perked up. “I like where this is going.”

“I was a master at pranking guys when I was in the military. Leave this to me. We’ll chase him off in no time.”

“And what if it doesn’t work?” Sully asked in a small voice.

He reached out and took her hand in his. “You don’t worry about that. I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you.”

Relief washed over her, and her heart warmed at his encouraging words. “Thank you for being here for me,” she whispered.

“I’m happy to help.” There was some deeper emotion behind his eyes that she didn’t normally see, and she wondered if maybe he was thinking about Tyson and how helping her would make him happy. He didn’t talk about Tyson much. It was like he was burying what had happened and just avoided thinking about it.

“Should we call Mrs. Wheaton and see what she knows?” Sully asked.

“Let’s do it.”

Sully pulled her phone out. She’d had Aubrey’s mom’s phone number from when they’d planned a surprise birthday party for Aubrey a few years ago. Aubrey had never seen it coming. Her mom was surprisingly good at keeping secrets when she wanted something kept quiet for herself. It was just other people’s secrets that she couldn’t keep.

She pulled her up in her contacts and hit send. It rang a few times before Mrs. Wheaton picked up. As soon as she did, her mind went blank. What was she supposed to tell her? She needed an excuse for trying to find out where Mason lived. She couldn’t just tell her the truth. Mrs. Wheaton was the biggest gossip in town. It would just get back to Mason that she was the one pranking him.

“Well, hello, dear,” Mrs. Wheaton greeted her.

“Hey, Mrs. Wheaton.”

“What can I do for you?”

She got right to the point. “I was wondering if you knew where my ex-husband Mason lives.”

“Oh, yes, actually. I heard the other day when I was talking to Mrs. Fuller at the grocery store that he was renting the apartment over her garage.”

Sully should have been surprised that Mrs. Wheaton knew this random bit of information, but she really wasn’t. The town was small enough that everyone knew everything about each other. Mrs. Fuller was her old English teacher, and Mr. Wheaton taught chemistry at Maple Creek High since Sully was sitting in his classroom. Mrs. Fuller had since retired, so she wasn’t one of Jackson’s co-workers, but she’d worked with Mr. Wheaton for years and had become friends with Mrs. Wheaton too. So it made sense that they’d be catching up in the grocery store.

“Do you know where she lives?” Sully asked.

“Oh, yes. We’ve been to her house for many faculty parties over the years. She owns the big white house on the corner of Birch and High Street. You can’t miss it. It’s a beautiful, old house. Some people say it’s haunted.”

“Really? How interesting.” Maybe they could use that tidbit of information.

“So why do you ask anyway?” Mrs. Wheaton said in her typical nosy fashion.

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