Page 20 of Down and Dirty

“Not until you arrived in town. I’d been begging her for a week to tell me where she was, and she kept saying she couldn’t until the detective showed up. The one that was going to save my life.”

I turned to find Keaton staring at me, not surprised by my statement, just a stoic look on his face.

“You aren’t surprised?”

He sat back against his overstuffed backpack and turned his gaze to Mary’s spirit hovering nearby.

“I’m not. I’ll never lie to you, Faith.” He turned his gaze to meet mine. “About a year ago, I started getting dream flashes of you and me together.”

I’d lifted the granola bar to my lips and slowly lowered it. “So, you get premonitions too?”

“Not quite,” he said, picking up a rock and skimming it over the water surface, producing ripples. “I experience glimpses of us together. Married, with kids.”

“You’re joking,” I snapped my mouth closed.

“Nope,” he said and pulled out a candy bar and handed it to me. My eyes widened as I read the label. A shiver ripped across my nerve endings. He’d just handed me my favorite dark candy, which was made in Japan and hard to find in this country. The treat was one of my guilty pleasures that I splurged on. It was my favorite way to de-stress, and every time my stash ran low, I had to reorder it before eating the last candy bar. No one knew my secret, not even my sisters.

“How did you know?”

“In one scene that I’ve witnessed, you were eating one on your back patio while I was grilling steaks.”

“That sounds lovely,” I said, meaning it as I covered my mouth, trying to stifle my yawn.

“It was,” he said. A brief haunted look flashed in his eyes before he quickly masked it.

“What?” I asked.

“You look tired from lack of sleep and the concussion. You should try and get some shut-eye while you can.”

“I’m too wired to sleep,” I lied, rising from my spot to stretch, trying to stay awake. I grabbed a flashlight and flicked it on. “How about a walk so we can find a way up the waterfall to see where the water originates?”

“Sure,” Keaton said and rose to his feet and gestured toward the shoreline. I started to walk with him by my side.

“Did your mother really drop you on your head?”

“No, but I’ve been able to see spirits since I was born. When I was younger, it used to freak me out. Not so much now. It actually helps with my line of work. I’m the go-to guy for finding missing people, if they’re dead.”

“Is that how you ended up in my town?”

“Those spirits didn’t seek me out. I’m not sure why. Tracking them down has been harder than any other homicide case. I was only in town because one of the missing girls had answered an online ad about buying some furniture. I was trying to track her last steps, so that led me here.”

We stepped off the shore and into the green lush surroundings as we climbed the embankment to try to reach the top of the waterfall. My foot caught and started to slip, but Keaton caught me, holding me against his chest until I found my footing again. It happened several more times while I asked questions to learn more about the guy who claimed to be my future husband.

We reached the top of the peak within the next thirty minutes. Our camping gear looked miniature, like the food I’d eaten for dinner.

There were several ponds surrounding a gushing stream of water that spilled down to the rocks below, making the waterfall.

“This water was never here,” I said. “It used to be a dry river bed.”

“Not anymore. Judging by the location, if I had to make a guess, I think it had to have just the right elements. An abundance of rain breached the Savannah River nearby and is fueling this little paradise.”

“Once word of this gets out, it’s going to attract a lot more people to this location.”

“Probably good we found it first,” Keaton said, taking my hand and leading me back down the path we’d made to reach the water above.

I lost my footing again, and this time, Keaton wasn’t as fast to catch my fall. Instead, I grabbed hold of him, and we both rolled down the hill. He held me in his embrace, shielding me from the trees and brush as we tumbled to the shoreline below.

A grunt flew from his lips as he landed with me on top of his body. His arms were still holding me in place as his worried gaze caressed my face. “Are you okay, Faith?”

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