Page 34 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
He had been sorting through so many moving parts. Theory after theory, observation after observation. Every minor detail counted to Liam.
“So, you’re thinking they launched from a private dock?”
“I know they did.” He yanked open a dresser drawer. “Close enough to reach us fast, but remote enough to stay under the radar.”
There were no private docks near Haven House. There were no homes or buildings whatsoever. The bayou behind the estate stretched east into a narrow river, eventually leading to another that fed into the Intracoastal. Most of the coastal uplands had long since been claimed by the swamp or eaten away by Mother Nature’s violent storms.
Ty taught her to fish in those narrow inlets. She could remember how frightened she had been of the bald cypress and their exposed roots, which seemed to reach for them as they glided past. He would laugh and call her a scaredy cat, but then tell her stories of the mermaids who supposedly lived in the water around the trees and how they used the tree’s root systems as underwater homes.
To the west of Haven House was a different story. A much wider pass opened directly off the shore, leading into a bay that eventually curved toward Port Michaelson or out into the Gulf of Mexico. The boats would have come from that direction, and Liam was right. Every time Zanmi arrived at Haven House, it should have drawn some attention, considering you had to travel under a major bridge to enter the bay that connected Port Michaelson to the land where Haven House was built.
“Have you found a private dock between here and the edge of Port Michaelson?” She frowned, trying to think of where one could possibly be. “There are some fishing spots, but I don’t know about docks.”
“Where are those cut-off shorts you drove me crazy with a couple of weeks ago?” Liam returned to the closet. “And wear a bathing suit. A cute one.”
“A bathing suit?” She was off the stool and following after him. “It’s November!”
October had come and gone, with the kids missing Halloween. Lenora and Selah held a spooky party for just the three of them, while Annabeth had done the same for Theo and Harper. Forced to participate for at least an hour, everyone was coerced into costumes and required to stand patiently behind closed doors so the girls could trick or treat. As a connoisseur of party planning, Annabeth made the night as magical as she could with decorations, handmade candy bags, and enough glitter to traumatize the vacuum.
It was the first time they’d all felt a flicker of normalcy since the attack.
And Samuel dressed as a vampire was something Jamison would never emotionally recover from. He’d insisted on biting Evie’s neck every five seconds, and while it was weird coming from him, Jamison would admit it was also sweet.
In the closet, Liam was digging through another dresser. Behind him sat the wreckage of the destroyed shoe cabinet, and she took an elongated step to get around it.
“That cold snap’s over, and it’s back to being eighty degrees,” he said, holding up a pair of dark blue board shorts. “Eighty-eight, to be exact, and that’s warm enough for you to wear a bathing suit and a pair of shorts.”
“It might be warm outside, but I’m not getting in the water. Neither are you without a wetsuit, so why are we dressing like we’re going to the beach?”
He gave her ass a solid smack as he walked back into the bedroom. “Because I want to check something out from the water.”
She groaned and dug through the same drawer he’d just ravaged. “So how does that tie into the ‘seduce a man’ part? Or are you the man I’m seducing? If so, I’m cool with that, but I didn’t know you were into me wearing heavy makeup.”
“I’ll take you any way I can get you, woman.”
Rolling her eyes, Jamison stuck her head out of the closet. “William.”
He grinned, tugging a T-shirt over his head. “I found a piece of property on the north side of the bay. It’s just off a small inlet and literally has nothing on it but a shack. It’s owned by a guy named Emmett Watson, who inherited the land ten years ago from his father.”
“What do we know about him?”
“Thirty-eight. Caucasian. Lives alone. No job.”
“That could describe the most boring man alive or a serial killer.” She returned to her search for a bathing suit. “Give me the good stuff.”
“He’s local. Grew up here. Used to live in a nice place with his mom until she died in a car wreck when he was seventeen. Then the state handed him over to his dad, who was never around.”
Recognizing this would be a long story, she took her time searching for a bathing suit. As she did, her fingers closed around a thin strap, and she lifted a bright orange thong from the options.
“Why doesn’t he work?” she asked, stepping onto a stool to reach the security camera’s access pad. She punched in the blackout code to give herself two minutes of privacy.
Or else Rowan would get quite a show.
The indicator light turned red, and she dropped to the ground, hustling out of her clothes and into the bikini, not wanting Liam to see what she was doing. Their first alone time in weeks called for a special surprise, and this bathing suit was perfect.
“He doesn’t need to,” Liam replied, moving around the bedroom. “Emmett sued the drunk driver who killed his mom and won. He’s set for life.”
The camera’s light switched back to green just as she was zipping up her jean shorts. They were frayed at the ends and short enough that if Liam looked closely, he would be able to tell there wasn’t much to her bikini bottoms.
