Page 55 of Threat of Danger
Maxwell rallied. “Or what?”
Derek let his face show how far he’d be willing to go for Jess, what he’d be willing to do for her.No limit.
“You’re a smart man,” he told Maxwell. “You shouldn’t have to ask.”
He walked away before he could throw a punch. He’d thought confronting Maxwell might bring up some memory, some kind of recognition, but it hadn’t, damn it all to hell. Frustration burned through Derek at the lack of progress.
The last couple of days had been a real mixed bag.
The bones were human:bad.
Eliot left:good.
Jess stayed:??
Derek wasn’t sure how he felt about her staying. He hated the possibility that she might be in danger, but he enjoyed seeing her every day.
He’d thought the bone shards, and talk of a wood chipper, would spook her. But they’d had the opposite effect. She was still here. He wasn’t going anywhere either. They’d both toughened up over the years. They no longer ran from trouble as they had back then.
He’d been an overeager college boy. He was a man now. And he knew what he wanted. He wanted Jess safe, and he wanted her back in his arms. Nothing had ever felt as right as having her there. He was going to work on making that happen again.
First, however, he needed to make sure she was safe, so he headed back to her place. He found only Zelda, on the couch with her feet up, knitting.
“Another prayer shawl?” Derek asked as he kicked off his boots.
Zelda knit one shawl a week and donated them to the cancer ward at the hospital. She held up her current project. “Pink with purple. What do you think?”
“I’m sure the person who gets it will love it. Have a batch ready to go?”
“Soon.”
When she had a box ready, Derek usually drove her into Burlington to drop off the shawls at the hospital. He always added a box of signed author copies of his latest book. People who went for chemo sat around for hours. Many of them liked to read. After the drop-off, he usually took Zelda around to the yarn stores, then lunch.
She always protested, not wanting to waste his time. He always insisted that they make a proper date of it.If we’re not making Chuck jealous, we’re not doing it right,he’d say. And Zelda would giggle like a girl.
She finished off her row, then glanced up at Derek again. “How’s the new furnace?”
“Working like a charm. You know Brody. He does good work.”
Back in high school, Brody O’Connor had been on the rugby team with Derek. Now he had his own HVAC business.
Working furnace:good.
No excuse to spend another night at the Taylor place:bad.
“How was your walk this mornin’?” Zelda began a new row.
“Nice. Weather’s easing up.” He’d checked a few more crows’ nests, but didn’t find anything interesting. Another layer of frustration there.
“You need help with anything around here?” he asked, when what he wanted to ask was,Is Jess home?But he didn’t want Zelda to think there was something going on between the two of them.
“Nope. But you can name some hot young woman after me in your new book. Make sure she’s sassy.” Zelda put her knitting down. “I was about to make some roast beef sandwiches. I made some German potato salad earlier. With dill. Stayin’ for lunch?”
“Yes, ma’am, if I may. I might be a fool about a lot of things, but not fool enough to turn down good food.”
She watched him for a second or two with speculation gleaming in her eyes. “Smart enough to know and grab a good thing when you see it?”
“I’d like to think so.”
