Page 45 of Colton's Secret Weapon
The second she saw the twenty-eight-year-old pilot, she knew she’d made the right choice to be there. Hetty might still be figuring out how to tune in to her own inner voices, but as far as people went, she was as strong as they came. And, being a year older than Dove, she had been someone Dove had looked up to in high school.
When you lived in a small town your whole life, it always seemed to come down to that. Who was who, who they knew and who they hung with in high school. Hetty’s light green eyes were troubled as she gazed into Dove’s.
“There’s lots of reason to hope,” Dove blurted the first thing that came to her mind. And knew she was okay when the words sank in. She’d said what she’d needed to hear. It had just taken someone else needing to hear to get it firmly planted within and without her.
“I heard he’s stable,” Hetty said, without asking a single question about what had been going on in Dove’s most recent past.
Hetty would have gotten the email that Dove had sent to all her clients that morning, letting them know that thestudio would be closed for the next few days due to her father’s disappearance. There’d been no reason to couch the news. People who knew would hear the truth from her—or the grapevine. She figured it had been better, less alarming, coming straight from her.
Still didn’t say how the injured pilot had heard the most recent details.
“Spence told me,” Hetty said before Dove had responded. And then the woman gave a somewhat sheepish grin. “Look at us,” she said softly, as they sat sipping the coffee they’d ordered from the counter as they’d first come in. “Who’d have thought that I’d actually be dating Spence Colton, and you… I hear you’re staying at Mitchell’s place?”
She nodded. Met Hetty’s gaze. And said, “It’s mostly a business relationship,” her truth ringing loud and clear. “I mean, he’s sexy and all, but we’re so different. I’m sure the gossip is going to have us in a relationship, but I want you to hear it straight from me. Not happening.” The words sounded so final, and not exactly accurate, so she added, “I think he might be a friend for life, though.”
Warmth flooded her. As though a source higher than herself was confirming the accuracy of her proclamation. She sat back in possession of another huge reason to be thankful and listened while Hetty told her that her doctor had just said that her wound was almost completely healed and Hetty should be able to start back at Namaste as early as the following week.
Assuming classes were back in session.
As far as Dove knew, no one was aware of the vandalism that took place at Namaste other than two people from Repo, the police and her. It wasn’t that she had any reason or desire to be duplicitous about the attack: she was just trying to protect her clients from any residual negative energy the mental picture would build to slow down their healing process if they knewthe sacred space had been violated. She was about to tell Hetty, though, when Lakin Colton, Mitchell’s adored adopted sister appeared, pushing in through the door and, seeing them, headed straight for their table.
While Dove had looked up to Hetty in high school, Lakin and Hetty had actually been close friends. How much of that was because they had crushes on each other’s brothers, Dove didn’t know. But she’d always wondered.
“I’m so sorry to hear about your father, Dove,” Lakin said, her eyes wide with compassion. And warmth. “And I’m praying for him, too.”
Kind of uncomfortable with the attention she’d been getting at the hospital…the reaching out to her as though she was a regular person, not just a flighty believer in things unseen… Dove nodded. “Thanks,” she said. “He was found alive. The rest will come.” She had to state intention.
No matter what others might think of her.
And the fact that she was staying with the woman’s older brother? That might have put a bit of a defensive wall up inside Dove where Lakin was concerned. She didn’t want to know what Mitchell’s close-knit family would be saying to him about having the odd woman in town living with him. Didn’t even want to think about them thinking it. Which was why she had to shield herself from Lakin.
Who’d turned to Hetty, anyway, letting Dove off the hook.
“Did you hear?” Lakin asked Hetty. “Troy’s due back next week.” And Dove had to smile as she heard the words. Troy was Hetty’s brother, but Lakin as his girlfriend got the news.
Did that mean that as the one staying with Mitchell, she knew more about what was going on with him than his sister did? She could hope, couldn’t she?
What other choice did she have? It wasn’t like she’d be asking Lakin what Mitchell might have said about her.
At least she wanted to hope she wouldn’t have been that weak, stooped that low, but was saved from finding out as Lakin, hearing the bell at the counter, glanced up and said, “That’s my order, gotta go” as she left the table.
But as she collected her take-out drink holder, Lakin stopped back by the table, her glance specifically on Dove. “Seriously, you’re in my thoughts. And I want you to know my brothers, my cousin Kansas, they’ll get whoever did this. They won’t stop until they do.”
The promise broke through the defenses Dove had so quickly thrown up when Lakin had first appeared, and she was moved by the woman’s sincerity. “Thank you,” she said, almost tearing up. “That’s just what I needed to hear.”
Lakin had just confirmed, heart to heart, what Dove had known but apparently had needed to hear again.
She could lean on Mitchell, just as she’d thought she’d been meant to do. Not just with approval from her spirits but from his family as well.
But more importantly, she could trust him with her life.
Chapter 14
She wasn’t there. Approaching Whaler’s room, seeing in through the opened door before he arrived, he could see part of the man’s body in the bed, but no sign of Dove. The chair pulled up to the bed was empty. Blowing right past the officer standing a couple of feet to the right of the door, he burst into the room, his gaze taking in every inch of floorboard around the room, expecting to see her sitting, back up to the wall, eyes closed. He saw nothing but floor. And molding.
No Dove.
Two strides took him back to the door, and a young officer he hadn’t yet met. “Where’s Dove?”
