Page 67 of The Last Love Song
“Nice.” The lady cop smiled warmly and didn’t comment on the tearful scene. She dug in her pocket and jingled some change. “I’ll grab a third soda and meet you in there.”
She backed out of the restroom, leaving Megan and Bailey alone again.
“She seems okay.” Bailey splashed cold water on her face.
“She seems like she’ll make sure J.D. gets what’s coming to him,” Megan corrected her.
But a part of her wondered if J.D. was totally to blame for harassing her. If he’d sent the text messages, wouldn’t he have admitted it last night?
“My mom is going to kill me for this.” Bailey dried off her face.
“It’s not her getting bullied, though, is it?” Megan picked up Bailey’s backpack and handed it to her. “Besides, only seven months to graduation and we can ditch this town and everyone in it.”
“It’s become my daily mantra,” Bailey grumbled. “Until then, maybe if we stick together, we can keep J.D. from ruining our lives.”
Stick together. The words echoed inside Megan’s head as they left the bathroom and headed forthe guidance office. She hadn’t realized until today how much she needed a friend. Not her dad. Not gamer buddies. Not even Wade. But a true friend.
“If anything,” Megan whispered as they walked past the Spanish classrooms. “We can probably keep him from ruining our friendship.”
Bailey’s cheeks lifted a fraction. The barest hint of a dimple showed on one side.
“That’d be unbelievably cool.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Could you getany slower, old man?”
Zach ignored Sam’s shouted insult as they ran up the hill behind the quarry on the outskirts of Heartache. At six in the morning, there was no traffic out here. The trucks hauling shale wouldn’t get under way for at least a couple more hours and the teenage kids who came up here at night to make mischief had long ago found their beds.
The hill’s incline was a killer. Sam worked out like this most days, whereas Zach had signed on for only three days a week.
“Just trying to give you a chance to feel good about yourself,” Zach said between clenched teeth, hating the endless uphill climb of their usual weekend route.
Five days after he’d taken Heather to the hospital, Zach still didn’t have his head on straight about her, the ER visit or anything else in his life. He’d hoped the morning run would distract him as Sam took sadistic pleasure in making the Sunday workout as grueling as possible.
“Kind of you.” Sam grinned at him, jogging backward so he could gloat full face and full force. “But I’m not sure I can feel good about this run until you’re too worn out to brood over Heather Finley for at least a few hours.”
“You’re asking for it, Reyes,” Zach muttered, sweat dripping into his eyes despite the chill in the air from a cold front that had moved in during the week. “And if you’d do your damn job and clear her old man, Heather would be long gone and out of my head.”
Yeah, right. As if he could ever work her out of his system. He was so screwed. But he could make life easier for her. Lessening her stress would help her illness. He knew that much for sure.
Sam snorted as he turned around to sprint the rest of the hill. He might pretend to have an easier time of the run, but while the guy could bench-press his body weight a few times over, Zach’s leaner build could track circles around him. Usually. He was only dogging it today because he’d taken last Sunday off for Erin Finley’s wedding breakfast.
“I’m not the one who took all week to start analyzing his personal-computer files.” Sam kept his eye on the top of the hill, his thicker build starting to slow him.
At last.
“Who knew the former mayor would have a hard drive from the Stone Age. I had to special order a cable to connect my equipment to an adapter.” Zach had learned his predecessor was thrifty to the extreme. “The program should finish running tonight.”
He felt as if he was wading through peanut butter at this point. And not just to get up the rest of the damn hill. He had no answers on the town’s missing funds. He couldn’t make the pieces add up in the odd assortment of reported incidents around the deserted roads near the quarry, which brought him no closer to his sister’s old stalker. He couldn’t move things forward with Heather because she didn’t want anything serious—she’d made that clear with all the boundaries she’d put up, starting at the hospital.
Digging deep, Zach found another gear and picked up his pace. He might not control what went on in Heather’s head or the choices her old man had made while he was in office, but Zach could damn well beat Sam to the top of the hill.
“Bastard,” he heard Sam growl behind him—too close for comfort.
Running harder, Zach kicked up gravel and nearly skidded as he finally hit level surface at the top of Lookout Point. He didn’t stop moving, but it felt damn good to slow to a walk. Peeling off his cap, he let the cold wind blow through his hair. The trees up here were changing colors, a few red leaves drying to a crisp on the ground beneath his feet, others floating on the breeze on their way down.
A few hundred yards below them, cornfields, orchards and cow pastures dotted the landscape. In the distance were the pond and the fairgrounds where the harvest festival would take place, along with the new add-on—Lumberjack Days.
