Page 81 of Swept for Forever
I huffed a laugh. “Says the guy who owns both.”
He scoffed. “Anyway, I was thinking. You should swing by The Lazy Moose. Claire, Maya, and Riley are on kitchen duty. It’s gonna be a feast. And you know Reko’s been moping without you.”
“Your giant teddy bear of a dog?”
“He misses your legal advice.”
I smiled despite myself. “Tell him I bill by the belly rub.”
“Then come earn your paycheck.”
“I want to. I do. Just…not today.”
There was a pause. “Dom? What’s going on?”
I could’ve thrown out something easy. I could have said I wasn’t feeling great or some other half-hearted excuse. But this was Noah. He’d see right through it.
“It’s a girl.”
A beat of silence ensued, then he gasped, “Oh damn, is it grilling time already?”
That earned a real laugh. But I couldn’t keep up the charade. “It’s not like that. It’s complicated.”
He sobered instantly. “How bad?”
“Bad enough that I’m dodging potlucks and hiding out like some lovesick idiot.”
“Shit. Sorry, man.”
“You didn’t do anything. I just…I didn’t think I’d end up following in your footsteps when it comes to high-stakes romance.”
“Ah. Life, eh? But I’m here for you, man. I mean it. You need anything?”
“I wish it were something you could fix.”
“All right. Well, I’m here if that changes.”
“I know.” I rubbed my temple. “Thanks, Noah. I’ll call you later.”
“You’d better. And Dom?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t disappear.”
“I won’t,” I said. “Not until I look her in the eye and get the truth.”
I forced myself back into motion. Thinking as a lawyer meant starting with what I knew. And right now? That wasn’t much.
Her last name was as common as anything. Jones.
And she’d told me she was from Cheyenne.
Cheyenne,Wyoming
I’d already run this search. But this time, I wasn’t doing it like a small-town armchair sleuth.
This time, I was in the city she said she came from. I was parked in the dappled shade of a tired street tree. This was a place with churches on corners and middle school mascots painted on fences.
