Page 61 of Whisper Of Attraction (Whisper Lake 3)

The hallway led directly into the front room and kitchen, the only two rooms that you could enter or exit the house from. He glanced around the bedroom to assess his options. There weren’t a lot of good ones.

Not having a better idea, he slid open Brynn’s window, popped the screen, and climbed out. He’d seen this exact scene play out in movies.

His feet landed in the flower bed with a thud and knew that Nate was probably getting a kick out of watching this on surveillance. He replaced the screen and was about to turn the corner to walk around to the back of the house when he felt someone watching him and realized that Nate wasn’t his only audience. He turned his head, slowly.

Mrs. Dobrowski was walking across the street. When they made eye contact he froze for a brief moment, unsure of what to do. She may look like the stereotypical sweet, little old lady, but in this case looks were definitely deceiving.

The Betty White lookalike was infamous in Whisper Lake for few things: knowing everything about everyone, running her knitting group The Needlepoint Mafia like a crime organization, and being the ringleader of a much smaller group of women that liked to play matchmaker.

In theory, none of those things should strike fear in Axel. But somehow, two of them did. In the few interactions he’d had with Mrs. D, she’d proved a worthy adversary in her interrogation skills. A lesser man would’ve surely broken. And although from what he’d heard, she and her cohorts had limited their meddling to residents of Whisper Lake, he feared that she’d make an exception with him and he’d become their next target.

Lifting his hand in a casual wave, he did his best not to look guilty sneaking out of Brynn’s bedroom window. He thought about saying good morning, but since that was out of character for him, he decided to just continue on his way and pretend as if his behavior was totally reasonable.

In his experience, that was where a lot of people went wrong and got caught when they were doing things they shouldn’t be. They behaved strangely. The key was not to do anything out of the ordinary to raise suspicion. If he had a good reason for climbing out of Brynn’s window at seven in the morning, he wouldn’t care if Mrs. D saw him or not, so that was exactly how he should behave.

When he got to the backyard, he heard voices and realized that Brynn must be taking Izzy up to the apartment. She knew he wasn’t in it, but she was smart. She was doing exactly what he’d done with Mrs. D. If Axel hadn’t spent the night at her house, he would most likely be up in the apartment.

Why wouldn’t she take his sister there?

Which brought him back to the panic that had been held at bay while he figured out his escape.

What was Izzy doing here? And how in the hell had she gotten here?

He knew he couldn’t make it up the stairs before they got up there, so he decided to pretend as if he was just coming home.

When he turned the corner, the three ladies were crossing the back deck.

Axel had planned on pretending to be shocked to see Izzy but it turned out no acting was required. It had been a little more than a month since he’d dropped her off at school and she looked different. Older. Her round face had thinned out, showcasing the high cheekbones that she’d inherited from her father. This made her lips and eyes look even larger.

Brynn was the first to notice him. They locked eyes for an all-too-brief moment and there was an unspoken I-didn’t-know-what-to-do between them. But it was over in the blink of an eye.

“There you are!” Brynn smiled widely before outstretching her arms as she presented his sister. “Look who’s here!”

“Hey,” Izzy smiled widely and Axel could see that she was nervous. “Surprise!”

“What are you doing here? Are you okay?” His brows pulled together.

“I’m fine.” Her smile faltered and she spoke through clenched teeth.

It was obvious that his questions had irritated her.

But that was tough shit considering she was supposed to be seventy-five miles away at school.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s so good to see you, too, big brother. I missed you.” The sarcasm that dripped from her statement was impossible to miss.

“I miss you, too, but I still want to know what you’re doing here.”

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Jess and Brynn watching the exchange like they were front row at Wimbledon.

“Well!” Brynn clapped her hands together cheerfully. “We’ll let you guys catch up.” She turned and practically shoved Jess, who looked like she had no plans to move, back into the house.

Without speaking, he grabbed Izzy’s bag that was slung over her shoulder and went up the wooden steps. She followed behind him silently. When they got into the apartment, he hadn’t even shut the door before she was making her case.

“I’m not going back there.”

Before they talked about her going back, which was definitely going to happen, Axel wanted to know how she got here in the first place.

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