Overkill(41)

“Makes sense, I guess.” He rubbed his scruffy chin with the back of his hand. “I don’t want to hold you up, but I’ve got something I’d like to run past you. I’ll make it quick. Could mean something, could mean nothing.”

“You’ve at least piqued my interest. The room’s a mess. Let me grab a jacket.”

She left the door standing ajar while pulling on the jacket. For good measure, she retrieved a scarf she’d already placed in her suitcase and looped it round her neck. Glancing in the mirror, she fluffed up the hair on the crown of her head. He really should break his bad habit of showing up without notice.

As she went out, she said, “There’s a trail.” She pointed to a signpost. “It makes a circuit.”

“Lead on.”

They entered the trailhead single file, then he moved up beside her. The path was strewn with fallen leaves and dotted with puddles from last night’s rain. As they maneuvered around them, their hips bumped, hands brushed, reminding her of their kiss, replays of which had kept her awake and restless for most of the night.

What had she been thinking? Certainly not about the jeopardy in which she was placing her career. Or the chink it could create in her resolve to get justice, which depended solely on his heart-wrenching decision.

She hadn’t been thinking about any of the wrongness of that embrace. What she’d been thinking is that she wanted to climb him and cling to that marvelous physique like a vine while feasting on his mouth.

She still wanted to.

“You look different this morning,” he said.

“Different how?”

“I’ve never seen you in anything other than a business suit.”

“I have other garments in my wardrobe.”

He grinned. “You sure as hell do justice to those jeans.”

Her cheeks warmed, but she kept her response lighthearted. “Thanks. Is that what ‘could mean something, could mean nothing’?”

“No. That definitely meant something.” Their gazes locked for a couple of seconds, then both returned to looking down at the path. He kicked at a muddy stone and pushed his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. “I came straight here from a conversation with the general manager of GreenRidge. A guy named Mackey Parks. We had an interesting chat.”

She gave a soft laugh. “I don’t doubt that.”

“Not interesting in the way you’re thinking, Kate.”

Before he could elaborate, a woman came around a bend in the pathway. She was being dragged by two leashed golden retrievers. While Kate exchanged greetings with the woman, Zach bent down to scratch each of the exuberant dogs behind the ears, then waited for them to move past before he resumed.

“I went to GreenRidge this morning to make it clear that I wasn’t selling my property. Ever. And then to make it even clearer that I wasn’t vandalizing their development. I told Parks to stop siccing Deputy Morris on me.”

“What was his response?”

When he halted, so did she, and turned to face him. “He said nobody over there has ever associated me with the vandalism. They suspect some kids, a group of pothead punks from one town over, who have prior arrests for that kind of destructive mischief.

“He said my name has never come up in regards to that, only that I’m a pain in the ass for holding out and not selling. He didn’t dispatch Morris to check me out, and had no explanation for why Morris had taken that upon himself.”

“Do you believe him?”

“Parks? Yeah, I do. I don’t like him scarring up the mountainside, but he seemed like a straight shooter.”

“I don’t understand. Why would Dave Morris pick on you?”

“Because of you?”

She thought it over, then shook her head. “The timing doesn’t fit. When I arrived at your house to find him there, he seemed genuinely surprised to see me. I don’t think he knew until then that we were acquainted. He does resent the Super Bowl MVP, though. He remarked on it.”

They fell into step again. “I could be reading too much into it,” he said. “He looks like an ex-jock. Maybe he’s jealous of my glory days. Maybe his curiosity got the better of him. He wanted to check out the has-been, and the vandalism gave him a plausible excuse. I’ve made it no secret that I’m opposed to the development.” They walked on a bit, and then he elbowed her in the side. “He’ll hate seeing you go.”

Again they laughed quietly, although there was no one around to hear them. They hadn’t met anyone on the trail except for the lady with the dogs. The woods were supernaturally still. The only sound was that of their footfalls sifting through the fallen leaves. Those, too, fell silent when they stopped simultaneously and faced each other.

She said, “I need to turn back and get on the road. I notified my office that I would be there by midafternoon.”

“How much longer is this circuit?”

“You’ll do it in twenty minutes.”

“I’m going to continue on, then. I’ve got a lot to think about.”

She smiled with empathy. “Zach, whatever you decide will be the right decision. Either way, make it a choice you can live with without regret or self-reproach. Make it right for you.”

“I want to make it right for Rebecca.”