The Wrong Mr. Right (The Queen's Cove Series #2)(64)

Missing hiker in distress in the Pacific Rim area. Thought to be unprepared and severely injured. Airlift may be required.

I frowned. “That’s awful.”

“We have search parties leaving in an hour to canvas the area,” Miri told the group of us.

“If you and Holden are free,” Randeep added to Wyatt, “we could use your help. You two are always camping in that area.”

I froze and turned to Wyatt. It couldn’t be…? He wore a funny expression on his face and my stomach plummeted through my feet to the core of the earth. His mouth ticked like he was trying not to laugh and he nodded, rubbing his jaw.

The woman they had heard, crying out in pain, was me. Crying out for a different reason.

A reason I did not want to have to explain to everyone.

“Sorry,” I cleared my throat. My voice was thin and high. “Um. Why do you think there’s a woman in distress?”

“I was camping out there last night and heard her,” Randeep repeated with wide eyes. “She was moaning in pain. Again and again. Loudly, too. She was hurt. I’m sure of it. We have to help her.” He shook his head. “There was so much moaning.”

“What did the noises sound like?” someone asked Miri.

“They were like unh, unh, unhhhh,” Miri moaned, and my eyes bugged out of my head. “Right, Randeep?”

Randeep shook his head. “Louder and longer, like UNHHHHHHHHH, UNHHHHHHHH.” The crowd around Miri and Randeep grew as people stopped and stared at Randeep moaning. “She even said, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die.”

Wyatt’s hand twitched on my shoulder, and I wished I would die right there. My face blazed with heat.

Don stuck his head through the crowd. “Like unhhhnnn, unhhhhhh? Or like unh-unh-unh?”

I cleared my throat. “I don’t see why this level of detail is important.” My voice warbled and Wyatt’s squeezed my shoulder.

Randeep pointed at Don. “The first one. Really drawn out.”

Don nodded and made a note in his notebook. “Thank you for the clarification. Can I list you as a source?”

My head was about to explode from embarrassment. “Don, are you writing a blog post on this?”

He glanced up at me over his glasses with a frown. “Of course.”

Wyatt rubbed his hand over his mouth and our gazes met, my wide eyes full of fucking mortification and his full of laughter and amusement. His chest shook and he covered a laugh with a cough.

“Excuse us a moment.” He led me away, glancing over his shoulder at them.

We got all the way around the corner before he burst out laughing.

I slapped his arm. “Wyatt! You said we’d be alone.” My voice sounded like a goblin.

His grin stretched ear to ear as he laughed and leaned against the wall. “I thought we would be.”

“This isn’t funny.”

“Oh, bookworm.” He wiped his eyes. “This is so, so funny.”

I peeked around the corner, where the group around Miri grew in number. Randeep was explaining where to meet for the search and rescue, and I winced.

“They’re sending out search parties,” I whispered to Wyatt.

I wanted to hide. I wanted to run into my bookstore, lock the door, flip the sign to closed, and disappear into a book. The search parties would go out and find no one, because there was no one.

But that would be wrong. Super wrong. It would be a waste of everyone’s day. A police cruiser pulled up, and then a firetruck came around the corner.

“Why the hell is the fire department getting involved?” I hissed over my shoulder at Wyatt, who stuck his head out to look.

It would be a waste of town resources. I had to say something. My hands wrung and I swallowed thickly, taking a deep breath. “We have to say something.”

Wyatt’s hand rested on the back of my neck. “You want me to take this one?”

I glanced up at him with hope on my face. “Would you?”

He nodded down at me with a smirk. “I owe you one after this morning.” He winked and dropped a quick kiss on my cheek. “Be right back.”

I peeked around the corner as he approached the group and gestured to Randeep.

“Got a second?”

Randeep followed Wyatt a few steps away. “Do you have some info?”

“Uh, sort of.” Wyatt chuckled. “That woman you heard last night wasn’t in distress.”

Randeep frowned and leaned in. “What do you mean?”

Wyatt cleared his throat and straightened up, looked weirdly proud. “That was Hannah and I.”

Randeep frowned in confusion. “What do you—” His mouth dropped open. “Oh. So you two—” He raised his eyebrows.

Wyatt nodded. “Yep.”

“Well, then.” He put his hands on his hips. “Thank you for telling me. Guess I should call off the search party.” He stared at the ground with a frown, thinking. “You and Hannah Nielsen?”

“Mhm.” Wyatt shifted so I couldn’t see his face.

My heart beat hard in my chest. The way he was talking, he was making it sound like we were…

A couple?

The thought melted into my bloodstream. A couple. Wyatt and I as a couple.

I mean, of course we weren’t. We were practicing. He was helping me and I was helping him.