In Your Dreams (Blue Heron #4)(39)

“Okay, this isn’t working,” she said aloud, flinging back the covers. Time for a little fresh air.

She went out onto the balcony, which was teeny but adorable, red trumpet vine curling up through the post. A small iron table, two tiny chairs. She breathed in the cool salty air. Maybe she’d have coffee out here in the morning. But wait...no. The ranch was also caffeine-free. Horrible place.

She glanced over at Jack’s balcony, which was identical to hers. He’d left the slider open, and his curtain fluttered out in the breeze. She hoped he’d enjoy the weekend, being out of Manningsport in the land of sunshine and ocean. He really was an awfully good guy.

The lawns of Rancho de la Luna spread out before her, dark and green. The whip-poor-will called again, lonely in the quiet. The breeze was jasmine scented, a fragrance Em well remembered from her childhood, and she thought she could catch the sound of the gentle Pacific lapping at the sandy shore. Or maybe those were cars down on the Pacific Coast Highway. Either way, Rancho de la Luna certainly had a prime location. God only knew what this wedding would cost. The place itself had to be top dollar, let alone the food, band, flowers and activities.

Em’s wedding was going to have been in her parents’ house. Mom and Dad had worked side by side in silence each weekend for a year, getting the yard ready. Dad had even built a trellised archway, an adorably crooked little structure.

Boo-hoo-hoo. There were worse things in the world than being jilted by a fiancé. She knew that. She’d made a nice life for herself in Manningsport. Loved her job. Loved her boss, loved Carol, even loved the dopey Everett. She had friends. She had a dog.

It was just that feeling of being alone. Coming home to an empty, dark house night after night. Week after week after month of not finding anyone she could picture spending a lifetime with.

Seemed like Kevin had been the love of her life. Old Kevin, that was.

She sighed and looked at her watch. She’d been awake for an hour already. Well, the Kindle hadn’t been invented for nothing. “Elmore Leonard, here we come,” she muttered.

She jumped at the sound of a thud from Jack’s room. A really loud thud. “Jack? You okay?” she called.

He didn’t answer.

“Jack?”

Emmaline went back inside. A door joined their rooms, and she knocked. “Jack? You okay?”

Nada.

Then there was another crash and some glass breaking.

The door was locked. “Jack! Open the door, buddy.”

She didn’t hear any movement inside.

She knocked again, more loudly this time. “Jack, it’s Emmaline. Open up, okay?”

Five seconds, and no answer.

Okay. Time for some police work.

* * *

HE HAD JOSH DEINER by the arm now, and he was pulling him up. And really, this wasn’t so hard after all; why had he been dreading going down here? It wasn’t even cold, which was weird, because Anderson Cooper was on the shore narrating the action, and he kept saying how cold it was.

The car was deeper than Jack remembered, but that was okay, because it was warm and there were sea otters and the Deiner kid was even smiling a little, as if this was almost a joke between him and Jack. He wouldn’t open his eyes, though. The other boys had. They’d swum as gracefully as the otters, but Josh was pretending to be unconscious, probably because he wanted to be an actor. Jack knew that because Anderson Cooper had said so.

Then all the sea otters darted away, like fish do when the shark is coming.

But it was cold, all of a sudden, and Jack looked up. Maybe he shouldn’t have swum so far down, because the surface was far, far away. Weird that he could hold his breath this long. Actually, he couldn’t, could he?

Suddenly, his lungs felt like chunks of coal, and it was getting dark; oh, shit, the ice was closing over them, a solid ceiling of ice blocking out the purple and red sunset, and Jack heard it close, it closed with a crash like glass, and he really, really needed to breathe now. He looked at Josh, and Josh’s eyes were open now, and he was smiling, but it wasn’t a nice smile. He grabbed Jack’s arm and started sinking, pulling Jack down because Josh was already dead and furious that Jack hadn’t saved him, and he wasn’t going to be dead alone. Jack tried to pull free, tried to hit Josh in the face, but his arms were too heavy and slow, so he pinned the boy against the car—

“Jack! Jack! You’re okay. You’re dreaming, that’s all.”

There was a woman here. Underneath him.

“Hi,” she said. “Wake up, buddy.”

Right. Emmaline. He was gripping her wrists, the sheets twisted around him, and had her half pinned. The small lamp on the desk had been turned on.

He jerked back, releasing her wrists. “I’m sorry,” he said, and his voice was hoarse. He ran a hand through his hair and found that it was sweaty. He was sweaty, in fact. All of him.

“Want a drink of water?” she asked, oddly calm for a woman who’d just been grabbed by a na**d sweaty man.

Oh, yeah. He was naked, too. He always slept that way.

She didn’t wait for an answer, just got up and went into the bathroom. He sat against the headboard and straightened the covers. Looked around, his breath still coming hard.

Actually, he had a glass of water somewhere. Ah. There it was, shattered on the floor, alongside the lamp.

Fourth time this week he’d had the same dream, more or less. The sea otters had been new.