“Love!” Her eyes went wide with alarm, and she actually took a step backward. She stared at him in shocked silence for a long, excruciating minute.
Why had he said that? Because his nerves were raw and he was tired of trying to prove himself?
Finally she whispered a question. “Why did you say that?”
“Because it’s true. You need to know that I’ll tell you the truth. I’m an honest man, Savannah. You can trust me. I don’t need you to love me right now … that will come or it won’t. Time will tell. But what I do want … what I do need … is for you to trust me.”
Her mouth flattened. “I came to you last night, didn’t I? Believe me, buster, that took a level of trust.”
“I know it did. It blew me away. You blew me away.”
“Then why now? Why all this … this … information?”
“Like they say, information is power.”
“Power for whom?”
“For us both. I admit I don’t like it when you compare me to your ex.” She opened her mouth, but he held up his hand to ward off her protest. “I do like being open and honest with you. Truth is a powerful thing. You know that better than anyone, I expect. Now, I’ve got to go or I’ll be late and my deputies will make assumptions I’d just as soon not have to deal with.”
He leaned down and gave her a quick, hard kiss, then opened the drawer beside her and removed a key ring with a set of house keys. He handed it to her, then headed for the door. “Lock up when you leave, would you? And why don’t you just keep that set of keys. I’ll call you later. I’ll miss you today.”
“But … but …”
Grinning, he walked away from her and whistled for his dog. Ace came running, and when Zach opened the door to his sheriff’s Range Rover, he bounded up inside.
Zach started the truck and put it into gear as Savannah came out onto the porch and stood gaping after him. He tapped his horn twice, then turned out of his drive onto the road.
A glance into his review mirror showed that she hadn’t moved from his front porch, and Zach’s grin widened into a smile. “There’s a difference between truth and strategy, Ace. An intelligent leader will utilize both.”
Savannah didn’t see Zach again for almost a week. A group of hikers had a confrontation and guns had been fired, wounding two. The shooter ran off into the national forest, and the Eternity Springs Sheriff’s Department had joined an alphabet of other agencies in the search for a man who had eluded capture for going on five days. Local folks concluded that since Zach hadn’t tracked the man by now, the fellow might well have gone to ground—literally. “I’m betting he sneaked into one of the abandoned mines around here,” Sarah observed as she sliced peaches at Savannah’s kitchen table. “We lose someone every summer.”
Ali Timberlake nodded, frowning at the consistency of the cobbler dough she was mixing together at Savannah’s direction. “These weren’t hardened criminals, either, but teenage boys swigging at the liquor bottle and fighting over girls. I am so glad my boys have finally outgrown the infinitely stupid years. They are not quite through the marginally stupid years, but so far so good.”
“People can get in trouble at any age,” Savannah said, placing her sugar canister next to the bowl of sliced fresh peaches. Ali and Sarah had come begging for the secrets of Savannah’s cobbler, and she was teaching by having them do the work. “Believe me. I know.”
She must have revealed something in her tone, because Ali and Sarah shared a look, then Sarah asked, “That sounds like a story. You have something to share with the class, Savannah?”
She considered it. “Well, I could tell you about the time I got into trouble at ten, or the one when I was twelve, or about the doozy of a pickle I got myself into last week.”
“Last week?” Ali and Sarah declared simultaneously.
“I’ll bet it involves Zach,” Ali added.
Sarah nodded briskly. “You had sex with him, didn’t you? I’ll bet he’s really good at it. Am I right? I bet I’m right. His kisses can curl a girl’s toes.”
“That’s true.” Ali nodded.
“Wait a minute. Zach has kissed both of you?”
“We told you that. Haven’t we told you that?”
Now that Sarah mentioned it, yes, they had, but Savannah hadn’t felt nearly