spin.
She rolled her eyes but accommodated the simple request, enjoying the breezy feeling of the cotton summer dress flowing around her knees. The snug black and white material hugged her from breasts to hips, then dropped in flattering waves. She’d only worn it once before and was glad she’d discovered it at the back of the closet at her apartment.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at the benefit?”
“Just running a little late.” Not unheard of when she mixed work with renovations. She’d lost track of time while painting her nan’s sewing room, preferring to do that room herself.
She grabbed her forgotten cell phone off her desk, and when she turned back around, Gauthier was already walking away, probably heading for the bathroom to clean his shirt off.
“Hayley,” the rookie from the other night walked toward her, a couple in their midforties trailing close behind. “Could you show this couple down the hall? I’m going to send Gauthier in to talk to them. Our favorite felon struck again.”
“May I?” She took the file he held out, skimming the preliminary notes on the break-in at their rented condo and reported loss of nearly two thousand dollars in cash. Clearly not credit card or travelers check people. She noted the address, putting it in a more upscale tourist area that their thief hadn’t ventured into before now.
Resisting the urge to volunteer to interview them in more depth herself, she motioned for them to precede her down the hall. “Detective Gauthier will be right with you.”
“Aren’t you the cop who—”
Hayley inwardly braced for “…is dating that hockey player.”
“—chased down the burglar a couple nights ago?” The woman pointed to the stitches at Hayley’s hairline.
Relieved that their recognition had nothing to do with Jackson, she nodded. Maybe she had gotten too caught up in what people thought, forgetting her work spoke for itself.
“I think we should talk to you instead.”
Hayley glanced at her watch, knowing she was going to be cutting it awfully close. “No problem.”
She led them into the small conference room, making a few additional notes and trying to figure out why the couple appeared familiar. At first she thought maybe they’d been in town for the wedding, but a memory of seeing them with Eric at Stone’s earlier this week solved the mystery.
Forty-five minutes later Hayley hurried up the steps to Stone’s. Finding a spot had been impossible, forcing her to park a few blocks down.
She walked right into a wall of people standing around. Apologizing, she squeezed past them just as she spotted Jackson on the makeshift stage where the dance floor normally was.
She grinned, her smile falling almost just as quickly as the auctioneer she couldn’t see announced, “Sold!”
Chapter Twelve
Bernice had won Jackson. Shit.
Hayley stared as the crowd surged forward, some laughing and high-fiving Bernice, others just shaking their heads when they noticed her nearby. She forced a smile, a little stunned to find she had to make an effort to pull it off.
She hadn’t planned on bidding at the start, and yet somewhere between then and now she’d decided to go ahead, and she was too late.
“Did you two break up?”
She ignored the question from a woman next to her, telling herself she wasn’t that disappointed. She and Jackson weren’t a real couple like everyone else believed. He wasn’t staying in Promise Harbor. So why was her stomach in knots at the thought of him going on a pointless date with anyone else?
Hayley gave up on trying to get through the crowd when she spotted Bernice throwing her arms around Jackson. Why couldn’t someone else have won him, anyone else? Someone who wouldn’t set out to rub it in Hayley’s face.
Retreating to the bar, where the crowd was a little thinner, she slipped behind the counter. She didn’t wait for Matt to ask for help. She jumped right into filling drink orders. It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes before Jackson found her.
He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Hi.”
“Hey.” She set a glass of wine in front of the woman standing opposite her. “Guess I missed all the action. I got hung up at work,” she added when he didn’t say anything.
“Uh-huh.”
“Another robbery case.” She wouldn’t know if they were connected until she reviewed the security footage outside the condo that they’d have access to in the morning.
“No big deal.” He shrugged, his shoulders stiff despite the dismissive gesture. “Not like you were going to bid anyway, right?” He offered another smile, this one noticeably forced.
She’d