even looked that much like Lindy. After all, it had been years. Who knew what Lindy would look like now—if she’d still been alive. The last time Charlie had seen Lindy, her stepsister had been seventeen, Charlie fourteen. They both would have changed.
Meanwhile, she tried to concentrate on the positive. She had a date with Daniel tonight. She’d gotten through work without any more packages or visits from The Enforcer. And she’d managed to leave work when everyone else did, avoiding Amanda on her way out.
On the sidewalk outside, she saw that it had started to snow. Flakes hung in air, sparkling in the city’s lights and decorations. There was something about falling snow that always felt magical to her even without the occasional sound of Christmas music.
Despite the holiday cheer, Charlie felt a strange prickling as if someone was watching her. She tried not to look behind her. Surely Amanda was going to let this go now. Charlie went a half block before she dared look back, afraid Amanda might be pursuing her with something sharp like a letter opener.
She felt a moment of relief not to see Amanda coming after her.
Until she saw something even worse.
Lindy Parker stood under one of the street lamps, a silver bell ornament above her head, a shopping bag in one hand, a cell phone in the other, the device against her ear. She was saying something into the phone and wearing a fluffy blue scarf over her coat—the same color and style as Lindy’s favorite one.
Not paying attention to where she was going, Charlie plowed into a group of shoppers who’d stopped on the sidewalk. Off balance, she found herself falling again. Fortunately, this time, a couple of the women in the group steadied her and she managed to stay on her feet.
But when she looked back again, the woman was long gone.
Charlie hurried toward her apartment, wanting only to get inside and lock the doors. The woman had looked so much like Lindy. But ghosts didn’t shop or talk on cell phones, Charlie was pretty sure of that.
Still, she was shaken. Was it possible Lindy was alive? She recognized the blue scarf—just as Lindy would know she would. But if she was alive, then where had she been the past fifteen years? And whose body had been found if not Lindy’s?
The idea was preposterous that the cops had gotten it wrong. The woman she’d seen had to be someone who looked like Lindy. But if true, how did she explain the scarf or the woman’s expression when she’d seen her? Charlie had had the feeling that Lindy had been waiting for her to walk past.
As she neared her apartment, winter darkness settling around her with a cold that reached her bones, she couldn’t wait to get inside. She was digging out her key when she saw something that made her slow her walk to a crawl.
Someone was sitting on her front steps. From the size, it was a man. For just an instant, she thought it might be Daniel.
Then she saw the backpack on the step below him. As she stepped tentatively closer, she saw that he was leaning against the railing, his legs spread out in front of him on the step and what appeared to be a cowboy hat tilted down over his face as if he’d dozed off.
She took in the breadth of his broad shoulders, the length of the denim jeans to his cowboy boots. He looked like a man perfectly comfortable in his own skin and one who hadn’t minded waiting even in the cold.
As if sensing her, he slowly pushed back the hat and lifted his head, his blue eyes pinning her to the spot as her heart dropped.
* * *
WESTLY “SHEP” SHEPHERD couldn’t help but stare. The rebellious, adventurous, outrageous girl he’d known had turned into a knockout-gorgeous young woman. His surprised gaze met Charlie’s even more surprised one and shot off sparks.
“The judge sent you?” Her voice broke. “I told him I was fine. Why would he send you?”
Shep pushed to his feet, settled his Stetson on his head of dark hair and shrugged. “You know the judge. He does what he does and for some reason he seemed to think you needed my help.”
She scoffed at that and tried to step past him, but he grabbed her slim wrist, wrapping his fingers around it, stopping her. He felt a tingle move from his fingers up his arm.
“Charlie, you know how this works.