“It’s a date.” He leaned forward and she met him halfway. God, the man could kiss, and the tingling sensation of wanting more always surfaced around him. She was excited and terrified at the same time. Excited to be with a man again, terrified that keeping it casual would rip her heart out. In such a short time she’d developed feelings for him. Boy, she’d pegged it last night. He was going to be trouble and probably rip her heart out when he left, but there was no way she’d deny herself this happiness.
They finished their coffee while talking of childhood memories of Alabama. “Did you ever go to the peanut festival?” he asked as he boxed up the remnants of their meal.
“Several times, that and the blueberry festivals. My mee-maw was a fantastic cook and she made blueberry preserves that were phenomenal.” She drank the last of her coffee.
“I get that. My grandmother and grandfather were the best. They lived life in a different era, and I think that’s why spending time with them was so special.”
She nodded as they both stood. “I agree. Be careful driving, the bucks are in rut and they lose their minds.”
Jeremiah pulled her into an embrace and rocked back and forth a bit as he looked down at her. “The bucks are not the only thing in rut. Lose the doctor. I’ll be over when I get back.”
She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’ll make sure he’s gone or find him a bed to sleep in tonight. One that’s not here.”
Jeremiah bent down and kissed her. “Until then.” She held his gaze until he smiled and headed back across the street. The wide V of his muscled shoulders and back narrowed at his hips and tapered through his long, muscular legs. She shivered as memories of their physical electricity zinged through her mind. Was she a fool? Probably. But she was unable to resist the pull of that man. Unable and unwilling. She’d never been so forward before, but then a lot of life had floated past her. She wasn’t going to watch the river of life pass by her any longer. She was jumping in headfirst and seeing what was around the next bend. Eden leaned against the porch post and stared at the cafe until she heard Phil open his garage door. She stepped off the porch and headed that direction. It was time to get to a place for Zeke to rent, and she was going to find it today.
Chapter 12
Remi turned off the radio in Gen’s truck and rode in silence heading south. That damn Zeke had pissed him off last night, but once he had distance and time behind him, he’d admit the man looked wiped out. He’d fallen asleep thinking of Eden and awakened to a nightmare of Cyrus holding a knife to Eden’s throat. He processed that dream now while he was alone and had time to think. In fact, he’d learned the psychoanalytic theories about dream interpretations. Freudian theories were a mandatory study, after all. Cyrus’ presence was understandable. The traumatic events of the recent past were still being processed by his conscious and subconscious. And Eden? Well, his subconscious recognized that she was important to him. He lowered his window and let the air blow around him, resting his elbow on the door. Unobtrusive turnoffs to gravel roads punctuated the vast expanses of land.
Miles and miles of fence line dissolved into miles and miles of time to think and process. The trip to Hollister had been about not thinking about the incident, about pushing past it to make forward progress, to live his life, but the trauma stayed with him. Talking to Jamison once a week would help, but with his knowledge, sorting through the memories and pulling them out one by one was something he could do alone. If he ran across something that he couldn’t work through, he’d bring it up to Jamison. So, he started with the thought that had been at the forefront for weeks now.
Why did Cyrus want to kill him?
Jeremiah glanced at the rearview mirror. There was no logical explanation for the way the man had fixated on himself and Agent Docker. But then again, when dealing with an antisocial personality disorder it wasn’t always easy to peg the “whys.” The man was a psychopath with a lack of empathy and remorse coupled with his manipulative callousness that were textbook examples of the