walked some more. “Do you know what true geekdom is?” he asked lightly.
“No. Do tell.”
“It’s when you look at your weather apps to see if it’s raining, instead of opening the curtains and looking out the window.”
She burst out laughing. So did he.
“Do you do that?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Once in a while.”
“Me, too.”
“I live on apps that cover weather, space, volcanoes, earthquakes, that sort of geeky stuff, when I’m not up to my neck in business matters.”
“I have five earthquake apps, two volcano ones and about six weather apps,” she confessed.
He beamed. “Well!”
“I guess it comes from spending so much time alone.”
“How about social media?” he asked.
“Twitter.”
He named a few others.
She shook her head. “I don’t mix well,” she replied. “And I wouldn’t air my dirty linen online, no matter how popular it is.”
“I feel the same way.”
They walked some more. She still had her pretty seashell in one hand. She turned it over in her fingers and looked at it. She knew that she’d keep it forever. And every time she looked at it, she’d remember walking on the beach in St. Augustine with Jake.
* * *
THEY WERE ALMOST back at the restaurant when he spotted something in the surf. He let go of her hand to retrieve it.
His was a tiny spiral seashell, but it also had the delicate pink coloring inside. He gave it to her.
“It’s pretty,” she said.
He took it back, to her surprise. “Souvenir,” he said absently and stuck it in his shirt pocket without further comment.
She felt odd. Happy. Safe. But her emotions were in turmoil. She wasn’t sure what was happening to her. She wasn’t sure she liked it, either.
They went back home with a strange silence between them. It was pleasant, but disturbing. The ease of speaking to one another seemed to have been replaced with an odd restlessness. Ida didn’t understand why. But she smiled and made small talk just to relieve the tension.
* * *
JAKE’S CHAUFFEUR WAS waiting for them at the Catelow airport. He drove them back to Ida’s small ranch.
They sat apart in the back seat.
“Thank you so much for lunch,” Ida said as the ranch house came into view. “It was kind of you to ask me along. I’ve never tasted food that was so good.”
“Same here.” He was being pleasant, but there was something different under the surface, like currents under a calm sea.
The limo pulled up in front of her door. The lights were all off. The house looked lonely and cold and somehow foreboding.
Jake came around to help her out of the car and walked her up onto the porch.
She hesitated. She didn’t know why. She felt something, like a shiver going down her spine.
Jake looked down at her with eyes she couldn’t see. His face was in shadow, but she felt anger in him.
“Thanks again,” she began.
He stuck his hands in his pockets. It kept him from doing what he wanted to do. “No problem.”
“Good night,” she said.
He just nodded.
She turned and started to unlock the door. She hesitated. “I know I locked it...”
He moved her back and pushed open the door, searching for the light switch at the same time.
What met his eyes made him furious.
CHAPTER EIGHT
JAKE WAS SO silent that Ida moved up behind him and looked past him at her living room.
“Oh, my God!” She moved forward, but he caught her. “Butler! No,” she sobbed. “No!”
Jake went around her, following the thin blood trail to her big yellow cat. Butler was lying on a throw rug, not moving.
“I wish I knew a hit man!” she sobbed. “I’d send him after Bailey Trent this very minute! He killed my cat! He killed my baby!”
Jake had a hand on the cat. He caught his breath. “He’s still alive. Can you go and have Fred open the back door of the limo? I’ll carry him. We’ll get him to the vet right now!”
“Still...alive?” she choked, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Yes!”
* * *
THEY GOT HIM in the back seat. Ida didn’t bother to lock the door. Whoever had injured her cat hadn’t been stopped by a lock, after all.
Fred, Jake’s driver, was a wild man when he was given the green light to break speed limits. They pulled up in front of the vet’s office in scant minutes, where they were met by the vet himself, who’d come from home after Jake’s phone call from the limo.
“Bring him right in,” the vet said quickly.
Jake took the cat, wrapped up in the throw rug