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Chapter 17

THE NEXT DAY, DORCASstruggled to wrap her brain around the fact she was unemployed.

She’d finally had that talk with her boss, and although Jerry had been sympathetic to her plight, he’d also said he couldn’t afford to hold her position open. It was the first time in over a decade that she didn’t have a job. She had enough money for next month’s rent, but if she didn’t find another source of income soon, she’d be in a world of trouble.

Nate had offered her a position at Six Points, and she appreciated the gesture. Certainly, it would make her life easier, but it also made her uncomfortable. She wasn’t qualified for that kind of work, which made it feel like charity. Plus, their involvement complicated matters. If she took the job, and things went south between them, she’d be unemployed. Again.

Her cynical side insisted their relationship was bound to end, but she simply couldn’t ignore the deepening emotions she felt for him. With each passing day, they grew stronger and stronger, and the L-word was starting to take up residence in her heart and mind.

But did he feel the same way? Honestly, she didn’t know. Yesterday at the gun range, he’d damn near tripped over himself to ensure she didn’t take his words seriously. But the way he looked at her told a much different story. The way he made love to her. It seemed so intense, so passionate. So right. As if they shared a soul-deep connection.

Shoving the thoughts to the back of her mind, Dorcas sat cross-legged on the living room floor and shifted her attention to the papers they’d found in Rita’s storage unit. She wasn’t an accountant by any stretch of the imagination, and nothing in the pages and pages of spreadsheets jumped out at her and said, “This is important!”

Frustrated, she set them aside and picked up the little toy crab that had also been in the box. It was red and yellow, with big googly eyes, faded with age but otherwise in pristine condition. When you wound it up, it would scurry sideways across a flat surface. She turned the souvenir over in her hand, remembering the day her mother had bought it for Rita at one of those tacky gift shops along the beach.

Nate emerged from the hall, dressed in faded jeans and a plain gray shirt, his feet bare and his dark hair damp from a shower. Just the sight of him made her heart flip. He crossed to the kitchen and opened the fridge. “Any luck with the papers?”

“No, I can’t make heads or tails of them.” She held the toy higher for him to see. “There has to be a reason she put this in the box.”

He cracked open an energy drink and took a swig. “Perhaps she was feeling nostalgic.”

“It’s possible, but my gut says no.” As she wound up the toy, she tilted her head to look up at him. “Do you think it was meant as a message?”

“That would mean she assumed you’d find it.”

“Maybe she did.” She set the crab on the coffee table and watched it scurry toward the edge. Before it toppled over, she scooped it up and set it back on the opposite end of the table. “Or at least she hoped I’d find it in the event something happened to her. I mean, there are plenty of places at her house where she could have hidden the key, but she chose to put it in my fridge.”

“Or she could have been covering her ass. Hell, it was dumb luck I found it.” He leaned against the bar separating the kitchen and living room and crossed his feet at the ankles. “Considering how much you hate mayonnaise, that jar could have sat there untouched until the day you moved, and then it would have gone in the trash.”

Dorcas shook her head. “No, she knows I’m big on recycling. Even if I’d decided to throw it out, she knows I’d dump the mayo and recycle the jar, and I probably would have found the key then.”

The expression on his face made it clear what he thought of that scenario. “Okay, if we’re running with the premise of this being some sort of message, then what’s the significance of the toy?”

“Mamá bought it for her the first time we visited the beach after moving to Florida.”

“Which beach?”

“Daytona. We spent the whole day there and all three of us ended up crispier than KFC. After going to the beach, we walked along the boardwalk, and Mamá let us play a few games of Skee-Ball at the arcade.” She smiled at the distant memory, one of the happiest during that particular time of her childhood.

“Was that the only time you went there?”

“No, Mamá took us every summer until my junior year of high school.”

“Why’d you stop?”

She shrugged. “Once the hormones kicked in, it didn’t seem cool to be seen at the beach with my mother.”

Now that Mamá had remarried and moved out of state, Dorcas regretted not having spent more time with her. Once this was all over, she’d call her mom, touch base. Maybe drive up to the Carolinas for a visit, if she could scrape together enough time and money.

“Did Rita have a favorite part of the beach?”