Page 350 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

It had him off guard to such an extent he didn’t know what to do now. Or what to say.

“You still live in town?” She picked up the box of brownie mix and set it in her cart. When she looked at him, he nodded.

She’d matured since high school.Duh.Good thing he’d kept that thought to himself. He didn’t need to say idiotic things out loud.

“What do you do for work?”

Jacob eyed her. “How do you know I do anything? Maybe I’m a bum.”

Her mouth twitched, but it seemed like she didn’t know if she should laugh. She looked down at his shoes and back up. “I’m not thinking ‘bum.’”

“I’m a photographer.”

“Really?”

He shrugged. It was mostly true, and he couldn’t help thinking about his new book. He needed a subject that captivated him.

Who captivated him the way Addie did? No one, if he was honest.

Not one single subject had ever moved him like her. But then, maybe that wasn’t the nature of how things should be in his work. He might be chasing an idea.

A dream.

Nothing more.

“Your mom had a camera, didn’t she?”

“She gave me my first one in middle school. I didn’t use it much.” Not when his parents used it as a point of contention. “She got it out of the closet again, right after…” He didn’t finish. “It helped.”

“Good.”

“They moved to Florida a few years ago.” He’d never been, and they’d given up calling. Jacob had no desire to be dragged into their battle. “And you’re FBI now? I thought Russ mentioned that.”

“You know my uncle?”

Jacob shrugged. “We have mutual friends. We talk sometimes.”

He knew enough to know she hadn’t been in town in the last couple of years. He didn’t blame her since he lived in apenthouse apartment and only came out when hehadto. Their lives weren’t so different in that respect. Except that she had left and built a career for herself.

They chatted and walked the aisles. He didn’t know half of what he threw in there but hoped it made sense. He should pull the list from his pocket. Only then he’d have to go back through the store and get what he’d missed. That meant Addie would go through the checkout, and he’d lose her.

They headed for the door together. Pushed carts across the lot to where they’d parked. She headed for his space, at the far end of the middle row under the light that had broken months ago—maybe longer.

“So you’re the one.”

She glanced over. “What does that mean?”

“Nothing.” She would think he was crazy, going on about “his” parking space.

Addie turned to him. “Is this it?”

Jacob frowned. “Do you want it to be?”

After everything, he’d feel weird asking her out to coffee. Or dinner. Would she come to his apartment?

Addie beeped the locks on her car. The trunk opened on its own. They both loaded their groceries—his on the passenger seat and footwell, bags of he didn’t know what. Random things he’d tossed in the car while they talked about nothing in particular. Winding through aisles.

He didn’t even care.