Page 28

Nolan stood with his teammates on the inn’s veranda, overlooking Founder’s Day in full swing on Main Street below. In a few hours they would be responsible for hosting the kid’s art project, but for now they were free to enjoy the day.

If they could, after Mayor Sutton’s death. They’d been so focused on finding Becca and bringing Dr. Osborne to justice, that they hadn’t properly dealt with things, and there was an uneasy undercurrent in the team.

Jude slid onto the railing. “It’s so crazy, man. I still can’t believe the ME was responsible for killing the mayor.”

Reece dropped into the wide porch swing next to Abby. A shaft of sunlight crossed her face, and she lifted her hand over her eyes. “It might blow us away, but we didn’t know him very well. Can you imagine what the locals must think?”

Nolan had spoken to several people, and he’d also talked to Mina, who relayed the town’s shock and dismay. “It’s a surprise. A big one. A shock, really. I’ve heard there was no inkling that he wasn’t the kind doctor he portrayed himself to be.”

Gabe narrowed his eyes. “Just goes to show you don’t know people like you think you do.”

The zeal in his tone said he could only be thinking of one thing. His family—a bunch of criminal slackers who he’d left behind when he graduated from high school. He hadn’t known their proclivity for crime until he reached his freshman year, and his father was arrested and convicted of armed robbery. He’d survived four years of being razzed about that in his small town.

Hayden perched next to Jude. “Too bad Percy Vaughn hasn’t remembered whatever secret he claims the mayor told him. I’d like to put that to rest too. And find out where that money was going.”

“Dude.” Jude grinned. “You’re only interested in finding out if Cadence has moved here.”

Hayden socked his teammate in the arm. “You’re wrong. I honestly want to know if Percy remembered anything.”

“I believe you.” Jude’s grin widened. “Not.”

Nolan stepped between his teammates before they really started duking it out. “Has anyone heard from Percy or Cadence?”

“Actually, I have.” Hayden shifted on the railing. “I’ve gone by a few times to check on him.”

“Ri-i-ght. To check on Percy.” Jude chuckled.

“Hey, I liked the old guy,” Hayden said. “He still doesn’t seem to remember who the people were that he thought the mayor was helping with his money. We may never find out.”

“Dementia is a bear,” Abby said. “Remember to keep praying for Percy and Cadence because it doesn’t only affect the one with the disease.”

“In case anyone is interested.” Hayden glanced around the group.“Cadence is going to take her dad back to Portland after Founder’s Day. He wanted to stay for the mayor’s memorial presentation tonight.”

He swiveled to look over the town, and Nolan couldn’t get a take on how his teammate felt about her not moving here to take care of her dad, as she’d once mentioned.

“Hey man,” Hayden said. “Isn’t that Mina coming up the hill?”

Eager to lay eyes on her, Nolan pinned his focus on the road.

“Come on, guys.” Abby got up and stretched. “Let’s get ready for the art project and let these two have some time alone.”

Reece stood. “Tell Mina we said hi.”

Hayden got up and rested his hand on Nolan’s uninjured shoulder. “Good luck, man. We’re all pulling for you two.”

“What he said,” Jude said as he passed by.

“You got this, man,” Gabe said. “If only I could be as confident in that art project. Maybe if we fail, I can offer rides on my motorcycle.”

Nolan laughed, which he knew was Gabe’s intent, but still, his palms started sweating. He hadn’t seen Mina since the night in the ER, when the doctor cleaned and bandaged up his arm and pronounced him good to go. They’d spoken on the phone, and she’d been vague about talking to her family. If she’d done so or was even going to, he had no idea.

And then what? Would she be able to forgive him if she thought he was guilty of abandoning her? Had she talked to her family and was on the outs with them, blaming Nolan for that?

His gut clenched. He wanted to see her, but he didn’t at the same time. Didn’t matter what he wanted. There she was, walking up the hill toward the inn, and he hoped all would be revealed.

She was dressed in uniform, the khaki pants and shirt emphasizing her curves. The blond waves in her hair were tucked up behind but still shone in the sunlight. The uniform wasn’t a surprise. She would be on duty for Founder’s Day, like most of her deputies, to make sure no one got out of control during the celebration.

They’d been blessed with a warm, sunshiny day for this time in March when it typically rained and the skies were cloudy and gloomy. The sun glistened off the waves gently rolling in from the ocean behind him and lit up the landscape that had turned a lush green from all the rain.

Maybe the calm waves were a sign to Nolan that all was calm with Mina. He didn’t usually believe in signs, but he was grasping for anything today. He’d had time to replay every minute he’d spent with her, to rehash the recent phone calls, and knew that just like back in the day, he still loved her. Loved her completely and forever. The marrying kind of love.

He was prepared to ask her to marry him, but he hadn’t bought a ring. Wouldn’t buy a ring until he knew their past had been resolved.

He couldn’t wait at the entrance any longer and jogged down to meet her at the edge of the parking lot. She looked up at him and smiled. That dazzling smile that sent his heart racing.

Was she telegraphing something good was about to happen?

“Mind if we go to the lookout?” she asked, her smile wavering.

“Of course.” He turned to let her go first.

“If I have to take my phone out, I’ll be sure to keep a better hold on it.” She laughed, but it was a nervous laugh.

Was it because she was bringing up the last time they saw each other before he’d left? Or was it just because she was remembering their time together in the past, and she was going to hold that against him and refuse to see him in the future?

They strolled side-by-side toward the lighthouse the team had decorated in old-fashioned red, white, and blue bunting, matching the other businesses in town to celebrate the day Lost Lake had been officially founded.

Locals milled around the place, most of them calling out a hello to Mina, and giving him a sharp nod of acknowledgment. The positive greeting from them was all he could expect at this point. He was still too much of a newcomer to receive the same warm welcome their elected sheriff was getting.

They reached the railing on the cliff’s edge, the ocean spreading wide before them. The sun continued to glisten all the way to the horizon, and magnificent blue waves undulated toward them, crashing on the rocks with a frothy white intensity before receding.

She planted her hands on the metal rail and shivered.

“If you’re cold I can give you my jacket,” he said.

She shook her head. “Not cold. I’d just forgotten how brutal the waves were against the rocks.”

“I’ve heard stories about people losing their lives down there.”

“Nothing recently, but I remember several boating accidents when I was a kid. And there was also a suicide.”

His turn to shiver. “I can’t imagine being desperate enough to jump into that churning water.”

She turned to look up at him. “I can’t either. But I do remember feeling very desperate when you left.”

He couldn’t wait any longer to ask about her decisions. “Did your parents confirm I’d stopped by to talk to them, and they sent me on my way?”

“No.”

That one word felt like he’d taken another bullet. “Oh.”

“Because I didn’t ask them.” She peered into his eyes. “I didn’t want to hear them admit it aloud and put a rift between us. Besides, I didn’t need them to confirm your story. I believe you. Completely.”

His heart soared. “So you’re okay with our past, and we can move forward?”

“I’m not only okay with it, I can’t wait to start dating.”

This was too good to be true, and he had to know why in order to believe it. “What changed?”

She chewed on her lower lip. “I spent the last few days in prayer, which I have to admit I didn’t do back when you left. I was very much like Dr. Osborne. I let my anger get to me. But I finally asked God to help me release my anger and trust you.”

“What will happen once your family knows we’re dating again?” He locked gazes with her. “They’ll ask about me. Ask if it’s a good idea to date a man who ‘abandoned’ you. You’ll have to confront them then.”

“Maybe so.”

No. More than maybe. “I can’t help but believe they’ll think I told you what happened, and they’ll feel the need to defend themselves.”

She stepped closer to him. “Maybe it’ll all come out in the open. I don’t know. But I’m of the mindset that it will be what it will be. I have to live my life as I see fit, and I don’t need to stir a hornet’s nest. I just need to let things lie. If they want to bring up the past, then we’ll discuss what actually happened.”

He looked around. “I wish there wasn’t a crowd here and you weren’t in uniform so we could seal our new relationship with a kiss.”

“You’ll have to be patient.” She smiled up at him. “I’m on duty until six, but then if you’re agreeable, I’d like to have dinner, take a turn around the fairgrounds, and go to the fireworks with you.”

Of course he would say yes. They’d lost so much time when they could’ve been together, and he would never get it back, but they could begin fresh tonight.

“ If I’ll have dinner with you?” he asked so loudly the people nearby turned to look at them. He lowered his voice. “You know I will. Our past is all behind us, and we can move forward.”

“Yes,” she said. “I like the sound of that. Our past is behind us, and we have a promising future together.”

He could barely keep his hands to himself, so he shoved them into his pockets. “Should I pick you up at six or do you want to meet me somewhere?”

“I like the thought of you picking me up for our first real date.” She fixed a flirtatious smile on him. “Do you know where I live?”

“Um, yeah, maybe I figured that out.” He chuckled.

“Then see you at six.” Her laughter trailed behind her as she walked through the crowd, greeting people as she disappeared from view.

A moment of anxiety hit him. No, she was just disappearing from his view, not from his life. Never that again.

Mina peered at her reflection in the full-length mirror in her bedroom while Abby and Reece looked on. She rarely dressed up. Any formal affairs she had to attend lately were due to her job, and she just made sure she wore a fresh uniform.

She especially didn’t often wear dresses, but Reece found out about the date and dragged Mina aside to ask if she had anything special to wear. Mina confessed she didn’t, and Reece insisted on providing a feminine dress with a top that showed off curves she rarely displayed, tight at the waist, and then yards of fabric in a flowy skirt.

Reece clapped her hands. “Perfect. Nolan won’t know what hit him.”

Abby raised an eyebrow. “More likely he won’t recognize you at all.”

Reece swatted her hand at Abby. “Don’t be such a goof. Of course he’ll recognize her. He’s in love with her. How can he not know who she is? Especially when she smiles at him, which we both know she’ll do once she sees him all dressed up too.”

Mina hadn’t known they were working with him too. Or maybe they weren’t. He knew how to dress up from his work. After all, she first saw him in a tux this week. How much dressier could he get than that?

Oh, man. She was totally out of her comfort zone. She turned to look at Reece. “Are you sure this is a good idea? He’s never seen me looking like this. If he wanted a blingy girl, then he would’ve fallen for one instead of a maverick like me.”

“We can be both,” Reece said. “Or at least I like to think I’ve managed to do both.”

Mina stared at the slender woman who had always looked like a model to her. “Um, Reece, I think you fall more on the feminine side of the spectrum.”

She smoothed her hands down her sleek navy dress. “You could be right. It’s all those years of modeling in college. It’s hard to unlearn some of the things I was taught twenty-four/seven.”

“Honey,” Abby said. “It’s not just that, it’s in your DNA.”

“Okay, fine. I’m a girly girl in law enforcement. Maybe not law enforcement anymore, but you get the point.”

They laughed together for a while, and then satisfied with their work, Reece and Abby departed. Mina wasn’t so confident and kept studying herself in the mirror. She glanced at the clock on her bedside table. Five minutes until six. Nolan would be arriving anytime. She couldn’t dress like this. She just couldn’t. It wasn’t her. She had to change.

She went to her closet. The doorbell rang, and she stopped in place as if her parents caught her doing something wrong. She didn’t have time to change, and she would have to open the door dressed this way. Whether she remained in this silly dress depended upon his response.

Thankful her mother at least made sure she knew how to walk in high heels, she started down the hall, each step raising her level of panic. She hadn’t felt this nervous since high school prom, when she dated the boy her parents wanted her to go with but she didn’t have a relationship with. The night was disastrous, and she sure didn’t want tonight to be that way.

At the door she wiped her hands on her frilly skirt and pulled the door open.

Nolan stood there, dressed in black slacks and a white long sleeve shirt with the collar open. He looked devastatingly handsome, and her heart fluttered, but gone were her nerves. She didn’t care what she was wearing, she was going on a proper date with the man she loved.

“You look fabulous.” He took her hands and twirled her around. “I don’t remember ever seeing you in a dress.”

“Reece’s idea.”

“Reece, huh? Did she have to talk you into it?”

“Yeah. I don’t mind wearing it, but I feel uncomfortable and very self-conscious.” She freed her hands and smoothed the skirt again.

“Do you want to change?”

How did she answer that? “Do you want me to change?”

“I want you to be as comfortable as you can be tonight so we have a great first date,” he said with certainty. “Not the kind of date that Reece would like us to have, but what we’d like.”

“Then come in and have a seat while I put something else on.” She laughed as she headed to her bedroom, and called over her shoulder, “But promise me when Reece is disappointed, you’ll help me talk her down.”

She discarded the dress and took the time to hang it up so Reece could have it back as neat as when she brought it. She put on a pair of khaki slacks that were her idea of dressing up and paired it with a frilly blouse her mom had gotten her. Satisfied this was a good compromise, she left the room.

Nolan came to his feet and ran an appreciative look over her from head to toe. “Now that’s the Mina I know. Not that I didn’t love the dress, because I did. You looked beautiful. But you’re more beautiful when you’re you than when you’re what someone else wants you to be.”

Oh, man. Could he have said anything better? “I’m really glad to hear you say that. After Reece left, I was going to change but ran out of time.”

“Then let’s go and have fun.” He held out his arm.

She snuggled hers into the crook, and they started off for the night she’d only ever imagined in her dreams.

Her home was within walking distance of closed-off Main Street. The loud sounds and garish lights of carnival rides and concession games greeted them. A food stand run by her church’s youth group filled the air with the savory scent of frying onions and hamburgers and the sweet scent of cotton candy and funnel cakes at nearby food carts fought for dominance.

Her stomach growled.

“I guess that’s my cue to say let’s eat.” Nolan laughed. “Where do you want to get dinner?”

“I know this is kind of lame for a first date, but the church’s youth group makes the best burgers and onion rings ever. The business association at the end of the midway does seafood, but we eat that all year long, and I don’t have burgers often.”

“You never have to twist my arm to have a burger.” He grinned, a boyish smile that was lopsided and adorable.

She scooted closer to him, and he wrapped his arm around her waist. She liked that. Liked that they were announcing to everyone they were a couple. After their breakup had gone around town many years ago, people would be speculating. So what? She and Nolan would show them it had just been a misunderstanding, and they were back together for good. She was probably jumping ahead, but at least she hoped it was for good.

They perched on stools at the burger stand, and as much as it was great to be together, the burgers and onion rings were so good they inhaled them. The rest of the night was a dream as they got on rides, and he won her a pink teddy bear at the ball pitch. But all too soon it was time for the fireworks, and they climbed through the cool night to the inn.

“The team reserved a blanket for us,” he said, “But we don’t have to sit with them.”

She looked up at him. “I mean, I like them, but five extra people on our first date isn’t what I had in mind.”

“Me neither.” He took her hand and led her toward the lookout.

The sky over the ocean sparkled with more stars than she could count, and the moon glistened off rolling waves. A magical night.

The team had roped off a section on the inn’s property to save the space for their night. After all, there had to be some perks of owning the place during such an event. Everyone was present, sitting on blankets. When they approached, the others looked up at them.

“You did not change.” Reece pouted.

“Don’t make a big deal about it,” Nolan said. “Not everyone is as comfortable dressed like that as you are.”

Reece frowned. “At least tell me you got to see her in the dress.”

“I did, and she looked beautiful in it, but she’s just as beautiful now.”

Gabe groaned. “If I’d known this sappy talk was the price of admission to the fireworks, I would’ve skipped the night.”

Abby socked him in the arm. “You’re just jealous that you don’t have someone special.”

“Trust me,” Gabe said. “When or if there’s someone special in my life, I won’t be laying it all bare like this.”

“We’ll see.” Abby smirked.

Nolan picked up a wicker basket and no one tried to stop him. “We’re going to head down the cliff a little bit to watch the fireworks. See you later.”

Nolan took her hand, and they started away from the group. As they walked, memories of their kisses long ago came back, and her heart skipped a beat in anticipation.

He continued down the cliff, passing locals and sending their tongues wagging. She could hear some of the comments. They weren’t mean, but she and Nolan had obviously surprised people.

He directed her through long grass and past a large boulder to a private space. Setting down the basket, he dug out a blanket and unfurled it. The soft breeze caught hold, fluttering it in the air before the fabric landed on the tall grass. “I should’ve thought to mow over here today, but then I guess if the grass was short other people would’ve come over here too.”

“It’s perfect.” She sat on the blanket and was thankful she wasn’t trying to maneuver around with a frilly dress.

He dropped down next to her and reached into the basket to pull out a bottle of sparkling cider and two glasses. “I thought we might want to toast the beginning of our relationship.”

“That’s so sweet of you to think of that.” She slid closer to him. “We can do that. We should do that. We will do that. But first this.”

She reached up and cupped his face, feeling his strong jawline beneath her fingers. It’d been so long since she’d touched him, and she thought she’d never do it again. Yet she’d dreamed of him, of touching him, kissing him more times than she’d like to admit.

He gently ran a finger over her cheekbone, then slid his hand into her hair to release the soft waves from the clip Reece had put in and let them fall over her shoulders.

“So many memories are hitting me right now.” He clasped the back of her head and pulled her closer. “But we have to forget those and start over. Start again. This time it won’t end.”

His head came down, his lips pressing against hers, demanding, urgent. She hadn’t expected a soft kiss. Not after all they’d lost. The time they’d lost. And she didn’t want one. She wanted this. Exactly this.

She slipped her arms around his neck, and he pressed a muscular arm around her lower back and drew her close. She felt safe. Like she didn’t feel any other time in her life. Difficult law enforcement experiences that always troubled her vanished, which rarely happened, and she had no fear. Was at peace.

He deepened the kiss. His lips were soft but urgent. She matched him with the same urgency. He’d always known what she liked. What she expected. What she wanted.

He knew her in a way no one else had ever known.

An explosion sounded in the sky and lights flashed above the ocean.

With a groan, he pulled away and looked at her. “So when we’re old and our kids ask us what it was like to be together when we were young, can I tell them when I first kissed you, I saw fireworks?”

She laughed, her heart happy and filled with unrestrained love. “I mean, you can tell them that, but it’s not true. This certainly wasn’t the first time you kissed me.”

“And it wasn’t the first time I saw fireworks when I kissed you either.”

She swatted a hand at him, and he grabbed it to press his lips on the back side. “Okay, fine, I didn’t see actual fireworks, but I might have with the way I felt. With the way I feel now. I loved you then, and I love you now.”

“I love you too.” She ran a finger over his lower lip. “So where do we go from here?”

“The shortest dating relationship and engagement ever recorded?” He slid an arm around her back and turned them both to watch the colorful explosions in the sky.

She settled her head on his shoulder and the night sky lit up while a soft breeze blew over her. “I’ll have to revoke your deputy status now.”

“I expected nothing less, but tell me there are rights that come with being the sheriff’s first man.”

“Ah, Nolan.” She giggled. “I don’t think there are first ladies or first men that go with this elected position.”

“And here I was looking forward to putting on my tux over and over throughout the year and going to special events with you.”

“You couldn’t have been more sarcastic.”

“Oh, I could’ve been, but I wasn’t.” He laughed but then it stilled. “In all seriousness, I am going to ask you to marry me. But not tonight. Not while we’re still fresh in the emotion of the shooting and all of that. But once that settles down, we’ll make things official.” He tipped her face up by the chin to look at him.

She swiveled and put her arms around his neck. “There’s nothing more that I want in this world, Nolan Orr, than to marry you and make up for all of those lost hours.”

Thank you so much for reading Lost Hours . If you’ve enjoyed the book, I would be grateful if you would post a review on the bookseller’s site.