Page 79 of Sunkissed Colorado

With that settled, I picked up her purse from the center console and the keys from her hand. When I twined our fingers together, she came willingly, that thin blanket still draped around her shoulders.

Inside, I led her straight to the kitchen. Darius had already beaten us there. “I was putting on some coffee. Figured you might need it.”

“Thanks, man.” I tugged Z closer, arm going around her waist. “You can jump in the shower, Dare. First round of hot water is yours.”

In other words, give us some privacy, I said with my eyes. But my friend didn’t get it.

“You sure?” He glanced between us. “Zandra looks pretty shaken up.”

Her head dipped, hair falling in front of her face.

“We’ll be fine,” I insisted.

As soon as he’d walked off, leaving us alone in the soft glow of the kitchen lights and the gurgling of the coffeemaker, I turned Zandra to face me. Grabbing the edges of the blanket she was wearing, I tucked it tighter around her. The fleece was well worn, with a cartoon pattern of paw prints along the border.

“Is this Chloe’s?”

“I keep it in my car for her when I take her to the vet,” Zandra said quietly. “I didn’t have a jacket, and it’s a cold night.”

“It is. You came here straight from Hearthstone?”

“Yeah.”

The thought of her sitting outside in the cold, worried aboutme, twisted in my chest. I hated that she’d been scared, but a part of me liked it too. Suggested she might’ve been thinking about me the past few days as much as I’d been obsessing about her.

And I just wanted to wrap her up all warm and snug, tuck her into my bed with me, and never ever let her leave. Was that wrong?

“You sit right here, and I’ll make us coffee.” Moving her to a barstool by the island, I nudged her to take a seat, still making sure the blanket was draped around her.

I would’ve preferred thatIwas draped around her, but I needed a couple more sets of arms.

Also, I was still pretty grimy, so my first stop was to the kitchen sink for a perfunctory scrub of my face and arms. After that, I opened the fridge to take out the carton of oat milk. The coffeemaker beeped right on cue.

“I’m surprised you have non-dairy milk,” she said, watching me pour.

“Bought it at the market a couple days ago.” I handed her the mug across the island. “Just in case you came back.”

“But I was avoiding you.”

“I’m an optimist,” I replied, settling onto the stool beside her with a mug of my own. I watched her sip the coffee, noting how her hands still trembled slightly around the warm mug. “Z, is anything else bothering you?”

“How can you tell?”

“I might be just a little obsessed with you.” I held up my thumb and forefinger, holding them slightly apart.

The beginnings of a smile curved her lips. I wanted to kiss her to feel the shape of it.

Then she pulled a crumpled paper from her pocket. “This was under my windshield at Hearthstone tonight when I left.”

I unfolded the paper, and red tinted my vision. Not just because of the garish ink.

“What thehellis this?”

The most prominent thing about the sheet of paper was theword “murderer” scrawled across it in red marker. But that wasn’t all. Still visible beneath that accusatory word was a printed notice for a candlelight vigil, dated sixteen years ago.

A vigil for Jessa Mackenzie.

I hardly knew where to begin. “Who would still have a copy of this?”