“Maybe I will. Sounds nice.”
“We could have breakfast afterward, before you join Uncle Bryan on the roof again.”
“You’re on.”
“I’ll count the minutes,” she promised him, and though she spoke jokingly, she meant every word.
“So will I,” he said, and he sounded entirely serious—which probably meant he was joking, she thought with a laugh at herself as she stepped out his door.
They were quite an odd couple, temporary though it might be. She wondered if she would ever think of him in the future without wistfully wondering what might have been.
There was only one totally dark stretch between Aaron’s cabin and her mobile home, just after stepping off the main road past the private-drive sign. It was perhaps ten yards of deep shadows from which she could see the houses ahead, but was probably invisible to anyone looking back at her from there. She never thought twice about that dark stretch, no matter what hour she walked, drove or biked it. As she’d told Aaron, this was home.
Something slammed into the back of her head. She stumbled forward, the lights ahead of her splintering, blurring into darkness. As if from a distance, she felt her chin make contact with the pavement. And then felt nothing at all.
Chapter Ten
Aaron lay on his back in the rumpled bed, suddenly feeling all the aches of the day. His body craved rest, but he was having trouble shutting down his mind. He wished he could pass what remained of the night with Shelby wrapped in his arms, only to make love again with the rising of the sun.
He’d spent a lot of time with her in the past few days. More hours, perhaps, than he’d spent with Elaina during an entire week while they’d seen each other. Granted, he and Elaina had both been busy with jobs and other activities, but he realized now that as hot as the sex had been between them, as often as he’d wanted to come back for more, he’d had no overwhelming desire to spend time with Elaina outside the bedroom. They’d had few interests in common—or so he’d learned when she’d stopped pretending to find everything he said utterly fascinating—and when they weren’t in bed, they’d struggled to find something else to do that entertained them both. She’d loved fancy parties, elegant dining, shopping, cruises. He’d rather be on a mountain trail, in a boat, on a bike or watching a game, none of which she’d enjoyed. He couldn’t imagine her skimming over the water straddling a personal watercraft, no makeup, hair in the wind, sun on her face. Just remembering how Shelby had looked exactly that way made his whole body harden.
He was getting in too deep with her. He shouldn’t be this preoccupied with her after such a short time. Definitely he shouldn’t have been so teeth-grindingly jealous when she’d driven off with ol’ Pete earlier. For all he knew, she could get back with Pete again after Aaron went back to Dallas, despite her assurances that it wasn’t going to happen. The thought of her kissing that other man, letting him touch her... He found himself grinding his teeth again, and had to make a conscious effort to relax his jaw.
Flopping over on the bed, he closed his eyes and tried to will himself to sleep. He was just tired. Hard to think clearly in this state of exhaustion, he assured himself. The rest of his life was so unsettled, maybe that was affecting his judgment about Shelby, too. He didn’t have to say goodbye to her forever just because he had to go pursue a new career path. They could stay in touch, see each other occasionally, maybe. The resort wasn’t all that far from Dallas. Or maybe he could find something closer. Yes, she came with a lot of family entanglements, something he’d carefully avoided with other women, because he had enough of that already in his life. But he liked Shelby’s family—even her grandfather, who seemed to be convinced he wasn’t who he said he was. And her parents, who’d given him the evil eye at lunch today for encouraging Steven and not discouraging Lori.
Maybe someday when he’d gotten his own life in order, when he was settled into a career he found challenging and fulfilling, when he was ready to take on the complications of someone else’s needs and obligations, when he felt as though he had something worthwhile to offer in return—maybe then he’d see if Shelby was interested in pursuing something more than a vacation hookup with him. If by then she hadn’t already found someone who could offer those things before Aaron got around to it.
Groaning, he pulled the sheet over his head and started mentally counting by sevens, usually a surefire way to lull himself to sleep. It took him a bit longer than usual that night.
He was jolted out of a sound sleep before sunrise by a sharp knock on his door. It took him a couple of groggy minutes to realize what he’d heard, but a follow-
up pounding brought him to his feet. Tugging on a pair of jeans, he glanced at the clock, noted that it wasn’t even yet 6:00 a.m., then headed barefoot down the stairs, dragging a white T-shirt over his head on the way. He opened the door, then blinked in surprise upon finding Maggie on his porch.
“Maggie? What’s wrong? Has something happened?”
Her expression looked strained in the watery security lighting, her face pale in contrast with her dark brown hair. “Please tell me Shelby’s here with you. If she is, I’m sorry I woke you, but I just needed to—”
“Shelby’s not here, Maggie,” he cut in with a frown. “She left a few hours ago to go back to her trailer. Why?”
Maggie’s hand wasn’t steady when she showed him the cell phone in her hand. “It’s Shelby’s. I woke up early and wanted coffee, but I was out. I didn’t want to wake anyone else, so I decided to run over to the marina and get a pot started there. Uncle Bryan always has coffee going by six-thirty for the early fishermen, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to make it early...”
She was babbling, her voice high-pitched and nervous. “Maggie,” he cut in quickly, impatiently. “What about Shelby?”
She drew a quick breath. “The golf cart headlights reflected off something on the road by the private drive sign, so I stopped to see what it was. It was this, Shelby’s phone. Finding it there made me nervous, so I had to go check on her. I mean, I figured she just dropped it or something and maybe didn’t know she’d lost it or couldn’t find it in the darkness or—”
Taking another steadying breath, she finished, “I went to her house, let myself in with the emergency key we all carry, and I saw that her bed was still made. I know she’s been spending a lot of time with you, and I figured maybe—well, maybe she spent the night. But something still just didn’t feel right, so I had to check, even if it embarrassed all of us.”
“She’s not here,” Aaron repeated numbly, going cold inside as he remembered his last glimpse of Shelby walking jauntily away from his cabin, smiling and unafraid. “Could she be with her parents? Her brother or sister?”
“I don’t know why she would be, but now that I know she’s not here, I’m going to call them,” Maggie said grimly.
“Call them.” Aaron tugged her inside, then turned for the stairs. “I’ll get some shoes.”
It took him two minutes to throw on shoes and pull a polo shirt over his tee. Maggie was
still talking on the phone when he bolted back downstairs, but he could tell she wasn’t getting good news.
“They don’t know where she is,” she whispered to Aaron, as though her throat was too tight to allow her full voice to push through. “Lori didn’t come home last night, but she’d already told them she was staying with friends. Shelby’s car is still at her trailer and she didn’t leave any messages for anyone. I’m really scared, Aaron. Why was her phone on the road?”