As soon as he was gone, Evan rolled his eyes at me and nodded toward the backyard. “Show me what you got.” We began walking, and he couldn’t help but mumble under his breath, “Guy’s a prick.”
I snorted. “You said it, not me.”
“He was looking at you like you were robbing the place, for god’s sake. Does he think you’re that desperate for a bunch of women’s clothes and plastic toy horses?”
I froze where I stood before swiveling to face him. “Repeat that, please?” I asked with a knowing grin.
He must have realized what he let slip about the toy horses because his face turned engine red.
“Fuck.”
I barked out a laugh and let out an enormous whoop, pumping my fist in the air like an idiot. I felt bubbles of relief fizz inside my whole body, and a weight I didn’t even realize was still on me suddenly lifted.
“What the hell’s your problem, jackass?” he grumbled. “I didn’t even get lucky. Just came over for dinner one night.”
“Oh my god. You have no idea how good it is to hear Jolie is dating. Jesus fuck, Walker and I have been waiting for this. No more feeling like we’re the bad guys.”
“Glad to be of service. Now shut the hell up and show me where the fire was.”
Familiar footsteps rounded the corner, and I looked up to see my angry boyfriend’s long, lean legs eating up the yard.
“What happened?” he snapped.
“Chief Strange-Love had dinner with your wife,” I blurted. The grin on my face was probably maniacal, but I couldn’t help it.
“Say what now?” Walker turned to Evan with a glare.
Suddenly, my excitement fizzled. “Oh. That’s… that’s unexpected,” I muttered. “Dammit. Here and I thought it was good news. ‘Yay, Otto, now we don’t have to feel so guilty. Now you aren’t the only homewrecker in the bunch…’”
Walker blew out a breath and turned to me with forced patience. “Baby, seriously? First you tell me that someone may have set fire to my daughter’s house and then you tell me someone’s dating my ex-wife? What the fuck is next?”
“I ran into your brother and confirmed he still hates me. Bad things come in threes?”
He blinked at me before yanking me to him for a quick kiss. His lips were gentle despite his stress, and I tasted the remnants of coffee on his mouth. “I’m sorry. How are you? I should have asked that first of all. Did you get hurt putting out the fire? Let me see your hands.”
Evan stood there staring at us with a goofy grin on his face. “Holy shit, that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. You two are sickening.”
I had little dancing hearts in my vision and couldn’t see much other than Seth Walker at the moment. “I’m fine. Not hurt.”
“Good. Now tell me what happened.”
I tried to shake myself out of the little mini love stupor and focus on what I’d found. I pointed out the burned area even though it was obvious and then described what I found before I put it out with the hose.
Evan took some photographs before squatting down and raking through the debris after putting on a pair of gloves. He pulled out one of the half-burned sticks and peered at it more carefully. “This is from a cherry tree.” He looked around at the obvious lack of cherry trees in the backyard.
“There’s one at my parents’ house up the drive,” Walker said. “Maybe Tisha brought it home with her one day and was playing with it in the backyard.”
“You have a dog? Some reason she’d be playing fetch?”
“No.”
“Hm.”
He rifled through some more and met my eye, holding up a recognizable lump of wet cardboard tubing. I sighed.
“What?” Walker asked. “What’s that?”
I pulled a rubber glove from where I knew Walker kept a pair in his uniform pants pocket and put it on before reaching for the item from Evan. “It’s what’s left of a toilet-paper-roll fire starter. You put lint or other flammables inside of this, shove a match into it, and then stick it under the pile of leaves and sticks. Usually it burns so quickly it’s never detected. But in this case we got lucky. I must have doused it before it finished burning.”
“Wait… wait. Doesn’t that mean that whoever started this fire did it within minutes of you discovering it?” Walker asked.
Evan’s eyes met mine again before he answered for both of us.
“Yep.”
Chapter 21
Walker
Seth,
I know we’re not speaking anymore, but I can’t stop thinking about you… can’t stop loving you. Just because you’re being a selfish ass, doesn’t mean my heart has suddenly learned how to beat on its own, without yours.
It’s particularly bad right now because I’m home on leave in Hobie. Hobie without you is just the worst.
I did something ridiculous today. You’d totally laugh and make fun of me for it, but I don’t care. Mom showed me two antique wedding bands from the Canadian side of her family and wondered if any of us kids would ever want to use them one day or if she should just get rid of them. One was her grandfather’s Celtic band and the other was her own father’s wedding band with the inscription Maintiens le droit inside it. It means “Maintain the law” in French. My grandfather on that side of the family was a Mountie, remember? It reminded me of you, so before I could think about it, I asked if I could have it. You always said you wanted to be a cop, Seth. And you’re going to make an amazing one. If we ever see each other again, I want you to have this ring.