Page 10 of Secret Stalker

She sighed and relaxed her arm.

Don cleaned up the tabletop to prepare for bandaging her cut.

“If the paperwork takes much longer, can we plan on doing it through the mail? Including the sale of my mom’s house?”

He frowned. “Why would you want to do that? You’re here now. If a few more weeks is too long, I can try to put a rush on things.”

“I don’t want you to have to hurry on my account. But after, well, after today, I’m more inclined to finish packing up the house and just go. Can’t I sign some kind of power of attorney over to you?”

His brows raised again, making her think of snow-white caterpillars.

“You can, certainly. But most people prefer to give power of attorney to someone they know and trust rather than to their lawyer.”

“My mama trusted you. That’s good enough for me.”

He puffed out his chest, his face turning a light shade of red. And suddenly Bex wondered whether he’d felt more toward her mother than simple friendship. And whether those feelings were returned. If so, her mother had never said anything. But then again, her mother might have worried that Bex would feel funny about her finally dating someone after all these years. And, truth be told, she would have felt...odd about it.

A car crash had taken Bex’s father from them when Bex was in middle school. The loss had been devastating for her and her mother. Imagining her mom with anyone other than her daddy made her feel sad. But happy, too. Her mother deserved some male companionship in her life. And if she’d found it with the honorable Mr. Augustus Leonard, then that was a very good thing.

Mr. Leonard cleared his throat. “Thank you for your faith in me, Miss Kane. I have a form at the office you can fill out for the power of attorney. When you’re finished here, I can walk you over. Martha’s a notary. She can witness our signatures and notarize the document.”

“Can you raise your arm a few inches?” Don asked.

Bex lifted her arm so he could wrap some gauze over the stitches.

“Sounds like a plan,” she said to her lawyer. “The sooner I can get out of Destiny the better. There’s nothing left for me here except bad memories.”

Movement near the ambulance doors had her looking up, and right into Max’s eyes. Again. And just like in the grocery store, his jaw tightened and his eyes darkened.

“Max. Um, hi. How long have you been standing there?” she asked.

“Long enough.” The bitterness in his voice surprised her. Had he heard what she’d said to Mr. Leonard? Why would it matter? He certainly didn’t have any feelings for her anymore, as evidenced by how he’d treated her at the deli.

Or did he?

He motioned toward the bandage. “What’s wrong with your arm?”

She blinked and looked down, having forgotten all about her injured arm. “It’s just a little cut.”

“More like a gash,” Don said. “Eight stitches.”

“How did that happen?” Max elbowed his way past the lawyer and hopped into the ambulance. He grabbed Bex’s left hand to inspect the EMT’s work as if he would demand a redo if it didn’t meet his standards.

Bex frowned and tugged her arm out of his grasp. “I assume it happened when you...when I hid between the shelves. It’s not a big deal. I’m fine. Really.”

He studied her a moment, then promptly ignored her, speaking instead to the EMT.

“Why didn’t you take her to the hospital?”

“She said she didn’t—”

“I refused to go to the hospital,” she said.

“Well?” he asked the EMT, as if she hadn’t spoken.

Don’s brows rose to his hairline. “I, ah, Miss Kane didn’t want to go to the hospital. She asked me if I could take care of her arm here.”

“What about the risk of infection? Those grocery store shelves aren’t exactly sterile.”

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