Page 81 of Starcrossed Colorado

Emma made a small, choked sound. “Urgh.” She squeezed her thighs together, like I’d described.

One corner of my mouth twitched in a satisfied smirk. My hand inched nearer to her, my pinky crossing over hers.

We watched Maisie and Stella splash in the water. Stella shook herself off, and Maisie squealed at the sudden shower of cold droplets.

“Emma?” she asked. “When you’re back in California, will you take a picture of the ocean beach for me?”

“Sure, Maisie-doodle,” she replied evenly. Like it was no big deal to talk about her returning to the West Coast.

I grabbed my pack and dug through it, needing a distraction from that topic. I didn’t want to think about Emma leaving yet. So I wouldn’t.

Very mature of me, I know. But I just wanted to enjoy this instead of focusing on the negative. For once in my life.

Yet Emma’s expression had turned cloudy, and I wondered if I’d been wrong. If she dreaded the thought of her leaving too. “I forgot to mention something that happened last night after I left the brewery,” she said.

“Oh. What’s that?”

“I thought someone was following me.”

That got my attention. “What?”

Keeping her voice down, Emma told me she’d heard footsteps behind her on the dark, isolated street. She’d actually gotten her pepper spray and prepared to use it. “Then Danny Carmichael showed up.”

“Washethe one following you?”

“I don’t think so. Unless he’s a really great actor, because he seemed shocked when I jumped out at him with my pepper spray.”

“Should’ve sprayed him,” I grumbled. “He’s earned it.”

“Why is that? Apart from being Piper’s ex.”

Where did I begin with that guy? “He was shitty to Piper during the divorce. He’s a crappy father to Ollie. Plus he was Lori’s boss, and he was a dick to her too. Didn’t even show up for her funeral.”

Yet Lori had always defended him.

Whenever possible, I drove Maisie and myself out to another dental office for cleanings. If I never had to deal with Danny and his fake smile again, it would be too soon.

But Emma’s feeling that she’d been followed… It reminded me of the incident a couple of weeks ago. The man in the blue rain slicker outside her apartment building. Was there some connection?

I squinted at the mountains in the distance.

“Maisie!” Emma screamed.

She launched off the rock, running for the water. I turned to see my daughter slip beneath the rushing surface of the creek and disappear.

TWENTY

Emma

One moment,Maisie was laughing at Stella dog-paddling in the creek. And the next, the little girl had fallen beneath the surface.

“Maisie!”

I rushed into the creek, ignoring the icy pull of the water on my pants and boots. Stella started barking at a rapid, fearful pitch. Reaching for the dark shape under the surface, I grabbed hold of Maisie and yanked her upward. She came up coughing and sputtering.

Ashford was suddenly there next to me. He wrapped his arms around me and Maisie both. “Daddy!” she screamed, terrified.

“I’m here.” He took her and put her against his shoulder like she was a much smaller child. His worried gaze connected with mine, and then he reached for my hand as he carried her to the bank.

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