Page 46 of Home Town

Corey let out a snort. “Yeah. All that, or we can ask him where he stashed the compass he stole. Or who he sold it to.”

Not willing to convict Kirk just yet, she said, “We don’t know he took it.”

“We don’t know he didn’t,” Corey countered.

“Then I guess we should go find him and find out.”

Corey delivered one firm nod and stood with a screech of metal chair legs against old timey linoleum. “I guess we should.”

They were agreeing with each other, so she wasn’t sure why their words and tone sounded like they were fighting. But it definitely did.

Whatever.

Time to straighten this all out once and for all.

She spun on the soles of her Converse and strutted out the door of the tiny room. Past the clerk selling lottery tickets, past the delivery guy restocking the beer on the shelves, and out the door.

Then she stopped when she realized Corey had driven. It was his mom’s car and he had the key. Folding her arms, toe tapping, she waited for him to unlock the doors.

He did more than that. He swung open the passenger side door and stood back, waiting for her to get in.

She wasn’t used to men opening car doors for her. She definitely wasn’t expecting Corey to do it. Gentleman wasn’t the word that came to mind when she thought of Corey Jacobs.

At a loss for words, she got in. She probably should have thanked him, but he closed the door too quickly. He’d waited just long enough to make sure all her limbs were safely inside and then slammed the door before walking around the hood and getting in himself.

Corey Jacobs—high school hockey team star, frequent attendee in detention for one offense or another, player who never stayed with a girl for longer than it took for him to find another one—was opening car doors. For her.

Weird.

But she had more important things to think about than that right now. For one, Kirk and the fact, judging by the set of Corey’s jaw, he intended to go in hot with the accusations once they found the poor guy.

When they pulled up to her house, she feared she was right in her prediction. There was no gentlemanly opening of her door once he stopped the car with one hard stomp on the brake pedal.

Kirk was still there, in the midst of mowing the lawn. Unaware of the peril as Corey got out of the car and slammed the door hard enough to rock the vehicle.

With eyes wide with fear and dread, Josie watched him storm toward Kirk.

Uh oh. This was bad.

She glanced quickly at the driveway and saw Quinn’s rental car wasn’t there. Then she remembered. He and Bailey had taken the train to the city to meet with her manager, Xander.

That meant Quinn wasn’t even here to break up the fight—should there be a fight. And the way Corey was striding toward Kirk, there just might be.

Crap.

Seeing him approach, Kirk cut the engine on the mower and waited for Corey to reach him. He had no idea what was about to be thrown at him. Josie knew though.

She flung the car door open, scrambled out and sprinted after Corey.

Chapter Twenty-One

“Hey, what’s up?” Kirk asked when Corey got close to where he sat on the riding mower.

Jaw clenched, Corey was just about to tell the smiling scum before him exactly what was up when Josie sprinted past him, skidding to a stop.

“Hey, Kirk. We, uh, just had a question for you.”

His smile widened at Josie’s appearance, which had Corey’s blood pressure rising.

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