Page 48 of Home Town

“Um. Okay. I guess. Sure.”

“Great. I’ll pick you up at your house. Eight o’clock Saturday.”

“Okay.” She nodded while avoiding eye contact with Corey.

“Now I gotta finish this up before the boss gets word I left his lawn half done,” Kirk joked.

“Of course. Go ahead,” Josie said, taking a step back from the mower.

With a cocky grin, Kirk started the machine and took off in a puff of gasoline fumes.

“What in the hell was that?” Corey asked the moment the dick had engaged the blades on the mower and could no longer hear them.

“What do you mean?” Her innocent act needed work.

He spelled it out for her anyway. “You’re going out with him?”

“Yeah. So?”

“So? He could still be the thief.”

“You heard him. He doesn’t have a key.”

Corey glanced up at the sky, his silent prayer for patience. “Josie, stop being so naive. Thieves don’t need keys.”

“He said he didn’t do it?—”

“And you believe him?” he spat. Literally—an embarrassing little projectile of spittle flew out of his mouth. It just missed hitting Josie in the face, thank God.

“Yes, I believe him. His excuse for going back inside was perfectly plausible. Besides, you saw the surveillance footage. He was in shorts and a tank top?—”

A much too tight tank top and a pair of stupid-looking just as tight jean shorts. Corey remembered.

“—where would he have been hiding the compass when he came out of the building if he did take it?” Josie pointed out.

Huh. That was a consideration. Luckily, Corey’s brain was operating fairly decently today and came up with an alternative answer. “Maybe he hid it somewhere inside the building so he could go back for it later.”

“Why? Do you really think he knew you and I would be looking at the gas station footage days later?”

“The best thieves are smart and cautious—” Corey pointed out, even though he didn’t want to give Kirk credit for being either.

“You’re being ridiculous?—”

Corey let out a scoff filled with derision. “Pfft! No. You are.”

She frowned at him. “What has you so upset?”

He could let it go. He should let it go.

Not say a word, head back to the gas station and watch the rest of the footage to see if Kirk went back in and did come back out with the compass at any time between that day and now. And if not, go back inside with the key and search the place from top to bottom looking for his hiding spot.

Corey didn’t have enough restraint to do all that at this moment. What he had, was a pounding pulse and a sore jaw from clenching it.

Pissed off, he said, “For one thing, not only do you blindly believe him, but you also agreed to go out with him!”

Her eyes widened. “And? So what? What business is that of yours? None. None of your business is the answer.”

“Wrong,” he said, arms crossed defiantly.

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