Page 4 of The Sweet Life

Jake had always been bossy, as well as so ridiculously hot that being in the same room with him had left her tongue-tied and made her toes curl even though she’d pretty much despised the guy growing up. He’d been Sunshine Bay’s resident bad boy: cool, popular, and always in trouble. If it hadn’t been for Alice taking him under her wing when he was in tenth grade, he would have wound up in jail.

Her eyes narrowed on his too-handsome face. “What are you doing here?” As far as she knew, he didn’t live in Sunshine Bay and hadn’t visited in years.

It wasn’t as if she kept tabs on him. Alice sometimes shared updates on his life, whether Sage wanted to hear them or not. He’d enlisted in the military not long after high school. He was married and lived in San Diego. Every winter, Alice took off a week to visit him there. His family, the Walkers, lived in Sunshine Bay. But they were bad news and the reason Alice had taken Jake into her home all those years ago.

Sage crossed her arms when he simply looked at her with an eyebrow raised. “What are you doing with Alice’s jacket?” A hint of accusation had slid into her voice, unintentionally, of course.

He’d heard it too, she surmised when he gave his head a slight irritated shake and said, “You haven’t changed, have you?”

She didn’t cower under the weight of his intimidating stare. He’d have to do a lot better than that if he thought to unnerve her. She’d dealt with men far scarier than Jake Walker in the past five years. Men who were used to things going their way—men with the means to hire unsavory characters to do their dirty work otherwise—and not once had she backed down or given in to their threats.

One of the search coordinators began calling out instructions to the volunteers, waving them forward. They moved toward a trail leading up the hill and into the woods.

The dark-haired woman approached, offering them both an apologetic smile. “We’re going to head out.”

“Right.” Jake handed Alice’s jacket to the woman. “I’ll catch up with you,” he said, offering his thanks before returning his attention to Sage.

Sage’s grip tightened on her cell phone as she watched thewoman hold the plaid flannel to the dogs’ noses. She focused on the sound of Jake’s voice, willing the weakness from her knees.

“I got in late last night and stayed at the inn. Alice and I had planned to meet up at the farmhouse this morning. She wanted me to get rid of a waterbed for her and to give her a hand organizing her office. When she didn’t show at the farm or answer her cell phone, I went to the house. She wasn’t there, so I called Kendra. Her assistant,” he added at Sage’s blank stare. “She couldn’t reach Alice either. We walked through the house and the farmhouse, but there was no sign of her, and no sign she’d been in either place all night.”

“What about Max?” Max was Alice’s beloved Maine coon cat. He was a beautiful black tabby measuring four feet long with a tail like a raccoon, and he hated Sage. Alice thought it was hilarious. According to her, Max loved everyone, especially Jake.

“Max was at the house. He hadn’t been fed.”

“You can’t go to the worst-case scenario just because of that, Jake. The police could be wrong.”

He nodded. “I don’t buy their theory that Alice was hit by a car, but she did take a fall, and she was hurt.”

“How do you know she wasn’t hit by a car?” Why was she being defensive? Alice not being hit by a car was the best-case scenario, and she’d just said the police could be wrong.

“Because I was the one who sent the photo of the bike to SBPD. The damage isn’t consistent with being struck by a car. It looked like she’d veered into oncoming traffic and lost control of the bike and ended up in the ditch. Tire marks indicated a car had swerved, braking hard to avoid her.”

She couldn’t bear the thought of Alice out there alone and hurt, which was probably why she asked, again with a defensive edge in her voice, “How can you be sure she’s hurt? Maybe—”

Jake cut her off with a frustrated sigh. They’d fallen back into their old patterns. She’d get defensive and snippy with him, and he’d get frustrated and annoyed with her.

“I had a chance to look around before anyone compromised the scene. Alice was… She’s hurt, okay. She had to have been lying there for at least a couple of hours. The grass was still flattened, and from the blood splatter… Anyway, it looked to me like she sustained a head injury. If I’m right, she didn’t regain consciousness until well after dark. It would explain why no one saw her on the road.”

“Or stopped to help her,” Sage murmured, turning her head. She sniffed, swiping a finger under her lashes to catch a wayward tear, grateful when Jake let the action pass without commenting on her inability to keep her emotions in check. “What about her cell phone?”

“I didn’t find it at the farm or the house, and it wasn’t at the scene.” He held up his own. “I’ve being calling her every fifteen minutes. SBPD put in a request with her provider to trace her phone, but it could take hours… if her cell’s even on.” He glanced at the trail. “I need to join the search party. Will you be okay on your own?”

She didn’t miss the way his gaze moved over her face, looking for any hint of weakness. She lifted her chin. “I’m fine,” she said, and went to walk past him.

His fingers closed around her bicep, gentle but firm. “You’re not joining the search.”

She peeled his hand from her arm. “Yes, I am, and there’s nothing you can say or do to stop me from looking for Alice, so get out of my way.”

He raked his fingers through his hair. “Look, I’m not trying to tell you what to do. It’s just… you’re not dressed for it.”

She might be wearing sneakers, but she couldn’t dispute the fact that her skirt and blouse weren’t suitable for searching the woods. “That’s not what you were going to say, is it?”

“Of course it is. Why…” He shook his head when she crossed her arms and stared him down. “Fine. You want the truth? I don’t want you there in case we find her. I don’t want your last memory of—”

She reached up, placing her hand over his mouth, desperate to stop him from stealing her hope. “Don’t say it. Please, don’t say it.”

His warm lips pressed what felt like a tender kiss to her palm, and her breath hitched in response. He lowered her hand from his mouth, the tension in his jaw suddenly relaxing as he looked past her. “Your family’s here. Stay with them, okay?”

---