Page 23 of Mystery in the Mountains

He took them, fighting the urge to pull her soft, warm body to him.

“Thank you for talking to me, Asher.”

He licked his lips and slowly nodded. “I’ll see you around, Sunny.”

She nodded and stepped back as he put the tray on the seat next to him. The truck rumbled to life, and he headed up the mountain.

He had to bite back a smile threatening to stretch across his face.

For the first time since Sunny’s return, he felt like things might actually be okay.

Chapter

Nine

SUNNY

The next morning, Sunny woke up feeling better than she had since she’d returned to Hecate’s Hollow. The sun was shining. It was the first day of May. While nothing was certain, the idea that she could do this was really starting to come together.

After getting out of bed, she got dressed and pulled up her long blond hair as she walked by her dad’s office.

Toward the end, he’d spend so much time holed up there. After spending the day before going through all the boxes of paper lining the dining room, she knew this room was probably full of even more boxes with garbage and important documents intermingled.

She tried to open the door, but it was locked. Strange.

The room across the way was her parent’s bedroom. Maybe there were keys in there. But that was a room she was not ready to deal with.

She went down to the dining room and thought she remembered seeing a screwdriver when she was cleaning. When she rummaged through piles, she came up on a flathead screwdriver.

After making her way back up the door, she fiddled with the lock until the door popped open. As she opened it, the radio from downstairs blared static, flipping through channels.

Her hands covered her ears as she made it to the stairs, and once again, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” filled the air.

She was starting to hate this song—and it had always been one of her favorites.

As she turned the corner of the hallway, a loud bang on the front door called her attention. Between the blaring music and the bang, she completely forgot about the wobbly banister as she held onto it for balance.

As her body hit the banister, it gave way, sending her and the splintering wood to the hard floor beneath. A scream ripped from her mouth as she fell. Just then, another loud bang followed along with a crackling of splintering wood as her front door flung open, revealing the face of an almost feral Asher and a very concerned Abe.

“Sunny!” he yelled, making his way to her. “Are you okay?” he called over the music.

As her gaze found his, she gave a shuddering breath as her eyes filled with tears.

He cupped her face, seemingly lost in the panic. “Sunny . . .”

Her hand came up, covering his hand as the music cut out.

“What happened?” Abe asked from the living room after turning down the music, but Lorette Lynn was still singing in the background.

“That radio has been acting funny since I’ve been home. It keeps turning on. It turned on full blast, and it startled me. I was coming to turn it off when you knocked on the door and then this,” she said, gesturing to the broken wood.

She moved to get up but was stopped by the searing pain in her ankle and leg. She winced and grasped it.

“Are you hurt?” Asher said, stilling her with a touch. “Don’t move. Did you hit your head?”

“No,” she said, giving her head a gentle shake. “I didn’t hit my head.”

“You could have broken something,” he said, stopping her from moving as she tried to get up.

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