Page 28 of Her Property

“Spying is a very strong word, Ms. Jones. I need you to do some field research. For a case that just happens to be my case. I want you to tell me if he’s built anything new on the property. Anything at all—even if it isn’t on the encroachment.”

“I’d have to trespass to check out the whole place.”

“Just tell me what you see from the road.”

Cat put her forehead in her hand. Somehow, everything she’d intended to fix had gotten that much worse.

“Alfred, can you tell me why you despise this man so much? It seems like the land is something you could have worked out—”

“That part is none of your business, Catherine. But you should know he comes from a long line of liars.”

Cat was taken aback at the bitterness in Alfred’s tone.

She considered saying no. But Alfred would lose his shit to the same degree as if she said she’d already been with Jake. She let out a breath.

“I’m not an investigator, Alfred,” she said, giving one feeble attempt to not get entangled in this feud.

“As long as you’re up at my place you are,” he said, a note of warning in his voice. The warning wasn’t so much a serious threat as a warning to drop it.

She sighed, giving up. “How am I supposed to know if something is new or old? I’ve never seen the place before.”

“Just tell me what you see,” Alfred barked.

Cat bit her cheek. She couldn’t lose this fight completely. And even if it wasn’t possible to get out of it, she was a savvy enough lawyer to know she had a sliver of an advantage. She could ask for something. Not much, but something. “I’ll do it if you give Laura the landline number.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Okay then! No deal.”

Alfred gave a low rumble in his throat. She had to be careful not to rile him up too much. But this wasn’t too much to ask.

“I don’t want to talk about the case, not really. I just need a friend to talk to,” she said. And she meant it, too. If she had to stay up here—and with the added extreme complication of being inserted even more deeply into Alfred and Jake’s feud—being able to talk with her childhood friend might make it bearable.

“Fine,” Alfred said, finally. “But you need to get the evidence today.”

“Evidence?”

“Use the camera in the study. Take photos of what you see.”

“Seriously?”

“Today, Jones.”

Then the line went dead.

Jake

Jake pulled a nail from his lips and stuck it into the new shingle, driving it home with a few taps of his hammer. Thank god he had work to do this afternoon. If he wasn’t able to occupy his hands, he was liable to use them to run over to Alfred Jones’s place and bang down the door.

It had been hard enough to drive by the Jones lake house twice already today when he’d gone to visit his gran in Millerville. Both times he’d nearly swerved into the driveway, knowing only studs and plaster and a few dozen yards of grass were separating them. The first time he passed on the way out, he’d been so fresh off what had happened the night before, his primary need to see her in that moment was desire. Its embers were still glowing after burning all night through his whole being. But on the way back from visiting Gran, his need to see Cat was completely different. He wanted to wrap her in his arms, to tip his face into her hair and feel her warmth. To know being with another human being could feel good, instead of tragic.

When he’d arrived at the rest home that morning, glad for the distraction from thinking about Cat and looking forward to seeing his gran, the nurse had pulled him aside before he got to her room. Delia was his favorite nurse—a grandmother herself, she always beamed when he came in. He knew she snuck homemade treats to Gran and the other residents too.

“Honey, I’m sorry to say your grandmother hasn’t been doing too well these last few days,” she said. “I just want you to know she might not remember you at all this time.”

Jake’s heart had sunk.

“I shouldn’t have stayed away so long,” he said, but Delia had onlytsked,patting him on the hand.

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