Page 67 of Play With Me

“It’s not up to me. But it looks perfectly safe. This is why your dad chose this resort—well-trained staff, guided excursions.”

Jude glares at me but his shoulders drop. “Fine. Okay. But you need to text me the minute you’re done.”

“We will text you,” Farrah says. I can see her frustration. But it’s gone in the next moment as Cap gives both of us big puffy hugs. I see the thanks in Farrah’s eyes and smile directed toward me. Then they’re off down the hall and Jude and I are standing awkwardly at our doors.

For a moment, we say nothing, then we both speak at once.

“I—”

“Do you—”

I grimace, and Jude runs his hand through his hair. “I was going to say I’m going to go down to breakfast anyway at nine.”

I nod, trying to think of my own thing to do. Maybe I’ll order room service—

“You’re coming, right?”

“Oh..”

“Maybe we can go to town after that? Start the Eleanor hunt?”

Relief spreads through me. He’s right; we suddenly have a day to ourselves, and going on the ghost hunt—while I film footage for my thesis—is exactly what I want to be doing.

We need to talk about last night, but now we have a whole day to do it.

“Yes. Perfect. See you soon,” I say, then mercifully retreat from topless, sexy, best-friend, single-dad Jude.

CHAPTER17

Nora

Jude’s travel agent arranged for the Range Rover to be at the resort this morning. After a breakfast which started out poorly, where we talked awkwardly about the weather and our plan for the day, and then proceeded to chow down like we hadn’t seen food in days, we headed to the front desk to grab the fob, then strode out the door with something like ten feet between us.

It wasn’t until we reached the vehicle that Jude turned in front of me. “Nora, I know stuff happened last night that’s made us all…weird, and yeah I know we need to talk about it. But for right now, can we just pretend it’s like the old days? Can we focus on Eleanor and our research?”

“And my thesis?” I asked.

“Yes. Just for now.”

I let out a breath, my shoulders relaxing for the first time this morning. “Yes,” I say. “Sounds good.”

After that, things get a lot easier.

* * *

“So this is where the love story first started,” I say as we rumble into town. I don’t even care that sayinglove storyto Jude feels a little weird, I’m too excited to be here working on Eleanor again.

As Jude pulls up in front of the town hall, I turn on my camera and feel nothing but jittery excitement that we’re here, doing this. Jude was always serious about going to Switzerland to follow the trail that ended in the cache by the golf course, but I never thought we’d actually do it. After I left Quince Valley, I was certain my part in this mystery hunt was over.

But now here we are, jogging up the steps in the crisp winter sun, pushing open the door to the quaint little stone hall, where the town’s archives were stored.

The woman at the desk perks up, standing as we walk in. She looks thrilled we’re here, like her workday isn’t all that exciting. Behind her, there’s a hallway that opens up into a room where I can hear someone talking on the phone. Otherwise, it looks to be pretty quiet in here.

Can I help you?” she asks in heavily accented English.

The woman looks to be in her thirties, very tall with strong features and short, curly dark hair. I’m not sure how she knew we didn’t speak German, but I was glad not to have to use the translator I’d downloaded on my phone.

“Hi!” I say, as upbeat as possible, given I’m going to be asking for permission to spend some time in their archives.

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