Page 13 of Jasper

His eyes widened like she’d asked him to choose between Reese’s Cups and M&M’s. “Do you really want to set tongues wagging if we don’t buy both?”

“God help us, then.”

He grinned and kissed her nose. “Now, you’re getting it, sweetheart. Let’s go get our groceries and head home. Donuts are calling my name.”

She sent up a prayer to keep her safe from her own hormones and Jasper’s charm before she fell into step beside him to stock up on what they’d need.

By the time she finally managed to drag Jasper out of the grocery store, it was getting pretty late. It would be dark soon, and Sloane wanted to get to the house. Her nerves were beyond frayed. Everywhere they went, she was constantly looking to see if strangers were watching her or hiding when she glanced in their direction. Getting inside where no one could see her would go a long way to settling her down and allowing the tense muscles in her shoulders to relax.

Jarrod lived about a half-hour from town. The directions he’d given Jasper were excellent. She’d have probably missed the dirt road hiding among the trees since she hadn’t been here in years. A plus, in her opinion. Would-be assassins might miss it too.

The house itself was a three-story white farmhouse with a wraparound porch that surrounded the entire house. The back half was screened in so you could sit outside and not get eaten alive by mosquitos. She’d definitely not be taking advantage of that since it was cold enough to freeze her into a human popsicle.

She could see fences and two large barns back behind the house She had no idea what kind of animals Jarrod had, but she had no inclination to find out either. She wasn’t a farmer. Even spending time here when she was little, she’d stayed out of the barn. Jarrod used to make fun of her because she had a dislike for it. But, hey, spiders and all that. She’d seenCharlotte’s Webwhen she was little. People might have thought that talking spider was cute, but not Sloane. Creeped her out thinking the little beady-eyed things could actually talk. When she hit her teenage years, she discovered horses, and she braved the spiders for them.

“Home sweet home.” Jasper cut the ignition and looked up at the house. “Think whoever brought the truck to the airport turned the heat on?”

A thought occurred, and her eyes widened. “What if there isn’t any heat? What if there’s no electricity whatsoever? Jarrod’s been deployed for three months. He might have cut the utilities off.”

“Nah. He’s had people here taking care of the animals. You need water for that, and to have water, you need electricity.”

“Not true. There’s a well on the property. They could have been using that.”

He made a humming sound. “I didn’t think of that.”

“We’re going to freeze to death.”

“No, we won’t. These old houses always have a fireplace. We can start a fire if we have to.”

“Do you even know how to start a fire?”

“Girl, please. I’m a Marine. I can start a fire in the middle of nowhere with nothing to use.”

“Even Marines can’t work miracles without the tools to create them.”

“Ye of little faith.” He shook his head and opened the truck door. “Come on, Nancy Naysayer, let’s go see if we have electricity.”

“Oh, my God, the food! We should have come and checked the situation first. All the food is going to go to waste.”

“It’s cold enough outside we can leave what we need to out here overnight, but I think you’re jumping the gun here, sweetheart. There’s electricity.”

Not with her luck. She got out of the cold and shoved her hands into the pockets of her brand-new coat.

“We can’t leave food outside. Bears or raccoons or something might eat it.”

“If they’re hungry enough to come up on the porch, then they can have it. Animals need to eat too.”

He started up the porch steps and paused to lean down and pick up one of the wooden flowerpots. He waved a key triumphantly at her and proceeded up the steps and unlocked the door. Sloane followed close on his heels. She hadn’t really thought about bears up here this close to the wilderness, but once she did, it was all that she could think of. Being a bear’s dinner was not high on her bucket list.

Jasper entered the house, and much to Sloane’s disappointment, the lights did not come on when he flipped the switch.

“Well, damn.” Jasper turned to face her, a sheepish look stealing over his face. “I guess I was wrong.”

“Now what do we do?”

“Can you get a signal up here?”

She pulled her phone out of her purse and powered it on. “Yes!”

---