Page 30 of Dumbstruck
She looks up, one eyebrow raised and her lips pursed together. “Because they’re starting to bug me. People in this town can complain all they want, but I don’t like the way they’re forgetting there are good people on the other side of this. So we’re getting to the bottom of this.”
The attorney side of her is coming out in full force, and I can’t help but grin. “Are you sure you want to do this, June? Last night—”
“Last night was annoying and made things personal. We’re solving this, Jonah.”
“Yes, ma’am.” And dang if her forcefulness isn’t wildly attractive.
“There have been instances both in town during filming and on the field where the crew is set up. The tire, Bonnie’s harness, the eggs and water tank…”
“And about a million other things,” I add with a roll of my eyes.
June chuckles as she writes down several of the instances. Dexter must have told her about some of them, because I certainly didn’t. “Add the note left on my door,” she says, “and Phil driving past my house over and over, and we have a lot of instances to connect. We have at least three different suspects, unless the woman who locked you in your trailer also left the note. I’m guessing they made a copy of the trailer key somehow, but that’s circumstantial at best, and it won’t be easy to prove.”
I study the columns she makes, frowning at the lack of evidence we have. “That’s a whole lot of nothing,” I murmur, thinking hard about any other details we might have. “The crane operators said it was something with the wiring, so we might want to look into anyone who has electric training.”
June purses her lips, then writes down a few names. “If I knew my neighbors better, I could add more people to this list, but I’m not all that friendly with my fellow Laketownians.”
“Why’s that?” And why would anyone in this town decline a chance to be best friends with this woman? June is fantastic. She’s interesting, independent, bold, beautiful… There must not be any single guys in this town, or they would have set their sights on her immediately.
Shrugging, June sets her pen on the table and keeps her eyes on the paper in front of her. “I guess I didn’t want to lay down any roots.”
That shouldn’t make me feel hopeful. It means she probably feels untethered and wayward—exactly how I’ve felt for the last decade and a half—but it also means she might be willing to leave Laketown. It means there’s a chance, however small, she would consider moving closer to me and making a go of this thing between us.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Jonah. She doesn’t even know your real name.
I clear my throat and shovel the last of the eggs into my mouth. “We need to talk to people in town to get some answers,” I say with my mouth still full.Classy.
June frowns, and I hope it’s because of what she says and not because I’m a brute. “I tried that, remember? And it got Phil stalking my house.”
“Is Phil going to be an actual danger?” I ask, glancing between Richie and June. I don’t know if I can take another night like last night.
June shakes her head at the same time Richie shrugs. “He’s like a hundred pounds soaking wet,” she says, “so I could take him, but he’s also incredibly timid. Either someone put him up to it, or someone borrowed his car.”
“Which means we have even less information,” I grumble. “And talking to people is the only way we’re going to get answers.”
“But—”
“We’re going to need to go undercover.”
June stares at me like I’ve grown two heads, which isn’t exactly bolstering. “Undercover? You know this is a small town, right? Pretty sure everyone knows what we look like.”
“What do you think undercover means? And have you forgotten that I’m here to film a movie?” I stand, grabbing all three of our plates and bringing them to the sink. I may not cook, but I am a master dish washer. Grabbing the sponge and some soap, I clean while I talk. “We have a whole makeup department, and some of them are incredibly good at what they do. They could make us look like completely different people if given a few hours to work their magic.”
“A few hours?” June is suddenly at my side, snatching a soapy plate from my hands before I drop it in surprise at her nearness. She rinses the plate and grabs a towel to dry it. “Is this going to be a whole day affair?”
If I have any say in the matter? Yes. “As long as you’re okay with that. I know you have a store to run.”
“The store will be fine if I don’t open today.” Her shoulder brushes mine as she reaches for the next plate. Then brushes again. And then we’re standing side by side, arms pressed together, and I am perfectly content with this situation. “I’ll admit,” she says, “I wasn’t thrilled about the movie being filmed here, but that doesn’t mean I want you to leave.”
She means ‘you’ as in the film crew collectively. Deep down, I know that. But I’d much prefer she means ‘you’ as in ‘me’ and doesn’t want me specifically to leave. I’ll have to leave eventually, but that doesn’t mean this thing between us has to end when I go. We can make this work.
Somehow.
“So what do you say?” I murmur, leaning into her and lowering my nose closer to hers. “Want to put on a disguise and be my partner in crime for a day?”
“I’d prefer to skip the crime part, but…” She holds out a wet hand. “Yes. I’d like that, Jonah James.”
I take her hand and pull her in so I can kiss her cheek. I’d like to do more, but Richie is sitting right there watching us, and I spend too much of my life kissing with an audience. “It’s a date,” I say and smile, loving the way June blushes red as a response.
