Page 109 of Threat of Danger
Pam drove them all home, still grappling with all that had happened. “So Crane was going to kill you, then go back for Kaylee? You think he died as soon as he hit the rocks? I hope the dickless bastard hung on for a while and suffered. God, I don’t even want to think what would have happened if Derek didn’t find you.”
“Jess and Kaylee had everything under control,” Derek said. He sat in the back of the car on one side of Kaylee, Jess on the other. Zelda sat in the front with Pam.
“You think Abuelito is proud of me?” Kaylee asked, her voice thick with grief.
Jess hugged her. “You bet.”
Derek ruffled Kaylee’s hair. “Everybody is proud of you. You ever decide to join the navy and become the first female Navy SEAL, I’ll be your reference.”
Kaylee’s lips stretched into a wobbly smile. “If Abuelito is watching, I want to show him that I can take care of myself.”
“You can,” Zelda said from the front. “But you also have a family to take care of you. So you don’t have to do it all by yourself.”
The family weren’t the only ones pulling together either. The whole community was pulling for Kaylee and Zelda too. At home, seven casseroles and at least as many plates of cookies and a coconut cake waited on the kitchen table, with notes of condolences from people and offers of help.
Jess stared at the bounty as she drew in a long breath. Her eyes burned. For years, she’d thought of Taylorville only as the place that couldn’t keep her safe. But this too was Taylorville—the people who came together in times of trouble. Her neighbors’ kind gestures felt like a warm, fuzzy blanket enveloping her.Home, she thought, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, shefeltthe word.
“Should I warm up something?” Pam offered.
“Too tired to eat,” Zelda said, and the rest of them nodded in agreement.
Jess gave Pam a hug. “Thank you for being such a good friend.”
Instead of dinner, they all took quick showers—Jess careful of her bandages—so they could go to bed.
“I think you should get my room,” she told Kaylee as she came out of the bathroom and passed the girl who was waiting to go in. “Permanently.”
“I can’t take your room.”
“Of course you can. You can’t live at your place all alone. You belong here now. Like Zelda said. You’re family.”
“It’s not that.” Kaylee shuddered. “It’s the posters. Good grief.”
For the first time in the past two days, Jess smiled. “Smart-ass.”
Kaylee shifted on her feet. “Can I sleep downstairs tonight?”
Jess could have kicked herself. “Of course.”
Her bed was the only bed left upstairs—Derek had helped her move her mother’s things downstairs Sunday, after their walk in the woods. Of course Kaylee wouldn’t want to stay up here alone.
So, in the end, Zelda slept in her new downstairs room, and Kaylee slept in Rose’s. Pam took the couch. She’d been up all night, first out searching with the Versquatchers, then taking Zelda to the hospital. They weren’t going to let her drive home blurry-eyed.
Derek stayed too. When Jess walked back upstairs after seeing everyone settled, he walked up behind her. In another minute they were in her room, the door closed, the first time she’d been alone with him since having sex in the woods. Since he’d told her that he loved her.
She still couldn’t believe it. Maybe he hadn’t meant the declaration. Maybe it’d been the adrenaline talking.
Suddenly she felt awkward—maybe even presumptuous?—taking her clothes off in front of him. She slipped into bed in the clean T-shirt and yoga pants she’d put on after her shower.
He showed no propensity for shyness. He stripped to the skin before joining her under the covers.
Oh. OK. Wow.
Jess’s pulse pounded. She still hadn’t recovered from seeing his magnificent, well-toned body naked at the river. Twice in one night might be too much for her heart.
A number of seconds passed before she collected herself.
“It’s nice to have everyone under one roof,” she said as they lay on the full-size bed, shoulder to shoulder. No room to move away. She did her best to ignore the mad tingles racing over her skin.
