Page 23 of The Unknown Colton
“Why?” she asked. “You didn’t let me be there for you. Go.” She didn’t wait for him to leave before she went into her bedroom like she had the night before. And like the night before, she closed and locked that door, shutting him out like she must feel he’d shut her out.
Their future was in danger, but not for the reasonhe’d believed—not because of his injury but because of him.
Why couldn’t she see that he’d been thinking about her, that he hadn’t wanted her to make any sacrifices for him? He loved her so much that he wanted all her dreams to come true.
Even if those dreams no longer included him.
* * *
The hook was baited. Now the fisherman just had to wait for the right moment to reel her in.
Then, finally, after all these years of planning, he could be certain this part of his life was over.
And so was hers…
CHAPTER 7
Once the door to the cabin closed behind Troy, Lakin left her bedroom and went into the RTA office. She spent the day there, doing what she always did: taking calls, talking to clients and vendors, putting out little fires. And yet she felt like it wasn’t real, like she was in aGroundhog Day-like dream. She was doing the same thing over and over, but she wasn’t really present.
She wasn’t sure where she was, but she knew where she wanted to be. And once she left the office, she hopped in her SUV and headed there. Home.
Not to her empty cabin but to the house where she’d grown up with her brothers and her mom and dad.
Because it was home and would always be, she didn’t knock. She just pushed open the kitchen door and walked in, surprising her parents at the counter. Her dad had his arms around her mom as she was chopping up something on the cutting board, and he was nuzzling her neck as she squirmed and giggled.
Lakin’s heart warmed with love for them and forthe love that they had for each other all these years later. They’d been high school sweethearts like her and Troy, but unlike her and Troy, they’d shared their vision for family and their future.
And their love thrived even or maybe especially during the tragedies they’d suffered.
“Oh, there’s our baby girl!” Mom exclaimed as she dropped the knife and rushed over to hug Lakin.
Lakin smiled over being called baby. She was taller and bigger boned than her mother. Sasha Colton had a delicate build and facial features, but she was strong and fiercely loving and fun. She had so many friends because everyone who met her became her friend.
What about…? The woman in the photograph suddenly popped into Lakin’s head, the woman who’d looked so much like her. She felt a twinge of guilt.
Sasha Colton was the woman who’d raised her, who’d read to her at night and helped her with homework and talked to her about friends and boys and life.
Lakin tightened her arms around her mother, holding tight to her for a moment and to those memories. She breathed in the scents in the kitchen. The roasting chicken. The cinnamon and nutmeg spices from the Dutch apple pie cooling on the counter. And her mother’s hair brushed across her cheek, soft and smelling like a combination of the cooking aromas, spring and clay.
She smiled again. “I love you so much, Mom,” she said.
Sasha clasped her tightly. She was as famous for her hugs as for her pottery and her cooking. “I love you, too, baby.”
“What about me?” her dad asked.
Lakin and her mother laughed. “Of course we love you, too,” they said together.
When they stepped back from each other, her dad hugged Lakin. Almost too tightly, like he was trying too hard to hang onto her.
Did he know about Jasper Whitlaw’s visit? Had Troy told him? He might have out of concern, but then he should have been concerned that he would make her even more mad at him. She doubted he would risk that.
Maybe Eli or Kansas had told Dad about the break-in at the cabin last night. But she didn’t think either of them would want to worry him when they’d really seemed to believe it was just a hungry vagrant.
But was that really the case? While she hadn’t felt that strange sensation of being watched since this morning, she felt it now. Was it because of how intently her parents were staring at her or…
Was there someone outside watching?
She glanced through the front windows of the house and noted a few trucks and other vehicles parked on the street. With the sun shining on the windows, she couldn’t see inside them. Maybe theyweren’t all empty. Maybe someone was out there peering back at her. Whitlaw? Or someone else?
