Page 59 of Unpacking Secrets
“Party-pooper.”
I kissed her freshly-glossed lips before trudging to the living room to locate my shirt. Somehow, it had ended up wedged between the couch cushions. I pulled it on and gave Blue a quick belly rub.
“C’mon, I’ll take you out while the lady does her thing.”
Before opening the back door, I peeked out through the sheer curtains, but the yard lay still and silent. For the briefest moment, I wondered if I'd only imagined that flash of movement earlier, but I would take no chances when it came to Juliet.
I stepped out into the afternoon sun, watching Blue as she pranced across the lawn to explore new scents. Casually slipping my hands into my pockets, I wandered up the side of the yard nearest the woods. The only sounds were birdsong and some occasional snuffling from Blue as she joined me to investigate.
Though I wasn’t completely sure what I’d hoped to find, I saw nothing that screamed lurker to me, no footprints or cigarette butts or anything the movies suggested might signify a threatening presence.
Once Blue and I had scoured the area where I thought I saw movement, I turned back to the house to judge the distance.
“Smell anything, girl?” Blue sniffed at a few trees but trotted calmly back to my side after another minute, prompting me to mutter, “Should’ve gotten a bloodhound.”
Just as I turned back to the cottage, though, my gaze caught on a tree trunk sporting deep gouges in the bark. I moved closer, running my fingers over the lines. It was the letter M, but it looked like an old mark, worn into the rough surface.
“What the hell?”
Standing by the marked tree, I looked back across the lawn and watched as the lacy curtains in Juliet’s bedroom shifted in the breeze. The thought of someone standing here while we were inside the cottage—while we were in her bed—filled me with twin bursts of nausea and fury. We’d kept the lights off, as far as I could recall, so there was only a slim chance of seeing much from here.
Shit, I didn’t want to scare her, not when I couldn’t be sure the marks weren’t from as far back as her mother’s childhood. Maybe I’d just make sure we replaced those curtains sooner instead of later.
“Weird,” I muttered.
Blue cocked her head at me, then she nosed at the base of the tree and I spotted a piece of paper half-buried under the weeds.
I picked it up by the corner, shaking off bits of leaf and dirt to reveal thick, fancy paper with swirling cursive across it.
My dearest Juliet.
It was the note from her mother, the one she thought she’d lost. I glanced back toward the cottage, its tidy garbage cans outside the back door. Their covers fit snugly to deter animals from rifling through them, but it was possible the note had blown across the yard when she took out the trash.
Blue and I returned to the house to find Juliet waiting in the doorway, looking impossibly beautiful. The blouse flattered every lush curve and its pale blue shade turned her eyes the same vibrant cerulean as the afternoon sky. Her hair was drawn up and back, with curling wisps around her face.
“Find anything?” she asked.
“Looks like maybe your mom scratched her initials on a tree when she was a kid,” I replied. “Oh, and this.”
I handed her the note and watched those blue eyes immediately fill with tears. She smoothed it out, brushing a smudge of dirt from the paper, then clasped it to her chest.
“I can’t believe it was out there all this time. Thank you.”
“Of course,” I said gently. “I didn’t spot anything else outside, but I'm definitely glad you’re so obsessed with locking the doors.”
Juliet gasped in mock outrage, but when she jokingly moved to flounce away, I caught her around the waist, swung her into my arms, and kissed her, a light, teasing graze of my lips across hers. As I’d hoped, her hand immediately slipped around the back of my neck to draw me down for more.
When we finally parted, I took great pleasure in studying that sweet, dazed look in her eyes. Juliet blinked it slowly away, like she was waking from a particularly pleasant dream. I kissed the tip of her nose and set the letter on the counter, then bolted the back door and took her hand as we headed to the front of the house.
“We can park at my place,” I said, watching as she locked it with her key. “I’ll get changed and we can walk over.”
“You live that close to them?” Her eyebrows arched upward, then her mouth dropped open in horror. “I didn’t mean for that to sound so clingy. I’m just curious, I swear.”
I grinned at the way the words tumbled from her lips, enjoying the tiny hint of jealousy that colored the question. “Relax, Red. Yes, they live across the street.”
“Not a single one of my past relationships ended well enough to stay friends. Then again, I guess none of them started with friendship, either. It’s probably a good thing none of them live nearby.”
“I had an apartment in town for a while, but my parents sold me their house when they got the RV. When they’re done traveling, they’re planning to downsize. Libby and Mark bought a house across the street when they got married, maybe four, five years ago now? I was their best man. I look pretty damn good in a tux, in case you wondered.”
