Jennifer Morey – The Librarian's Secret Scandal (страница 2)

“It’ll be sore for a few days but I’m all right.”

After studying her face a bit longer, he glanced back at his SUV and then walked to the front. There, he stood and surveyed the damage.

Lily was mortified. She wanted to crawl out of her skin and escape until this was over.

“I have insurance,” she said quickly.

He looked at her.

“I—I was … I guess I was … a little distracted,” she stammered.

“Places like this have that effect,” he said.

Was he kidding? She didn’t know what to say.

“It’s probably going to be totaled,” he said.

Great. She couldn’t remember what her deductable was. A thousand probably. And her rates would go up after this, too.

“That’s all right.” As if.

“I liked my SUV,” he said.

She hadn’t thought of it like that. “I’m sorry.” Could she disappear now?

The victims’ officer came running toward them. She must have barely made it into the building when she’d noticed the crash.

Here we go, Lily thought. Lord, she wanted to go home.

“Oh, my God … are you two okay?” The officer stopped, breathing rapidly from exertion.

“Yes, we’re fine,” Lily said. “Neither one of us is hurt, but I’ll call the police for an accident report and we’ll be on our way.” She tapped the toe of her shoe on the pavement and looked toward the road leading to the checkpoint.

The officer followed her look and then her gaze passed over the wreckage of the man’s truck. “One of you isn’t going anywhere without help. You’ll need a tow.”

“We probably need an accident report,” Lily repeated, knowing she sounded harried. “You know … for insurance. So as soon as we call….” She could drive home.

“We don’t need to call anyone to come out here,” the man said.

She stopped tapping her foot. “Really?”

“No one was hurt, and this is a private parking lot. All we need to do is stop by the sheriff’s office and fill out a form for insurance.”

“Oh. Okay. Good.” Then all they needed was a tow truck. How long would that take?

His eyes grew more curious and then he really looked at her. It made her nervous. As if she wasn’t nervous enough.

“Maybe I should get someone to drive you home,” the officer said to her. “You look a little shaken.”

“No. I can drive.”

“You were just in an accident.”

This lady was really starting to irritate her. Did she hound all the victims who came here? Lily didn’t respond, just looked toward the road again. Oh, to be on it, driving away from here, on her way home.

“Wait a minute,” the man said, which brought her head back around. “You look familiar.”

How could he possibly know her?

“Where are you from?” he asked.

She didn’t want to tell him.

“Wes Colton.” He stuck out his hand. “Honey Creek County sheriff.”

Momentarily stunned, she numbly took his hand. Colton. He was a Colton?

“You’re from Honey Creek?” she asked, her astonishment coming out in her tone.

He smiled. “Yeah. You’re Lily Masterson, right? You took over for Mary Walsh at the library.”

“That’s me,” Lily said, cringing inside. The resident bad girl. There was only one reason he recognized her. All the gossip. Honey Creek was rampant with it these days.

“You know each other?” the officer cut in.

“No,” Lily all but snapped.

“Not really,” Wes answered conversationally. “We both live in Honey Creek. It’s not far from here.”

“I know where that town is.” The officer smiled. “Quite a coincidence, wouldn’t you say?”

Quite.

He nodded toward the prison. “Might be a bad sign that we’re both here.”

Lily was getting good at forcing humor. She laughed.

Great. Would he guess why she was here? If the victims’ officer didn’t give her away….

She glanced at the woman. Her eyes had widened but she remained quiet.

“What brings you here?” she asked Wes.

“I came here to see my brother.”

Of course. She remembered. Damien Colton was in prison for murder, except the man he had supposedly murdered had recently turned up—dead again. Damien was Wes Colton’s brother. Talk about his impending release was all over town. Lily looked more closely at him. He was handsome and young. She thought she remembered someone saying he was thirty-three, which was too young for her forty years.

“What about you?” he asked, and she wished she would have kept her mouth shut.

“Oh….” How was she going to answer that? No one from Honey Creek knew what had happened to her. “I was just … visiting a friend.”

The officer angled her head a little, a silent question in her eyes.

Lily ignored her, but she couldn’t ignore Wes. The amusement that had pulled a smile from his mouth faded.

Surely he’d heard all the rumors. Some weren’t rumors, either. Before she’d left Honey Creek, she’d done anything and everything to spite her holier-than-thou parents. That was so long ago, though, and so much had changed since then. She’d changed. Why was it so hard for everyone to see that?

“What kind of trouble did your friend get into to land himself here?” he asked.

She thought fast. “Robbery.”

The officer’s eyebrows lifted.

“Must be someone close to you if you’re willing to visit him here.”

“He’s just a … a … friend.”

The officer’s eyebrows lowered and her eyes turned sympathetic. She knew why Lily was lying.

Lily met her gaze and hoped she read the message not to say anything. When the officer remained a silent observer, she didn’t know if that was worse. Pity was for the vulnerable.

“You’ve been away from Honey Creek for a while,” Wes said, appearing oblivious to the exchange. “What brought you back?”

Another subject she didn’t particularly want to discuss. But he wasn’t pressing on her reason for being here so she wouldn’t complain. “My dad. His health isn’t so great right now. Stage two stomach cancer. He’s gone through the surgery, but he’s still in treatment and we don’t know how things will progress from here. I came back to help him. Without Mom around it’s hard for him to care for himself.”

He nodded and his blue eyes showed his admiration. They also showed self-assurance and intelligence that went along with his honorable reputation. She checked his left hand. No ring.

“That’s very kind of you to do that,” the officer said, sounding out of place in the conversation. Was that because she’d noticed Lily looking at Wes?