Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 113272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Boy, had she just made an idiot of herself.
And now what was she going to do? They’d left town. Did she call them or message and say sorry?
Urgh.
Or just let it go?
She really had no idea.
All she knew was that it felt like she was too late and that she’d never see them again.
And that hurt more than she’d expected it to.
19
Arabella woke to the sound of Horse snarling and barking.
What was going on?
Getting up, she slid her feet into slippers and grabbed her robe, hurrying out of the room. A light shone into the kitchen window and she let out a cry, hiding around the corner in the hallway.
Was someone out there?
What was happening?
There was a strange noise. Almost like someone crying or screeching.
A ghost?
Oh God.
What did she do? Were these the noises that Abe had been talking about? The ones that the owner of the house had heard?
Another flash of light moved through the kitchen window. Were there people in the backyard or over the fence? But there were mostly trees back there.
There was another strange noise and Horse started to howl.
Shit.
Should she call the police?
Abe wouldn’t have his hearing aids in so he likely wouldn’t be awake.
Rushing back, she grabbed her phone and put through a call to the sheriff’s office.
The dispatcher promised to send someone out immediately and she settled down on the floor with Horse, trying to keep him calm.
She should go and check on Abe, except she was scared to leave.
She needed to get his number so she could call him.
I want Eli and Kellan.
No, no. It had been three days since the storm. She’d spent the first day embarrassed. Then the next day upset that they’d left town without telling her. Which was ridiculous.
And now she missed them?
What was wrong with her?
The fact that they’d left town the next day had made her wonder if she’d just imagined those feelings between them.
What experience did she have with men, after all?
Absolutely none.
She’d had two fiancés and hadn’t even kissed them properly. She wasn’t a virgin, but that had been a big mistake. She’d slept with this guy when she was seventeen and he’d turned out to be a total asshole. He’d taken photos of her without her permission and then spread them around her school.
It had been a complete, humiliating nightmare.
After that, she hadn’t wanted to even kiss another guy.
The noises died off and the lights stopped. Horse was trembling and trying to get into her lap. The big baby didn’t realize that he weighed sixty-five pounds and wasn’t a lapdog.
She heard a car pull up and realized she was just in a thin dressing gown. But before she could rush into the bedroom and change there was a knock on the door.
“Shit,” she muttered to Horse who was growling. She grabbed his lead and attached it to his collar before opening the door.
Oh. Great.
Deputy Doofus was here.
That wasn’t nice.
She really had to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“Good evening, Arabella.”
“Hi, Deputy.”
“Please, call me Zane.” He smiled but it looked kind of smarmy.
Benefit of the doubt.
“Right, Zane. Sorry to disturb you,” she said.
“You could never disturb me,” he replied.
Urgh.
Yep. He was definitely giving her a creepy vibe.
“So, I heard these noises like cries. And there were lights flashing through my kitchen window. Which maybe means someone was walking around the back of the house or the forest behind with flashlights. I don’t know what they would be doing or what those noises might have come from, though.”
“Now, how about we leave the detective work to the professionals, okay?” he said.
She bit her lip so she didn’t point out that he wasn’t an actual detective. He still had more experience than her.
When he didn’t immediately move to investigate, she wondered if she’d missed something.
“Um, are you going to go look?” she asked.
“Sure. Sure. Lock up. In case those ghosts come back. I’ll go searching for them.”
Nope. It was official.
Definitely a doofus.
Twenty minutes later, he knocked on her door again. By this stage, she was tired and cold. She’d gotten dressed and had just made herself a hot chocolate. She carried the mug with her to open the door.
Then she realized she hadn’t checked who it was first. Eli wouldn’t be happy. Well, he’d never know and it wasn’t like anyone else would knock on her door at this time of night.
Deputy Doofus smiled at her while leaning against the doorway. He seemed to think he was hot stuff as he crossed his arms. “You know if you wanted to see me again you didn’t have to make something up. You could have just told me.”
“I wasn’t making anything up and I didn’t want to see you.”
His gaze narrowed. “No need to be rude.”
“There’s also no need to be condescending and dismissive. Despite the fact that you seem to think you’re amazing, I didn’t make anything up to get you here. And I would appreciate you being professional.”