Page 4 of Hunted in Hope Town

Get a real tree. Buy more lights. Buy Faith a present.

She’d call the doctor first thing Monday morning when the office opened, then start on her errands. Once she had an appointment, she’d talk through it and, like it always did, her brain would settle and she could go back to focusing on her present.

Feeling a little bit more settled, she got ready for the day. It would be a long, hopefully busy one. Faith did good business for a small bookstore in a tiny postage-stamp town, but the holiday season was one of the most important for the bookstore. And Small Business Saturday was the kickoff to all that.

Bundled up for the cold, complete with snow boots, Jessica opened her front door and stepped into the hallway. At the end, the staircase would take her to the main floor and out the back door of the building. The storefront she lived above was still empty, but Zach had been making noise about renting it out to the “right person.”

Before she pushed out the main floor door, she stopped. There was a kind of…envelope sticking in the crack of the door, like someone had tried to shove it in from the outside.

Confused, she reached out and tugged it out of the spot it was wedged. In dark block letters was typed: Mrs. Sutton.

Jessica could only stare at it for humming seconds where everything inside of her seemed to squeeze tight, like she was bracing for a blow.

Once she managed a breath, she shook her head. Why was she getting upset over an envelope? But the building felt…threatening, all of a sudden. She looked one way and then the other.

Someone had been right outside the door, shoved this envelope into the crack, and she didn’t know who.

She shook her head. Anyone could be outside a building in Hope Town. That was why she had locks and a security system. Besides, that envelope wasn’t addressed to her. There was no reason to feel fear. She was overreacting to a clearly misdelivered note.

Someone had made a mistake.

Ellis was the only Sutton she knew in Hope Town, so either someone had gotten…confused about their relationship, or was making a really weird joke, or this had simply been delivered to the wrong address.

There was no address or postage on the front of the envelope. Just Mrs. Sutton.

Jessica rubbed at the tightness in her chest. It felt like panic. But that was an overreaction to a mistake.

Ellis lived in the building across the street. Someone had just gotten confused with directions. This letter had to be meant for him. Some mistake or confusion. She’d just…take it to him.

Still, she didn’t make the move to go outside. She was struck by a strange thought. It was addressed to Mrs. Sutton.

Did he have a wife?

She realized she was scowling at the idea of it, when she had absolutely no reason to be scowling about that.

Except a married man should not be flirting with you. Not that she’d ever really fully believed Ellis was flirting with her. He was very, very careful around her. Kind. Nice. He’d never touched her. Never asked her out. He’d been there, but it wasn’t flirting. Not really. No matter what anyone else said.

Maybe because he had a wife.

Maybe this was some kind of…jealousy thing? Maybe he did have a wife, and she suspected there was…something between Ellis and her?

Okay, this was ridiculous. She shook her head and forced herself to move to disengage the alarm. She shoved the envelope into her bag and then, on a deep breath, opened the door. She didn’t mean to brace herself for a blow, but she did. Still, none came, except the bright blue of the morning sky.

She glanced all around the mostly empty parking lot, trying not to be paranoid and terrified. There was no one there. Whoever had left that note, mistake or not, was gone.

She locked the outer door, made sure the alarm was reengaged, and tried to calm her too-quick breathing.

Maybe she’d mention to Zach that…

“That what?” she muttered to herself. That someone misdelivered a note to your building?

She tried to shake the ridiculous sense of unease as she crossed the street and walked around to the back of the bookstore so she could enter from the storeroom.

Happenstance. Weird, weird happenstance.

She dropped off her bag, offending note still inside, shrugged off her coat, then stepped into the front room of the store. Even though the doors weren’t open yet, Faith was already flitting around, and Jessica jumped right in to help.

“I think people are actually lining up,” Faith said excitedly about ten minutes before opening.