Page 7 of Hunted in Hope Town
“Is Zach here with you?” Ellis asked. Demanded, probably, based on the sharp look Lucy gave him.
“No, but he’s just down the street at the bakery with Coop,” she said, referencing their toddler before looking back down at the book in her hands.
“Could you get him to come down here? I need to talk to him, and I can’t leave.”
Her smile flattened out as she looked up from her book, concern replacing cheerfulness. “Yeah, I can text him to come down. Everything okay?”
He tried to smile, but he couldn’t manage. “No, it isn’t.”
Chapter Three
Jessica worked. She focused on the work—and making sure she was always a good distance away from Ellis. He was supposed to stay after closing to help with the holiday decorations, but she wasn’t going to be alone with him.
No way. She’d tell Faith if she had to. She’d feign illness if she had to. There was something…bad there.
Isn’t there something bad at your apartment?
She shook her head as if it would dislodge the paranoia. It had been a mistake. Something between Ellis and his wife. It didn’t involve her, and she would lock all the doors tonight and everything would be fine.
Fine.
But when Zach Simmons walked in, nothing felt fine. Zach ran Hope Town in a way. Lane Webb might be the mayor and head of the chamber of commerce, but Zach handled…the rest.
Jessica had never asked for details. Why a place like Hope Town existed, why she had been brought here, why Zach helped coordinate things like her job with Faith and who her doctor was.
She accepted something bad had happened to her that she didn’t remember, and she let Zach handle the details.
That felt particularly stupid in this moment as Zach crossed over to Ellis and the two began to talk in low, serious tones. It made her extra nervous. Even more than the fierce look Ellis had gotten on his face when he’d grabbed her arm.
He’d never touched her before. Not like that. Not at all, and she realized in the moment that it was kind of odd. Never a handshake or a shoulder pat or an accidental brushing of elbows.
She wasn’t proud of the fact her bodily reaction hadn’t been fear. Luckily, her brain was in charge and knew to back away, rather than follow a strange, bad instinct and lean in.
Jessica worked the cash register, keeping an eye on Ellis and Zach. Zach left for a little while, but Ellis didn’t. He didn’t approach her, didn’t crowd her, but in everything she did, she felt his eyes on her. So while her nerves strummed tight, she worried and wondered…
But not enough to do anything about it.
When Zach returned right about closing time, Jessica felt panic begin to beat at the base of her throat. Particularly when they both took Faith aside and spoke to her in voices Jessica couldn’t hear while Jessica closed out the register.
Faith looked over at her, and there were things Jessica didn’t usually see in her friend’s expression.
Pity. Worry.
Jessica wanted to run away. She wanted to pretend this wasn’t happening, but something was wrong and…if Zach was involved it likely dealt with her past. The past her doctor told her not to worry about.
A past that shouldn’t have anything to do with Ellis Sutton, but…this had all started when she’d handed him that letter. That had been left at her building’s door with no postage.
And for these past two years, with absolutely no explanation, Ellis Sutton had always been there at the edges. She’d questioned it at times in the privacy of her own mind but never pressed him or anyone else.
Another mistake.
She’d always promised herself if she came face-to-face with all that she couldn’t remember, she’d be brave. She’d accept whatever it was. She wouldn’t go looking for it—if her brain wanted to protect her from it, so be it.
But she’d promised herself she wouldn’t run if it reared its ugly head.
She’d spent the past two years not remembering, not trying to remember, but preparing herself for remembering all the same.
Because no matter what she’d hoped, some part of her had always known that escaping her past and whatever she didn’t remember was temporary.
