It was noon by the time we started back. The sun was directly overhead, but dark clouds hung suspended over the mountains, and I could hear thunder rumbling through the hills. The storm was a long way off, though, and I had no idea if it was even headed our way. Still, I felt an electric tingle along my scalp and in my fingertips, and as the breeze died away, the air felt heavy with portent.
The path around the cliff was narrow, so we walked single file. Thane led the way, with me in the middle and Angus bringing up the rear. I wasn’t much in the mood to talk. I was still too preoccupied by what had happened in the glade between Thane and me. And I couldn’t shake the notion that someone—possibly Ivy—had been following us. I found myself glancing back now and then to see if I could spot her.
Thane had gotten a bit ahead of me, and as we neared the forest, he waited for me to catch up before entering the trees. The path widened, and we were able to walk side by side, shoulders brushing. I welcomed his nearness even as I shied away from any physical contact.
He lifted a pine bough that drooped over the path, and as I ducked under, he said, “I need to tell you something.”
I straightened and looked at him. “Yes?”
For a moment, he seemed oddly at a loss, as if he didn’t quite know where to start. “Yesterday, I told you that I’d gone to your website to look you up, but that’s not altogether true. I did go to your website, but I already knew about you. I knew that day on the ferry.”
I was still on edge so my tone sharpened. “How?”
“I remembered seeing your picture in the paper last spring after everything came out about Oak Grove Cemetery.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I wasn’t one-hundred-percent certain. That’s why I looked you up. I started searching back through some of the internet articles until I found the photograph. You were standing outside the cemetery gates with a man. A cop. He had his arm around you. You were both looking away from the camera, but I had the feeling the photographer had captured an intimate moment.” He paused. “None of my business, of course, so feel free to tell me to go to hell. But…you know what I’m asking, right? And why I’m asking?” He turned to stare down at me, and I thought he seemed tense. “It isn’t just about what happened at the waterfall.”
My heart gave a painful kick. “I know.”
“Well?”
I drew a quick breath. “His name is John Devlin. He was the police detective in charge of that case. I was a consultant for a time.”
“And more?”
“Yes.”
“How much more?”
“It doesn’t matter. We’re not together now.”
“Why not?”
I couldn’t tell him about Devlin’s ghosts. Even if he would have believed me, it wasn’t something I could share. Devlin didn’t even know about them, and confiding in Thane somehow seemed a betrayal to him. “It’s complicated.” I turned and walked past him up the path. When he caught up with me, I said, “He lost his wife and daughter. He wasn’t ready to move on.”
“What about you? Are you ready to move on?”
I closed my eyes briefly. “I don’t know. I’m not over him, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m not sure I’ll ever be.”
“Is that why you came here? To nurse a broken heart?”
“I came here because I was offered a job,” I said flatly.
His expression was guarded, the eyes deeply shadowed. “For what it’s worth, I know what it’s like to lose someone you love. I know that emptiness, that awful helpless feeling.”
“Your grandfather told me about Harper,” I said softly.
He frowned. “What did he say?”
“He said she was the girl you wanted to marry. She died in a car crash, and you blamed yourself for allowing her to go out in a storm.”
Anger flared. “Did he also mention how he’d done everything in his power to keep us apart?”
“No.” But I remembered his grandfather’s comment about the girl’s mental instability. “Why did he try to keep you apart?”
“Because she wasn’t part of his grand design.” A muscle pulsed at his temple. “And her family didn’t meet with his approval.”
“Why not?”
“She didn’t have money or connections, the right kind of pedigree. None of that mattered to me, of course. I only wanted Harper. If not for the accident, we would have been married that spring despite Grandfather’s objections.”
“I’m sorry.”
He was silent for a moment. I heard the rumble of thunder in the distance and the rustle of leaves overhead as the breeze picked back up, bringing the scent of rain and the promise of bad weather.
Thane looked up through the breaks in the canopy where the sun still shone brightly. “It was a long time ago and who knows if it would have lasted. We were young, and I can look back now and admit that part of the appeal of our romance was bucking Grandfather’s wishes. Don’t get me wrong,” he said quickly. “I did love her. And I’m also grateful to Grandfather for taking me in when I had nowhere else to go. I’ll never be able to repay him for all that he’s done for me. But—”
“He never quite lets you forget that you’re not a true Asher.”
He gave a little laugh. “When you say it like that, it sounds pretty petty.”
“No, it doesn’t. At best, it must be awkward and at worst, soul-crushing.”
He reached out briefly to touch my cheek, his fingers as light as a dragonfly skimming across a pond. “He’s a fool, you know.”
We were no longer talking about Pell Asher.
I didn’t want to look at him, didn’t want to read too much into his eyes, so I focused instead on Angus, sitting on the path patiently waiting for us.
But my mind was in turmoil. I hadn’t expected this, nor did I want it. I wasn’t looking for romance with Thane Asher, and yet I couldn’t deny a connection that was starting to frighten me.
“Thane—”
“Don’t say it. Don’t say anything.”
“I have to.”
He put a fingertip to my lips. “Life’s too short to live in the past, Amelia. Let him have his ghosts.”
When we arrived back at the cemetery, I turned to say goodbye at the gate. I needed to work for as long as I could before the storm moved in, and I really wanted some alone time to sort things out. That kiss at the falls had left me confused and emotionally shattered. I felt the inevitable tug-of-war: the desire, always, to return to Charleston, to Devlin. The need, for now, to stay here with Thane.
“I should get to work,” I said briskly.
The old grin flashed. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily. I think it’s time for you to meet the rest of the family.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Dear old Aunt Emelyn. You did say you wanted to see her.” Thunder rumbled closer, and he looked out over the cemetery toward the mountains. “You’re not going to get any work done this afternoon. That storm is moving down fast.”
And with his words came a gust of wind that swept a flurry of dead leaves across the graves. Along the
