The wind skimmed the water into white-tipped wavelets. Seagulls swung and dove, seeing things beneath the surface that Kait could not. She was laughing at their erratic dance when suddenly, a shadow fell over her. Before she could even be surprised, Landon was pulling the other chair up beside her.
“Mind if I join you?” he asked, and gave her a quick, crushing kiss before sitting down.
Kaitlyn glared at him from behind her dark frames. “What are you doing here?”
“Following you,” he smiled grimly.
“Why?”
Landon finished her nearly full glass of wine in a quick, bolting gesture more appropriate for a shot of whiskey. “You know why.”
“I promise you, I don’t.” Kaitlyn reflexively pulled the empty glass back and frowned at it. She could have used that four more ounces of courage right about now.
“No,” Landon said studying her. “You really don’t.”
The emotion that surged through him was half angry, half sad. He’d held himself back from going to her apartment or the restaurant. Those were the places where her safety had been invaded, and he knew instinctively they would be the worst places to confront her again. Then, just now, he had nearly walked away when he saw how relaxed she was. But he hadn’t been able to. It had been three days since he’d touched her, smelled her. He had a small, discreet security team guarding both her apartment and the restaurant, but their daily reports did nothing but whet his appetite for her.
Kait stared at him. She never had any idea what he was thinking. Even though he wasn’t wearing sunglasses, his flint gray eyes were unreadable. His mouth was tight, like he was angry, but his voice was calm when he said, “I wanted to tell you what I found out about Basil Hampton.”
She froze.
“He’s on a Norwegian cruise.” Landon slid the press clipping over to her. “My private investigator confirmed that he’s been there for ten days now. He’s not coming back for two months. He’s not here, Kait.”
She felt her breath come more easily as she skimmed the brief announcement the cruise line had released about the new addition. “That’s good to know,” she said quietly, sliding it back.
Landon studied her. “But that’s only one boogie man, isn’t it? I’m the other.”
She swallowed and looked away. “I don’t know what you are, Landon.”
“I’m in love with you.” He hadn’t meant to say it, hadn’t even known for sure that it was true until he saw her again. He reached for her hand.
“Stop it.” She snatched her hand away and scooted back in her chair. The iron legs scraped roughly across the rough-hewn boards of the dock. The table next to them looked up.
“Gladly,” Landon ground out, sitting back. “As soon as I figure out how.”
“You go back to New York,” Kait snapped. “And you call up any of the five thousand beautiful women you know, and you leave me the hell alone.” She twisted in her chair and caught the waiter’s eye, telling him without words that he needed to bring the check now.
“It’s been taken care of,” he assured her when he came over seconds later.
Kaitlyn’s gaze shot to Landon. “I don’t need you to take care of anything.”
The waiter looked nervously between them and retreated.
Landon leveled an inscrutable look back at her. “I’m not going back to New York,” he said when the waiter was out of earshot. “And you’re not writing me off so easily. I get that you’re afraid. I can be patient. But I’m not going anywhere, Kait.”
“Because you’re in love with me?” She laughed bitterly. “Sure.” Kait hated him in that moment because despite everything, her traitorous heart still leapt at his words. As he must have known it would.
“Yes,” Landon said evenly. “Exactly because of that. You think you’ve figured something out about me, but you don’t know the whole story. Basil Hampton—”
“Stop.” The word ripped from her lips, and Kaitlyn stood up so suddenly her chair tipped over. Now every table turned to look at them. “I don’t ever want to hear that name again in my life. And I never want to see you again either.”
She managed not to run until she was off the pier and beyond his sight, but as soon as she turned up the small, steep path that cut between the shops and led to the parking lot, she ran the rest of the way to her car. Once inside, she dropped her head onto the steering wheel. Confusion, anger, and sadness were swirling around in her chest, and she didn’t trust herself to drive quite yet. Who had been in the restaurant with her and outside her door if not Basil? And who was trying to ruin the new LeClarks if not Landon?
After a few minutes, her breath came more easily and she raised her head. It was only 2 pm. She still had the entire day ahead of her, and she wasn’t working the Friday morning shift either. If she left now—and the Honda could manage it—she’d be in New York by 5. Kait looked down at herself. She was hardly dressed for a night in New York, but she could borrow something out of Marjorie’s closet again.
Making up her mind, she reached for her purse, planning to dig out her phone and call her friend. In her turmoil, she’d flung it blindly into the passenger seat, not caring if it tipped over. Now, she righted it and began reassembling the spilled contents. Her wallet, lipstick, a comb, her phone, and—
Kait stared down at the mushroom in her hand that had been lying on its side in the passenger seat of her car. It looked like a
