“Who needs words,” she whispered as the kiss ended.
“They come in handy sometimes.” He began to pick up letters from the game board. She watched him, realizing he was writing something. As he finished, he turned the board toward her. He’d written I have fallen for you.
She laughed, her gaze locking with his as he kissed her again. The man was an incredible kisser—and not bad at all with words, but that came as no surprise. Was there anything he couldn’t do?
“Have lunch with me,” he said. His cell phone rang. He cursed under his breath. “Lunch. Two hours. Meet me here. We’ll go out the back door and avoid everyone.” She nodded, smiling. He checked the screen. “I have to take this. Later?”
“Later.” She watched him walk out of the garden room, his kisses still sending waves of pleasure through her. She was smiling to herself when she looked down again at what he’d spelled out on the Scrabble board.
Impulsively she scooped up the letters and put them in the pocket of her jean jacket. Her whole body seemed to be vibrating. I have fallen for you.
AFTER DEALING WITH the fallout from his disappearance and questions about his sanity for purchasing the Crenshaw Hotel in Buckhorn, Montana, Finn found Jason in the kitchen pouring himself a cup of coffee. He looked as if he hadn’t been sleeping well. Finn motioned him out into the hallway, wondering where everyone else was, but he didn’t ask.
“Has Devlin turned up?”
Jason blinked. “I haven’t seen him. When I checked his room yesterday, his stuff was all there.”
“What’s his room number?”
Jason frowned. “I can’t remember, but I can show you.”
They headed for the staff wing. Everything was quiet. Maybe too quiet, Finn thought. Jason found the room he believed was Devlin’s. Finn knocked. No answer. He knocked again, a little harder. Still no answer. He tried the knob.
The door swung open. Even from the hallway, Finn could see that Devlin had cleared out.
“He probably left,” Jason said. “He only came to the reunion because he thought he was going to get a deal on the hotel and land. I doubt his investors are happy with him. I’m sure he’s just taken off.”
Maybe, Finn thought. It was just that no one had seen him leave. Just like Claude. Both could have just decided they’d had enough and didn’t want anyone to give them a hard time for leaving. Finn knew he was probably looking for trouble where there wasn’t any. He hadn’t forgotten that someone had dressed up like Megan to move through the woods to try to scare them.
They checked. His car was gone. “Let me know if anyone else might have seen Devlin,” Finn said, wondering when he’d left. Last night during the Ouija board scene in the kitchen? Or sometime after that when most everyone had gone to the bar?
“Will do.” Jason took his coffee and headed for his room. Before the door closed, Finn saw the adult-size lump under the covers of the man’s bed. Patience?
He checked his watch and headed upstairs. He had wanted to give Casey as much time as she needed—not just for lunch but before she had to sign over the hotel to him. He hadn’t wanted to pressure her. But if Devlin was gone and she still wanted to sell and put this behind her, then he wanted to make that happen today.
Finn didn’t like this feeling he couldn’t shake. Something was wrong. He was having trouble believing that Claude and Devlin had cooked up the ghost stunt last night any more than they had their disappearing acts. It felt wrong. A clock was ticking down on the reunion. Whoever was behind whatever was going on, it didn’t feel over. He felt as if he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
CASEY HEARD A text come in on her cell phone. She checked it, her heart doing a little bump when she saw it was from Finn. She was thinking of their kisses earlier when she opened it and felt foolish.
Just wanted to let you know. I have the paperwork. All you have to do is sign on the dotted line and it’s a done deal. We can do this at lunch, if you want.
Once she signed, she no longer had an excuse to stay here. She could load up and head back to California. Or stay and what? Her deal with Finn could be closed by lunchtime. The reunion was almost over. Why would she stay? Like Finn said, bad timing when it came to the two of them.
She told herself that she’d been looking forward to the road trip. She’d seen it as a way to unwind before she had to get back to work. She couldn’t shake off something that had been bothering her. She felt ready for a change. It was so unlike her. Change had never come easily. But right now, she wanted an adventure. She wanted romance, kisses in the rain. Finn. This was his fault.
But even if she did decide to make a change, she still had to go back to the hotel for a period of time to make the transition easier for them. Was it the job, though, that she wanted to change?
Finn immediately came to mind, making her ache at the thought of leaving here and never seeing him again. As if conjuring him up, her phone rang.
“I’m starving,” he said without introduction. “I skipped breakfast, and I suspect you did, too, since I heard you take off
