“Do you recognize the deceased?”
“I didn’t get a good look at him.” The look on Luke’s face gave me pause. “Wait. Should I recognize him?”
“He was one of the people of interest in the Boy Boy escape.”
“And now he’s dead?”
My gaze darted to the area around us. Boy Boy could be anywhere just waiting to kill again.
“Does that mean . . ?”
“I need you to be careful, Ry. This guy’s not like Kyle. He’s a known killer. He’ll do whatever’s necessary to stay out of prison.”
I nodded. “Don’t worry. There’s not even a small part of me that wants to help catch Boy Boy.”
“Good.” Luke moved as if to put his arm around me but stopped himself. “I should get back to the investigation.”
My heart dropped. “Seamus and I should be getting back too. Shayla’s probably waiting on me at the shop to work out.”
“It’s great you and Shayla have become so close. She needed a good friend.”
“I needed one too.”
Luke’s brown eyes made me want to wrap my arms around his neck and nuzzle my cheek against his chest like I had so many times in high school.
“Sorry Nikki and I messed up your night last night.”
And, in an instant, my warm and fuzzy feelings evaporated. “You didn’t. We just thought we’d try a different place. Shayla set me up on Tinder which seems like it could work.”
“Oh yeah?” Luke rocked back on his heels. “You’ve already met someone?”
“Yep.” Kinda, if the fisherman counted. “He seems pretty great.” And cocky. Someone who would give Luke a run for his money. Hmmm . . .
“Well, that’s great.” His tone didn’t sound like he thought it was great. Before he could say anything else, his cell phone rang in his pocket. “I should probably—“
“Yeah, you get that. I’ll see you later.”
I thumbed the business card in my pocket. What would one little date hurt?
The first thing I did when my shift was over was pull up the Tinder app and look for Garrett’s profile. I swiped and swiped and swiped but came up empty handed. It must have taken him out of my dating pool when he swiped left.
So instead I pulled up Facebook.
What little I could see of his profile seemed fairly normal. His profile picture looked like him minus the beard he’d been sporting this morning. And there weren’t any random photos of him with other girls. At least not public ones.
I pulled out the business card and typed the cell number into the new text message box. My thumb hovered over the screen. What would I say?
The last first date I had been on was over five years ago, with the man I’d found in my bed embracing a long-necked woman the same day I’d lost my job, and my world flipped upside down.
Hey Garrett, it’s Rylie the park ranger. How about that drink?
I closed my eyes, held my breath, and tapped the send button.
Shayla texted me later that night.
another dead body
Ugh. Yes.
was Luke there
Yep.
you’re not going to try to investigate this one, right
No way. Too dangerous.
good. how’s the tinder hunt
I have a date tomorrow night.
is he cute
Above average.
perfect
I dropped my phone on the nightstand next to my bed and hugged Fizzy around the neck. Garrett had responded almost immediately asking me to dinner rather than drinks, and I replied with a ‘yes’ before I could talk myself out of it.
“So tell me everything.”
Shayla and I had been scheduled to open the reservoir together. She held her travel coffee mug, and I held my Starbucks as we waited to open the gates until exactly 5:00 AM.
“Yesterday, I saw a boat with what I could swear was two guys in it”—I had to let that go—“but when Seamus looked through the binoculars there was only one. So we talked to the guy, and he recognized me from Tinder. Though he had already swiped left.”
Shayla shook her head. “That’s no big deal. It was probably an accident. And you hit it off?”
“Kinda. I guess.” I really didn’t want to tell her I had initially thought he had thrown someone overboard.
“But you agreed to go out with him?”
“Yeah, I mean, I figure he’s cute enough, and I sorta told Luke I’d already found someone on Tinder.”
“Luke.” She shook her head. “Please tell me you’re not going out with this guy to make Luke jealous?”
“Not completely.” I smirked. “Who knows. Maybe Luke and I aren’t meant to be together.”
Shayla shrugged. “Seamus has taken to call you the shit magnet.”
“I don’t know whether that’s better or worse than Blondie.” I smiled. It was nice to be part of a team again. I missed the playful banter I’d had at the fire department.
“It’s scary Boy Boy is on the loose,” Shayla said.
“On the loose and murdering people, apparently.”
“And you’re going to keep your nose out of this one, right?”
I gave her an exasperated look. “Yes. I told you that last night.”
“Just making sure you hadn’t changed your mind.”
“Boy Boy’s not like Kyle. I’m not exactly equipped to handle him.”
“You weren’t exactly equipped to handle Kyle either. As I recall, you almost died.”
I reached up letting my fingers brush over the scars on my neck. “Yes. But I didn’t. And I don’t intend on dying anytime soon.”
“Good. Should we let the crazies in?” She motioned to the large wooden gates blocking the main entrance to the park and the line a half-mile long of cars and trucks holding eager fishermen.
I nodded, and we swung the gates open. A few hands waved from the windows, and some even hollered a good morning before they headed out to get their chances at catching the big one.
My shift passed quickly due to the busyness of the reservoir. There were fishermen everywhere just begging to have their licenses checked.
Okay, so maybe not begging.
In fact, some of them were downright irritated I’d checked their licenses
