They spent the next hour going over the details of what he’d be doing for the next couple weeks and what Peyton’s schedule would be like, then Em was up and heading for the door.
“I think you have everything under control,” she said, all of her attention focused on her cell phone. “If I hurry, I should be able to make an afternoon flight back to San Francisco and get home before midnight.”
There were a scary number of hugs between the three women before Laurissa announced she was leaving, too.
“I’d love to stay and hang out, but I know you’re probably freaking about being behind on your word count, so I’m going to leave you in my brother’s capable hands and let you get some work done,” she said to Peyton. “Promise you won’t write too long today, okay? You didn’t get any sleep last night and I know you’re already running on fumes.”
Peyton gave his sister another hug, promising to get her rest and eat right. To say that she and Laurissa were best friends seemed like an understatement. They were like sisters.
The silence that filled the house after Laurissa and Em left verged on being uncomfortable. He got the feeling Peyton wasn’t used to having guys staying at her place. For some reason, the notion made him happy.
“I guess I should show you around a little, huh? You probably need to know where my bedroom is at least,” Peyton said casually, only to freeze when she realized exactly what she’d just said. He was pretty sure she actually blushed a little. Noah decided it was kind of adorable.
“I do need to have a look around,” he said, acting like he hadn’t noticed her embarrassment. “But if you don’t mind, I’d like to check the exterior of the property first. Then you can show me around in here.”
She nodded, giving him a smile that lit up the room. “Sounds good. I’ve been going on coffee and adrenaline since coming home and finding the back door smashed in last night, so I was going to make a sandwich. I can make a couple for you, too, if you want?”
“I never turn down a sandwich.” He returned her smile. “Then again, there are very few foods I will turn down, so that’s not saying much. I’ll only be outside ten or fifteen minutes, but don’t feel like you have to wait to eat on my account.”
“I don’t mind waiting.” Peyton flashed him another smile as she headed for the kitchen. “Besides, it’ll probably take me that long to make lunch.”
Noah laughed, pretty sure she was joking. If the gourmet kitchen was anything to go by, Peyton knew her way around in there.
Slipping on his sunglasses, he walked outside, stepping off the porch and onto the front lawn. As he made his way around the exterior of the house, he swept the perimeter of the property with his gaze, looking for hiding spots a person could use to recon the house, or routes someone might take if they were going to sneak up on the place.
He paid special attention to the grass as he walked, looking for places that had been trampled flat recently. More than likely, whoever had broken in had probably spent time casing the house first. Maybe he’d find a shoe impression, a discarded cigarette butt, or piece of bubblegum. Anything with DNA on it like that might help the police find the dirtbag. Yeah, the cops had probably done this already, but it didn’t hurt to look again.
Unfortunately, after two complete circuits of the property, he hadn’t found anything remotely resembling a DNA sample. Hell, he hadn’t found anything to make him think anyone had ever stepped foot onto Peyton’s property.
Noah blew out a breath, his gaze wandering to the beach about twenty feet below the bluff he was standing on, the rough waves slapping up against the shore. The sound of the ocean never failed to calm him, and it didn’t let him down now. Did Peyton feel the same draw since she lived on the beach?
While her house was undeniable beautiful, and the view incredible, the whole place was also completely indefensible. A person could access the property from a hundred different directions. The beach front was simply the easiest.
He cursed in frustration. When he’d jumped at Laurissa’s offer to do this gig, he hadn’t thought of it as anything more than a way to get out of the apartment. But now that he’d met Peyton and seen how scary all of this was for her, the gravity of the situation was quickly becoming much more real.
While he hoped Peyton and her agent were wrong and that the break-in was merely some random thing, it would be dangerous to think that way. If there really was an idiot out there willing to risk a prison term to steal her book, it was almost a certainty the guy would be back. And this time, the asshole might come at Peyton directly instead of trying to swipe the book covertly. He might have taken the job because he was bored, but he wasn’t going to risk a woman’s life simply because he’d gotten into this whole thing for the wrong reasons.
Of course, there was also the fact that Noah was more than a little attracted to Peyton. It would be silly to say that as a professional he should be able to deny that, because he couldn’t. Noah dated, but not regularly. Between training, deployments, and the stress of being a SEAL, he didn’t have the time or inclination to do much more than that. He’d never gotten deeply involved with any of the women he’d been with, but at the same time, he’d always been open to the idea of getting serious. If he found the right woman.
Not that he was saying Peyton was that woman, of course. Hell, he’d just frigging
