Somehow, she’d fallen asleep after the scare she’d had last night. Though, now she wasn’t so sure that the whole scene had even happened.
Bad dreams had plagued her while she’d slept and woke her before anyone else had risen. It had still been dark outside when she’d rolled out of bed, but as she’d started breakfast for everyone, the sun slowly woke the day. By the third time she’d wandered into the front room to look out the window, she’d been able to see nearly all of the dooryard. Her eyes had widened when she noted that the flashlight was gone and a cold shiver swept through her. Flicking a nervous glance over the surroundings, she had decided to step out and have another look around.
“What’chya looking at?” Zack’s voice had startled her. She’d glance over her shoulder to find him standing beside the couch, his dark, chestnut-brown hair slightly mussed and his small duffle bag in his hand.
“Nothing,” she said, feeling foolish for her nervousness. “I just thought I heard something last night.”
“Really?” Zack had sounded serious and intrigued as he tossed his bag onto the couch and moved toward the front door. “Well, let’s take a look around, then.”
At the time, Addie had been glad for the company, but as they’d searched through the yard, it had become clear that they would find nothing amiss. Not only had the flashlight been missing, but the small can that had come to rest on a section of gravel in her driveway last night was no longer there, either. Zack had found a couple of spots where the longer grass had been trampled near the machine shed and barn, but said it could’ve been flattened by an animal. And the frozen November ground had ensured that there were no footprints to be found, not even her own. To top it all off, the motion lights were working normally again.
Now, as she stared at the flashlight that was mysteriously back on its shelf, doubt cracked through her certainty that something dangerous had occurred last night. After all, hadn’t she noticed that the clothes she’d worn outside were not on the floor where she’d thought she left them before crawling into bed? The flannel was on a hook behind the door and her jeans had been hung on a hanger in her closet—just as they had been before she grabbed them last night. She didn’t remember putting them away, but then again, she couldn’t prove anything else, either.
Zack chuckled softly from behind her and his big hand patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry,” he said consolingly, as if trying not to cause her embarrassment, “it happens to the best of us. Country life can be fairly isolated, so it’s not unusual that we sometimes hear weird things at night.”
Addie shook her head as she listened to his boots take him to the kitchen counter to pour a cup of the coffee she’d made earlier.
“What things?” Cade slowly walked into the kitchen.
Addie glanced between him and Zack, and shook her head again. “I’m not sure.”
“Sit,” Zack said, nodding his head to indicate the small kitchen table. “I’ll pour you some coffee and we’ll talk.” He pulled another mug from the cupboard and poured two more as Cade turned to her.
“Addie…?”
She didn’t want to worry him—he was still recovering from a concussion after all—so she flashed him a small smile. “Yes, sit and I’ll tell you.”
“I don’t need you two babying me just because I got a little banged up,” Cade said defensively.
“You’re a little more than banged up,” Addie said, turning toward the kitchen and letting the mudroom door close behind her. “Besides, it’s not about you. I’m hungry.” She smiled again to cover the lie and headed for the table. Apparently accepting her excuse, Cade followed.
Once they were all gathered at the table, a plate of pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage in front of each of them, Addie repeated the story that she’d already told Zack when they’d searched the yard earlier.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” Cade asked, concern hardening his tone. “You shouldn’t have gone out there alone.”
Addie sat up a little straighter. Despite the fact that she had been frightened and alone last night, she didn’t like the implication that his words and their delivery conveyed. “I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, and you need your rest.”
“You could’ve woken up, Zack…”
“Hey,” Zack said as if perturbed by the suggestion, “I need my beauty sleep.”
Cade tossed a glare at his friend before meeting Addie’s eyes once more. “Regardless of whether you can take care of yourself or not, that wasn’t the smartest move. What if someone or something had been out there? If you had disappeared, I’d have—”
Addie’s frown deepened. “You’d have what?”
His eyes shifted to Zack before they returned to her and then dropped to his more than half-full plate. He pushed the eggs around with his fork and shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“He means to say, he’d have been lost without you,” Zack said with a mischievous wink.
“Knock it off, Zack,” Cade growled and then rubbed at this temple. “This is serious.”
Zack stood to grab the coffee pot and refilled their mugs. “Yeah, it is, but if you can’t tell the whole truth, someone has to.” He grinned at Cade, who glared in return.
“The truth about what?” Addie asked, exasperated with the both of them.
“I’d have been worried,” Cade said quietly, his stunning blue eyes more serious than she’d ever seen them. “Please, don’t take unnecessary chances alone. I…I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
He sounded so sincere yet contrite that she forgot to be annoyed with him.
“It’s okay, Cade,” she murmured. “I’m beginning to think it was all a bad dream.”
“Well, I hope so, but if
