“I’d like you to accompany me up that trail and search for . . . anomalies.” He shrugged. “I wouldn’t ask, Terra, but evidence disappears quickly in the elements. And . . . frankly, I don’t like Case, so I’m asking you.”

His cheek hitched. Had he winked too? His dimpled grin and that wink still affected her, even now.

She couldn’t help but return the smile. Jack had spent enough time in the woods, climbing mountains. He knew his way around too. But she wouldn’t remind him. He’d invited her to the party, to join the investigation. She didn’t care about the reasons, after all. “I’ll meet you there at the trailhead at sunrise.”

“Good.” He lingered as if he had something else to say, but she knew he’d come to deliver the only news he had.

In person.

To be fair, she hadn’t answered her phone. She held his gaze.

“Thanks for driving all the way out here, Jack.” Big Rapids, the Grayback county seat, was about twenty-five minutes away, and Jack’s aunt’s house was just outside of town. But as a county deputy, he was accustomed to covering a large area.

Was it her imagination, or was he going out of his way to keep her close? So he could somehow make up for the past? Oh, come on, Terra, you are reaching with that one.

“I’m impressed that you learned this information so quickly.” Maybe she shouldn’t ask, but she couldn’t stop herself. “Would you like to come in for some coffee before you head back?”

He seemed as surprised at her invitation as she was. “What about pie? Did you make a pie?”

A laugh burst from her. “Sorry, we’re fresh out.”

His shoulders sagged in exaggerated disappointment as he scraped his palm across the lower half of his face.

His warm smile brought back good memories. “Thanks, but I have to get home and check on my aunt, plus I really don’t want to be the subject of your grandfather’s interrogation. If you had pie, then I might risk it.”

That elicited another smile from her. “Fair enough. Good night then.”

He had worked some kind of magic to show up here and lift her spirits, make her feel warm inside.

She watched him head to his unmarked county SUV. Lingering as he drove off, she thought through their conversation while she attempted to ignore the way he made her heart pound.

Terra stayed to watch the bright pink sunset behind the mountain’s silhouette.

And over by the stables near the corral, she caught Owen standing next to a horse, watching.