Her heart pounded as she stood in the chilly entranceway, continuing to scroll—she knew she couldn’t stop now. There was a dog in a few of the photos, but it wasn’t Bonnie. It was a German shepherd with one floppy ear.

In the next photo, the mystery dog was by the side of a dark-haired woman. She was looking down at the dog in the first photo, but in the next she was grinning at the camera—or, rather, at the person behind the camera. At Jake. Photo after photo of the same woman, laughing openmouthed, then putting her hands in front of her face, or waving them about, as if to say, “Would you stop taking pictures of me already?”

This woman was beautiful, with long, dark, and glossy hair. Her eyes were wide-set and her lips were full and pouty. Hand shaking, Charlie turned the camera off again. But instead of heading up to Cass’s apartment, the way she had intended, she pivoted on her heel and strode toward Cass’s car, calling over her shoulder, “Walter, I just have to run a quick errand!”

She started the car and turned down the main road, heading out of town. Charlie needed to get the camera back to Jake. She already knew she was not going to be able to resist the temptation of turning it on again, of diving even deeper into his personal life, finding out more she didn’t want to know about his past—about the fact that, clearly, she was not the only woman he took perfect photos of.

What she needed to do was salvage their friendship, and fast, Charlie told herself as she drove. Cass would be coming home to Starlight Peak soon, and Charlie would be heading back to L.A. There were still a few things she needed to do for her sister before that. And patching up Cass’s friendship with Jake was definitely one of them.

• • •

“Cassie! What a pleasant surprise!” Faye stepped back and opened her door wide, and Charlie was reminded of how fond she was of the older woman, a familiar figure from her childhood and youth—and how important it was to pretend she saw her all the time at the bakery. “But, if you’re here to see Jake,” Faye went on, “I’m afraid he’s not in. He’s off to the fire station already, and his shift lasts until tomorrow. Now, wait. Did he send you over here to check up on me? I told him it was fine for him to take those twenty-four-hour shifts, but he insisted he was going to call and check on me every few hours. I swear, that boy—”

“No, no,” Charlie said, holding out the camera. “He didn’t send me. But he was taking photos for me yesterday of the bakery, for a project I’m working on, and he left his camera behind. I’m just returning it.”

“That’s mighty kind of you,” Faye said. “He sure does love that camera of his. Did a whole photo session last week, of me and that fool dog of his. Thank goodness they allow dogs at the fire station, because she sure is a handful. Nothing like his last dog.” Now her bright blue eyes lost a touch of their sparkle. “But that’s not something he likes to discuss.” Faye had to be talking about the dog she had seen in the photos, the one with the beautiful woman—Jake’s ex, she assumed.