himself into, and let's see if we can't dig him back out again, all right?"
Feeling foolish, she rolled her eyes just to show him she didn't care what he thought. Then she sat down across from him and told him everything.
When she was done, Brandon had her tell it to him again. He asked a few questions as she talked but really there wasn't much to ask. The dead woman had been stabbed to death in Beatrice's flower shop, and whoever did it had managed to unlock the door and disable the security system.
He nodded and tapped at his chin thoughtfully. "Not that bloody hard to disable an alarm, really. Even amateur thieves can manage that. Well. Not much to go on. Guess I'd best get to work."
She blinked at him as he got up from the table and she quickly pushed out of her chair to stand with him. "Work? What do you mean?"
"You do want my help, don't you?"
"Well, uh, sure I guess, I just wasn't expecting…"
The touch of his hand on her arm startled her. It was warm, and strong. "I've missed you, Ry. Listen. I had good reasons for not calling. I want you to know that. Still, a woman like you can't stand still for a man like me. I get it. You're with Josh now and I won't do anything to get in the way of that. No worries, 'kay?"
"Okay. Um. Right. Glad we had this talk."
Turning away, she very nearly ran face first into a wall that she knew was there. He caught hold of her just before she tripped over her own two feet to launch face first at the floor. It felt like she couldn't get her footing, like the world was spinning faster, and she knew it had everything to do with Brandon's being back in town.
"Careful," he said to her, taking his arm back, an infuriating little smile curling the corner of his mouth. "I'm going down to the County Sheriff's to see if they'll tell me anything. I've a few contacts here and there. Might be I can find someone with the right ear to the ground."
Her hand felt up to where he had been touching her. The skin was still warm. "Uh. Okay. If you see Josh tell him I'm not giving up. I'll catch up with you later today, I guess."
"At your sister's shop. It's a…deal."
He covered it quickly, but she knew he'd been about to say "it's a date." She was grateful to him for that little change. Maybe this wouldn't be quite so awkward between them after all.
He walked away, down the hall that would lead to the front door, but then he stopped, and turned back. "I missed you, Ry."
Before she could answer he was gone.
On the other hand, maybe awkward was all she and Brandon would ever have.
***
Rysen spent the rest of the morning working alongside her sister in town, doing steady sales to tourists who had been drawn to Cambria after news of the murder was spread in the papers. Some even asked Rysen and Christina if they had known the killer.
Just before noon she told Christina she was going for lunch. She didn't go back. Biting her tongue to keep from screaming at people, "Josh isn't a killer!" wasn't working anymore. People were dumb. All of them.
She was scowling over a chicken sandwich with a side of crinkle-cut fries at the Full Cup Diner down the street for the next hour. The waitress came over three times to ask her if she needed anything else. The fourth time, Rysen snapped that she just wanted to be left alone and eat her sandwich and forget that stupid people still roamed the earth despite Mother Nature's best efforts to weed them out of the gene pool.
Or at least that's what she would have said, if she hadn't looked up to find Brandon standing over her.
"Uh. Hi," was what came out instead.
"Hi," he said back. "You mind if I sit? I've got news."
Her ears perked up and she forgot all about sandwiches and stupid people. "Yes! I mean, yes, sit. Please."
"Aces. What's good here?" he asked her, waving a hand to grab the attention of the waitress.
"Nothing," Rysen said quickly. "Everything.