Chapter Four
“Rozalyn! Have you lost your mind?” Emily cried.
Roz stood glaring at Ford Lancaster, so angry she couldn’t speak.
This man sitting in the house that had once been her home was Ford Lancaster, the man who had ruined her father’s reputation. The man who had almost killed her at the waterfall. The man who had lied about being Liam’s friend. The man who had finagled his way into the guest house.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, he’d…kissed her!
“Do you have any idea who this man is you’re letting stay in the guest house?” she demanded, turning her hard-eyed gaze on Emily.
“Of course I do. Ford Lancaster. He’s a scientist up here doing some research and a friend of your father’s.”
Emily never ceased to amaze her. “This man is no friend of his. Quite the opposite.”
“Wait a minute,” Ford interrupted loudly. “Who the hell is your father?”
“Liam Sawyer,” Rozalyn snapped. “But if you really were his friend, wouldn’t you know that?”
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Ford stared at her. And just when he thought his luck couldn’t get any worse. Liam Sawyer’s daughter. I’ll be damned.
His gaze went to her lips. Her mouth was a wide, full mouth, sensual. He wished he’d taken more time with that kiss in the garden. All that kiss had done was whet his appetite. But if he got another chance—
Then his gaze drifted up to her eyes. He couldn’t help but chuckle. If looks could kill, he’d be pushing up daisies right now. He didn’t even want to think about his chances of ever getting to kiss this woman again.
“You think this is funny?” she demanded.
“Not really.” Ironic? Tragic? Just his luck that this crazy doe-eyed strawberry blonde was Liam Sawyer’s daughter.
He couldn’t help but think about earlier when he’d had her in his arms. Unconsciously, he rubbed his shin and saw the hint of a smile curve her lips. No question about it, she was a menace and now she was his.
Why hadn’t someone told him Liam had a daughter? Didn’t he remember Rozalyn saying something about it having been years since she’d been up here? Yeah. So maybe that was the reason he was taken completely unaware.
He knew the old man had remarried and had a couple of adult stepchildren—but a daughter who looked like this? Worse, a daughter who was obviously going to make things harder for him? Oh, hell. This changed things considerably.
“I can’t believe you’d be so rude to our guest,” Emily said, sounding close to tears.
“This man is not our guest,” Rozalyn said, narrowing those eyes at him with obvious venom.
He figured her bite was probably worse than her bark—or her kick. Clearly, Rozalyn was a woman to be reckoned with.
“Why don’t you tell us, Mr. Lancaster, what you’re really doing here?” She glared at him as if she hadn’t missed him giving her the once-over. Those big brown eyes were hot with anger and a clear warning.
This wasn’t going to be easy. But there were ways. Even with a woman like her. A woman who thought she didn’t need a man.
“I guess the cat has his tongue. Mr. Lancaster here is the man who wrote the article about my father, calling him a liar and a fraud,” Rozalyn said, still glaring at him.
“What article?” Emily asked.
“The article that accused him of faking photographs of Bigfoot and perpetuating a hoax,” Rozalyn said. “It was my father’s word against Ford Lancaster and his so-called experts.”
Not exactly, Ford thought. There’d been another man with Liam Sawyer, another witness, who had also been discredited. And that article had been years ago. “I need to talk to you,” he said to Rozalyn as he got to his feet.
She shot him a when-hell-freezes-over look.
“Maybe it was another Ford Lancaster,” Emily suggested.
“How many Ford Lancasters do you think there are?” Rozalyn demanded.
A maid appeared in the doorway behind Rozalyn. “Excuse me. There’s someone here to see you.”
No one seemed to hear her.
“Wasn’t that article years ago?” Drew asked.
“Yes,” Emily chimed in. “Who would even remember, let alone care—”
“I remember and I care,” Rozalyn shot back. “So does my father. Do you know the man you married at all? Or what matters to him? Do you have any idea what that article did to him?”
“I’m sure Mother didn’t know Mr. Lancaster wrote the article when she offered him the guest house,” Drew said.
“Of course not,” Emily said. “I would never do anything to hurt Liam. Or you, Rozalyn, dear. He told me he was a friend of Liam’s, and since there was no place in town to stay…”
“Excuse me. There is someone here to see you,” the maid repeated.
“Ilsa, can’t you see we’re about to have dinner?” Emily snapped. “Tell whoever it is to come back some other time and close the doors behind you.” She shot Rozalyn a look as if to say now everyone in town will be talking about your behavior.
“It’s the sheriff. He wants to speak to Rozalyn,” Ilse persisted.
“Rozalyn? Why would the sheriff want to talk to her?” Emily said as if it was the prince at the door with a glass slipper. “Oh Rozalyn, you didn’t already involve the sheriff in our affairs, did you?”
“What do you want me to tell the sheriff?” the maid asked nervously. “Should I tell him to come back?”
“No, Rozalyn and I will both see him,” Ford said. The maid turned tail and disappeared down the hall. “If you will excuse me,” he said to Emily and the others. “I apologize, Emily, but Rozalyn and I really do need to talk to the sheriff.”
Ford took Roz’s arm and practically dragged her out into the hallway, closing the French doors firmly behind them.
“We have to talk,” he whispered. “I had no idea Liam had a daughter. But now that I do… I’m here because I think your father is in trouble.” He held up a hand to ward off her questions. “I will explain later. Right now we need to see the sheriff. I assume you called him about earlier and that’s why he’s here?”
She jerked free, but he could see her anger deflating at his words. “My father’s in trouble?”
“Possibly. Look, you called the sheriff about what you thought you saw at the falls, right? Let’s get this over with, then you can tell me what you think of me at length,” he said reasonably. “And I’ll tell you everything I know about your father.”
She obviously didn’t feel like being reasonable. “I want to know why my father is in trouble and what that has to do with you and I want to know now,” she said, keeping her voice down.
He groaned. “There isn’t time now.” He looked past her to where the sheriff was standing and watching them, then lowered his head and said quietly, “If you say anything to the sheriff, I’ll deny it and you will never know why I’m here.”
Her eyes flared with anger.
“Let’s tell the sheriff what you saw,” he added, loud enough that the officer of the law could hear.
Her body trembled with obvious rage as he took her arm and drew her toward the front door and the sheriff.
“Mitch,” she said when she saw the uniformed man at the door. She broke free of Ford’s grasp and rushed toward the sheriff.
Mitch? She knew him? Of course she might. She must have lived here until her mother had died. Sure. The conversation he’d overheard in the garden was starting to make sense. So was her relationship with the people in the dining room.
Ford met the sheriff’s interested gaze, and felt his insides tighten. The sheriff had come for more than just a statement from Rozalyn about a possible suicide at Lost Creek Falls. Ford stood back, watching the sheriff’s face and Rozalyn’s body language. She hugged the cop and they exchanged a few pleasantries, then Ford heard the words he’d been dreading.
“A fall? Is Dad all right?”
The sheriff had taken off his hat. “He’s in a coma, Roz.”
“We have to get him flown out to Eugene, to the hospital there—”
The sheriff was shaking his head. “His condition is such that the doc says he can’t be moved right now.”
“I’m going to the hospital to see him,” she said, pushing past Ford as he joined them. She ran up the stairs, no doubt to get her purse and car keys.
Ford found himself under the sheriff’s intense scrutiny.
“I don’t believe we’ve met,” the lawman said.
“No, I’m Ford Lancaster.” From the sheriff’s negative reaction it was obvious Ford’s reputation had preceded him.
The sheriff started to ask him something, but behind them, the dining room doors burst open. Ford was surprised it had taken Emily this long.
“What’s going on?” she demanded.
As the sheriff filled her in, she burst into tears and called for Drew. Suzanne finally came out seeming more irritated than anything else. “Liam’s been hurt,” Emily cried. “Drew, will you drive me to the hospital?”
“Of course, Mother,” he said.
“I just need to change,” she said looking down at her shoes. Ford would guess she didn’t want to get them wet.
“I’ll stay here, Mother,” Suzanne said. “In case anyone calls.”
Why would anyone call? Ford wondered. Suzanne still held her wineglass. She drained it and turned back to the dining room. A look passed between Suzanne and Emily before a tearful Emily ascended the stairs with Drew following after her.
Ford noticed that Emily hadn’t asked about Liam’s accident. “Where was he found?” he asked as the others left him and the sheriff alone.
“Up Maple Creek. When did you get to town?”
“Rozalyn followed me in from Oakridge.”
“Then you saw the jumper at Lost Creek Falls?” The sheriff sounded surprised.
Ford shook his head. “I’m not sure there was a jumper. I think she might have…imagined it. She’s been pretty upset about her father—and with good reason it seems. Who found him?”
“Some Bigfoot hunters. They dropped him at the hospital.” The sheriff glanced up the stairs as Rozalyn hurried down.
Ford reached for the keys dangling from her fingers. “I’m driving you.”
“I’d like to have a few words with you at the hospital,” the sheriff was saying to Ford.
“No problem.” He took the keys from Rozalyn before she could protest. The sheriff raised a brow, probably expecting Rozalyn to put up a fight. “We’ll see you at the hospital, Sheriff,” Ford said.
Roz let Ford open the passenger side door of her SUV for her, then watched him hurry around to slide behind the wheel.
She leaned back against the seat, fighting panic, as she gave him the four-block directions to the Timber Falls hospital. Her father was in a coma. Mitch said he’d fallen from a cliff up Maple Creek Road and had been found by some Bigfoot hunters. Hadn’t she known something had happened to him? If only she’d come sooner. If only—
Her gaze swung to Ford, suddenly remembering what he had said. “What did you mean when you told me my father was in trouble?” she asked as they neared the hospital.
He shot her a look, then turned back to his driving. “Let’s just go to the hospital and find out what we can for now, all right?”
“No,” she said, sitting up a little straighter. “You said it was the reason you were here. Did you mean Timber Falls? Or the house?”
“There isn’t time to get into this right now. I’ll tell you everything,” he said, meeting her gaze. “After you see your father.”
Ford swung the SUV into the hospital emergency entrance. Roz closed her eyes tightly for a moment, trying to hold it together. She had to be strong—for her father. She’d deal with Ford later.
Before he had the car parked, she was out and running toward the emergency room door. He caught up with her in time to open the door for her.
She rushed into the small hospital entry with him right behind her. The nurse’s station was empty.
Her heart dropped. What if her father had gotten worse? What if—
She could make out a steady beep coming from down the dim hallway. She rushed toward the sound, the hurried footfalls of her and Ford echoing on the linoleum floor, as she prayed her father was alive even if still in a coma.
At the open doorway, Roz had a passing impression of a nurse and a doctor, both dressed in white beside a hospital bed. The nurse was round and rosy-cheeked with a halo of white hair. The doctor was blond, late forties, nice-looking.
Roz looked past both to the bandaged man lying in the bed, monitors making soft bleating noises, a respirator breathing in and out, in and out.
Her throat constricted at the sight of her father. He looked as white as the sheets and so incredibly frail but he was still alive! Thank God.
“How is he?” Roz asked, rushing into the room.
“No change, but he’s holding his own,” the nurse said. She smiled when she saw Roz as if she knew her. “I’m so glad you’re here and I know your father is, too.” Her eyes twinkled. “He knows you’ve come to see him, don’t worry about that.”
“Thank you,” Roz said. “I’m—”
“Rozalyn,” she said and smiled more broadly. “You look just like your mother. I’m Kate Clark. I know you don’t remember me, but I was at your birth. Don’t worry about your father. He’s in good hands. I’ll be here all night.”
“I won’t, knowing you’re taking care of him,” Roz said.
“This is Dr. Harris,” the nurse said.
The doctor had been looking at her father’s chart. He looked up and frowned. “Who are you?” He sounded irritated.
“I’m his daughter, Rozalyn,” she said looking down at her dad. She fought back tears as she whispered, “I’m here, Dad,” and squeezed his hand. No response. She glanced up, expecting to see Ford in the doorway. But he was gone. “He’s in a coma?”
The doctor nodded. “That’s typical with this kind of head injury.”
“The sheriff said he fell?” Roz asked.
“Probably slipped. Didn’t fall far, I would guess, but struck his head on something,” the doctor said.
“Who brought him in?” Roz looked at the nurse, who shook her head, then the doctor.
“They didn’t leave names,” he said. “Just out-of-towners up here looking for Bigfoot. Your father really needs his rest—” Dr. Harris broke off when he saw Ford reappear in the doorway again. The doctor put down the clipboard and started to leave the room. “Please keep your visit short.”
He had reached the doorway when Emily and Drew rushed past Ford and into the room.
“Oh, no!” Emily cried, stopping in the center of the room to cover her face. “How bad is it, Dr. Harris?”
“I’m optimistic and you should be, too, Mrs. Sawyer. He’s a strong, stubborn man. He won’t give up easily,” the doctor said. “I was going to call you with the news but the sheriff insisted on doing it.”
“Yes,” Emily said and glanced at Roz. “I guess he wanted to tell Liam’s daughter first.”
Rozalyn hardly noticed the bitterness in the woman’s tone. She was too surprised that Emily seemed to know the doctor. But the new Mrs. Sawyer had been in town for over a month. Emily probably knew everyone in Timber Falls by now.
“Oh, Drew,” Emily said as he moved to put his arm around her shoulders.
Roz looked up at Ford who was still in the doorway. He motioned for her. “I’ll give you a moment alone with Liam,” she said as she squeezed her dad’s hand, then laid it gently back on the bed beside him and left the room, surprised to find both Mitch and Ford waiting for her out in the hall. She could feel the tension between them, and could only guess what had been going on.
Ford closed the hospital room door but watched through the window as Mitch said, “Lancaster here feels your father needs protection.”
Her gaze leaped to Ford. He didn’t seem to notice. He was watching the group in the hospital room, looking worried, his jaw tight. He’d said her father was in trouble before Mitch told her Liam was in the hospital. It was almost as if Ford had been expecting this to happen. Why was that? She remembered his promise to tell her everything as soon as they left here.
She stared at Ford, reminding herself of all the reasons she shouldn’t trust the man. And yet something in his worried expression—
“I think that’s a good idea, Mitch,” she said, making the decision not only to keep quiet about what Ford had told her—but to trust that he had his reasons for wanting her father protected.
Mitch was staring at her in obvious surprise. “Why?”
“Is there someone I can hire to stay with him, not let him out of sight even for a moment?” Ford asked, finally looking at the sheriff. “Is there someone in town who would be reliable and willing to take the job? Someone you trust?”
But Mitch was still looking at Roz. “You think your father is in danger?” he asked.
She nodded. “I can’t explain it, but I do, Mitch.”
He let out a long sigh and looked at Ford. “I know someone. My brother, Jesse Tanner. No one will get past Jesse to Liam. But I need to know why you feel Liam needs that kind of protection.”
“Let’s just say I have a bad feeling that his fall wasn’t an accident,” Ford said.
Roz must have looked as shocked as Mitch.
“You have any proof of that?” the sheriff asked.
“Not yet,” Ford said. “But if you want to keep him alive, then I suggest you call your brother and get him up here. If you’re sure he can be trusted.”
“I’d trust him with my life and Liam’s,” Mitch said.
Ford looked to Roz, then nodded. “Call him.” He glanced back through the hospital room window as if he wasn’t moving an inch until Jesse Tanner arrived to take over.
“Can I have a word with you?” Mitch asked Roz as he stepped down the hall, pulled out his cell and punched in a series of numbers. When the line answered, he said, “It’s me,” and briefly explained the situation. A few seconds later, he disconnected. “Jesse’s on his way. I’ve deputized him so there won’t be any question as to his authority for being here.”
“Thanks, Mitch.”
“Look, Roz, I don’t know what the deal is with you and Lancaster—”
“There’s nothing between us. I just don’t want to take any chances with my dad, that’s all,” she said.
He nodded, but she could tell he wasn’t buying it for a minute.
“It just isn’t like him to fall off a cliff,” she said and shuddered at the thought of how long he’d lain there before he’d been found. She couldn’t bear the thought that he’d been in pain, worse that he may have been pushed, may have even seen his assailant.
“No, it’s not like Liam, but accidents do happen,” Mitch said. “What’s odd is that I was up Maple Creek Road earlier tonight and I didn’t see his pickup and camper. Is it possible someone dropped him off at the trailhead?”
That was odd. “I don’t know. His truck isn’t at the house. Emily said he took it when he left two weeks ago.”
“I’m sure it will turn up,” Mitch assured her. “And don’t worry. Your dad’s going to pull through. You know how tough he is. Then he’ll tell us just what happened.”
She nodded and smiled through her tears. She was counting on it, she thought as she looked down the hall at Ford standing outside her father’s hospital room. In the meantime, any answers were going to have to come from Ford Lancaster.
She balked at the idea but still couldn’t wait until Jesse Tanner arrived so she could find out why the man who’d tried to destroy Liam in print years ago was now trying to save him.
“How long have you been sheriff?” she asked Mitch, not wanting to go back down to her father’s room until Emily and Drew were finished.
“Pretty much since Sheriff Hudson retired.”
She knew the sheriff had retired shortly after her mother’s death. She tried not to think about that right now and looked into Mitch’s handsome face instead, then at his ring finger.
He laughed. “No, Charity hasn’t lassoed me yet—but not for lack of trying.”
When she and Charity used to play house, Charity was always married to Mitch Tanner while Roz’s pretend husband was not only nameless but also faceless.
“Have you seen Charity?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Not for a while.”
“I know she’d love to see you. She has breakfast every morning at Betty’s.”
Roz nodded. “I’d love to see her, too.”
Mitch pulled out a small notebook and pen. “Why don’t we go over what you saw at Lost Creek Falls while we’re waiting.”
Roz hugged herself against the memory as she told him.
“What made you think it was a woman?” he asked, taking notes.
She shook her head. “All I really saw was the bright yellow raincoat but at one point I thought I saw long blond hair. It was too dark to make out much.” She hesitated. “And it happened so fast.”
“Lancaster says he didn’t see anything.”
She shook her head ruefully. “He thought I was going to jump and tried to save me. He almost killed me instead.”
Mitch didn’t look pleased to hear this. “Where is he staying?”
“Our guest house. Emily invited him. Says she didn’t know who he was, thought he was a friend of Liam’s.” Obviously Ford had led her to believe that.
Mitch raised a brow. “What is Lancaster doing in town?”
She shook her head, watching Ford. She wished she knew.
The sheriff put his notebook away. “I’ll drive up to the falls and take a look tonight but doubt there is anything I can do until morning.” They both knew that at this point he would just be retrieving the body. She shuddered at the thought. If there really was a body to retrieve. And shuddered again.
“Lancaster say how long he’s staying?” Mitch asked following her gaze down the hall to Ford.
“No.” He hadn’t told her anything. Yet.
Mitch pulled off his hat and raked a hand through his dark hair. “Come on, Roz, you drove all the way up here from Seattle because you were worried about your father. Why?”
She told him about the message her dad had left on her answering machine. “He sounded upset. I tried to call him back but couldn’t reach him. No one had heard from him at the house. Of course I was worried.”
Mitch put his hat back on. “Emily have any idea why Liam might have been upset?”
“I didn’t tell her about the call.” She could feel the sheriff’s gaze on her. “But I asked her if they’d had an argument. She denied it. I think she’s lying. I think something happened between the two of them before he left.”
Mitch was looking down the hall again. Emily came out of Liam’s room with Drew at her side. Dr. Harris came out of another room and led Emily and Drew down the hallway in the opposite direction. They disappeared into one of the offices.
“Be careful, okay?” Mitch said quietly, watching after them.
Roz looked over at him in surprise. “You think I’m right?”
“I don’t know what to think,” Mitch said. “But I’d watch Lancaster.” He smiled over at her. “You’re too smart to fall for any line he might try to give you, right?”
Right. She turned as the front door of the hospital opened and a dark broad-shouldered man with a ponytail and a black biker jacket came through the door. It had been years since she’d seen Jesse Tanner. Mitch’s older brother had been in reform school most of the time. This was the man Mitch had guarding her father?
“Hey, Rozie,” Jesse said coming toward her. He had the Tanner black hair and eyes and those deep dimples. Only Jesse was handsome in a dangerous way. He also appeared very capable of keeping her father safe.
“Sorry about your papa. But don’t worry. I’ll see that no one does him any harm as long as I’m around.”
She trusted Mitch’s judgment. “I believe you,” she said. “Thank you, Jesse.”
“My pleasure.” He gave her a grin. There was a rakishness about Jesse, a raw sexuality. This man was a danger to women. Just like another man she’d recently met, she thought, looking down the hall to where Ford lounged against the wall, eyes hooded, his body looking deceptively relaxed.
She had the feeling that he could spring like a big cat at a moment’s notice. He was watching her father’s room. But she knew he was also aware of her. Just as she was him.
“I WANT SOME ANSWERS,” Rozalyn demanded the moment they walked out of the hospital.
Ford was surprised she’d been able to hold her tongue that long. He opened the passenger side door of her SUV for her. She got in without seeming to notice he intended to drive. Without a word, he slid behind the wheel, started the car and headed down the street.
“You really think someone purposely tried to kill my father?”
“I just feel better with a guard in his room, all right? Just until we find out what happened,” Ford said. “Like I said—”
“You have a bad feeling. I heard. Why didn’t you tell the sheriff what you told me?”
He pulled up in front of Betty’s Café. It was early enough the place was still open but late enough there were only a few people inside still eating.
“What are you doing?” she asked as he shut off the engine and started to get out.
“Getting something to eat. I’m still hungry. You might remember I didn’t get any dinner.” As he got out, he heard her open her door and follow him.
“How can you even think about food at a time like this?” she demanded, catching up with him before he opened the café door for her.
“I’m sorry about your dad but we both need to eat if we’re going to keep up our strength so we can find out what happened to him.” He held open the door. “After you.”
She mumbled something under her breath but entered, going to a booth at the back out of earshot from the other diners. He followed her, glad to see her angry. Earlier when she’d been with her father, she’d looked broken. He needed her to be strong and if being angry was what it took, he could oblige.
He also needed her to trust him. That, he realized as he slid in the booth across from her, was going to take some doing.
A YOUNG WAITRESS Roz didn’t recognize brought them menus. Roz didn’t even bother to open hers, knowing she wouldn’t be able to eat a bite. She was worried about her father, although knowing that Jesse Tanner was in the hospital room watching over him helped. Now if her father would just come out of his coma—
“Give us two western omelettes, extra cheese, and two cups of black coffee,” Ford said without opening his menu, either. He didn’t even bother to ask Roz if she would have liked cream.
“Well?” she demanded the moment the waitress was out of earshot. “You got me here, now talk.”
“Are you always this impatient?” he asked.
“No, I’m actually on my best behavior. You wouldn’t want to see me when I’m not,” she snapped.
He smiled, obviously recognizing his own words from earlier.
He wasn’t bad-looking when he smiled. Under the bright fluorescent lights of Betty’s Café, she could see featherings of gray at his temples and tiny laugh lines around his sea-green eyes. He had a rugged look about him as if he’d spent a lot of time outdoors.
It surprised her. He was nothing like she had pictured him in her mind all these years. He must have been very young when he’d written the article about her father, she realized.
The waitress returned with the coffees.
Roz cradled the mug of hot coffee in her hands, needing the warmth as she sat waiting, glaring across the table at a man she had hated since the age of sixteen without ever knowing anything more about him than his name. Ford Lancaster. Her idea of the devil incarnate.
She was sixteen when the article had come out about her father. She felt cold inside as she remembered how it had devastated him.
Liam Sawyer had been on a camping trip with a friend when the two had stumbled across a large creature in the woods. Her father, who always had his camera, had hit the motordrive. But his hands had been shaking from shock and surprise, and the photographs of the creature were out of focus, the image blurred.
But still the photographs had been big news when they’d hit print. Liam had believed that his discovery would change the world’s attitude about Bigfoot’s existence.
That seemed the case, until Ford Lancaster called in some so-called experts to denounce the photographs as an elaborate hoax instigated by her father.
No one had believed Liam or his friend after Ford Lancaster’s article came out and the news hit the papers. No one except people who knew him. But Liam Sawyer had never gotten over the humiliation. Whenever there was a Bigfoot sighting in the years since, his photographs and the incident were always mentioned.
Her father had sworn that he’d get irrefutable proof of Bigfoot’s existence or die trying. But as many times as he had returned to the Cascades, he’d never seen the creature again.
Some years later another photographer had admitted that his Bigfoot photos had been faked, casting even more suspicion on her father’s photos.
Roz had spent over a decade hating Ford Lancaster and now he was sitting across the table from her.
Ford didn’t seem to notice her glaring in his direction. He was without a doubt the most arrogant, rude, obnoxious man—
“I’m sorry about the way I acted earlier,” he said, lifting that pale gaze to meet hers. “At the waterfall.”
She shrugged and looked down at her coffee, a little thrown by the fact that he’d apologized. Not so thrown that she didn’t have a comeback. “Now that I know who you are, I wouldn’t expect anything less than your behavior at the waterfall.”
He pretended to be wounded. “Seriously, I’m trying to change.”
“Not having much luck, huh?”
He smiled. He had a nice mouth, but then she already knew that from earlier in the garden.
“Stop stalling. Don’t make me sorry I covered for you with the sheriff.”
He shook his head, still smiling as if he found her amusing. “Why did you?”
“Why did you lie to Emily about being a friend of my father’s?”
“What makes you so sure it’s a lie?”
She reached into her purse and pulled out her cell phone and started to dial the sheriff. He reached across the table and gently touched her hand holding the phone. She met his gaze.
“Can you sit still long enough for me to tell you my way?” He shook his head, answering for her. “Then I’ll try to make it quick. I was twenty-four when I wrote the article about your father’s photographs.” She did the math. That made him thirty-six now, eight years older than she was. “It wasn’t just about your father. There was someone else with him when he took those photos.”
“John Wells.” Her father’s friend.
Ford nodded. “His name is John Ford Wells. He’s my father.”
Her jaw dropped. “How could that be since his name is Wells and yours—”
“My parents divorced when I was four. My mother remarried. I hardly ever saw my biological father—just enough to…resent the hell out of him.”
She felt her eyes widen with understanding.
He nodded. “It wasn’t your father I was going after in that article. It was mine.”
She was dumbstruck. “You did that to your own father.”
“Yeah, well, I’m a jerk, but you already know that about me.” He met her gaze, his eyes the color of a warm Caribbean lagoon she’d once photographed for one of her books.
“That makes it easy for you, doesn’t it.”
“No, actually, nothing has been easy.” He seemed to turn serious and she felt her breath catch at his next words. “John Wells hadn’t been well. I was with him the day Liam called.” He nodded. “I took the call. Liam sounded…scared. He wasn’t making a lot of sense, almost as if he’d been drinking.”
She was shaking her head. “My father never has more than a glass of wine with dinner.”
“You want to hear this or not?”
She made a face at him and he continued, “He sounded as if he’d been drinking. He said he couldn’t get through to the sheriff, that he was in trouble, that he’d found something. I thought he said bones.”
“Bones?”
Ford nodded. “Then he said what I thought was, ‘John, they’re trying to kill me’ and we were cut off.”
She felt a shiver but couldn’t help being skeptical given who was telling the story. “Why would my father call you?”
“I answered the phone. I guess I sounded enough like John Wells, and that Liam just assumed—”
“Why didn’t you give the phone to your father?”
Ford chewed at his cheek for a moment, glancing out the window before settling that blue-green gaze on her again. “Because John Ford Wells had died just minutes before Liam’s call.”