Soleil smirked knowingly. “Sure.”
She bumped my shoulder playfully. “Enjoy the bossman.”
I didn’t feel relieved. I felt exposed, and she saw it immediately.
“No big deal, Claire. Chill out. We’re all adults,” she said, but I didn’t like that she knew that very personal information.
We parted ways when she said she was going to the bakery. I used the spare key to get into my cabin, and I changed my clothes for a day of work. I pulled my hair into a ponytail and wore a baseball cap on my head since it was supposed to be a warm day today.
That morning, work felt different. Asher behaved like his usual self. Everyone did their jobs. He gave instructions and checked crates. He didn’t linger near me either. If someone didn’t know better, they wouldn’t guess anything happened.
By lunch, instead of heading to the barn like usual, I headed over to the bakery, needing to talk to Harmony, but one of the workers said she was working in town today. I got the address from the lady and ordered a cheese Danish and an iced coffee since I hadn’t had breakfast. I took a seat at one of the tables they had set up for patrons.
I had to push any thoughts of Asher out of my head because my focus had to be on Sophie’s case. That realization made me see how many things I had pushed aside in my life because of her disappearance. I blew out a breath, feeling defeated. The vibe I got from Nico last night was that he knew something, but he didn’t want to share it. There was no way I could get a guy like him to talk.
I hung out in the bakery until break was over. And as I walked back to the orchard, I asked myself how much of my life would I spend looking for answers to Sophie’s disappearance? I was twenty-four, and last night was the first time I had spent the night with a man. Even if we hadn’t had sex. I enjoyed last night. Asher was a good man, even if I knew that whatever we shared couldn’t happen again. He was my boss. He didn’t do relationships. He had more experience than me and he seemed so easygoing where I was ultra-focused. We were opposites inthe most obvious of ways. On the way back to the orchard after lunch, I bumped into Asher.
“We missed you at lunch,” he said.
“I grabbed something from the bakery. I wanted to talk to Harmony about my meeting with Nico, but she’s at the bakery in town,” I explained.
“Yup, the one on Main Street.” He nodded.
We got back to work, but every time I accidentally checked Asher out, I caught him watching me. I didn’t know what it meant. Was he regretting me? Our chemistry was fire. I felt like I couldn’t regret him. After my shift, I grabbed my car keys from my cabin and drove into town. Harmony was behind the counter at the bakery when I walked in. The smell of sugar and warm bread wrapped around me. She looked up and smiled faintly.
“You look like you didn’t sleep,” she said. I wondered if the news of me spending the night in Asher’s cabin was going around Maple Valley.
“That obvious?” I replied.
“You’re still beautiful,” she laughed. “What brings you to this part of town?”
I leaned against the counter. “I saw Nico last night.”
Her smile vanished. “And?”
I exhaled slowly. “He admitted they helped Sophie cross.”
Harmony went still.
“He said they usually didn’t take someone so young. Or Canadian. Said his boss had a soft spot for her mom because she was in an abusive relationship, and he wanted to help them.”
Harmony’s jaw tightened. “Did he say what happened to her?”
“He told me to stop looking,” I exhaled, feeling like my insides were deflating too. I kept hitting dead ends. I was spending my life chasing answers that didn’t exist.
Her eyes darkened. “That means you’re getting close.”
I swallowed. “I don’t think he killed her.”
Harmony studied me carefully. “Be careful of that instinct,” she said quietly. “Men like Nico survive because they know how to look human.”
I thought about the way his face changed when I told him about Sophie’s mom. The tension. The regret.
“I don’t know what to believe anymore,” I admitted.
Harmony reached across the counter and squeezed my hand. “Just make sure you’re not confusing empathy with innocence.”
That landed. Because I was studying criminology. I knew better. Didn’t I?