Jane shook her head. “That’s okay. I’m sold on it.” The price was reasonable, but her budget was limited. “Do you need a week in advance?”
“One week up front. The balance by next Saturday. Unless you just want a week? Or if you want longer, there’s a discount on the monthly rental rate. This one’s a little hard to rent, since it really only suits one or two people.”
“I’ll take it for a month.” The words were out before Jane processed the ramifications. Her cash would be depleted, and what if she had to move on?
To hell with the what-ifs,
she thought, running her hand over the cool granite counter and watching a yellow-and-red–striped kite make its way down the sound. She needed a place and this was perfect.
“I’ll get someone in here to clean for you,” Jolene said, “hopefully by this afternoon.”
“Can I get a discount if I clean it myself?” Jane asked, surprising herself yet again. “The work would be therapeutic and I could use the money.”
Jolene folded the listing and patted Jane’s shoulder. “Really? Aren’t you the enterprising tenant. Darlin’, I can cut the cleaning fee off your rent, for sure.”
“And you can come back and check it out when I’m done.” Jane’s mind was spinning ahead. “If you like what you see, you can add my name to your list of house cleaners.”
“Jane Doyle, you are the most industrious Yankee vacationer I’ve ever met.” Jolene’s face lit in an enthusiastic grin. “But you know, I think we can help each other. If you’re willing to scrub your little behind off, I’ll give you as much summer work as you can handle.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“Oh, honey.” Jolene laughed. “Come back and tell me that after you’ve cleaned one of those nine-bedroom castles on the beach.”
“I can handle it,” Jane said. After all, she had cleaned rooms in a hotel during her summer breaks from college. She was no stranger to hard work. “Trust me, I’ll get the job done.”
“I’ve no doubt you will.”
“About the landlord ...” Jane paused. She wasn’t completely thrilled with having her landlord overhead, but Jolene had assured her that he was a good guy. “Will he want to screen me first? I mean, it is his home.”
“Oh, no. He’ll trust me on this one. But truthfully, I can’t wait for him to meet you. He’s going to love you.” Jolene’s smile faded abruptly. “I mean, in a platonic way, of course. And you can feel real safe here. Our town sheriff lives upstairs. He’s the owner of the property.”
“The sheriff?” Jane laughed in disbelief. What were the chances of that?
“Yep. The owner of the house is our very own sheriff, Cooper Locklear. Oh, we forgot the balcony! Come on out and I’ll just point out the hot tub to you.”
Jane couldn’t deny feeling pleased at the thought of Cooper Locklear living one floor above her. As she stepped out into the sunshine of the balcony, she couldn’t help but feel that fate had put Cooper in her path once again. Maybe he was meant to be her protector. Maybe God was shining down on her again. What was that saying her mother always used? When God closes a door on you, he always opens a window.
Leaning against the balcony rail, she looked up at Cooper Locklear’s house and smiled.
So many windows.
C
HAPTER
7
“You got a minute?” Jolene asked Cooper when he pulled over in the cinema parking lot to take her call.
“Sure. What’s up?”
“You know that lady I told you about—the new tenant for your downstairs apartment?”
Jolene had called him earlier that day to say that she’d found a renter, probably for the summer. “Right. Is there a problem?”
“No problem. I just want you to see this with your own eyes. Meet me at your place.”
Cooper shifted in his seat, concerned. “Okay ... but I hope it’s not one of those bad surprises like she ran her car through the garage door or poisoned my dog.”
“Just meet me there,” Jolene said quickly before she ended the call.
When he pulled up, Jolene’s car was in the driveway and she was waving to him from the back deck. Knowing her, she’d probably broken the speed limit to get here. Coop had known Jolene and her husband, Mitch, for a few years now, since they’d moved here from Philly with their two young sons. They were good people, but sometimes Jolene was a little pushy for his taste.
“Hey, Coop! Come on and step inside here and take a look. Nice and clean, isn’t it?”
Even from the threshold, he could see the luster of the floor. The granite counters were so shiny you could see your reflection in them and the stainless appliances were burnished smooth, without a single smudge. “I’ve never seen this apartment so spic and span.”
Jolene shrugged, hiding a giggle. “Told you.” She shot a look over her shoulder. “Your new tenant did it. I think she’s a find.”
He hadn’t seen surfaces gleam so bright since his time in the army.
“Pretty good, right?” Jolene asked. “I’m going to hire her to do some of the big beach houses. And Coop, you should get her to do your place, too.” She nodded toward the upstairs. “Scary to think that a man and a dog are living up there with no one cleaning up.”
“I’m a tidy guy,” he said defensively. Right now the last thing he wanted was some old lady meddling in his stuff, picking up his dirty boxers and rooting through his fridge.
“Oh, there you are! Honey, I hope you don’t mind, but I brought your landlord over to take a look at your handiwork,” Jolene called down the hall toward the bedroom.
Coop turned away from the kitchen to meet the new tenant, but there was no old lady. It was Jane coming down the hall demurely. She wore thin spandex shorts that showed off shapely legs, yellow rubber gloves, and an oversized gray T-shirt. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail ... and she looked gorgeous.
“Miss Jane?”
“Hi, Sheriff.” She held her gloved hands away from her and wiped her chin with the sleeve of her shirt. “I didn’t know you were stopping by.”
“That was my doing,” Jolene said proudly. “I thought you two should meet since you’ll be sharing the same house.”
“I didn’t know you were still in town.” Cooper tried to get his mind to fast-forward, process the details more quickly. “And you’re renting my apartment?”
“If that’s okay.”
“Of course it’s okay,” Jolene said. “Coop’s been telling me he wanted to rent for the summer instead of week to week. You’re exactly what Coop has been looking for.”
Isn’t that the truth,
Coop thought. Jolene sure did have a knack for stripping away the trimmings and getting to the heart of the matter. Though this time, she probably didn’t realize how her words had hit home.
“I was just telling Cooper how he ought to hire you to clean up his place upstairs, too.” Jolene went on as if the air wasn’t as volatile as gunpowder. “We’re both way impressed with your work.”
“Thank you, but it’s not brain surgery.” Jane wiggled off the rubber gloves and dropped them in the sink. “Not that I’m not happy to have the work. There’s just no art to it.”
“If you’re reliable and consistent, you’ll make more than any artist in the Outer Banks,” Jolene said, looking from Coop to Jane and back to Coop again. “And why didn’t you two tell me you already knew each other?”
“How was I to know Miss Jane was the lady you were talking about?” Coop pointed out. “And we don’t know each other well.”
“The sheriff handled a motor vehicle accident yesterday, and I was one of the drivers.”
“And I thought Miss Jane was moving on this morning.” In fact, she’d been emphatic about it. Going down to visit her brother in Florida. He studied her, wanting to ask why she had changed her mind, but not wanting to open a can of worms in front of Jolene, who could spread a story faster than Facebook.
“Well, Miss Jane is staying right here, and you two are going to have a chance to get to know each other much better.” There was a touch of mischief in Jolene’s smile that made Cooper uncomfortable.
Or was it the whole setup—having an attractive, single girl living in his downstairs apartment? Normally he’d consider that a recipe for scandal and disaster, but there was something different about Miss Jane. Call it integrity. Call it backbone. Either way, his instincts told him he wouldn’t have problems renting to her.
The radio speaker on his shoulder crackled and his hands automatically went to the button there. “Sector one-two.”
“We’ve got a middle-age man down in the parking lot at the Safeway,” Brenda said. “ETA for the paramedics is eighteen minutes.”
“Copy.” He turned to the women. “I have to go. But thank you, ladies. I’m glad to have the place rented, and to a real tidy person. And welcome, Miss Jane.”
A chorus of good-byes followed him out the door as he slid into his cruiser, wondering how women did that. They got into your house and your life and changed things around, setting the planet spinning on a different axis.
It wasn’t a bad thing; just distinctly female.
After work when he pulled into the driveway, Miss Jane’s Jeep was parked in front of the house. Good. He’d bought steaks for two, figuring that it was a fit welcome for a new renter and neighbor.
There was no answer when he knocked on the front door. Maybe Miss Jane wanted her privacy. He would respect that. But she might change her mind when she got a whiff of these steaks grilling.
He set to his usual routine, drinking two tall glasses of water, changing into shorts, listening to the evening news on television. When he opened up the sliding glass door to turn on the grill, there she was in the distance, walking along the path by the water.
Behind her, the sky was awash with color. It was going to be another amazing sunset. He stood there a moment, taking it all in. Though he’d lived in this town most of his life, he still stopped to marvel over a beautiful sunset. Life was short; you only got one sunset a day. You just couldn’t waste something like that. But today there was the double wonder of a beautiful sky and a lovely young woman moving amid the tall grass, graceful as a sea fairy.
He threw skewers of vegetables on the hot grill, stepping back from the heat as footsteps sounded on the steps.
“Hey, Miss Jane,” he called. “I’m grilling some steaks and you’re welcome to join me.”
He went to the rail and saw her peering up from the landing. Her hair was still in that cute ponytail and her cheeks had gotten some healthy color in the sun.
“That’s nice of you, but I don’t want to impose.”
“It’s a tradition around here. You get a new neighbor, you’d better make sure they’re well fed and on your side.”
She laughed. “I doubt you make too many enemies, Sheriff.”
“Please, call me ‘Coop.’ And I try to keep it friendly with most folks. But really, can you smell those peppers? And the roasted onion. I leave it on the grill till it gets nice and tender. Goes great with steak.”
Jane put a hand up to block the sun, as if she needed to get a better read on his expression. “Okay. I accept your invitation, but only if you let me bring something. Some wine? Or are you a beer drinker?”
“These days I stay away from that stuff, but I don’t mind if you imbibe.”
“I don’t need to. How about dessert? Ice cream?”
“Now you’re talking.”
“I’ll grab it from the freezer and be right up.”
As Cooper tended the grill, Jane set two places at the outdoor table and poured two tall glasses of lemon water. She found the steak knives and brought the salt and pepper shakers out. In a few minutes, they were sitting down to a meal that made his mouth water, and sitting down to a real nice table at that.
“We work well together,” he said.
“We do.” She handed him a glass of water. “To teamwork,” she said.
They clinked glasses and he took a long drink. “I know I didn’t have any lemons in my fridge.”
She laughed. “I like to keep them in a bowl. The color is so cheerful. Though you don’t really need that out here, with this.” She gestured toward the sky, the water, the encroaching night.
“Yeah, it’s a beautiful place we live in.” And not everyone appreciated it. The image of Leah popped into his mind as he recalled how she had sat right here at this same table, telling him she had to get out of this “backwards town.” That was two or three years ago, in his darker days.
Pretty pathetic to think that the last woman he’d had dinner with, if you didn’t count his sister, had been Leah Pope. And years ago, he’d promised himself that he would never get involved in a woman’s drama. Never again.
And now here he was, sharing dinner and a sunset with a girl with cheeks pink from the sun and eyes as blue as the ocean. He was coming close to breaking his promise. Granted, Miss Jane was not another Leah, but he sensed that she had her own drama to play out—something mysterious that she tried to keep tamped down.
The fear that had gripped her after the car accident—that was more than shock. He didn’t know what or who had wounded her, but Jane Doyle was definitely afraid of someone.
Someone had put that wounded look in her eyes.
Cooper wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her here, not on his watch. Sure, he was a sworn peacekeeper, but his protective instincts ran much deeper than any occupation would allow. She trusted him, he could see that. And maybe she thought of him only as a friend. If that was true, he would have to deal with it.
But either way, he was going to look out for her.
I got your back, Miss Jane,
he thought as she made a production of scooping ice cream for him.
I got your back.