Indigo Lake

“We made it.” She laughed. “Thanks. No supplies got wet.”

“I’m glad I could help. I’m already soaked so the rain won’t bother me.”

She decided he didn’t sound like he meant it about how glad he was to help. Maybe it was the tone in his voice—it didn’t sound right without a Texas twang. She frowned at him, wondering what northern state he’d come from.

He looked down at her with his gray wolf eyes and added, “If you got wet, you might shrink and then you’d be about elf size.”

Dakota studied him a moment. No obvious signs of insanity. “You don’t have many friends, do you, Hamilton?” She tossed him her key. “Park the truck at the turnoff on my land. You won’t have as far to walk. Leave the keys in the glove box.”

“Aren’t you afraid someone will steal it?”

“Nope. Nobody but you.”

He nodded and disappeared into the downpour.

Dakota straightened to her five-foot-two height and frowned. “Sounds just like what a Hamilton would say,” she mumbled, thinking it was obvious the Hamiltons had been the ones to start the feud.

Elf size. No one had ever called her that.

CHAPTER THREE (#u4587fbbb-578e-5caf-9983-b50a9319798e)

LAUREN BRIGMAN STOOD in the shadows of hundred-year-old cottonwoods planted to slow the wind off the open plains. The lights of town were nothing more than a glow of tea candles in the distance.

The night’s breath rattled the dried leaves in the trees as it had a dozen years ago. She felt a hint of old fear creep over her as a memory circled in her mind.

Strange how you live thousands of days, thousands of nights but only a few live in your mind, in your heart, as clear as the moment they happened.

She stared at the home her high school friends had called the Gypsy House. An old woman who’d died there decades ago was almost a skeleton before anyone had come to check on her. After her passing, the house was left to rot and became the setting for ghost stories told around campfires.

Finally, the grandson of the old woman, Yancy Gray, moved to Crossroads and found himself drawn to the place. He’d discovered he owned the house and had completely remodeled it. Yancy had painted the outside a cream color with shutters the burnt orange of sunset’s last glow. He’d enlarged the second floor and landscaped beautifully.

Yet in Lauren’s mind, the house was still abandoned and rotting, as it looked when she was fifteen. She’d danced with death that night twelve years ago; they all had. Tim O’Grady, Reid Collins, Lucas Reyes, and her. Just four kids walking home, looking for something to do, hoping for an adventure they could brag about at school.

Three boys and her, the youngest, the only girl, all in their teens. Sometimes she felt as if they’d been bound together by fear and the lie they all kept after that night. She’d never be free of the memory. One day she’d be bent over with age, but she’d still come to this spot every year and remember what had happened.

Footsteps played a rapid tap on the wet pavement behind her as thunder rumbled above.

Lauren stepped farther into the shadows and watched. There was no mistaking Reid Collins’s quick, confident step. He might be twenty-eight now and rich, thanks to a trust fund from grandparents and a ranch a few miles from town, but there was still a bit of the little boy in him. Spoiled, arrogant, and handsome. Word was that he’d be running for mayor of Crossroads in the fall with his eye on the Texas State Senate in ten years, but Reid would never have her vote.

As far as she knew, he never finished college or anything else he’d started. Her father, the town’s sheriff, told Lauren a few months ago that the only way to kill an improvement project in the county was to put Reid in charge. He’d never get around to the planning meeting, much less completion.

The tapping of his boots stopped a few feet in front of the cottonwoods. “I know you’re in there, Lauren. That long, blond hair of yours glows in the dark. You might as well come out.” His laugh wasn’t quite real. Too polished, too practiced.

She slowly stepped onto the road. “I didn’t think you’d be in town, Reid. Did they run out of parties in the big city?” He didn’t look entirely sober, but she didn’t mention it. “Pop said they canceled the city council meeting because you had to be in Austin today.”

“I just got back. The Governors Balls are not what they used to be.” He smiled as if really looking at her for a change. “You know, Lauren, I miss our once-a-year dates from college. You were the only girl I took out now and then that I didn’t sleep with.” His gaze traveled down her long, slim body.

She didn’t miss him. Those dates had been torture. Putting up with his loud, self-centered fraternity brothers, trying to act like she was having a good time watching them brag. He’d said once that he liked having a tall blonde on his arm, like she was an accessory.

She and Reid were from the same town; their dads had been friends, so she’d gone out with Reid Collins a few times. She felt sure half the people in town wanted them to marry, but she’d never match with him. She loved learning almost as dearly as he loved partying.

“I was a perfect gentleman.” He bragged as he moved closer, almost nose to nose with her. “Never even made a pass.”

“You’re right, but I’m surprised you remembered I was there. Weren’t you engaged two or three times while you were at Tech?”

“Two. The third one was all in her head. Once I came home to run the ranch, I was so bored I almost married the first girl who came along. Big mistake. She’s still spreading trash about me.” He tried to loop his arm over her shoulder but she stepped away. “You’re looking good, Lauren. Aging well.”

“I’m twenty-seven, Reid, not exactly a centenarian.”

“I know, but you wouldn’t believe how some women change after college. I went to the planning meeting for my ten-year high school reunion and some of the kids I graduated with had slipped into middle age. I thought one girl must have sent her mother to the meeting.” He slurred a few of his words.

Lauren didn’t want to talk to Reid Collins, not ever, much less on the anniversary of the accident at the old Gypsy House. “I just came out to remember what happened twelve years ago. How about you?”

Collins looked around, as if he had no idea what she was talking about. As far as she knew, he’d never mentioned the night of the accident to any of the three who were with him. He’d simply taken credit for saving everyone that night. An account none of the others shared.

She smiled, wondering why they’d silently watched him play the hero. The school even had a pep rally for him, and the mayor had given him a key to the city. Lauren, Lucas and Tim remained silent and let the lie about that night stand, even though the truth wouldn’t hurt anyone now.

“I spotted your car at the truck stop and decided to walk off the long drive. Thought you might have wandered down this direction,” Reid said, a bit too loudly, almost as though he thought someone might be eavesdropping and he wanted them to hear him. “Strange we meet here at almost midnight. The people in this town are like ants. They disappear as soon as it gets dark.”

“Maybe they don’t disappear. Maybe you just don’t notice them.”

“You want to go for a drink?” he asked suddenly, as if the timer in his brain went off and it was time for another.

“No.” She didn’t bother with a reason.

He rocked on his heels and went back to their conversation. “I doubt anyone except you, Lauren, remembers that night we got trapped in the old Gypsy House. Ancient history. Four kids almost died when they ventured into an abandoned house. Why don’t you do an article in that little online paper of yours about it?”

“You really think no one remembers? Twelve years ago tonight was when Tim was crippled. He still limps a bit, so he’s not likely to forget.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. I was hurt too, you know.” Reid backed away a few feet, as though not wanting her to see him so clearly. “My ankle still gives me trouble when I play tennis.” He rushed on as if needing to change the subject. “My last stepmother put in a court and a pool at the ranch headquarters to make sure I exercise it regularly.”

“How are your father and his new bride?” Lauren had no idea if this was number five or six.

Reid shrugged. “I don’t know. They mostly travel. She hates the ranch so Dad bought her a town house in Dallas and she owns a vineyard outside of Paris, thanks to her last husband. Dad lucked out marrying this one. He plays golf and she shops while they’re in the States, and who knows what they do in Paris? I run the ranch, you know, have for years. It’s a real headache. Dad and I would both like to be rid of the place. He sold several pastures before he left town two years ago.”

She started walking and he fell into step. Neither mentioned the light rain.

“Why don’t you drive out some weekend? It’s only a few miles, but it might feel like a retreat after living in this town. We could talk about our college days, maybe watch a Tech game. I’ve got the whole fall season recorded. Man, I miss those days at Tech. The games, the parties, the carefree life.”

She smiled. He hadn’t mentioned the classes. “You could invite Tim O’Grady and Lucas Reyes to come too. Maybe we could talk about the night the old house almost swallowed us.”

“Sure.” He dragged the one word out. “Only, come to think of it, I’m snowed under with work right now. We’ve got problems with some of the old cowhands on the spread that should have been fired years ago. My father always let them run the place, but I’m changing things, modernizing. Land’s good for more than running cattle.”

Lauren stopped listening to Reid’s excuses as she spotted a lean shadow of a man moving toward them. His head was down, his collar turned up to the wind as he limped along. There was no mistaking the shaggy red hair always in need of a cut or the dark auburn beard.

“Tim!” Lauren bolted toward him. “You’re home.”

The shadow man looked up and straightened. A moment later she was in his arms and he was swinging her around.