Deadly Shadows by Jaycee Clark

flew.”
    Jesslyn chuckled. “Yeah, that fairy dust does it every time, huh? Did you make him wish on stars?”
    T.J. shook her head. “Hell, he made me see them.”
    “Oh, do tell.”
    She checked her watch. “I can’t. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking.” She handed the mug back to Jesslyn. “I wasn’t thinking that was it.”
    “Who said something to me about denial earlier?”
    T.J. ignored the remark.
    “You running out?” Jesslyn tsked.
    “I’m going to the station, I think.” T.J leaned over and gave her hug. “Give me a call later, and for God’s sake, keep a lookout.”
    “Yeah, you too.”
    At the steps, T.J. turned. “You’re too damn pale. Go not-think with Kinncaid. That man is one a woman could just lap up in one gulp. He looks like he could put some color in your cheeks.”Jesslyn ignored her and rocked, watching as T.J. left. The coffee was good, but her stomach was starting to hurt. She shifted in the rocker.
    Again the door behind her opened and Jesslyn turned. Aiden Kinncaid.
    A day’s worth of stubble shadowed his jaw line. It had only been an hour since she’d seen him, but he’d showered, his hair was still wet. Instead of dress pants and a button down, he wore jeans and a dark blue Henley, a plaid shirt thrown on over it.
    “Didn’t go back to bed?” she asked. His cologne wafted on the air and she licked her lips. Lap him up?
    “Didn’t see the point.” His voice was still as deep and calm as she remembered. “You?”
    “Nope.”
    He stood in the door, a mug in hand and stared at her.
    “What?”
    For a moment he didn’t say anything, then he stepped out onto the porch with her, sitting in the other rocker.
    “I apologized for jumping all over you earlier about the cop thing,” he said.
    “Yeah? I remember. Taking it back now?”
     
     
    31
    He didn’t smile, his face impassive. “I’m sorry about your friend. Are you okay?” he asked gently.
    Jesslyn quickly looked out over the mountains. Of all the things she thought he’d say, that hadn’t been it. Dawn was approaching, the mountains coming slowly to life. Life. “‘And our hearts … like muffled drums, are beating marches to the grave.’ Longfellow, I believe.” She took a deep breath.
    “You two were close?” he asked, jerking her gaze back to him.
    “Longfellow?” He didn’t so much as grin. She took a deep breath. “Maddy. Yeah, in a way we were. Not childhood best friends, but we were close. Talked. She was,” she stopped.
    How to explain when she was only herself beginning to understand? His eyes held her stare.
    Out here, they were the color of the darkened sky in the west as the sun slowly rose in the east.
    “She was what?” he prodded, his voice soothing.
    What happened to the smart-ass he’d been earlier? Where did this guy come from?
    “If you don’t want to talk about this, that’s fine. Sorry,” he mumbled, taking a drink of his coffee.
    His eyes never left hers and Jesslyn found herself talking.
    “Maddy was this spunky, no-nonsense woman that pulled me back.”
    “From?”
    Smiling, she tried for flippant. “The Pit of Despair.” Jesslyn shrugged, the chilled morning air teasing her hair. “She--Maddy, T.J. and I had some great girl nights. She was a good friend. I wish I had been a better one to her.” Jesslyn shivered, remembering the blood, the stench of the flowers and the man. The man with the knife.
    “Are you cold? I can grab you another blanket.”
    She shook her head. “No, but thanks.”
    Jesslyn took another long drink of her coffee, and as the black acid hit her stomach, she held her breath waiting for the pain to abate. So she was stupid, what else was new?
    “Well, for what it’s worth, I am sorry about your friend.”
    “Yeah, I am too.”
    Silence stretched between them. She could hear the cars whirring by on the highway, people traveling up and down the mountain.
    “This must be hard for you all things considered,” he said,