A Wish For Love (Gates-Cameron 2)

Bailey turned back to Casey. “You saw a man looking in your window?”

Casey nodded emphatically. “He was big and dark and his hair was black. It was really late, when everyone was asleep.”

“It must have been a bad dream,” Cara repeated, looking as though she wanted very much to believe her own reassurance.

Bailey wasn’t so sure. Casey looked serious, and genuinely frightened. “What time was it when you saw the man, sweetie?”

“I don’t know. I couldn’t see a clock. But it was after midnight.”

Bailey bit her lip, wondering if she should mention that she’d had a late visitor, too. After all, Bran had been out after midnight. And he did fit Casey’s description of a tall, dark man. But he wouldn’t have been peering into the windows of the inn. Why would he?

She couldn’t imagine that Bran was the type of man who’d creep around peering into windows for any reason. Maybe he’d simply been passing Casey’s room when she’d spotted him. That made sense—except that he wouldn’t have walked past the back of the inn on the way from the cottage to the parking lot. And it couldn’t have been anyone else, could it? Bailey was sure she’d finally gotten away from Larry, but…

“Maybe you were dreaming, Casey,” she said gently. “Your mother’s probably right. As well-lit as this place is, it would be difficult for a trespasser to sneak around without someone seeing him.”

She couldn’t help thinking that Bran had entered the cottage without being seen or heard by anyone but her, and he’d already been inside by the time she’d realized she wasn’t alone. If he had been a burglar or a rapist or a stalker…well, she didn’t even want to think about that.

Casey didn’t look particularly comforted by Bailey’s words, but she nodded politely.

“Cara, I’ve been looking for you. Elva told me she thought I’d find you out here.”

Bailey turned in response to her aunt’s voice, finding Mae coming briskly down the walkway, wearing a jade and peacock blue pantsuit and an equally bright smile. “Good morning, Aunt Mae.”

“Good morning, Bailey. Did you sleep well?”

Bailey murmured an evasive reply.

“Do you need me for something, Mrs. Harper?” Cara asked, gently reminding Mae of her opening words.

“Oh, yes. You have a telephone call.”

Cara’s eyelashes fluttered, the only sign of her reaction to the announcement. “Mark?”

Mae nodded, her face carefully expressionless, though her eyes twinkled behind her glasses. “He says he wants to ask where you bought that scarf you were wearing the other night. He wants to get one like it for his sister’s birthday.”

Cara sighed. “I suppose he’s holding for me.”

“Yes. I told him you were here. You didn’t want me to take a message, did you?” Mae asked with poorly feigned innocence.

Cara shook her head and rose, looking resigned. “I’ll talk to him.”

“May I talk to him, too, Mommy?” Casey asked hopefully, tagging along at her mother’s side. “I want to tell him I got an A on my book report yesterday. He said he wanted me to let him know how I did.”

“You may tell him,” Cara murmured. “But, Casey— there’s no need to mention your bad dream, is there?”

Casey nodded somberly. “I’ll just tell him about my book report.”

Bailey and Mae both watched mother and daughter walk away.

Mae exhaled lightly. “Poor Mark. He just won’t give up. The scarf was only an excuse, of course. And not a very good one, at that. He’s done better.”

“He’ll ask her out again?”

“Yes. And she’ll turn him down again. I swear, I don’t know which of them to feel sorrier for.”

“I don’t know why one of them doesn’t put an end to this. If Cara isn’t interested, she should tell him once and for all to stop asking her out. And you’d think Mark would finally give her an ultimatum or something. I wouldn’t have any patience with all thes

e months of the same old routine.”