Best of 2017

“I just thought I’d have the chance to help you through your mother’s passing while it’s still fresh. It’s only been a few months. Is being alone really the best thing for you right now?” He inched his fingers along my skin, sliding up my stomach.

I pulled out my last card. Bursting into tears, I buried my face in his chest. “I just can’t stop thinking about her. Time alone would help me let her go, you know?”

“Shhh.” He rubbed my back, and I could almost feel him smiling. “I’ve got you.”

Not even close. I fake cried with hiccupping sobs as he wrapped his other arm around me.

“I understand.” He kissed my hair. “I can wait. How long will your surveys take? A month?”

“I’ll need at least three.” I could do it in one, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Three?” The frown in his voice iced my insides.

“I want to be thorough, especially since my Ph.D. is riding on this. I hope that’s all right?” I kept my voice meek.

“Well, I suppose that could work. Three months is a long time, but if that’s what you need to get your head clear so that I can help you, then I can live with it.”

I nodded and blinked hard so a tear would wet my cheek, then looked into his eyes. “Thank you.”

His gaze flicked to my lips. “Once the surveying is done—”

“I’ll be back.”

He leaned forward, and I let him brush his lips across mine. Then I buried my face against his shirt again. I hoped my nose would run and leave snot all along the designer check pattern.

“Good.” He held me close. “I want to help you as soon as I can. I care about you so much.”

I sniffled. “I know. You’re so good to me, Frank.”

“That’s my job.” His chest puffed up. “Caring about students and their personal wellbeing is part of it.”

“Thank you.” I lay my head on his shoulder. “I owe you so much.”

“My pleasure.” His erection poked against his khaki pants, fanning out the pleats. He seemed to have no qualms about it. “I’ll get the funds all set up this afternoon. The sooner you get the surveying done, the better. Once it’s all laid out, you can come back. We can…talk through it all until you’re feeling better. Then we’ll both go out and oversee the undergrads on the digs.”

The mental image of him grunting and grinding all over me in a pup tent was a particularly disturbing visual.

I forced a wan smile. “That sounds perfect. I can’t wait.”

“Good.” He stood and pulled me up with him. “I have to prepare for class.” He snagged a box of tissues sitting on a side table. Of course he kept tissue next to the love seat.

“Sure, no problem.” I grabbed my bag and walked to the door.

Before I could turn the handle, he was behind me, his erection pressing against my ass. “I can’t wait for you to get back.” He dropped a kiss on my shoulder.

“Me neither.” I let my breath out on a silent sigh as he backed away.

I pulled the door open and strode down the hall. Once I rounded the corner, I leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. Students passed, completely unaware of the wank session I was certain Dr. Stallings was engaging in just down the hall. Despite the fact that my skin still crawled, and I’d have to shower to get rid of the smell of his overpowering cologne on me, I smiled. I had the funding and the go-ahead to start my search.

Blackwood’s secrets were mine to discover, and I would find them all before my three months were up.

CHAPTER FOUR

I SETTLED IN AT the counter of the small-town greasy spoon. Browerton was the closest spot of semi-civilization to the Blackwood Estate. It had a smaller population than my university, but was a big enough town to be the Millwood County seat.

I’d spent a week back at school getting everything prepared and avoiding any more run-ins with Dr. Stallings. I was prepared to spend my entire three months at Blackwood, flying under Garrett Blackwood’s radar the entire time.

“Usual?” Bonnie sidled up and poured me a cup of coffee.

“Please.”

She turned and shouted through the window to the kitchen. “Ty, two over easy, side of bacon extra crispy, and cheese grits.”

“Heard.” A male voice called back, though I’d never actually laid eyes on “Ty,” and I’d eaten at the diner three times.

I turned my head to the left and studied the cork board at the end of the counter. Livestock for sale, work at a lumber mill, and several faded missing persons’ posters. My father could have been up there, a staple through his description and zero chance of being found.

“So, where you been?” Bonnie leaned on the counter and watched the county road outside through the wide windows. Farm trucks bumped along on the potholes under her curious gaze.

She looked about forty and had a friendly demeanor. I suspected she and Ty were married. Her Southern lilt had more of a twangy tinge to it than I was used to, but I found it familiar and enjoyable all the same. Sometimes I wondered if she’d known my father. I never asked. Stirring up the past too soon would lead to disaster.

“I had to go back to school and get all my permits and funding lined up.” I sipped my coffee, singeing my tongue as the caffeine worked its way into me.

“You think you’ll find anything out there in the woods?”

The sizzle of bacon and the smell of grease and butter wafted in the air. I warmed my cool hands around the coffee cup and looked up into her thoughtful brown eyes.

“I hope so.”

“Aren’t you scared to be out there all alone? What if something gets you? You know there was this kid from the county high school that swears he’s seen Bigfoot tracks out in the woods. He makes these plaster cast things—”

The door behind me opened, and Bonnie straightened, throwing her shoulders back to maximize her curves. “Sheriff Crow.”

“Mor

nin’, Bonnie.” The sheriff sauntered in and dropped his hat on the counter next to me before sliding onto the stool to my left. “Mornin’, miss.”

“Hi.” I glanced into his light blue eyes. Intelligence sparkled in them, and I hated the feeling of a pink blush creeping into my cheeks.

He gave me a friendly smile. “I’m going to go ahead and hazard a guess that you’re the girl, I mean woman—” He shook his head at himself. “Sensitivity training clearly didn’t take, sorry about that—from the university looking for Choctaw artifacts?”

“That’s me.” I tucked a lock of brown hair behind my ear. “How’d you know?”

He arranged a napkin in his lap as Bonnie poured his coffee. “Everybody talks in a small place like this. A mosquito can’t sneeze on one end of town without me hearing a ‘bless you’ on the other.”

“I see.” I had the irrational fear he’d ask to see my permission papers and somehow know I’d forged Garrett Blackwood’s signature. My stomach churned, suddenly angry at my order of coffee with a side of subterfuge.

“Where you from?” He held up his hand to stop Bonnie’s steady pour of sugar into his cup. “That’s good, thanks.”

“Stewartville.”

“Up near Tupelo?”

“That’s right.” I pressed my hands against my cup so hard I feared it would break. Revealing too much about myself wasn’t an option, but lying to the sheriff wasn’t high up on my list of priorities, either.

“And getting a degree in something?”

“Ph.D. in archaeology.” I nodded.

“Makes me wish I’d gone to get some actual schooling.” He gave me a wistful look.

“And leave us here with old Sheriff Pennington?” Bonnie crossed her arms over her chest. “God forbid.”

“He wasn’t so bad.” The sheriff shrugged.

“Yeah, back when he was a younger man, he was fine. But when he got the fits those last few years.” She shuddered. “That was a mess. We were lucky you were here to carry on his duties, even though you were just a deputy.”

He grinned. “You’re just trying to flatter me into a bigger tip.”