Wrong Number (21 page)

“That’s just it. Something
is
haunting me and no matter how hard I run I can’t escape,” Aubree said. “But I shouldn’t even be bringing it up. I’m sorry.”

They had walked almost the entire loop of the campground, and her trailer was back in sight. “I should be going now.”

“Wait.” Wyatt reached out and touched her arm. “Please, I didn’t mean to unload on you. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s not that.” Aubree could feel her cheeks growing warm again. “It’s just that I’m kind of in a mess right now.”

“I wish I could help you,” Wyatt said.

“No one can help me. I’d better go.” Aubree pushed the stroller as fast as she could. Scarlett giggled and squealed as the wheels bumped along the ground. When she turned to get Scarlett out of the stroller, she saw Wyatt still standing in the middle of the road. His brow was furrowed, and he had his hands in his pockets. A few locks of his dark brown hair caught the glint of the sun. He held up his hand as if to wave and then turned around and walked back up the road.

Aubree’s hands shook as she sat with Scarlett on the bed in the trailer. She hummed a melody and rocked her gently, trying not to let her tears fall onto the dark curls of her baby’s head. Loneliness hadn’t caught up to her lately, and her shoulders shook with new sobs as she replayed her words:
No one can help me
.

She thought about what Wyatt had mentioned—the guilty feelings and how he didn’t blame himself anymore, and she wondered if she would ever be able to say that about Devin’s death. She hadn’t meant to speak about how she felt responsible for his death. The words popped out of her mouth before she could stop them. She’d let her guard down. It had been a risky move, but it felt good. To finally be able to share her true feelings with someone for even a short time had lifted a weight from her shoulders.

“We can’t live like this forever, Scarlett. I’ve got to find a way to get our life back,” Aubree whispered as she stroked the porcelain cheek of her baby girl.

N
INETEEN

W
YATT HAD LOOKED SO
forlorn and disappointed the day before that Aubree was shocked when he showed up during her morning walk the next day.

“Hey, I wanted to say I’m sorry about yesterday.” He twirled his park ranger hat on one finger. “I didn’t mean to get so personal.”

“Oh, me too,” Aubree agreed.

“I guess it’s just tough stuff to talk about, huh?” Wyatt gave her a bright smile. “So how about we talk about something different today?”

Aubree hesitated before shrugging. “Sounds like a deal.”

They spent the next hour talking about their favorite movies and music. It was lighthearted conversation, and Aubree felt reckless, conversing as if she had nothing to hide.

Wyatt walked close to her and even pushed Scarlett’s stroller for a while. By the time they finished walking, the heat had made Aubree’s neck sticky with sweat. Scarlett had fallen asleep, and her head rested at an awkward angle.

“I’m sorry I kept you so long,” Wyatt said.

Aubree smiled. “I could say the same thing.” During their walk, Aubree had wondered if it was dangerous talking to a stranger. But Wyatt didn’t seem like a stranger. It felt so good to have someone listen to her, even if the conversation centered on media and entertainment.

The next morning, Aubree told herself it would be okay to talk to someone besides Scarlett once in a while, and she found herself looking
for Wyatt. He didn’t disappoint, and he talked her ear off all around the campground.

A week passed, and Aubree visited with Wyatt a little bit longer each day. She tried to keep her defenses up, but he was slowly chipping away at her barrier.

“I’d really like to get to know the real Aubree,” he said one day after they had walked around the loop of the campground three times. They stood in the shade of a pine tree, and Aubree watched a chipmunk scamper through the pine needles on the forest floor.

“This is the real me,” she said.

“You know what I mean.” He touched her chin and looked into her eyes. “Something has you scared enough that you’ve closed off a part of you. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to know you.”

Aubree stepped back and shrugged. “I guess I’m a little shy.”

Wyatt’s lips twitched as if he were about to say more, then he shook his head. “Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Aubree smiled. “Sure.”

“Agent Edwards, I need you in L.A., not roaming the countryside checking out campgrounds,” Agent Napierski spoke forcefully, and Jason held the phone away from his ear. Jason had been arguing with his supervisor since he set out on Aubree’s trail a week and a half ago. “She had a full tank of gas when she left Aurora, and I’m almost certain she was heading west. I think she’s trying to get closer to her mom. Just give me a couple more days. I’ll find her.”

“I’m sorry, but I need your neurons firing on the information that just came in on this case. Leave the searching to Stokes and his team. They’ll find her.” Agent Napierski’s tone didn’t leave any room for argument.

“Sir, could you give me forty-eight hours? The enemy may already have someone in place.”

“Edwards, I want you in this office tomorrow morning,” Napierski barked.

“Yes, sir,” Jason said. He clenched his phone in one hand and squeezed the bridge of his nose with the other. If someone got to Aubree before him, would she be able to recognize the danger?

It had been almost two weeks, and Wyatt always seemed to show up when Aubree and Scarlett ventured outside. On day seventeen of Aubree’s stay in the Paris Springs Campground, Wyatt surprised her with a question. “Would you like to go fishing sometime?”

“I’m not very good at it,” she said. “But I’d like to try again. It’s been a long time.”

His smile widened into a boyish grin, and she couldn’t help smiling back.

“How about tomorrow? I can pick you up after I do my rounds.”

She lowered her eyes. “Okay.”

The next morning, Aubree experienced some nervous jitters as she packed a lunch and got Scarlett ready. Her heart jumped when she heard a light knock on the door. She smiled at her nervousness and took a deep breath before answering the door. “Good morning, Wyatt.”

He grinned, and the smile crinkled the skin around his eyes. “Good mornin’ to you too. Can I hold Scarlett?”

Scarlett giggled when Wyatt blew a raspberry on her hand and kept squealing all the way to his pickup. Aubree felt her nerves relaxing a bit once they were on their way.

“Now, there’s one nice thing about fishing with a park ranger.” Wyatt grinned and tapped his steering wheel to the country music on his radio. “We can park wherever we want and fish as long as we like.”

The lake was beautiful and secluded. Every so often, she could see small ripples of movement where a fish brushed the top of the tranquil water and broke the stillness. Wild grasses poked up between the rocks hugging the shoreline of the lake. As they walked, the dust billowed up in thick clouds along the trail, and by the time Wyatt found the fishing spot he was looking for, Aubree’s socks were covered with dirt. She hefted Scarlett higher on her hip and pointed out the sun above the line of pine trees in the distance.

“See the sun? It’s smiling at you,” she told Scarlett. The baby waved chubby hands at the sky and jabbered something excitedly.

Wyatt shaded his eyes and surveyed the area. He frowned for a second and seemed to be deep in thought. He lifted his eyes to meet Aubree’s and chuckled, then reached for Scarlett. “Do you want to see some fish?”

Scarlett clutched him happily as she continued to babble. Wyatt’s cheeks reddened with pleasure, and Aubree couldn’t help but smile. She
tried to ignore the twinge of pain reminding her that it should be Devin holding this child. She pushed her hair behind her ears and felt the sun on her face. She would enjoy one day without guilt. Maybe.

Wyatt had his line baited in no time, and Aubree was surprised he didn’t use a worm. “What’s that?”

“It’s rainbow colored power bait, to attract the fish.” He pointed at a small jar filled with yellow and green goo that had orange stripes running through it. “It works ten times better than a worm.”

Aubree remembered going fishing with her father and trying to hold the squiggly worm for him to put on the hook. “That looks easier than using a worm anyway,” she said.

“Yeah, here you go. Would you like to be the first to cast out?”

“I don’t think I can. I’ll just watch you.”

“All right, but next cast you have to try,” Wyatt said. He stood and lifted the pole out to his side. “It’s really not too hard, you just press this trigger and pretend you’re like a big clock, and when your arm hits one o’clock, you release and boom! There she goes.”

His arm reached out gracefully over the lake, and Aubree watched as the line disappeared somewhere in the water about a hundred feet away.

“I’ll never be able to do that,” she said.

“Sure you will, it’ll come back to you.” Wyatt set his pole against a rock. He picked up a heavy blanket and spread it on the ground. “You can sit over here with Scarlett if you want.”

“Thanks.” Aubree walked over to the edge of the blanket and sat down. Scarlett pointed and giggled as she crawled around the blanket. Wyatt handed the baby a pinecone.

“Now don’t eat it, little chipmunk.” He squeezed her chubby cheeks.

Scarlett laughed, then patted her cheeks and smacked her lips together as if she were giving Wyatt a kiss. He leaned over to kiss her cheek and made a growling noise. Scarlett screeched, and Aubree couldn’t help herself. She laughed with them.

About five minutes later, Aubree jumped up, pointing at the fishing pole. “It moved! I saw it move!”

“Hey, maybe we’ve got one.” Wyatt clapped his hands. “Do you remember what to do next?”

“Umm, reel it in?” Aubree asked.

“Come here.” Wyatt took her hands and put them around the pole. “First you have to pull up fast so the hook will catch on the fish. Like this.” He lifted her hands up, and the pole jerked back.

Aubree squealed, and Wyatt chuckled in her ear. “Now go ahead and reel that baby in.” He moved a lever on the reel and put Aubree’s hand on the crank to get her started. Then he stepped back and picked Scarlett up to watch. Aubree could feel a definite pull on the line as she reeled it in. She looked hesitantly at Wyatt and then grinned at Scarlett. “We caught a fish! Here he comes.”

She could see the speckled trout fighting in the water as she pulled it closer to shore. “Now what do I do?” Aubree asked, shrieking as the fish jumped and splashed in the water.

Wyatt held out his fishing net. “Grab hold of the line and drop him in.”

Aubree shied away from the wiggling fish but was finally able to get him in the net.

“Now how about we trade? You can put the pole down, and I’ll take it from here.” He grinned and held out Scarlett, who was watching the fish with wide eyes.

“Did you see Mommy catch a fish?” Aubree held Scarlett close and pointed at the wriggling trout.

Scarlett reached out and patted Aubree’s cheek. “Ma, ma, ma.”

“Yes, Mama did it!”

“Hey, how long has she been saying your name?” Wyatt asked as he cleaned the fish.