Cold Pursuit - Carla Neggers [18]
“What was that all about?” Jo asked.
“Devin’s in over his head with that girl.” Beth sat back, still and serious now. “He’s in over his head with a lot of things these days. He’s had a rough time since he found Drew Cameron. That was a tough one, Jo, I have to tell you. Drew was a father figure to Devin. He almost didn’t graduate. He’s been in and out of trouble ever since—nothing too bad, but it could turn bad fast.”
“Does he have any plans to go to college?”
“Talks about community college, but he can’t plan what to have for supper much less what he’s going to do six months from now.”
Jo looked out at the street, but she couldn’t see the two teenagers. “How long have he and Nora been seeing each other?”
“A month, maybe. She’s only been in town six or seven weeks. She’s a hard worker, but she’s using Devin—not consciously, I’m sure. She’s just caught up in the romance of living in Vermont.”
“Mountains, moose, maple syrup, pretty cows.”
Beth barely cracked a smile. “She likes the idea of hooking up with a ‘native’ Vermonter. Devin didn’t climb off a Norman Rockwell painting. I didn’t, either.”
“What’s he see in Nora?”
“Everything he isn’t.”
Jo drank more of her coffee and watched the sun dance on the clear, copper water in the shallow river. She remembered Drew fussing about why Sean had wanted to buy the gracious old house in the first place, never mind why he hung on to it. The three friends—Beth, Dominique and Hannah, Devin’s older sister—had applied their talent, vision and energy into creating their cozy, very popular café. They’d sanded, painted, scrubbed, added cottage-style furniture and come up with a varied, appealing menu. Dominique was responsible for most of the food, Hannah for keeping the books and managing the staff, and Beth for maintenance and comfort food.
Finally Jo shifted back to her sister. “What else?”
Beth drummed her fingers on the table. She’d finished her scone and most of her coffee and seemed ready to jump up and get out of there. While Jo was off chipping away at a career in the Secret Service, Beth had stayed in Vermont, gone to college, worked—but Jo wasn’t fooled. Her sister had the same restless energy as she, but Beth funneled hers into her life in Black Falls.
“Beth…”
“It’s nothing. Never mind. Have you figured out what to do with your cabins yet?”
Jo went along with the change in subject. “Besides hope for a fire? No.”
“What about your neighbor?”
“Elijah? I haven’t seen much of him.”
“He’s at a loose end. You’re at a loose end.” Beth shook her head. “A soldier and a federal agent with nothing to do. My definition of dangerous.”
Jo smiled. “We can’t get into too much trouble out on our quiet Vermont lake.”
Her sister was serious again. “He should be dead, Jo. He tied a tourniquet on his leg and expected to fight until his last breath and save his men. Instead—he lived.”
“He says he’s fully recovered.”
“He probably is. Physically, at least. He’s lucky. You’ve had advance medical training as a Secret Service agent—you know how dangerous femoral artery injuries are. I can’t imagine one in the middle of a firefight in the remote mountains of Afghanistan. It’s a miracle he lived. An absolute miracle.”
“Was anyone else injured?”
“Rose tried to pry what she could out of him and his doctors. It’s not much. He was part of a joint special operations team that came under attack. A Navy SEAL was killed. Another was grievously wounded. Elijah spent a month in the hospital. He did rehab and supposedly got some kind of staff assignment for a while. Now he’s home.”
“Permanently?”
“Who knows? There are lots of rumors about Elijah, as you can imagine. Including that he’s not satisfied with the official explanation of his father’s death. Scott helped with the search.”
“Tough time.”
Beth nodded. “The worst. It’s not Elijah’s fault his father died, but in my opinion, he’s looking to assuage his own guilt for not being here. Of course, that wasn