“They’re still hot, aren’t they?”

  “Wow, these are amazing.”

  “I told you!” Ruby said enthusiastically. “And it’s not even the baby making me hungry.”

  “The baby can’t be the excuse for everything.”

  Ruby grinned at her sister. “It will be when I take one more pastel de nata for the road. Come on, let’s go.”

  His sisters flew out as quickly as he assumed they’d flown in, even Ruby’s increasing size not slowing her down in her quest to leave them alone.

  And exactly four minutes after he’d sat down and tasted one of the best pastries of his life, his sisters had departed Sloan’s home.

  Sloan stood between the table and the doorway to the kitchen, a slightly dazed expression on her face. “It’s really quiet once they’re gone.”

  He mumbled his agreement around another pastry, and she pointed at him. “Don’t eat them too fast. You’ll get sick.”

  “It’ll be worth it.”

  She shook her head at that. “I’m afraid Ruby won’t think so in about fifteen minutes.”

  “Why were they here?” He heard himself and quickly continued, “Not that you can’t entertain whomever you’d like. But it was something of a surprise to find them both at your home.”

  “They came to talk to me about their lunkhead brother.”

  He’d heard the term since they were kids and was well aware it was not a term of endearment. “What did they accuse me of now?”

  “Not coming over here soon enough.”

  “And?”

  “And nothing. That’s all I got out of them before everyone dived on the tarts and told me that you and I seem to have a case of staring too hard and long at each other when no one is watching.”

  And there it was.

  That remarkable truth serum she seemed able to wield with effortless grace.

  Which meant it was only fair to give it right back to her.

  “I do do that, but I didn’t realize I was quite so obvious about it.”

  “Me, either.” She let out a heavy sigh. “It’s embarrassing. To be so transparent.”

  He stood then and crossed the small space to her. Without checking the impulse, he pulled her close and pressed a kiss against her forehead. “It may be transparent but it’s not embarrassing. Never that.”

  The feel of her in his arms was like a soothing balm at the end of a very long day. Like the exquisite tarts, Chase savored the sensation.

  He wanted her.

  He could keep running from that fact, but it didn’t make it any less true. Nor did it make the feelings any less intense, this ache deep inside he’d never felt before.

  But what to do about it?

  She was leaving in a matter of days, and he wasn’t crass enough to ask her if she wanted to sleep with him as a going-away present.

  Which meant he needed to keep his interest in check.

  Yes, he wanted her. But he wanted her leaving Owl Creek with good memories.

  And good thoughts of him.

  “I’d also have told them that you weren’t being a lunkhead for staying at work and doing your job, but we got distracted by the tarts. They’d finally cooled off enough so that Ruby could try them.”

  His sister had always been a champion sweet eater and he suspected that had only grown more pronounced with her pregnancy.

  “I’m surprised she didn’t try to eat one hot.”

  “Oh, she did, but Frannie stopped her.”

  Chase laughed at that, their antics as children still something that defined them as adults.

  Which only brought him right back around to Nate and Sarah, and the laugh died in his throat.

  His father and his aunt had taken that away from him. From all of them. A chance to grow up together. A chance to know one another.

  Heck, in the case of himself, his full siblings and his cousins, even knowing Nate and Sarah existed.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Chase stepped away, taking a seat at the table and reaching for the mostly full glass of iced tea where Frannie had been sitting. “I met up with Nate earlier. He wanted to make sure I was okay after what went down today.”

  “He’s a good man and he wants to be a part of your family.”

  “So much so he’s maintained his position that he wants nothing to do with the settlement around Colton Properties. Sarah, too.”

  “That’s great, isn’t it? The full transfer of the CEO role to you can happen now.”

  “Not if my Aunt Jessie has anything to do with it.”

  That subtle frown—the one that just slightly marred the edges of Sloan’s mouth—struck like clockwork with the mention of his aunt.

  He suspected she wasn’t even fully aware she was doing it, but each time he saw that thin veneer of disgust he was oddly heartened.

  Here was a woman who had his back. His family’s backs, too.

  And there was something special in that.

  Something that made him keep wishing there was a way things could be different.

  Because Sloan Presley had made everything different.

  * * *

  Sloan busied herself putting on a pot of coffee and then came back to the table. She had no doubt they’d nibble a few more of the pastel de nata and she’d rather have hers with coffee. She’d also ensure Chase got the full experience of the sweet tarts.

  His arrival had been welcome—added on to his sisters’ strange yet oddly wonderful visit—and it felt good to have him here.

  When he was with her, she found it a lot harder to remember all the reasons she wanted to leave.

  Or any of the reasons she’d fled Colton Properties earlier.

  “Start from the beginning. What did Nate say about his mother?”

  Chase caught her up on his coffee meeting in Conners and it struck her once again what strange circumstances Jessie Colton managed to find in her life.

  An affinity for drama?

  Or an inability to read other people because she was so steeped in her own selfish desires?

  What could she possibly see in this so-called church that had popped up here in Idaho? And then to press her kids about their inheritance, seemingly to give it all to the organization?

  “Nate doesn’t seem to have a lot of regard for his mother?”

  “No,” Chase replied, taking another sip of Frannie’s iced tea. “I get the sense he’s there more out of duty and a deep need to protect Sarah more than any real feelings for Jessie.”

  “That’s sad.”

  “In every way. I think that’s what I’m coming to realize more and more. The choices Jessie and my father made...they weren’t just selfish, though that’s a big part of it all. But they’ve created this legacy of anger and mistrust in all their children. Their actions have erased the good feelings and left nothing but duty, or this lingering sense of obligation to care for their memories.”

  “I am sorry for that. Maybe more than anything else since I’ve been here.”

  “What are you sorry about?”

  “I’ve hated watching all of you suffer for the deeds of your parents. It’s not my experience.” Her gaze drifted to the tarts and Sloan recognized that truth on an entirely visceral level.

  Here she was, comforted merely by making a dish of her mother’s. Chase, meanwhile, was left to pick up the pieces of his father’s secret life.

  It didn’t seem fair. And even the word fair felt like too small a description of what he was going through.

  “Why did you leave earlier?”

  His question broke through her musings, and she realized the answer was really quite simple. “Because it was time for me to go.”

  Chase nodded at that but didn’t say anything more.

  The last gurgle of the coffee maker echoed in the silence, indicating it was done brewing, and she jumped up to get them both mugs.

  It was only as she came back to the table, steaming mugs in hand, that Sloan realized she owed him a better answer than that.

  “That’s only part of the truth. I was sad this morning after you spoke with your employees.” She stared down at her mug. “I was more than sad, actually. I hated that my work put you in that position.”

  “It’s what I hired you to do. You fixed my problem.”

  “I ruined someone’s life today.”

  “No, Althea ruined her life. She could have made other choices, but she didn’t. Just like Jessie ruined hers. Just like my father ruined his.” Chase reached for her hand, his fingers tracing the back of her knuckles.

  “I’m done blaming myself or my siblings or my mother or uncle for things we didn’t do and never saw coming. The people who chose a bad path. That’s on them. There shouldn’t be guilt because you shined a light on it. Brought it out of the darkness.”

  Chase stopped that warm, sweet tracing over the back of her hand and instead covered it fully with his. “Which is why I wanted to ask a favor of you. And you’re under no obligation to say yes.”

  “What sort of favor?”

  “I’d like you to look into Jessie and this church she’s a part of. Something’s not right there. You sensed it the other day with those articles about the dead women found in Wake County. And Nate’s certain his mother is involved in something bad.”

  Sloan had never been able to resist a challenge, but this was a tall ask.

  She knew digital forensics, but digging into the Ever After Church would likely require some hacking, too. Her coding and computer programming skills were strong, but she’d never had a real reason to go after private citizens.

  Especially without the auspices of the government, who normally funded that sort of work with her.

  “Do you think it’s a good idea?”

  “I think there’s reason to look into these people and we can do it without warrants or raising suspicion.” He grinned, the look boyish and appealing.

  So appealing Sloan felt the attraction pulling low in her belly, her interest in following him down this path both academic and wholly steeped in attraction.

  “Well, you can do it. I’ll watch and cheer you on since I’m lucky I know how to reboot my computer each time I have to do a software update.”

  “There are risks. The members of the Ever After Church are private citizens. The church is technically a protected organization.”

  “Nate doesn’t even think they’re a real church.”

  “A technicality if they’re incorporated as one, but...” She trailed off and Chase’s gaze never wavered.

  “But what?”

  “That might be the perfect place to start. It’s all a bit suspect on my end but if they’re not legally a church entity we might be able to make an argument later if push came to shove on the technicalities. Especially since you’ve got reason to believe your business is threatened based on what Nate shared with you.”

  They were very thin lines and Sloan recognized full well she was crossing them, but something inside of her recognized it was the right thing to do.

  She felt it.

  More than that, she knew it.

  And it wasn’t because of her attraction to Chase.

  The Coltons deserved to know the truth.

  Whatever else she’d uncovered over the past week, that lone thought whispered over and over in her mind, taking shape as she imagined how she could get in and out of the Ever After files without anyone knowing.

  She had the skills to help them find answers and she wasn’t going back to Chicago without trying to get them.

  * * *

  It was shockingly tedious, hard work to hack into computer files.

  That thought had struck Chase hard around two that morning when he’d gone nearly bleary-eyed watching Sloan for the better part of six hours.

  Even as he wanted to drop his head on the table in exhaustion, she kept on, her attention laser-focused on her laptop screen.

  “Do we have any more coffee?” she asked before letting out a short, quick curse and tapping a few more keys.

  “You’ve had enough coffee.”

  That was enough to get him a rather harsh side-eye when she glanced up from her screen. “I think I’m old enough to know when I want coffee.”

  “And I think you’re a demon insomniac who’s lulled me into thinking we’re doing work when what you’re really trying to do is suck my brains out my ears.”

  “You know that’s technically impossible.”

  “Hardly.” He made a show of slapping the side of his head and pretending something was falling out the other side.

  It was enough to get a laugh out of her and pull her attention off that damn screen. Which meant he needed to act now and drag her away from the table.

  “You’ve been at this long enough. Give it a rest and we can start in the morning.”

  “I’m close.”

  “You said that two hours ago.”

  “Which means I’m closer now than I was two hours ago.”

  The woman was relentless.

  Had he ever seen anything more attractive?

  She’d pulled her hair up hours ago and he was fascinated by the way small curls had broken out along her hairline. They made him want to reach out and wrap one around his finger, just to feel how soft they were.

  Since he had no business touching her, especially since his thoughts of touching her had grown increasingly heated as each hour passed, he did what he was astoundingly good at. He pushed a serious overload of obnoxious big brother into his tone.

  “Sloan, give it a rest. I didn’t come over here to push you into indentured servitude to your laptop. We’ll dig more tomorrow.”

  “I want to see where this takes me.”

  “See where it takes you tomorrow. It’ll keep.”

  “I just—” She stopped, her eyes lighting up as her gaze remained totally focused on her laptop screen.

  “What?”

  “I’m in.”

  “In where?”

  “The files at Ever After. It’s locked down and hard to break through, but I’m in.”

  Chase leaned toward the screen, not sure what he was looking at but able to read details of member names, contributions and what looked to be attachments on each person.

  Dossiers?

  On church members?

  “What is that?” He pointed toward the linked files. “Can you click on one of them?”

  She tapped around, not clicking directly but looking like she was attempting to make a copy when the screen went black.

  Another low curse tumbled from her lips. If the moment wasn’t so serious, he might have laughed at her inventive string of words.

  “Was it supposed to do that?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Got it.”

  He stood, stretching his muscles and working the kinks out of his neck while she futzed and fiddled with her keyboard. A few minutes later her screen came back to life, but her frustrated exhale suggested things still weren’t right.

  “I need to back out of this and run a full diagnostic on my machine.”

  “Why?”

  “I think I hit a trap.”

  He turned at that, dropping his arms in mid-stretch. “Sloan, I’m sorry. I’m the one who pushed you to do this and—”

  She shook her head. “I hate to break it to you, but this is hardly the first time I’ve had that happen. It means I’m close and we’re on the right track.”

  Since she looked damn near giddy with the news, Chase wasn’t sure what to do.

  Was a high five appropriate in this instance?

  And what level of delirium had he hit if this was what he was worried about?

  “It’s going to run for a while so let’s leave it. I can pull out the couch for you. That way you don’t have to drive home.”

  She seemed to catch herself, her own arms stilling in midair as she stretched, her dark brown eyes going wide. “I mean, if that’s okay and you don’t mind staying.”

  “I’d appreciate it.”

  Although he was dog-tired, Chase couldn’t let the moment go, something mischievous sparking to life. “Unless, of course, you’re worried you can’t keep your hands off me, in which case I’ll head home. It’s not too far a drive.”

  She let out a hard snort at that. “In your dreams, buddy.”

  “What would you know of my dreams?” Pleased to see her flustered once more, Chase’s grin only grew broader. “Or maybe I should ask about yours.”

  “I don’t dream.”

  “Never?”

  He moved closer, the exhaustion in her gaze fading as something sharper moved into its place.

  Chase recognized it—felt it—because it matched what he knew she saw in his own eyes.

  Barely banked need.

  Heated desire.

  And a confused, push-pull of emotion that kept seesawing between giving in to that desire and knowing that where it led might be disastrous for both of them.

  So he stayed where he was. He didn’t pull her into his arms or think about kissing her.

  Instead, he reached out and traced a line down her forearm, her pretty, light brown skin so soft to the touch he nearly ached with the sweetness of it.

  Of her.

  And resigned himself to the fact that all the want and need in the world couldn’t change the gravity of the situation.

  She wasn’t staying.

  And he wasn’t a forever sort of guy.

  It had nearly driven him mad, like the ceaseless dripping of a faucet or an endless alarm he couldn’t quite turn off as it raided his dreams, but he needed to accept the truth: he wanted what he could not have.

  Was it cosmic payback for spending most of his adult life in the steadfast belief that love couldn’t touch him? More, that it wasn’t for him?

  And why was the thought of love even crossing his mind?

  Why had the idea of it steadily presented itself, over and over, rattling around his mind and taunting him as he spent more and more time with Sloan?