“Yeah, I’m fine. Some jerk backed into my car, right in front of my office. Can you believe that?”
“Did you get plates?”
“No.” She crossed her arms and that pouty thing she was doing was frustratingly sexy. “I wasn’t there and the only one in the office at the time was Ledger the useless intern. Of course he didn’t see anything. The guy hardly ever looks up from his phone.”
I looked her up and down. Obviously she was fine. I didn’t know why I had my hackles up over this. Sure, it was inconvenient, and whoever had done it was an asshole for not leaving a note. But I was furious.
“Did you call the cops?”
“I did, but there’s not much they can do. It was your brother who came to take the report. Garrett Haven is your brother, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I thought so. Anyway, he was really nice but he basically said without any eye witnesses, it would be pretty hard to figure out who did it and I should report it to my insurance as a hit and run.”
I glanced at the damage. Front bumper, one broken headlight. It wasn’t terrible but it still pissed me off. “Take it to my brother Luke. He mostly does restorations, but he’ll take care of you if you tell him I sent you.”
Her lips turned up in a smile. “Thanks. I’ll do that.”
“But why didn’t you call me?”
“For this?” She gestured at the car. “It wasn’t like you could do anything about it.”
“I know, but I told you to call me if anything weird happened.”
“This isn’t weird, it’s more like frustrating and super stressful.”
“And also weird.”
“I was parked on the street and some jerk backed into me. That’s not weird, it probably happens all the time.”
“In context, it’s weird. What if it was your ex?”
“Colin? I seriously don’t think he’d drive all the way down to Tilikum just to back into my car. What would be the point? To give me a minor inconvenience? There’s not even enough damage that I needed a ride home.”
That was true, and I couldn’t put together why her ex-boyfriend would do something like that. Or the dead squirrel. They were probably unrelated, just a couple of unlucky incidents, not the work of someone trying to harass her.
Still, there was something about it all that I didn’t like.
“I don’t know, but I mean it, call me next time.”
“Can we at least pretend there won’t be a next time?”
“You’re too optimistic. There’s always a next time.”
She put her hands on her hips. “Maybe you’re too pessimistic.”
“I’m not pessimistic, I’m realistic. There’s a difference.”
She opened her mouth, as if to reply, but stopped and looked around. “Where’s Max? Max!”
I didn’t see him either. He’d been sniffing around her front yard a minute ago.
“Max, come!” Her forehead creased with worry. “Max!”
“He’s probably just around back.”
“Yeah, hopefully.” She went around the house at a jog, still calling for him.
I followed. No dog.
“Max, come!” She met my eyes. “Where could he have gone? He usually stays close.”
It was probably my paranoia, but my first thought was that someone must have taken him. But I didn’t remember a car driving by, let alone someone stopping. Plus, we would have seen a person getting out to grab her dog, or even just opening the door to let him in their car.
“Do you think he went across the road in front? Would you have noticed that?”
She paused for a second before answering. “I don’t think he did. I would have seen that out of the corner of my eye and called him back.”
“Then he probably went up there.” I gestured to the steep slope, dotted with pine trees, that rose behind the two houses.
“He must have. I bet he caught the scent of some animal and followed it.” She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Max! Max, come!”
We waited. No dog.
“I need to go find him.” She started up the hill. “He’s not the smartest. He’ll totally get lost.”
“I’ll check the remodel in case I left the door open, then I’ll catch up.”
“Okay,” she said over her shoulder.
I hesitated for a beat. She was in a skirt and heels. Not ideal for hiking. But she was charging up the hill like her shoes didn’t matter, so I let her go.