Chapter Ten

Brooks

Authors Note: Hello and Happy Holidays! I’m sorry for the lack of chapter updates over the last few weeks! I’ve been spending time with loved ones, and haven’t touched any writing projects since early December. I’m excited to be wrapping up 2022, and getting back into the swing of things. To make up for it, I’ll be posting three chapters this evening!

This year was a good one for me and my writing. I learned a lot about myself, my process, and the stories I feel called to tell. I know that the holiday season can be hard for people, and so I wanted to post today and let you know that I’m thinking of you! Thank you for being here, and for following Lennon and Brooks through this story. I’m looking forward to bringing the rest of the second and the final act to you in the New Year! I hope 2023 is full of magic for you, whether its in the books you read, or in real life.

– Emma

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Lennon’s cabin was everything I’d imagined it would be. It was small, neat, and felt like home.

I’d followed her up the steps, eyeing the flower boxes on the front step and under the windows. The purple and white flowers gave off a peppery scent that I drank in eagerly. When I’d woken up this morning, I definitely didn’t think that I’d be staying with Lennon overnight.

During our one minute drive to her cabin from the one I’d been double booked for, I’d offered to go back to Elmwood three times. She’d assured me it was fine every time, and after the second amused no, I think I believed her.

Something warmed in me at the knowledge that Lennon trusted me enough to have me in her space when she didn’t have to. I hoped I’d made it clear that I understood that, and was appreciative of her going out of her way for me, yet again.

The inside of her cabin smelled good, like coffee and wood, and I immediately felt the stress of the day loosening its hold on me. It was mainly open, with her simple kitchen and cozy living room welcoming us the moment we stepped inside. A wooden ladder led up to the loft, the style of it reminding me of something out of a library. I could just barely see her mattress and a dresser at the top of it.

A soft thud sounded from above us, and a fluffy orange cat appeared a moment later, poking her head over the edge of the loft and peering down at us. She chirped a greeting, and I watched in amazement as she carefully picked her way down the ladder, before jumping to the couch.

“Oh, this is Maple,” Lennon said, her face holding a warm look of affection as she walked towards her cat, scratching her behind the ears. After a second, she looked up at me, a look of concern painted on her face. “I didn’t even ask, are you allergic?”

“No,” I said with a smile. 

Not allergic, but not exactly a fan of cats, either. Not that I’d offer up that thought. Lennon was kind enough to host me for the evening, I could manage a night in a cabin with a cat.

As if reading my mind, Maple hopped down from her perch and marched over to me, rubbing against my legs and blinking up at me. Internalizing my cringe, I watched her cautiously.

The only real interaction I’d had with a cat, was with my great aunts demon of an animal. He didn’t like people and would often chase Hailey and I around as kids, biting or clawing at us if he caught up. Maple bashed her face against my shin, before winding herself between my feet and rubbing against my other leg, as if to say give me a chance.

I gave her a reluctant smile and bent to pet her. Maple’s fur was soft and she instantly started purring.

“Well, that’s good because she has a lack of boundaries,” Lennon laughed. “If she gets to be too much, you can just shoo her away. She usually sleeps with me anyway, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Sounds good,” I said, my eyes sweeping through her home again. An impressive Nancy Drew collection sat on her bookshelf, and brought a smile to my face. “A mystery fan, eh?”

Lennon flushed and nodded. “They were my favourite as a teenager, and I find them nostalgic.”

Maple detached from my calf and I took advantage of the moment, walking over to get a closer look at Lennon’s collection. She followed, and quickly pulled a few off the shelf, casually tucking them under one arm—and her body language told me she was trying to play it cool. From what I could see of the covers, they appeared to be romance novels, each one with a different shirtless man on the cover.

“Hey, no need to hide those,” I teased. “Maybe I need some new reading material.”

Her blush grew, and I smiled at her. 

“You should visit the used bookstore in Elmwood,” she said. “They have about three hundred of these.”

“Noted,” I laughed. “Most of my reading is sports stats and other work related stuff these days. I used to read a lot as a kid though, I should really get back into it.”

Lennon reluctantly tucked the harlequin books back on the shelf and turned to face me. “Oh yeah? What were your favourite books?”

“I devoured The Hunger Games and Harry Potter as a teen,” I said. “The movies were more Hailey’s thing, and we used to go back and forth about what was better.”

She smiled, looking perfectly content to listen to me talk about Hailey, the way I only seemed capable of when I was talking to her. My eyes drifted past her again and landed on a cardboard box placed on top of her fridge. Lennon followed my gaze and hurried over to grab it, stretching up on her tiptoes to pull it down.

“I put it up here so Maple didn’t eat it, but I’m admittedly not very good at keeping plants alive,” she sounded concerned. “I gave it some water because it was dry and taped around the pot to hold it together, but that’s about as far as my skills reach.”

I joined her and looked at the plant, relieved to see its leaves looked normal and happy. My attention fell on the woman next to me, travelling from her wide hazel eyes to the curve of her lips. Fighting the urge to pull her into another hug, I tucked my hands in the pockets of my jeans. 

“Lennon, I can’t thank you enough for grabbing this for me. It really means more than you’ll ever know.”

She beamed, smiling up at me and holding out the plant proudly. “Of course! I could tell it was important to you and I wanted to do what I could to get it to you.”

I realized I hadn’t told her the meaning behind it, and that she had just gotten Officer Potts to give it to her because she could tell I was upset about it dying in Hailey’s apartment. The very least I could do was open up to her about it. “I got it for Hailey for our birthday last year. Calatheas symbolizes new beginnings and it felt fitting.”

Lennon’s expression softened as I spoke, her eyes holding enough emotion for the both of us. “Well,” she began. “I’m glad I grabbed it, then. It’s beautiful.”

Like you, I thought, suddenly.

“It is,” I murmured instead, the tone of my voice surely giving me away.

Fresh blood rushed to Lennon’s cheeks, and I wondered if she knew where my mind had gone. If I’d thought resisting those thoughts about her was difficult before, it was next to impossible standing in her home, with her gorgeous face mere inches from mine.

Regardless, I wouldn’t cross that line. Not here. Not yet.

“I’m glad it’s going home with you,” she said softly. “Because it wouldn’t remain that way if you leave it here with me.”

I laughed, shaking my head and taking the box from her. I stepped past her and placed it back on top of the fridge, sparing her the effort of going up on her tip toes again. Looking around her small kitchen, I found more evidence that this was Lennon’s space. It was neat, with pops of colour––namely the pink kettle, the teal dutch oven sitting on the back burner of her stove, and the yellow toaster––and a stack of files in the back corner. I wondered if one of them had Hailey’s information in it.

“I didn’t really have a dinner plan,” she said. “Honestly, I’m not much of a cook. I usually just root around in my fridge and hope something appears.”

I laughed and turned back to face her, watching as she pulled the stainless steel fridge open. “I’m not picky.”

“Your options are leftover stir-fry, or lasagna––both off which I did not cook,” she said as she shot an apologetic smile over one shoulder.

“I’ll eat whatever one you don’t want,” I said. Learning that Lennon didn’t enjoy cooking and lived off of takeout amused me. She hummed as she pulled them both out and dumped the pasta onto a plate, before putting it in the microwave.

Twenty minutes later, we pushed our plates aside and sat at Lennon’s kitchen table. We’d both pulled out our laptops and were working in a comfortable silence. I couldn’t see her screen from where I sat across from her, but I knew she was likely working on Hailey’s case. It was an odd thought, knowing that this is where she sat when she’d sent me updates. She’d made us tea and had soft music playing from a speaker somewhere in the cabin. I was pleased with her choice of playlist.

We fell into our work, and I got lost in writing. 

Sam had been emailing me, asking for updates. He’d basically forced me to “work from home”, which had turned into working from Elmwood or, apparently, Lake Lunelle. So long as I got the work done, he didn’t care.

An hour passed, and Lennon and I conveniently finished up what we were working on at the same time.

“So,” Lennon said. “What do you want to do?”

“What do you want to do?”

“I have no idea,” she laughed. “I’m not used to having people over, so I guess I’m not the best hostess. I don’t even have board games or anything.”

“Well, what do you normally do when you’re home and finished work?”

She thought about it. “I’m boring, so I usually just cuddle with Maple and watch Netflix on my laptop,” she said, before quickly adding, “but we don’t have to do that, if you don’t want to.”

Aware of the growing awkward pause, I smiled warmly at her. “That sounds good to me. I’m easy.”

She blinked at me, before trying to hide a smile. Realizing the double meaning of my words, I joined her, feeling the tension break.

“Well, not like that,” I chuckled.

Though, honestly, with the pink in Lennon’s cheeks and the awareness of being alone with her, maybe I was.

“Mhmm,” she said with a laugh, and rose from the table, walking towards her couch with her laptop in hand.

I followed and brought our mugs with me, bending to set hers next to where she’d sat down. She smiled up at me, and our faces came closer together. I hesitated, with my mind yelling at me to back off, and my body telling me to lean in closer.

Something in her body language said she wouldn’t be opposed. My eyes flicked to her mouth, noting the perfect plumpness of her bottom lip. Thoughts of pulling it between my teeth filled my head.

Just then, Maple leapt onto Lennon’s lap, breaking me out of the spell. I pulled back and cleared my throat, before sitting next to her on the couch––with enough room between us for another person––and took a sip of tea. Lennon pulled open the Netflix tab and we spent longer than necessary scrolling through the options. A mischievous grin spread across her face as she clicked on a movie and I playfully rolled my eyes.

“I just think I should be educated on the matter before I enter a debate with you and Hailey,” she said.

The way she said that, as if she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would get the chance to do so, brought a warm smile to my face. Lennon seemed to be good at that.

“Fair point,” I said with a laugh.

We watched the first few minutes of The Hunger Games in a comfortable silence, sipping our tea and watching the screen that Lennon had placed in the space between us. Maple watched me as Lennon ran her fingers through the cats fluffy fur, blinking slowly at me and looking like she was about to fall asleep. Lennon must’ve noticed my gaze, because she glanced down at her cat and grinned.

“She’s slow blinking at you!” she exclaimed. “That means she likes you. She only does that to me and Nora!”

I smiled at Lennon and looked back at Maple, who was sticking her butt up in the air as Lennon scratched her at the base of her tail. “I’m not good with cats,” I said. 

“You can’t go wrong with her, she loves affection of all kinds.”

Slowly, I reached a hand out to Maple, letting her smell me. Immediately, she dragged the side of her face over my fingers in a caress. Taking that––and Lennon’s soft laughter––as an invitation, I scratched behind her ears the way I’d seen Lennon do it.

“For someone who claims to not be good with them, Maple seems very appreciative of your efforts.”

Her fur was soft and warm between my fingers. “One of our family members had a cat named Marvin, and he was an absolute terror. He made Hailey bleed once, and used to hide around the corner and chase us at full speed if we got too close to him––which was always an accident, I may add.”

Lennon laughed. “My mom had an experience like that too when she was young and refused to let me get one when I was a kid.” She cleared her throat, and I glanced up at her, seeing a sorrow that I recognized. Anyone who talked about a parent who’d passed away had it, whether they meant to or not. “Nora suggested I get one to keep me company, after my dad moved and I started working as a private investigator. Maple’s fairly independent––and she eats the mice that arrive with the winter, so I can’t complain.”

I watched Lennon as she spoke, memorizing the fond look on her face as she continued petting her cat. I hadn’t expected the conversation to go in this direction, but I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to learn more about her. 

“Where did your dad move to?”

“Fort Havre,” she said. “He moved after my mom passed.”

Knowing just how much I hated sympathy when I talked about my parents, I decided to go a different route. “That couldn’t have been easy for you.”

She looked up at me, that sad look back on her face now. I wanted to bring the smile back to her, but it also felt like an honour to have her talk to me about this.

“It wasn’t,” she agreed. “It was almost like I lost both of them. He still visits me though. Truthfully, I think he hates the city but he couldn’t stay here anymore. They’d lived here for so long, there wasn’t a place left at the lake that didn’t remind him of her.”

“I can understand that,” I said. “I still can’t drive on the back road my parents had their accident on.”

Realizing I hadn’t actually told her how they’d died, I met her eyes, and was met with a look of understanding. 

She already knew. 

We were quiet for a moment, the movie still playing in the background despite our shifted focus. 

“My parents went to the town hall meeting after their accident,” she said softly.

Surprise ripped through me.

“I remember hearing about the accident, and how horrified the community was. My mom was livid at the lack of maintenance on the back roads. She refused to let me drive on them until new gravel was put down.” Her hazel eyes flicked over my face, as if she was making sure it was okay that she said this. It was.

“Obviously it was absolutely devastating for you, but the entire community was rallying behind making a change and ensuring you and Hailey were supported. The ladies from the church put together a gift basket, I think. I was one of the people who wrote in the card.”

I stared at her, letting my mind work through what exactly it was that she was saying. Lennon had written in a card that we were given after the accident? My memory was so foggy in the days after the accident, I didn’t even remember getting anything. I vaguely remembered there was a town hall, and that our great aunt had forced us to go, hoping that parading the sad orphan children around would make more of a difference. Hailey’d squeezed my hand so hard I thought it might break.

It’d been hard for me, but her guilt had been growing by the second after they died. Especially in those early days.

“That time was such a blur for us, I barely remember any of it.” I scratched at my chin as my mind went back to those days. “Honestly, I think Hailey and I just wanted to be left alone to feel our feelings and mourn our parents.”

“That’s understandable. Your family had just undergone a major trauma.” Lennon said. “When my mom died, it felt like people from a hundred different tiny towns showed up on our doorstep with casseroles and sympathy cards. It was almost worse than losing her.”

“The constant reminder that she’s gone, you mean?” I asked.

“I don’t know if that makes me a bad daughter or something, but it felt like they were feeding off my grief and I refused to let them see it. I knew they’d just use it against me.”

I couldn’t imagine feeling like you couldn’t grieve the way you needed to, out of fear you wouldn’t be doing it right. “Did they?”

She nodded and wiggled deeper into her side of the couch, turning her body so she was facing me. Maple still lay happily in her lap as flashes from the computer screen lit up the room and cast light on the side of Lennon’s face.

“I heard someone in town say I didn’t look nearly sad enough that she’d died, and they were speculating about a possible argument or hard feelings between us before her death.”

I stared at her. “That is awful,” I said. “Everyone grieves differently and in their own time, that’s not fair at all. I hope you told them where to shove that opinion.”

Lennon laughed loudly. “Oh, I wish, but that would’ve made it worse.”

“So the gossip is that bad in town, huh?”

She rolled her eyes, and it was my turn to laugh. “I saw my neighbour watch us drive by in your car, and I would bet fifty dollars that word has already spread back to town that I’m sleeping with you.”

I choked on my next breath and looked at her with wide eyes. “That fast? All we did was drive by!”

“Exactly,” she said with a pointed look. “That’s all it takes. They’re like vultures. I usually have more than enough gossip to sift through when I take on a new case. It’s not often I’m on the receiving end, since I keep to myself more these days, so I’m not surprised that they’re thirsting after any breadcrumbs they can find.”

It didn’t matter that Fort Havre was only an hour away from Elmwood and Lake Lunelle, the social setting of a small town was so different from what I was used to. Not only was the population much higher, but people in the city generally weren’t as friendly—or invested in their neighbours. Hell, I didn’t even know the name of the person who lived in the apartment next to mine and I’d been there for years. 

It was an odd feeling to know that my name––and Hailey’s––were spreading through the town like we were the new hot gossip. 

“Does that bother you?” Lennon asked, and I looked over to find her watching me. “The town knowing you’re staying the night, I mean.”

“Oh!” I laughed. “No, I couldn’t care less. They can think what they want. You and I know the truth.”

But even as I said it, I couldn’t help but wonder what that truth was. Our relationship didn’t feel entirely professional anymore, and part of me was thrilled at the thought of more with Lennon, but the other part of me was terrified. I didn’t want it to look like my priorities had changed, because they hadn’t. Thoughts of finding my sister followed me daily and there was no changing that. There was no room for anything––or anyone––else.

But as I lay on Lennon’s couch in a comfortable silence, watching a movie and living in a rare moment of peace, I couldn’t help but wonder how much longer I’d believe myself.

A soft sound woke me, and I blinked into the darkness, my sleep fogged mind taking a moment to remember where I was. The blanket that was draped over me smelled like her, and there was something warm pressed into the backs of my legs. I lifted my head, peered through the dim light, and had to muffle a laugh.

Maple was curled up in a ball behind my bent knees, her paws curled up around her head and her eyes closed as she snored softly. Part of me thought about moving her, but I couldn’t bring myself to. 

She was so damn cute.

What was happening to me? A few hours in Lennon’s home and I was willingly cuddling a cat?

Lacking the brain power to touch that with a ten foot pole, I lay my head back down on the pillow Lennon had given me. The cabin was still dark, so it had to have been early.

A few moments later, the soft sound came again and I realized it was Lennon, up in the loft. I strained to hear—wondering if she was okay—and could faintly make out mumbled words. A grin spread across my face slowly as I realized that she was talking in her sleep.

Correction, Maple and Lennon were adorable.

I couldn’t make out the words, but the sound of her sleep filled voice was soft enough that I found it more comforting than anything else. The last thought I had before falling back sleep was that I was on Lennon’s couch, with her cat curled up against me, and there was no place in the world I would rather be.