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Good thing the wedding was happening soon, so Jenna would have her colorful garden photographs. Marcus had overheard Maggie say something about the wedding cake being ordered from a local bakery, but Caitey would decorate it with flowers and affix the cake topper.
He’d happened to spy the piece on one of the kitchen counters. A glass-blown heart-shaped arbor with a kissing couple created out of fake diamonds, the bride’s wedding dress sweeping behind her.
A familiar pain tugged at his gut.
He pushed it away. No sense going there. Every time he thought about that, the anger dredges rose, destroying his peace of mind. It was long done. Farin the past. There was no going back and righting the despicable wrong that had been done to him.
“Hey, there you are,” Logan said behind him, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “You’re wandering around like a zombie.”
“Just waiting on you, lazy guy,” Marcus quipped back, attempting a smirk that came out more stilted than smirky.
They began to jog, running up and down the stone pathways of the gardens to warm up, doing a few stretches before breaking into a sprint.
It wasn’t long before they passed a rectangular building that housed multiple vehicles in separate slots and entered the rear woods. Marcus pushed himself harder and harder, breathing in gasps by the time they reached the rear fence line.
“Hey, guy, wait up,” Logan burst out seconds later as he came abreast of Marcus. “What’s up with you? I thought we were running as a team.”
“Sorry,” Marcus apologized, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Got lost in my head and pushed myself to see how fast I could take it.”
“Running from demons?” Logan asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“Of course not,” he fibbed. “Just distracted, I guess.”
“Okay, if it’s not your mortal combat nightmares from your time in Afghanistan, then is it a certain young woman you’ve met recently?”
Marcus played dumb. “I haven’t met any ‘certain young women’ recently.”
Logan laughed and shook his head as their pace slowed to cool down.
Marcus stopped at one of the oaks, pulled out his phone, and checked the video feed to make sure there weren’t any glitches or problems.
“If you say so,” Logan said. “But I’ve seen some very specific glances you’ve given the wedding planner since she got here.”
Marcus gave him a side-eye look. “Making conversation at the dinner table doesn’t mean anything.”
“If you say so. But I don’t recall any conversation between the two of you, just a lot of glances from you.”
Logan appeared to drop the topic of conversation while they spent the next thirty minutes making the rounds of the cameras below the house, then hiking back up the slope to the woods near the entrance gates.
“You see anything on the video feed from the last twenty-four hours? Jenna and I hope we don’t get paparazzi trying to get in. Even though we’re not personally famous, the family name still has a reputation for local interest. Jenna was stopped in town last week by an obnoxious reporter wanting details after he saw the announcement in the paper.”
“That’s too bad. Did it turn into an altercation?” Marcus asked.
Logan shook his head. “No, butshe jumped into her car and peeled off—from the grocery store, no less. Who knows how the dude knew she’d be there.”
“Wow, bad timing. The guy was probably just a lucky roving reporter and spotted her. Nothing has turned up on the camera feeds so no worries.”
Of course, he didn’t admit that Caitey Belgrave was on the digital feed. No reason to. But he’d indulged that once. To see her pretty, puzzled face as she searched for any sign of life at the Estate when she had arrived yesterday. Swiveling on her high heels while he admired those fine legs of hers.
But the camera had also caught her shock—and real fear—when she spotted him coming out of the woods. Seeing that had bothered him. He’d been stupid to stare at her like that and make her afraid. He hadn’t meant to. At the time, he didn’t think he was in the open enough for her to actually spot him. He should have called out, but she jumped into her car so fast that it was too late to correct his stupidity.
Until he’d found her at the Coffee Loft. The question was, had those thirty minutes at the coffee shop helped her opinion of him, or hindered it?
She was hard to read. Reserved, cautious. Those described her well, but Marcus didn’t blame her. He probablydidlook like a stalker.
“True,” Logan agreed thoughtfully. “So, if you’re not having Middle East war flashbacks and you’re not checking out Miss Caitey Belgrave, whatison your mind? I’ve known you for too long.”
Marcus let out a belly laugh. “No sense going there. Thepast is the past, and that’s where I want it to stay. I don’t even think about it any longer.”
