Page 56 of Always My Love

“We can’t let hooligans win,” Steven said as he turned and walked away to help someone else.

She knew it was going to stretch her budget for the month, but she decided it would be worth it to go all in instead of just getting the plain white tiles.

Listening to Nick and his father joke and laugh while they tore the rest of the tiles out of her shower lightened her mood and squashed any lingering fears she had.

Since she was mostly just in their way, she stepped out of the room and went to develop some of the pictures she’d taken a while back when she and Lucy had gone on a walk. She also figured she’d blow up the image of the buck that Nick wanted to hang over his fireplace.

Locking herself in her dark room was therapeutic. Watching the images appear on the paper still gave her a sense of wonder and awe.

While the larger image of the buck hung up to dry, she started working on the new roll from the week before.

She was on the third picture when she froze as the image appeared before her eyes.

He’d changed some. He was thicker. Stronger looking. He’d shaved his head completely and wore a thick black beard. That and the flannel coat, dark jeans, and hiking boots would have allowed him to fit in anywhere there were woods.

With shaky fingers, she finished the roll in hopes of a better picture.

When all of the film was hanging up to dry, she stepped outside to get Nick.

To her surprise, he and his father had already started hanging the new tiles they’d bought that morning at the hardware store.

“Do you have a minute?” she asked Nick. “I have something you should see.” She held the one fuzzy image to her chest.

“Sure.” Nick stood up and wiped his hands off.

“Lucy and I went on a walk last week. When it snowed. I don’t know what day it was exactly, but…” She held the image out. “That is Fred.”

Nick tensed and then took the image from her.

“I didn’t see him. When we were out walking. I didn’t even know I’d gotten a picture of him until just now when I developed the roll. This is the only picture I got of him. He must have followed us.” She felt her fear spike.

Nick wrapped his arms around her as he held the image up for his father to take.

“Tell me this will help find him,” she said into Nick’s chest. “He’s been watching us for a while.”

“Yeah, it’ll help,” he assured her.

“Why don’t we head down to Baked for some pizza and a break?” Sean suggested. “Nick can swing this by the office to help Tom in his search.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Nick agreed. “We can let the mud dry and maybe grout when we get back. You should have a completed shower by tomorrow,” he added with a smile.

While she and Sean sat in Baked waiting for Hailey to deliver their food, Nick ran down the street to the station to drop off the photo with Tom.

Hailey didn’t have much time to chat, and Harper didn’t want to cause her sister to worry by telling her that Fred had been sneaking around their place for weeks.

She was happy to see Reece sitting in a corner booth, working on his laptop. Outside of his boxing career, she wasn’t quite sure what the man did.

She knew that Reece had recently purchased a house just outside of town up on the hillside that overlooked Pride.

Every now and then Reece would glance up and watch Hailey and then glance towards her and nod, as if saying, “Yeah, I’ve got you covered.”

She appreciated him even more and, even though she barely knew the guy, she trusted him with her sister’s safety.

Nick had told her that he, Tom, and Reece had grown up together. She was pretty sure Nick was just trying to get her to relax about not constantly watching over her sister.

When Nick finally returned, he sat next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“Tom is on it,” he assured her. “Where’s our food?” He glanced towards the back.