Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

B arely an hour later, Josie stood in the driveway, torn between happy and sad tears.

A big hug from her best friend Bailey started her on the emotional roller coaster. One judgmental stare from her brother Quinn, followed by his deeply mean and unnecessary, "What did you get yourself into now?" sent her careening down the first heart-pounding dip of that coaster.

"I didn't do anything!" she defended, which was, sadly, the truth.

She hadn't found the compass yet. They hadn't even been able to get to see the surveillance footage from the gas station. She felt useless. Torn between crying and screaming in frustration.

A testament to her emotional distress was when Corey wandered over from his mother's yard and she felt the squeeze in her heart. It was too reminiscent of the teenage crush she'd had on him. But it definitely couldn't be that.

She wouldn't allow it.

It had to be simple relief that her partner in crime—or rather in cleaning up this compass mess—was here for moral support. That's all.

Admittedly, it was getting harder to hate Corey after seeing him so vulnerable. Broken. Defeated, sitting on the curb. His strong body and toned muscles useless to him as his brain betrayed him.

She'd had no idea his injury was that bad.

"You okay?" she mouthed to him as he neared.

He frowned then nodded, before turning to Quinn to shake his hand.

Message received. Tough guy didn't want to talk about it. Especially not in front of another tough guy.

Cavemen. All of them.

Fine. She wouldn't talk about it. But at least he was here to back her up with Quinn when he—and the town—eventually found out about the missing compass. Corey could tell them that it wasn't her fault…

Except maybe it was.

She pushed those recurring doubts aside but they continued to cycle one by one, obsessively circling through her brain. Like some sort of sick merry-go-round.

She thought she checked but what if she had forgotten to lock the archive door upstairs? And she knew she hadn't checked to make sure the front door downstairs had completely latched. Because Kirk had held it open for her. What if the door hadn't closed all the way?

More than doors and locks, it was her who had moved the compass. Down to a lower shelf where it was visible to anyone who came in the room. Out in plain sight and ripe to be stolen instead of on the upper shelf where no one could see it. The historical society had probably put it up high on purpose and she went in and moved it.

And, with her usual efficiency, she'd immediately put the information about the compass and its immense value—to the community and as a rare historical artifact—online for everyone to see. Potential thieves included.

Countless hours of obsessing had given her that lengthy and devastating list of all the ways this could be—likely was—her fault.

And now Quinn was here. No doubt he'd add to that list and come up with more ways she'd erred. His top contribution would probably be that she always had screwed things up, her whole life.

Ugh!

But just as the weight of the pressure and guilt pressed down upon her, Corey shot her a glance and half a crooked smile while he and Quinn spoke. And Bailey bumped her shoulder against hers in a way that old friends had of telling you without words that they were there for you.

"It's so good to be here," Bailey said, glancing at the house that had been her second home.

"It's good to have you here," Josie said, meaning it more than Bailey could know.

Bailey lifted her chin toward where Quinn and Corey were still engaged in a display of male bonding and said, "So… Corey, huh?"

"No." Josie spun to shoot Bailey a glare. "I mean, yeah, he's been around because of the com…uh, event thing." Damn, she'd almost slipped. "You know, because his mother is on the committee. But no—he's not hanging around for any other reason. Definitely not for what you're thinking."

"We'll see." Bailey's smug smile told her there was matchmaking afoot.

"Yes, you will see —that there's nothing like that going on between us."

"Okay." Bailey nodded still looking unconvinced, which only drove Josie to be more adamant.

So much so Josie stomped her foot. "Oh, my God. Bailey, I swear?—"

"Remember when I moved in here last year?" Bailey asked, interrupting Josie's hissed rant.

Josie frowned. "Of course I remember. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Remember how you insisted Quinn was into me and I refused to see it? Just like how you're refusing to see it now, with Corey," Bailey continued. "He's into you."

That had Josie barking out a laugh. How wrong Bailey was.

Yeah, Josie was sure Corey would be perfectly happy to be her booty call. But he was most definitely not into her the way Bailey meant.

Corey was not Quinn, who'd fallen hard for Bailey, flying back from California to declare his love for her on stage in front of a sold-out crowd at freaking Madison Square Garden.

"You don't know him," Josie said, keeping her voice low so the two men didn't hear. "He's not who you think he is."

"Maybe you don't know him," Bailey pointed out. "People do change. How much have you even talked to him since he graduated high school and joined the Navy?"

That one summer when he was home for two weeks, they'd talked pretty damn often. When they weren't busy doing other things. After that—not so much. Not at all, actually.

That was exactly the problem.

Maybe Bailey was right. Maybe he had changed. The military, the injury, age, experience…any of those things could have changed him. But her heart was still scarred from opening it once to Corey Jacobs. She wasn't all that willing to tear down her walls and let him in to hurt her all over again if she were wrong.

Josie shook her head. "We're not talking about this anymore," she said out of the side of her mouth as the two men started to meander over. Still chatting but getting close enough to hear her conversation.

"I don't see you in years and now I'm seeing you twice in one month," Quinn said as he walked away from the trunk of the rental car with a carry-on strap looped over one shoulder and a large roller bag in tow.

"Yeah. Funny, huh?" Corey grinned at Quinn, but Josie could see it was forced. It didn't reach Corey's eyes. Didn't match the tenseness in his shoulders.

She knew as well as Corey did there was nothing funny about any of this. Not the head injury that had brought him home to New York. Nor the still missing compass that could ruin both of their reputations.

Bailey was wrong about that. Josie did know Corey. Knew they had one thing in common. They both had something to prove to the people of this town. Without their reputations, in a town this small, there was no hope for either of them.