Hometown Sweetheart. Victoria Pade

      “So what do you say?” he asked as she headed for South Street. “Will you help me out? I know Northbridge is small and you can probably just point out where I’d find land records, but you also probably know the city clerk—or whoever handles that kind of thing—and could make it easier for me to get access to whatever I need.”

      That was all true.

      “You could think of it as helping Gram—that is in your job description, right?” he added.

      “Right…”

      Saying that made it sound as if she were wavering.

      She did want to know all she could about Theresa and what was behind the older woman’s flight to Northbridge. A complete picture could be helpful.

      But it would mean spending more time alone with Theresa’s grandson. And while they had talked about Theresa, and while talking to Wyatt had given Neily more insight into him and his relationship with his grandmother—all of which qualified as information she needed to be gathering—she couldn’t deny that tonight had seemed less like work and more like an evening with a handsome, easy-to-talk-to, amusing and entertaining man.

      It had seemed more like the date she’d been insisting to herself it wasn’t.

      “Come on,” he cajoled as she pulled into the driveway of the Hobbs house. “Help me out. For Gram’s sake. And for the sake of your whole one-T town.”

      Neily put the car into Park but left the engine running and glanced over at Wyatt. “For the sake of my whole one-T town?”

      “What if some horrible, dastardly deed was done to Gram to wrench her land from her, and right in your midst is the rat who did it? Wouldn’t you want to know? What if the rat is your mayor or someone in some position of power, doing more dastardly deeds behind the scenes without anyone knowing? He or she could be embezzling funds or pilfering retirement accounts or selling bogus city bonds—”

      “Those would be dastardly deeds,” Neily agreed with a laugh at his melodramatics.

      “You are in charge of making sure any wrongs done against Gram are righted,” he pointed out.

      The kind of wrong he was talking about was out of her province, but still, Neily was curious about whether Theresa actually had been a victim of some kind of wrongdoing, or if her mental state was further deteriorating.

      Which gave her a reason to grant Wyatt’s request without admitting to herself that she kind of wanted to spend more time with him.

      “All right,” she said as if he’d worn her down. “I’ll help you. But only to get a more complete picture of Theresa.”

      Wyatt smiled slowly, as if he was pleased regardless of what was behind her decision. “Tomorrow?”

      “Theresa is on my calendar for every day. But I have a full schedule and you’re last on it, so we’ll barely make it to the courthouse before it closes. That won’t leave us much time to look through land records.”

      “Later in the day is actually better for me. I have to make some business calls and I’d rather get them in before we go.”

      Neily nodded, knowing even as she did that the fact that she was already looking forward to the next day was a bad sign.

      But she didn’t back out.

      “Thanks for showing us around tonight,” he said then.

      “Thanks for the hot chocolate,” she countered.

      Wyatt leaned forward and although there was absolutely no reason to believe it was even likely, Neily thought he was going to kiss her good-night.

      Shocked, she bolted up straighter and veered away from him just as he pulled his bags of groceries from behind her seat, obviously having been intent on only that from the beginning.

      Of course he hadn’t been going to kiss her! Why would she ever have even thought that?

      Wyatt settled his sacks on his lap and looked at her again, showing no sign that he’d noticed her overreaction.

      “I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

      “You’re my four-thirty.”

      Something about that garnered her a sweet, sexy smile.

      “Shall I meet you somewhere?”

      Maybe it would be better not to be in a car with him again.

      “Records are all kept at the courthouse,” she said, explaining to him where that was.

      “I’ll be there at four-thirty,” he assured her when she was finished.

      “I’ll see you then.”

      Wyatt nodded and she expected him to get out. But instead he sat there a moment longer, looking at her, studying her.

      Then he smiled again, a mystery-man smile if ever Neily had seen one, muttered “Good night” and finally slid from her passenger seat, closing the door after himself.

      She should have immediately put the car into gear and backed out of the drive. But she didn’t. She was too intent on watching the tall, well-built man carry his packages to the front door.

      And despite the fact that she continued to remind herself that this had not been a date, and to chastise herself for even fleetingly thinking he might have kissed her, she couldn’t help fantasizing—just a little—about what it might have been like if it hadn’t been grocery sacks he’d reached for.

      If it had been her instead.

       Chapter Four

      After two taps on the front door of a farmhouse outside of Northbridge early Tuesday evening, Neily opened the door and stepped inside.

      “Miss Sela, are you here? It’s Neily.”

      “I can see that. It’s you and some man,” came a wheezy voice from a chair in a corner of the living room to the left.

      “Yes, me and some man,” Neily confirmed. “I just got an emergency call that you ran away from the hospital and no one knew where you were.”

      “I’m where I told them I wanted to be. You knew where to find me. Couldn’t have been too hard for those numbskulls to figure out.”