Island Holiday (Brookwell Island #4)

Chapter 12

The next morning over breakfast, Sonya and Connor were discussing when and how they might get those young women away from the condo without alerting Zimmer. A chime sounded on her laptop and Sonya hustled over to the device. She swore when she opened the message. “Another charge on Zimmer’s card. What the hell?” she muttered. “He chartered a boat.” She glanced over to Connor who was at the kitchen counter, sipping coffee. “I knew there was more to his Brookwell visit.”

“That happens out here,” Connor jerked a thumb toward the window and their river view. “We are on the water.”

He looked too relaxed. As if spending the holidays holed up in a hotel suite with another researcher was normal.

She shouldn’t be annoyed over his apparent ease with the situation. She wasn’t, not really. She was more frustrated that merely looking at him made her want to forget her year-long pursuit of Mertens. Forget Zimmer’s sticky lies.

Working with Connor empowered her, yet being in the same room with him left her feeling weak. No, not weak. Unfocused. She wasn’t used to the persistent distraction of his masculine scent lingering in the air. And although they’d worked together, his voice sounded different when he was close.

The excuses about being a solitary person weren’t convincing anymore.

“Sonya?”

“Right.” She jerked her mind away from her infatuation. Three girls might well disappear forever if they didn’t do something. “Those condos have a dock. Do you think that’s how he’ll get them out?” Her stomach twisted into knots. “Could he be planning some kind of exchange out in open water?”

“It’s a logical solution.” Connor crossed to the table and his own laptop. “Give me the name of the charter company.”

She read it out to him and let him get to work. “Should I cancel it? Notify the authorities?”

Connor shook his head. “On what grounds? If we call the police now, we might scare off Zimmer and all our progress stalls out.”

She wasn’t sure they were making progress. “Gamble and Swann could do something.” She rubbed at her eyes as tears stung the back of her nose. Who was she to cry? She was secure and free to do as she pleased. Walking toward the balcony, she rested her forehead on the cool glass door as she watched the dock across the river.

They were so close and could still lose Mertens, Zimmer, and those three young women.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Connor was deep in his search, brow furrowed, eyes scanning the information on the screen. She’d be smart to dive in and focus as well, but she stayed rooted in place, as if keeping watch would make a difference.

Connor would soon figure out the details on the charter. That was his thing.

Even as she thought it, she heard him make a call. He was speaking with someone at the charter company, likely coaxing out all kinds of helpful intel. He was good at things like that.

Dragging her feet, she returned to her laptop, looking for anything she might’ve missed. Curious, she checked his personal bank account and his wife’s credit card activity. All her recent charges were local to Iowa, or at online stores. From what Sonya could deduce, Mrs. Zimmer was preparing for a big family celebration.

It was a sucky thought and highly unfair, but Sonya hoped she and Connor could ruin the Zimmer holiday. The woman was married to a con-artist criminal and she should be informed. How could someone not know their spouse was a lying thief?

Sonya closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She’d been looking at everything through the lens of marriage lately and it bothered her. Long before Connor had walked into that snow globe coffee shop and turned her world upside down.

Not that she had any business looking at him and thinking about marriage.

Once Hannah married Seth, it had changed the friendship dynamic. As it should, of course. Sonya didn’t begrudge Hannah any happiness. It helped that Seth was a doting husband and a man of integrity.

But it left Sonya with more questions than ever about the institution of marriage in general. Questions no one else could answer because they were all locked deep inside, churning up her own insecurities and issues. She wasn’t sure what it meant to fall in love. Did she even have the right genetic makeup to stay in love and work for a relationship?

She knew how to fight and be selfish. That was the world she was raised in. Where talk of love was fast and fleeting and power conquered all.

Sure, she’d left that world behind after that first winter break with Harper, Hannah, and Harper’s family. She hadn’t looked back because the Ellingtons had been so different. Wonderful, happy people. Sincere, and kind. Not perfect, but genuine and warm. And yet here she was, still afraid she wasn’t qualified to take on anything as serious as romantic love.

Did love require qualifications? She could just imagine the reactions if she texted her friends with that question. They’d descend on her in a heartbeat.

Then again, it was Christmas. In this season of miracles, her heart was set on Connor and she didn’t want to fight those happy flutters and excited flurries swirling inside her.

Following an unfamiliar instinct, she walked over to his side of the table. Setting her hands lightly on his shoulders, she waited for him to react.

He didn’t shrug her off. Instead, he reached up and covered her hand, then sighed as she started rubbing those taut muscles.

“Feels good,” he said absently.

Her heart did a happy dance, complete with a spin. On a whim, she kissed the top of his head. “I’m glad.”

It felt like a major victory. Or a turning point.

Years from now, would she look back on this moment and see it as the day where she’d turned from a perpetual taker, lurking in the shadows of her friendships, into a generous giver?

If she had the courage to share her thoughts with Connor, he’d probably tell her that no one saw her as a taker. That’s just the way his kindness and compassion shined through.

And as her heart filled with affection and yes, love for him, she sincerely hoped he would be part of her future.