Return to Mystic Lake by Carla Cassidy Page B

find her pain and heal it with a well of endless love. But he knew he wasn’t that man, could never be that man no matter how much he might want to be.
    She was right. The best thing he could do was help her solve this crime, and keep his nose out of her personal life. Surely when he was back home in his own apartment, living the superficial personal life he’d built for himself, he’d forget all about a green-eyed beauty who had somehow managed to touch the places in his heart he’d thought were untouchable.
    “Don’t you find it strange that John Merriweather’s ex-wife has been missing for a week and a half and we haven’t received one single phone call from him?” Jackson asked as they got into her car. “I mean, if my ex-wife were missing, and we were amicable, I’d be camped out on the doorstep of the head investigator and demanding answers every minute of each day.”
    “Maybe before we head to Mystic Lake we should have another check-in with John,” she suggested.
    “Sounds like a plan to me,” he agreed.
    Marjorie backed out of the driveway and hoped that the day forced her to keep her attention on the case and not on Jackson. The touch of his hand on hers, the genuine emotion she’d seen shining from his eyes at the table had both stunned her and sent a yearning through her she’d never felt before.
    She didn’t care about expensive furniture or luxury items, but as she’d gazed into those blue eyes of his, she’d wanted him.
    She headed in the direction of the Merriweather ranch house and tried not to think of that moment in time when the depth of her yearning for Jackson Revannaugh had taken her breath away, made her tingle with crazy need.
    She realized that a part of her wouldn’t be averse to making love to him...just once, knowing that it would never mean anything, that she wouldn’t see him as a threat to the single life she’d chosen for herself.
    He had a home to go back to and she had a life to live here. He was probably a great candidate for a single night of hot, mind-blowing sex because she knew they would never mean anything more than that to each other.
    As she pulled into John’s driveway, she mentally shook herself, needing to get sex and Jackson off her brain and work the case that had gone nowhere so far.
    It was strange that John hadn’t contacted anyone since Amberly’s disappearance. Surely, even though he was her ex-husband, it would be normal, since he and Amberly shared a child, for him to be rattling cages to find her. So why wasn’t he?
    She didn’t realize how early it was until the door opened and a young boy with jet-black hair and big brown eyes answered. John was behind him in a second. “Any news?” he asked as he ushered the two of them inside.
    “We have a few leads we’re following,” Jackson replied.
    Marjorie sat on the sofa, and Max sidled up next to her. “Are you looking for my mom and Daddy Cole?” He leaned into her, bringing with him the scent of soap and innocence that shot a stab of pain straight through Marjorie. This was the victim of whatever had happened, a little boy who desperately needed his mommy back where she belonged.
    “We’re trying our very best to find them,” she replied, fighting her impulse to wrap him in her arms.
    “You haven’t heard anything?” Jackson asked, his features set in stern lines, reminding Marjorie that he still believed John was their number one suspect.
    “Nothing,” John replied, his voice holding misery. “I’ve reached out to all her friends, people she’d mentioned working with, anyone I can think of, but nobody knows anything about what’s happened.”
    He sank down in a chair and motioned Max to his side. “I’ve been making her welcome-home cards,” Max said. “But I need her to come home so I can give them to her.”
    “We’re doing our best to make that happen,” Marjorie said. Max nodded, his expression far too somber and grown-up for such a little boy.
    “We were just