Tide Will Tell (Islands of Intrigue: San Juans) by Lesley Ann McDaniel Page B

capable of…
    A pathetic moan escaped her throat. The thought of sweet, innocent Dakota suffering because of her poor choices made her sick. She couldn’t let herself think about it. People would look out for him—she had to believe that. Shari and Ben and Iowa…they would fill in for her where Dakota was concerned. They cared about him too.
    A persistent rumble gurgled from her stomach. She’d been too upset to eat dinner, plus the thought of facing Jessica and her friends only made it worse.
    She crossed to the kitchen to check the fridge, which was surprisingly well-stocked. Staring at what would normally be an appetizing array of snacks, she settled on bottled water and a bag of organic dried fruit.
    How could her life possibly get straightened out at this point? She was a fugitive, for all intents and purposes. If she came forward with what she knew about Joe, she’d go to prison. Even if the authorities believed she didn’t intend to take the money, that detective had already told her she was an accessory to Joe’s crimes. Surely, she had only made things worse by running.
    Nothing was going the way she’d planned, although she had managed to convince herself that the incident in the ice cream parlor had nothing to do with Joe. If he had found her, he wouldn’t waste time planting a bomb, nor would he want to risk drawing attention to himself. There had to be some other explanation for that.
    Wandering back to the living room, she braced the bottle between her elbow and her side and ripped open the bag of fruit. Then there was that odd encounter with the nun. Josh was probably right about the man she’d mentioned being a reporter. If Joe had tracked her all the way to Shaw, he wouldn’t have to solicit help from a nun to make that final step.
    She fingered what looked like a dried strawberry, then popped it in her mouth. Maybe it had been that photographer who had later found her in Friday Harbor. The guy who was probably still determined to get the one shot that would pay his rent for the month and get her killed if Joe saw it and recognized her. The thought made her stomach do a flip flop and she abandoned the bag and the bottle on the coffee table.
    A gust of wind bellowed, forcing rain and branches against the windows and causing her to shudder.
    Running her hands through her hair, she sat on one of the sofas. The more she thought about Chase, the angrier she got. He was a week away from becoming a married man again. He had no business driving around with another woman, much less staying away from home without letting Kate know his whereabouts. She had to set a better precedent. Let him know her boundaries right off the bat.
    As she made a move to get her phone from her purse, her other, less courageous side took over. What did she know about being married? The only models she’d had were her mom and dad, who never seemed to communicate, and later her stepdad, who would fly into a rage at the slightest query as to his whereabouts. No, accountability hadn’t been a strong suit in Kate’s childhood home.
    Leaning forward, she put her face in her hands.
    Nothing made sense, and she was going to go crazy if she kept analyzing the situation. She looked around for something to take her mind off the waiting, and her eyes landed on her wedding binder. She opened it to her ‘To Do’ section at the front and ran her finger down the list of items, most of which had been checked off. She pulled the small pen from its position in the front of the book and put an X in front of ‘gown fitting’.
    Her eyes lit on the magazine clipping she’d almost discarded, but had slipped into the front pocket of the binder instead. She hadn’t included it with the pictures she’d shown the dress designer but now, as she pulled it out, she felt comforted in an odd way. The gorgeous skirt was slim at the waist and tapered out to a full mid-calf hem. The fitted, lace bodice had a V-neck and cap sleeves. It looked like