Page 20 of Summer Ever After

Pulling his phone from his pocket, he quickly texted Brett: Tracker removed. Car clear. No signs of the sedan.

Satisfied, he leaned back against a tree in the shade, letting himself exhale slowly. He imagined Beth’s reaction when he told her. That thought made the tight line of his jaw soften slightly.

Brett texted back.

“We got the license plate info. It’s registered to a local PI. I’m calling him now.”

He waited, watching his phone as a breeze blew over him, slightly cooling him off. He wanted to head to the water and jump in to cool off or, better yet, head to the main building and get one of those smoothies and sit with Beth until he had answers.

Almost five minutes passed before Brett got back to him.

“The man claims that he was hired by Ian.”

Aaron punched Brett’s number.

“Seriously? He gave you the info?” he said when Brett picked up.

Brett chuckled. “I have my ways of getting info. Apparently Ian, the doting husband, was worried that his wife, Beth, was having an affair.” He spat out the words like they left a bad taste in his mouth. “So he hired this PI to monitor her. The man is twisted and has a serious problem with control,” Brett added. “This PI is a noob. He’s had his license for less than a year and didn’t do his homework. If he had, he would have found out that Beth had several restraining orders against Ian and that they’ve been divorced for almost five years now,” he said, and Brett could hear his keyboard clicking away. “I’m filing an official complaint now against the man’s license.”

“You’re scary sometimes,” Aaron joked.

“He claims that he disabled the AirTag and that it was the only one he placed on her car. If you want, stomp on it or throw it in the bay.” Brett chuckled. “We should check for more, just in case Ian hired other incompetent PIs.”

He nodded and headed back to her car. “I wish I could turn the tables on him.” He fingered the small device in his pocket, then sighed and pulled it out. After a moment of consideration, he chucked it into the deep retaining pond that sat behind the admin building as he passed by it. “I’ll check her car and then make my way to Beth to tell her,” he told Brett.

“Good. Are you going to tell her everything?” Brett asked.

Aaron’s hands curled into fists at his sides. “Yeah.” He exhaled. “I can handle any fallout. But I’m sure that she’ll handle it better than you think.”

Brett finally let out a long sigh, muttering, “Yeah, I realized that if I kept anything like this from Lea, she’d have my hide.” Brett was quiet for a moment. “Jesus, I’m slow. Are you two…”

Aaron winced. “Maybe. Or maybe I’m just being a protector.”

“Right.”

“I’m going to crawl under a car now. Thanks for checking on things.”

“Yup,” Brett said and then hung up.

Half an hour later, after confirming there were no other tracking devices on Beth’s car, he stood just outside the main building, the late-afternoon sun glinting off the large windows of the building. Beth was still inside, finishing her shift, but it wouldn’t be long before she stepped through those doors and headed towards her car. He ran a hand through his hair and exhaled, already anticipating her reaction.

It was now or never, he thought as he walked into the lobby. She was sitting behind the front desk, focused on her computer screen. Her fingers flew over the keys as Julie, or Jules, as a lot of them called her, smiled up at him.

“Evening, Aaron,” Jules said with a smile.

The pair of them had been working behind the front desk together on and off since he’d started working at the camp. He understood that they were more than coworkers; they were best friends.

Beth looked up when Jules mentioned his name and gave him a small, polite smile.

“Hey,” he said softly, keeping his tone steady as he stopped directly in front of her. “Do you have a few minutes?”

“Um…” Beth glanced over at Jules.

“Go, I’ll close out for the night.” Her friend nudged her.

“Sure, give me a minute,” she said quickly. Her brows furrowed slightly as she gathered her things and shut down her computer.

When they stepped outside the main doors, he took her arm and instead of heading towards the parking lot, took the pathway that would lead them towards the boathouse. The evening’s sunset sail, which was hosted by Damion, Jules’s husband, had left the dock half an hour before, so he knew they could be alone there.