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uncomfortable.
    “I do want to know. Thanks, Burt.”

Chapter Five
    Jacob stared out the floor-to-ceiling windows onto a brilliant early fall day. An unusually strong wind had made Tahoe choppy today, making the deep blue water sparkle and flash in his eyes.
    He’d reached a breaking point.
    He’d had enough of Harper avoiding him. Her anger at discovering that he had been Jake Tharp stunned him to the core. He’d expected shock. He’d expected disbelief and anxiety. But her fury had completely taken him off guard. What she’d said before she stormed off had altered him, somehow. Transformed him. He still could hear her voice as clearly as if she stood next to him, three days after the fact.
    “Harper McFadden thought Jake Tharp was the bravest, smartest, nicest person she’d ever met in her life.”
And then, “
I loved you, don’t you get that?”
    His feeling of shock and amazement remained as well, as fresh as the moment she’d uttered those words. He would have questioned her veracity in saying it if he hadn’t witnessed firsthand her fierce anger.
    He recalled how in awe he’d been when they were kids in that police station, huddled together on that cot, when she’d spoken out loud about their invisible connection. But his amazement on hearing her say three days ago that she’d thought Jake Tharp was the bravest person she’d ever known had been far greater. The simple reason for his shock was that while they shared so much, and felt so much in common . . . Jacob held the opposite opinion of Jake Tharp.
    And Harper was pissed off at him for that.
    At first, he’d been just as furious at her for her stubbornness. What right did she have to be mad at him for wanting to transform himself into something that was the opposite of what he’d been as a boy? But then as the hours turned into days, and she continued to avoid him, he’d had time to think. Slowly, it began to dawn on him. Her anger at him was the official stamp of truth. Harper
honestly
felt like she’d been robbed of Jake Tharp. Not only by her parents. But by him—Jacob Latimer.
    It was a jaw-dropping revelation to him. It was her anger at her loss that made him first start to reconsider that scared, weak little boy that he’d been. If Harper had loved Jake that much . . . didn’t that mean Jake had been somehow worthy?
    He didn’t have all the answers. He only knew he wasn’t going to figure any of it out, without Harper at his side. The ability for deep, restful sleep had abandoned him. How could he possibly rest enough to puzzle out his life, with Harper gone? It’d become an acknowledged fact in his mind during the past several days. He loved her. He’d never stopped loving her, even though the type of love he felt as a man was more complex than it’d ever been when he was a kid. It was deeper. Exponentially more compelling.
    Another thing he knew? He was worried sick about her. He knew better than most how stubborn she could be.
    But so was he.
    He knew precisely where she was at that very moment. He knew plenty of people in town who had been willing to report back to him whether or not her car was in the Gazette parking lot and if she appeared reasonably healthy over the past few days. Harper was no Regina, of course. She wouldn’t fall to bits just because they’d argued. Apparently, she wasn’t going to disintegrate even at the discovery that he was Jake Tharp.
    Did that mean she wouldn’t flee or freak out if she discovered his other shameful secret?
    One thing was certain: He was never going to find out standing in his office. He’d go over to
the
Gazette.
He’d demand that she talk to him. When they were little, Harper had told him nothing could sever their bond. If that was true, not even her anger at him could cut it.
    That was all there was to it.
    He jerked around and stalked rapidly toward his office door. Before he could touch the knob, however, there was a knock on it. He opened it impatiently.
    Elizabeth