Just Past Midnight. Amanda Stevens

letters…from her secret admirer.

      At the very thought of them, Dani shivered in nervous anticipation. The letters had started coming six months ago, just after Nathan moved back home. Just after the once peaceful household had erupted in turmoil. Dani sometimes wondered if that was the sender’s intent: to give her something to cling to—just as she tried to do with her mother—when her whole world seemed to be falling apart.

      And the letters did help. They provided a little whimsy in an otherwise turbulent existence. Dani would find them in the most unexpected places. Slipped inside her favorite book at the library or propped beneath the old elm tree down by the lake where she sometimes went to study.

      The mysterious missives were like something she might read about in a book or see in a movie, and they made her feel special. Sometimes her admirer quoted lines of poetry. Other times he merely told her in flowery, romantic prose how beautiful she’d looked on a particular day. Occasionally, he spritzed the letters with her favorite perfume. And always he signed them: your One and Only.

      Whoever he was, he knew her intimately—her favorite books, her favorite music, even the shade of lipstick she preferred. And yet Dani didn’t have a clue to his identity.

      And before she could figure it out, the letters had stopped coming. Abruptly. No hint of why her admirer had moved on. No sign that he’d become disillusioned with her. The letters had simply ceased, but for weeks, Dani continued to wonder about them, watch for them. Then she’d gotten so caught up in her senior year of high school that she’d forgotten all about them.

      She had a part-time job at the mall, which kept her busy on weekends, and she spent most of her free time studying in order to keep up her grades so that she might earn a scholarship. Money had always been tight—for almost everyone in the rural, East Texas community—and even more so now for Dani’s family because her father had recently been laid off. If she didn’t get a scholarship or a grant, she’d have to go to a state college rather than to Drury University, a private school in northern Connecticut that had one of the best journalism programs in the country.

      Dani had big dreams for the future, and she didn’t want to give them up because of finances. If she could win the Belmont Award, given to the top senior at her school each year, all her problems would be solved, but unfortunately, she didn’t see that happening. Her grades were excellent, her extracurricular activities and community service impressive, but for all her hard work, for all her drive and determination, she wasn’t the top student. Not anymore. That honor went to Paul Ryann.

      He and his family had moved to Allentown at the start of the school year, and it hadn’t taken long for students and teachers alike to recognize his brilliance. He was a shoo-in for valedictorian, which meant he’d automatically be the recipient of the Belmont, although he certainly didn’t need it. His family was rich.

      They’d even purchased Belmont House from the Althea Belmont Foundation and were in the midst of refurbishing the grand old Victorian—the oldest home in Allentown—to its original splendor. After years of neglect and disrepair, the mansion now gleamed like a dazzling, antique jewel on the bluff overlooking the water.

      Sometimes Dani would stand on her side of the lake, admiring the elegant filigree work and the formal gardens, and she’d wonder what it would be like to live in such a place. To have servants at her beck and call, expensive cars in the garage, closets full of designer clothes. She wondered what it would be like to go wherever she wanted when she wanted and not have to answer to anyone but herself.

      Dani could hardly imagine a life like that, but she didn’t resent Paul for his good fortune. How could she, when he was so sweet? So quiet and pensive and almost painfully shy.

      And so obviously in love with her.

      Dani didn’t know why she hadn’t seen it before. Paul Ryann was her secret admirer. He was the one who had sent her all those letters, the one who had gone out of his way to make her feel special. Who else could it be? No one else she knew could quote such beautiful lines of poetry, much less would take the time to read all her favorite books and listen to her favorite music.

      It all made sense to her now. The letters had stopped once she’d befriended Paul because he no longer felt the need to keep his feelings secret.

      And now, after nearly six months, he’d sent her another letter. Dani had found it slipped inside her purse that afternoon when she’d left for work.

      Meet me by the lake at midnight. I’ll be waiting underneath your favorite tree. All will be revealed to you then. My face, my soul, the depths of my affection. Tonight I’ll give you…the ultimate gift.

      It was signed as all the others had been: your One and Only.

      The ultimate gift, of course, had to be his identity. He had no idea that she’d already guessed who he was. And since he lived right across the lake, it made sense he’d want to meet there. So many things made perfect sense now.

      As Dani slipped through the woods, her stomach tightened in apprehension. What if she was wrong? What if Paul wasn’t her secret admirer? What if this was some sort of trick?

      Thunder rumbled in the distance, but now Dani barely noticed the coming storm. She was so lost in thought that the smell of smoke caught her completely by surprise.

      A bonfire? she wondered. No, no, too much smoke for that.

      The acrid scent stung her nose and made her eyes water, and as she neared the lake, she caught glimpses of a reddish glow through the trees. It was only then that she began to panic. Someone’s house was on fire!

      She broke into a run. The smoke was so thick now that it filled her lungs and made her gasp for breath. She covered her nose and mouth with her shirt as she raced toward the water. A few minutes later, she emerged from the woods and came to a dead stop, her eyes widening in terror.

      Across the lake, Belmont House was completely engulfed in flames. The fiery reflection wavered on the surface of the water, making the whole tragic tableau seem surreal, but Dani knew it was no dream. Paul Ryann’s house was burning to the ground before her very eyes.

      The blaze had already crawled up the sides of the mansion and now licked across the roof. Through the billowing smoke, Dani could see the inferno spreading to the interior, and then, as she watched in horror, she saw someone at an upstairs window.

      Paul! He was trapped inside the house!

      Dani screamed his name, her voice echoing eerily across the orange water. Whether he heard her or whether it was only her imagination, she would never know. But the figure in the window seemed to reach out to her…

      She had to help him. She had to get across the lake, find a phone, summon help, do something.

      But for a moment, Dani stood paralyzed with indecision. Should she head across the bridge and try to get him out all by herself? Should she run back home and call 911? Either way would take so long….

      And then she heard the sirens. Her legs went weak with relief even as a terrible little voice whispered in her head: It’s too late.

      Over the roar of the fire, she heard car doors slamming and voices shouting across the water. Neighbors from nearby farmhouses were gathering on the front lawn, wondering, as she was, what to do. She had to get over there. She had to be there for Paul.

      As she turned, something moved at the edge of the woods.

      A shadow hidden among shadows.

      Dani caught her breath in fear. Someone stood underneath the old elm tree, watching her.

      “Who’s there?” she called anxiously.

      At the sound of her voice, the shadow faded, and Dani realized that it, too, had been nothing more than a figment of her imagination. Some tiny hope conjuring an image that couldn’t possibly be real.

      CHAPTER TWO

      THE DEATH OF PAUL RYANN and his family made all the local broadcasts and was the biggest headline in the paper. Dani was