Protecting Holly

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Trixie? Feeling like an idiot, Jake typed in the name. Wonder of wonders, the file opened. He stifled a whoop. “Oh, this is great. Let’s try another one. September 15.”

“Bubbles.”

This was too good to be true, but it worked. “Unreal. We’re on a roll, here. October 10.”

“Tiffani. With an i on the end, not a y.”

“November 9.” One last one and they had the whole series. Of course, this was all still coded somehow, but at least it was open for him to start decoding.

“Hmm. That one’s a little fuzzy. Try Suzette. If that doesn’t work, go for…” She looked at the page hard, and then closed her eyes. “Oh, boy. Just try Suzette first and we’ll cross our fingers. The other one’s too embarrassing to say out loud.”

“You’re lucky.” Suzette worked, opening the last file.

“All right, explain this. How on earth did you find these passwords?”

Holly grinned again. “Like I said, I took Miriam to lunch. We talked a lot about her former boss and all his bad habits, including the fact that he was all over town at every social event possible, and always with a different…uh…flavor of the month, so to speak.” Her cheeks took on a shade of rose Jake didn’t think possible. First giggling and now blushing? He was seeing more depth to Holly in this one conversation than he’d found out in two years.

“So these are all the names of his…companions of the moment?”

Holly nodded. “For all his canny behavior in some areas, Barclay didn’t strike me as too bright in others. And you’ve said before that somebody more than likely set up his computer system for him, including the encryption. That he wasn’t all that computer savvy. So I figured he’d want passwords that were easy to remember for him, but wouldn’t make much sense to anybody else unless they knew him well.”

Jake shook his head. “What a loser. Not only did he use these girls just to be seen with them out in public, but he reduced them to a list of possibilities for passwords.”

Holly shrugged. “You knew he wasn’t a nice man, Jake. And it’s not likely that he saw these young women as people. From what Miriam said, he doesn’t see much of anybody as people, just means to an end. That was what made me think of getting the list of names from her, with her trying to remember which ones came when. Maybe if her boss had been more considerate of them, and of her, Miriam wouldn’t have this information to pass on to us.”

Now this was the Holly he knew, more thoughtful and quiet. Still, Jake was so excited to have a solution after the hours of work he’d put in that he was almost beside himself. “Well, remind me to appreciate you and be considerate of you, plenty. Holly, you’re a genius.”

They both stood at once, and the pat on the shoulder he reached out with in congratulation became something else. Jake wasn’t sure how their bodies got that close to each other that quickly. All of a sudden the simple pat on the shoulder he’d intended became more of a collision, with Holly stumbling a half step toward him, eyes wide. His reflexes were good, and he grabbed Holly to keep them both from crashing to the floor. That’s all it was, a movement to steady them both.

But somehow it turned into something else as their bodies collided and Holly’s flushed face got closer and closer to his own, his arms around her in his split-second reaction to their mishap. His arms closed around her instinctively at first, then even more strongly as the warm, supple feel of her registered in his brain.

Her surprised, parted lips were there, and the jolt when they met his nearly knocked Jake off his feet in a way the accidental impact hadn’t. It was the briefest of kisses, surely nothing like those he shared with any of the half-dozen casual dates he’d had in the past months. But this was Holly, not some casual date. This was like nothing he’d experienced before and it stunned him.

“Wow. Sorry. I mean…Holly, you’re still a genius.” He let go of her in a hurry, but they still stood very close together next to his desk. He was so aware of her, from the texture of her soft sweater to the floral scent of her shampoo.

“Thank you. For the compliment.” She seemed even more stunned than he did. “Guess the other was…”

“The heat of the moment. Won’t happen again.”

“No, it won’t.” Her answering smile was brief, and somewhat saddened. It reminded him all too much of the Holly he saw every day, and made him wonder what had built the wall around her that she kept so staunchly in place.

“Thank you again for this information, Holly. I can’t say enough to tell you how important it is to the case.” He looked back at his computer screen, anxious to save all the information he now had access to.

“You’re welcome, Jake. And now I’ll let you get back to work.” She wasn’t humming Christmas carols any more, Jake noticed. But it was the last thing he noticed that afternoon about Holly, as the new information she’d handed him enticed him back to his quest for Alistair Barclay’s hide.

Holly sat at her desk, trembling. What on earth had just happened? Had she really kissed Jake? Surely not. At the very least, she’d certainly let him kiss her. It just didn’t make sense. Her relationship with Jake Montgomery was strictly business. There was no room in it for kisses or anything else of that nature.

Still shivering, she tried to deal with all her confused, tumultuous thoughts. This was the first time in nearly five years that anyone had kissed her. At least anyone male, whom she might have cared about in a romantic sort of way. She hadn’t had a date, or a kiss, since the last trial she’d been this involved with had finished up. That one had been much more traumatic and closer to home.

Will it ever be over, truly over and behind me? she wondered, tears in her eyes. She breathed a silent prayer that Jake would stay involved in his work for the time it took to compose herself and get back to work herself. Looking around the office, she tried to find something that would draw her into the task at hand without making her think of the kiss she had shared with Jake.

Miriam Atwater’s address and phone number were there directly under her purse, written on a slip of paper that stuck out from under a corner of the leather. Holly pulled out the slip and got out the note cards she kept in her desk for special occasions. Willing her hands not to tremble, she grabbed a pen and began a note to the older woman. “Dear Ms. Atwater,” Holly wrote. “Thank you again for our delightful conversation at lunch. I cannot begin to tell you how much Mr. Montgomery appreciated your help.” By the time the note was finished, her hands had stopped shaking, and Holly was able to go on about more mundane tasks that kept her busy the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening while Jake stayed in his office.

She expected him to say something about their earlier encounter when she wished him good-night after dark, but he was so engrossed in Barclay’s computer that she had to call to him twice just to get his attention. And only the fact that he’d obviously changed shirts and wore a different pair of wool slacks the next morning told her that he’d gone home at all in between her “goodbye” that night and her “hello” the next morning.

“How early did you get in here? Or did you just stash a change of clothes somewhere that I didn’t know about?” she asked suspiciously.

“And good morning to you, too,” Jake piped up. “Can’t you tell that I’ve been home, had one of my mom’s home-cooked dinners and a great night’s sleep, and even a nice workout at the club this morning?” His blue eyes sparkled to match the grin he wore.

“Maybe, if I look real hard. Did you honestly go over to your mom’s for dinner?” Holly found that part hard to believe. She had been sure that Jake would have stayed late into the evening after finding the key to unlocking Barclay’s secrets.

“Well, no, I cheated on that part. When I was over there the last time she handed me a stack of frozen dinners she’d made up for me. She said that now that she doesn’t have to worry about how Adam’s eating anymore since he’s married, she only has me to fuss over. Colleen won’t let her.”

“Figures,” Holly said. “Still, I’m glad you got a hot meal. It makes me feel better about not stopping for bagels or anything this morning.” She looked over to the credenza in surprise. “And you even made coffee yourself?”

Jake huffed a bit. “I am capable, you know. I’ll admit to having to ask Sara about the filters, but otherwise it came out just fine. I figured that since you’ll have plenty to do today, I could get that much done by myself.”

“Thanks. Now to get to that pile of sticky notes you’ve already left for me and start getting everything going.” Holly even poured herself a cup of the coffee Jake had made, silently wondering if it would be drinkable. Surprisingly, he could make decent coffee. She thought about telling him that perhaps they should take turns all the time. There was no reason she had to spoil him.