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“The door was open and a cat came in,” Mr. Adkins said. “This lady had left the cookies on the ledge and that big cat was all set to help himself. I was simply moving them,” he said indignantly.
“I don’t see any cat,” the woman whined. David didn’t, either, but the slight itch behind his eyes told him that there was one nearby.
Gretchen must have sensed the cat’s presence, too, because a small smile lifted her lips and she looked around as if she expected to find whatever she was searching for.
“Oscar,” Gretchen suddenly called. A grumbly purr rolled out from behind the kitchen door. Gretchen pulled it back and the biggest, blackest cat David had ever seen strolled out, nose in the air.
“Your buddy?” David asked Gretchen, who was smiling at the cat.
“He gets around the neighborhood. Sometimes he gets into places he shouldn’t be.”
“The man still had a rock in his hand,” the elderly woman stated.
“Always do,” Earnest Adkins said. “Ask him,” he said, motioning to David. “You’re David Hannon, aren’t you? I recognize you now that you’ve put the gun away.”
“I was a member of the science club. I’ve still got a few rocks Mr. Adkins passed on to me when I was there. He’s an expert in local rocks and minerals,” David told the two ladies. “Not that it’s any excuse for trespassing,” he said firmly, frowning at Earnest. “Since you don’t know Earnest, would it be safe to guess that you’re new to the area?” he asked the woman.
The lady let out a sigh and nodded. “Just a couple of months. My husband died last year and I came here to start out fresh, to get away from the city. You—you were just saving my cookies from that cat?” she asked Mr. Adkins.
“Maybe I should have knocked first,” he admitted, “but Oscar was moving pretty fast.”
A slight blush rose on the woman’s still-pretty face. “I suppose I should thank you, then,” she said. “And apologize to the two of you,” she told Gretchen and David. “I’m used to living in the city and that’s made me too cautious, I guess.”
David shook his head. “You were right to call when you felt threatened. It’s always smart to be cautious, especially when there’s an uninvited stranger in your house,” he said, looking pointedly at Mr. Adkins, who mumbled another apology and gripped his rock more tightly.
“But this is embarrassing, now that I know the truth,” the lady said. “What can I do to repay you two for taking the trouble to come over here?”
David knew the woman wouldn’t be happy if he told her that he needed nothing, so he took the easy way out. “I’m sure I should just issue the standard ‘No thanks necessary, ma’am,’ but…what kind of cookies did you say those were?”
The ploy worked. The lady laughed. “Double chocolate chip, and yes, please have some. You, too,” she said to Gretchen and Mr. Adkins. “It’s the least I can do. It won’t hurt me to bake another batch.”
David hazarded a glance at Gretchen then. One brow was raised in a rather superior, knowing smile as if he’d just done something brilliant. And later, when they said their goodbyes and left the cottage headed for the car, she placed her hand on his arm.
“Thank you for being so gracious to her.”
David pulled up short, staring down at the woman—the detective, he corrected himself—standing before him. He could feel the warmth of Gretchen’s slender fingers through the layers of cotton shirt and sports jacket. It was a tantalizing feeling, knowing that only a few bits of cloth lay between his skin and hers. An in appropriate feeling, he reminded himself. They were partners. They needed to work together like a machine, not twine together like man and woman.
“She was uncomfortable. There was no need for that. If something real and dangerous should ever occur, I wouldn’t want her to hesitate about calling the authorities,” he said simply. “And let’s face it, while I’m rather partial to Earnest, he can’t be entering people’s houses even to save their cookies from stray cats.”
Gretchen nodded and they walked on, but once David had climbed back into the car, she didn’t start the engine. Instead she turned to him.
“I appreciate the way you wrapped up this call,” she said, “but I think we have a definite problem here, Hannon.”
He turned and stared into a pair of stubborn green eyes. Her chin was up, her lovely lips were firm, her arms were crossed.
For five whole seconds they simply studied each other. Then he held up both hands. “You’re upset that I invaded your territory. You want to lead.”
“It’s my job,” she said simply. “I intend to do it and do it well.”
He stared at her for a few seconds more.
“I’m sure you’re used to calling your own shots,” she said pointedly, “but—”
“I am,” he agreed. “And I can’t promise not to step on your toes from time to time, but I’ll make an attempt not to overstep my boundaries too often. I’ll do my best to try and curb my basic instincts from now on.”
Gretchen took a long and audible breath, but she merely nodded.
“I’m sure we’ll get the hang of this in time. It takes practice for partners to learn to work as one body.”
He stared at her hard, the vision her words called forth lodging in his mind immediately. A woman, a man above her, thrusting into the softness of her body, making himself a part of her very being. The thought nearly made him groan, and he fought it. He labored to keep his breathing even as he watched the woman seated not two feet away from him.
As he studied her, her eyes suddenly widened slightly as if she’d read his thoughts. Her breathing picked up a tad, but she didn’t drop her gaze from his. She sat as if frozen.
David struggled, pushing the temptation of the image of himself braced above Gretchen to the farthest corner of his mind. “I can’t quite believe you said that,” he finally managed to say, his voice quiet and reasonably controlled, an amused but still somewhat ragged smile on his lips.
“What?” The word was released on a breath. Gretchen sat up straighter, higher.
He smiled in earnest now. She knew darn well what he meant. “Gretchen, has it occurred to you that this is not going to be easy?”
She sighed slightly, rubbing at the frown that formed between her delicate brows. “I think that pretty much says it, yes,” she agreed.
“Why do you think that is?”
“I suppose it’s because I’ve been a rather reluctant participant in this partnership and also because you don’t like taking orders from a woman.”
He shook his head slowly. “I’ve worked with many women in many contexts. Taking my directives from a woman isn’t a problem. Having a relationship with a woman isn’t a problem. Generally speaking, I keep my private and public life separate.”
“We’re not going to have a relationship.”
“Exactly.”
She took a deep breath, waiting for him to finish.
“However,” he continued carefully, “I think it’s only fair to warn you that wrong and stupid and completely out of place as it may be, the fact that you are a fine detective hasn’t quite made me forget that you’re a desirable woman, as well.”
She didn’t move. She almost didn’t appear to be breathing. But he saw her swallow, then blow out a long, slow puff of air.
“Why are you telling me this?” Her voice was low. Sexy. Suspicious.
He shook his head slowly. “I’m telling you because we are going to be working as partners. I’ll trust you to protect my back. I want you to be secure in the knowledge that I intend to protect your life at all costs, but don’t expect me not to react as a man to a woman if you’re going to make provocative comments.”
She stared at him for long seconds. Then she nodded slowly. “Fair enough. I’ll try to think before I speak.”
“And I’ll try not to initiate any…unwarranted bodily contact.”
“Yes,” she said on a cracked whisper. “Touching wouldn’t be smart. It would make working together very difficult. Impossible.”
“I know that, and that’s my point. Finding the thin line we need to walk in the middle of the road is going to be difficult, Gretchen. My fault. My apology.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t be working together at all.”
“Maybe. Except this is your case, and I fully intend to be on it.”
“Rafe might feel differently if he knew we were going to have problems.”
“What are you going to tell him? That I’m having trouble keeping my lips away from those of his top detective?”
He wasn’t even leaning close, but he could feel her presence as if she had wrapped herself around him. Her soap-clean scent enticed him. He forced himself to keep his hands at his sides.
“No. I wouldn’t tell him that. What’s between you and me is…between you and me, Hannon,” she said, releasing another long breath. “We’ll deal with it together. We’ll work through it.”
He raised his lips in the slightest of smiles. “I know women who would have been hyperventilating in a similar situation. You’re an admirable lady, Gretchen.”
“I’m a good detective, too, David.”
“Never let anyone say any different. I liked the way you manhandled Earnest into repairing a few things around Mrs. Barton’s house. A good solution for both of them.”
She smiled. “You’re not trying to flatter me, are you, David?”
He lifted one brow. “Detective Neal, you wound me. I was completely sincere.”
“Thank you very much, then,” she said, starting the car. “So, Agent Hannon, do you think it’s possible that you’re ready to take an order from me now that we’ve established a few truths between us?”
He held out his hands in defeat. She was being a good sport. He had laid his cards on the table in such a way that she might well have been flustered or angry. He had told her the truth, he’d gotten in her face and she was dealing with it, but she still hadn’t given up one millimeter of her authority. He could see why Rafe had put her in charge.
“Just say the word, Gretchen.”
“That’s a lovely sound, David. Since you’re being so cooperative, let’s go get lunch at the Hip Hop Café. And no cookies for you, partner. You’ve had enough for one day.”
David smiled at Gretchen’s attempts to move the conversation onto a lighter plane.
“You’re a hard woman, Gretchen Neal. A real tough lady.”
“I am,” she said more soberly. “And don’t you forget it.”
He wouldn’t. For her sake and the sake of this case, he would do his best to forget that Gretchen was a woman and simply think of her as the partner who was going to help him crack the Raven Hunter case. He hoped something enlightening would happen very soon.
“Gretchen, are you sure the dress is going to fit by the time the wedding takes place? Maybe you should just come in for one more fitting just to be certain. The wedding’s still a few weeks away.”
Gretchen heard the rising panic in her friend Pamela’s voice and did her best to try and put herself in her friend’s shoes. No dice. Gretchen had been a bridesmaid more times than she had fingers and toes, but she never had been a bride and never would be, just as she’d told David yesterday. Still, she did want Pamela to be happy…
“Pam, I promise you this dress is absolutely going to fit. It fits right now and I’m the same size that I’ve been for the past ten years. Everything’s going to be okay, hon. Really.”
“Oh, Gretch, I’m sorry. It’s just…I want everything to be so perfect. You know?”
“I know, Pam.” And she did know that much. Enough of her friends and cousins and sisters had gotten married in the past few years for her to be very familiar with this need for the most beautiful, perfect day of all eternity. “And, Pamela?”
“Yes?”
“Everything is going to be just wonderful. You love Raymond, don’t you?”
“Gretchen, you know he makes my sun rise every morning.”
“And he loves you more than he loves anything else. More than baseball and basketball, which is saying quite a lot for a sports nut like Raymond.”
Her friend giggled on the other end of the line. “All right, all that’s true.”
“Then what more can you ask for, Pamela? The day is going to be perfect even if it rains elephants from the sky. You’re marrying the man of your dreams.”
A long silence hung on the line. A nice silence.
“Pam?”
“You’re right, Gretchen. It’s going to be a wonderful day. Only one thing could make it more perfect.”
Uh-oh. Gretchen had heard this line before. She knew just where her friend was headed.
“It’s not going to happen, Pam. I’ve told all of you, I just don’t want to get married.”
“Not even if you met a special guy?”
“If I meet a special man, we’ll date, we’ll share our thoughts, we’ll probably make love, but in time it’s going to end. I’m just not cut out for husbands and babies. I like my job. I like my life. That’s just not going to change. Nothing’s going to change.”
She was right about that. But it still meant that every time someone asked her to stand up in a wedding or to attend a wedding or even mentioned the words wedding or marriage or husband or children, all her friends and loved ones were going to wish she were different. They were going to try their best to get her to settle down and make them feel that at last she’d fit herself into the world the way they wanted her to fit.
But Pam wasn’t talking. Perhaps she was getting the message. Finally.
“You’re thirty-two, Gretchen. You want to be alone all your life?”
Gretchen couldn’t help chuck ling at that. “Pam, hon, I have seven brothers and sisters, more cousins than is probably legal, and friends all over the country. Almost all of them are generous and loving. Like you, Pamela. They share their lives, their homes, and their children, and I absolutely love that. How could I be lonely? And why do I need to raise my own family when I can just share in everyone else’s whenever I feel the need?”
“Gretchen—”
“Pam, stop. Right now. I’m so happy for you and Raymond. I’m glad you’re getting married and living the life you want. Be happy for me, too. I have everything I could ever need or want.”
More silence.
“Okay, Gretchen, I am happy for you. I’m truly happy if you really do have everything you want.”
Gretchen felt herself relax a bit. She and her friend talked a few minutes longer, but when they finally hung up, a frown formed on Gretchen’s face.
“I do have everything I want,” she whispered. “But just once, just one time, I wish I could show up at a wedding with a man on my arm.” She wouldn’t, of course. Asking a man to travel any distance with her to a wedding implied a closeness that she just didn’t want to encourage. She had enough trouble with men who thought dating a female detective meant a lot of things it would never mean. But wouldn’t it be great to show up with a date? Maybe then all her friends and family would believe that she was truly happy living a life with no ties outside of work. All she needed was a little help from the right kind of man.
Unfortunately the right kind of man didn’t exist in White horn. The only way she was going to find a date for this wedding would be if one fell from the sky and disappeared just as quickly the day after the wedding.
Chapter Three
It was definitely good to be home, David thought, sitting on the long porch of the Big Sky Bed & Break fast that night and gazing out at the tall pines that stretched away for miles. He, along with his mother and father had stopped by for an overdue reunion with the remaining members of the family, taking the short walk across the sloping lawns that separated their home from the Big Sky. Now evening had dipped the stars in silver and cast them out over the sky to shine down on the elegant old manor house where Celeste and Jasmine still lived and where so many guests had found peace and beauty.
