“Ready, Watson.” Then she hesitated as Noah turned to head to the parking lot. “Hey, about—you know. Earlier.”
He turned back around to face her, walking backwards a few paces. “I know.” His expression was gentle, but the openness on his face that had been present during their conversation had fled. She’d locked him up with her hat interruption—which he was surely interpreting as rejection—and understandably so.
But the truth remained. “I can’t keep—we can’t…” Her words weren’t working, and her voice pitched.Be a good girl and calm down.She flexed her fingers and took a deep breath, bringing her tone under control. “I can’t keep inching so close to a fire and then wondering why my shoe is melting, you know?”
Noah snorted, a bit of light returning to his eyes despite a hint of disappointment. He took a step toward her, hands lifted in surrender. “I promise to protect your Nikes.” He glanced down at her feet and raised his eyebrows. “Pumas?”
She kicked out one foot. “Adidas, actually.”
“They’re safe with me.”
Elisa followed Noah to the parking lot, eyes lingering on his shirt stretched taut against his broad shoulders. She believed him—about her shoes, anyway.
Not so much her heart.
sixteen
Noah wiggled the mouse at the computer hub he’d sequestered, blinking against the bright light that suddenly flooded the dark room of the clerk of court’s office. “I’m in.”
Meanwhile, Cade paced the carpeted hall outside the cubicle, passing back and forth in front of Noah’s work station. Even this late in the evening, Cade was still wearing his fancy loafers. “I’m going to get fired.”
Elisa hovered halfway between them, as if torn over who to help first. She pointed at Cade as he wore a track in the carpet. “You most certainly are not. We won’t let that happen, sugar.”
Noah clenched the mouse tighter. The use of Elisa’s common nickname shouldn’t have bothered him—she talked to everyone that way. But that didn’t stop the fleeting urge to drive his fist directly into Cade’s face.
He shot his friend—he needed to remember Cade was his friend—a smirk on his next pass by the door. “And if you did get fired, it’s not like you can’t talk your way out of anything.”
“That’s right.” Elisa’s face suddenly lit in the dim room. She tugged at Cade’s arm, halting his pacing progress. “Remember that time in Mrs. Green’s class?”
Cade smiled down at her, his matching dimples breaking free. Noah frowned. Women always loved those on guys.
“I almost forgot. First grade, totally busted for breaking into Mrs. Green’s candy cabinet…” Cade chuckled.
“And what did you say?” Elisa returned his laugh, still holding onto Cade’s arm.
He winked. “That I was doing inventory.”
Elisa turned her smiling eyes on Noah. “She was so impressed Cade understood the concept of inventory and used it correctly in a sentence, she didn’t get him in trouble.”
“Cute.” The mouse beneath Noah’s hand made a popping sound, and he quickly released his grip. “Our Cade, the scholar.”
Cade shot him a quizzical glance, but Noah ignored him as he typed in his company access code. “I’ve got it.” He quickly pulled up the search engine for Magnolia parish records, denying himself the indulgence of looking up as Elisa settled into a rolling chair next to him. At least she’d finally let go of Cade’s arm. Knowing him, he’d probably been flexing, too.
The familiar hum of the computers sounded much louder in the still of the evening without the typical bustle of a courthouse to silence them. No murmurs at the water cooler, no rustling pages from parish workers or slamming doors and elevator dings. Only weighted silence…save for the whooshing of Cade’s footsteps on the carpet and the steadytap-tappingof Elisa’s fingers drumming an anxious rhythm by the keyboard.
He moved his hand to cover hers. Her erratic movement stopped, but her shoulders tensed. “Sorry.”
“Did you sneak an energy drink on the way here?” Not that he felt entirely calm, himself. And he hated to admit it, but it had little to do with their delinquent escapade and much more to do with Elisa.
“I think I’m absorbing Cade’s energy.” Elisa gestured to where Cade had taken his pacing to the stretch of hall between their research station and the front lobby door. His gelled hair stuck up in the back as if he’d forgotten about his designer products and stabbed his hand through it.
Noah smirked. “He’ll be okay. He secretly likes misusing his authority.”
“I heard that,” Cade called. “And for the record, accessing a candy cabinet without permission is a different penalty tier than breaking into a government building after hours.”
Noah tilted his head toward Elisa to whisper, “He probably had to Google that.”
Elisa snorted before clamping a hand over her mouth.
