“Yeah.”
“She’s good.”
She was very good. And entirely professional, even when he was a jackass. He nodded. “All right, see you back at the station.”
* * *
The next timeKerry saw Owen, he was in the army uniform Bailey had talked about. On her way home from a hospital delivery, she stopped to grab a coffee from the Tim Horton’s in Wiarton, and he was at the head of the line.
Once again, she recognized him from the shape of his body, and heat raced through her. He made her feel voyeuristic and dirty in the strangest of places. The grocery store. The coffee shop. This crush could easily get out of hand.
Luckily, he was happy to douse it with cold water just by turning around once he had his coffee in hand. She was six people back, and his gaze—sharp, focused, critical—found her immediately.
It didn’t surprise her at all when he stopped in front of her and gave his usual greeting—just her name, as curtly as possible. “Kerry.”
“Hey,” she said with a polite smile.I like you just fine. Then why didn’t it feel like he did?
His jaw flexed, and silence stretched between them. Another rousing conversation, she thought to herself. But then he surprised her by stringing four words together. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Why?”
Then he rocked back on his heels, his eyes flashing dark. “The interagency working group.”
Oh. That. “Right.”
Another heavy silence followed that, as he stood there looking like he was made of granite, and she wondered if this was how it would be tomorrow, and why had she insisted on being a part of this committee?
“I need to apologize,” he said, his voice strained.
“Not if it pains you,” she snapped back.
His eyes went wide. Really wide, and his mouth followed, stretching into an unexpected smile. “Not at all,” he said softly. His gaze settled on her face, and that felt soft, too. “Not painful in the least, Kerry. Iwantto apologize. This isn’t exactly the time or place, probably, but I should have said this weeks ago. I was out of line.”
Her mouth flapped open, then snapped shut. Oh.
And then, because of course this was how her life would go, her pager went off. Owen glanced down to where she wore it on her hip, then back to her face.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he repeated, and she nodded dumbly.
From the counter, the coffee shop worker called for the next customer, and the line shuffled forward.
Kerry had to check her pager, and get a coffee, and move on with her day. But her feet didn’t want to move. They wanted to stay right where they were, pointing at Owen Kincaid and his wide, soft smile.
Behind her, someone coughed.
What she wanted didn’t matter when she was holding up the line. “See you tomorrow,” she said quickly, then moved ahead.
Glancing back over her shoulder, she watched as he headed out the door, coffee in hand. He used his shoulder, keeping his body sideways so he was looking at her until he was all the way out of the coffee shop.
“Sorry for holding up the line,” she whispered to the older lady standing behind her.
That woman shook her head, a grin on her face. “Don’t apologize to me, I think I enjoyed that as much as the two of you did. He’s quite the looker. Almost like one of those movie stars.”
A Canadian Hemsworth indeed. Kerry let out a shaky breath. Well, if the other woman liked what she’d seen, she must have missed the start of the conversation where it had been awkward as fork, but she wasn’t wrong about the rest. Kerry had enjoyed the apology. And the smile.
If Owen smiled like that more often, though, things might get complicated.
Chapter Ten
