Still, she smiled politely at him.“Bo.Morning.Sorry if you were coming by to talk.I’m on my way out.”
“You’re closed today?”he asked, studying the closed sign on the door.
“Yeah.Got some stuff going on over at the courthouse.”She checked her watch.She didn’t have much time.“I’m sorry, Bo, I don’t have an answer for you yet.”
He smiled sheepishly.“I wasn’t going to push.Really.I was going to walk down to the diner and just… take a look in.See if you were… Well, I understand.It’s… unique.”
He seemed so dejected, and she had a soft heart under all that barbed wire.Maybe especially for these damn Bennet-looking men and all their problems.
“Listen, I called your references, looked at your background yesterday.I’ve got to talk it over with my… coworker before I give you the job, and we’ve got a lot going on this week.You plan on sticking around Marietta for a while?”
“As long as there’s a chance you give me that job and investigate my life.”
There was more than a chance, but she didn’t feel right about pressuring Nate any more than she already had.Maybe because she had a few doubts herself.She couldn’t decide just how she felt about this guy.Half the time he seemed so earnest and lost she wanted to fix it for him.Herjobwas finding answers for strangers.
But half the time… it was that uneasiness she felt.Not just suspicion.That gut feeling that told her something wasn’t right.And that the answers were going to be really not all right.
She kept a polite smile in place, frustrated her gut seemed split down the middle.“I’ll be in touch.”
“Thanks, Ms.Price.I really appreciate it.”
He wasn’tthatmuch younger than her—well, that was the theory anyway.That he’d been five when he’d been found twenty years ago.So theMs.struck her as all wrong.“Call me Sam, okay?”
He nodded, then walked past her.On his way to the diner, just like he’d said.She didn’t watch him go, but she did give one last look before she walked into the alley back to where her car was parked.
Nothing felt settled.Nothing felt like an easy answer.
“What else is new?”she muttered to herself, trudging to her parking lot in the back of the building.
She drove out to Aunt Lisa’s ranch and Nate’s rental cabin trying to put Bo Lake out of her head and focus on what today would entail.A long day of a trial.The first of many long days.
She glanced toward Lisa’s house as she drove onto the property.Her childhood home after her mother had died.And now she wasn’t welcome.
It hurt, no matter how many times she thought she’d come to accept it, the hurt just… sat there.Even if she knew she deserved it.When her loyalty was to the truth, she had to accept that relationships weren’t going to stick around in the face of that.Not always.
She looked away, pulled off onto the lane that led around to the rental cabins.She pulled up to Nate’s.Before she shoved the car into park, the front door opened, and Nate and Cal stepped out.
She was glad she could have a reaction here in the safety of her car.
Nate in a suit wassomething.He just didn’t look… right, like the sophisticated lines of a suit were trying to cage a wild animal, a strength and a vitality.Something about the suit emphasized the hard lines of his face, the broadness of his shoulders—where his usual choice of jeans and a T-shirt or sweatshirt justfit.Which was fine enough, but didn’t quite point out all the ways there was something a littlelethalabout Nate Bennet.
Damn.
Cal, on the other hand, looked like he should.Like a slick lawyer who knew what he was doing.The weight and muscle he’d lost while recovering from his gunshot wound werealmosthidden under all that slick.
Nate locked the front door while Cal strode over to her car.He had dark sunglasses on, no doubt a nod to his hangover, and Sam couldn’t resist messing with him.Not when she knew he’d been messing with her last night, mostly to get or gauge a reaction out of Nate.
She flicked the radio on, inched up the volume as Cal plopped himself into the back seat.
“You’re a mean person, Sam Price,” he grumbled.
“Yeah, don’t I know it.”She grinned over at Nate as he got in, who had a small smile on his face, so he couldn’t have been as bad off as Cal if the loud beat of the music didn’t bother him.
Still, she turned it down and drove away from the cabin and out toward their not-so-amusing destination.
She’d planned on having a nice, light conversation on the way over, but she found all those words she’d planned on escaped her.She really wanted to tell Nate about Bo being outside the office this morning, but Cal didn’t know about him yet.
Not to mention, she was alittleconcerned Nate might overreact.Because he got all… weird and macho about things, like he had when she’d gotten into a little tussle with an overzealous witness this summer.
