“I just like seeing you happy.”
My smile grew impossibly bigger. “As I do, you. Which is why I brought you one of those peanut butter chocolate chip scones that you love to go with your coffee.”
“Yes.You should fall in love more often,” she said, taking her cup of coffee and the bag I handed her.
“I even got one for myself.” I held up my bag. I wasn’t usually a sweets person, but I’d snagged a scone for myself just because. “I wonder if this is the start of that extra weight gain from falling blissfully in love that everyone talks about.”
“Don will help you work off the excess calories.”
I gasped. “Hallease, you need to stop with all those novels.”
She groaned. “They’re so damned good, though. If I could find a guy like one of those men. There’s one book by Tiffany Patterson namedAaron’s Patience.Oh. My. God.” Her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she fanned herself with her hand.
I waved her off. “I doubt he has anything on my man. Anyway, I’m going to do some work. I have a couple of clients coming in later this week who I need to finish some administrative tasks for.”
“What’s the rush?” she asked.
“Don’s coming by later. Not like that,” I added when a grin appeared on her face. “We’re looking up this firefighter who used to work at Rescue Four. Don thinks he’s narrowed the arsonist down to this guy, but we’re having trouble tracking him down.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
I shook my head. “No, I can look up what we need. I’m going to try to dig into his background once I finish this work for my clients.”
She nodded, and I headed into my office.
When my computer screen came on, an image from the night of the gala of Don and me popped up. Laughing, I realized Hallease must’ve changed my screen settings, making this picture my wallpaper.
I chose not to change it because I loved staring at it.
About an hour later, I heard Hallease’s voice coming from the lobby. I glanced at the clock and frowned in confusion. I didn’t have any meetings with clients that day, and it was too early for Don’s arrival. It could’ve been a delivery person or a prospective client who dropped in without calling first. But something in Hallease’s voice captured my attention.
“J-Jocelyn, can y-you come out here?”
I was out of my seat as soon as I heard her call my name. For one, Hallease never yelled for me when I was in my office. She picked up the phone. Second, there was a definite tension in her voice I’d never heard from her before.
“Hallease, what’s… Randy?” I paused, staring at my former client, standing at the front door. When he turned to face me, I spotted the menacing look on his face.
Dropping my gaze lower, I inhaled sharply when I saw the gun pointed directly at me.
“Randy, what are you doing?”
“It’s not Randy,” he said with a sneer. “Big shot private investigator, how’d you miss that one?”
Swallowing, I turned to Hallease. Her eyes were glued to the gun in his hands. “Hallease, are you all right?”
She didn’t move, didn’t speak. It barely looked as if she was breathing.
“Hallease,” I called more forcefully.
She blinked, looked at me, and nodded.
My heart sank at the fear written on her expression.
“What are you doing here?”
“That’s what you want to ask first?” he asked. “You don’t want to know my real name?”
“What’s your real name?” I asked, but I could already guess it.
