I giggled.
“What?”
“The way you say things.” I stopped, hoping I hadn’t offended him.
“How do I say them?” There was a thread of mischief in his voice. I pictured a smirk at play on that beautiful mouth of his. My belly warmed at the image.
“It, uh, sometimes reminds me of something my grandmother would mention,” I answered honestly. “You have an old soul, she would say.”
A deep, reverberating chuckle sounded across the phone, and every strand of hair on the back of my neck and arms stood. It was throaty and beautiful, and I wanted to wrap myself up in it like my favorite sweater.
“I’ve made it home,” I whispered, sad to have reached my front door. “I should go. I don’t want to take too much of your time.”
Chael cleared his throat. “I called you, remember? You’re not taking anything I’m not willingly giving.”
I stilled, a lump the size of a baseball forming in my throat. Somehow, I managed to swallow it down and say, “Right. Well, if there are any updates, you’ll let me know?”
“If you need anything, you will call me.”
It didn’t exactly sound like a question, but it had to be. And again, why did it sound like he wasn’t only referring to the case? He had to be, though. I couldn’t call this man at random.
“Yeah, sure,” I replied.
There was silence on his end before he spoke again. “There’s a hitch in your voice when you don’t believe something I’ve just said.”
I jutted my head back. What?
“Anything means if you find out anything else about the nursing home disappearances, if you get a flat tire, if you wake up scared in the middle of the night. Hell, if you just want me to walk you from the door at your job to your car. Call me. Whatever you need, pick up the phone and call me.”
My lips parted but the butterflies moving around in my belly stole all of my words. The sound of Henry whimpering brought me back to reality. I blinked to find him staring at me, a confused pinch between his brows. I held the phone between my shoulder and my ear and rummaged in my pocket for my keys.
I cleared my throat before responding. “O-okay, I’ll do that,” I lied. “Have to go feed Henry the rest of his dinner.” I hung up the phone to get Henry inside. He liked to eat the remainder of his dinner after our evening walks.
“There you go.” I petted his head as he ate before going over to the fridge. I pulled out my half-eaten Godiva bar from the night before. A hum of satisfaction left my throat as I took my first bite.
Henry whined.
“What?”
He cocked his head sideways.
“No. We’ve discussed this. You can’t have chocolate. It’ll make you sick.” I went over to him and scratched behind his ear while I chewed on my sweet treat. “If you’re a good boy, I’ll let you have a little more applesauce before bed.”
He barked, and I laughed.
I continued to rub his head as he ate, thinking back to the conversation with Chael. It didn’t escape me that he’d failed to answer my question. Would he call me if he found out anything new about the case? Furthermore, did he truly mean what he said about me reaching out to him for anything?
Not that I would. But it was nice to think that I could.
“Stop it, Reese,” I scolded before tossing the empty chocolate wrapper in the wastebasket. My wild imagination was running away again. Time to reel that thing in before I did something stupid like developing a crush on a man I hardly knew.
A man that wouldn’t look twice at me if it weren’t for this case.
CHAPTER5
Reese
“Hello?” I answered my cell right as I stepped out of my car in my driveway. Henry barked from inside the house as soon as my foot hit the bottom step of the wooden porch. “I’m coming, buddy,” I called through the door.
