But she continued to look, afraid she would lose them. No sign of him at all.
"Eloise."
She startled when she turned around and bumped head-first into a large chest but before she could panic at it being him, sweet oranges and smoked hickory hit her senses and she looked up into imploring clear-blue eyes staring down at her.
"Hey, you okay?" Taylor asked, concern etched in the lines around his mouth.
"I think I just saw him," she said.
Concern turned to duty as he went into police mode. "Where? Did you see his face?"
"No," she said shaking her head, a pit falling in her stomach. "No, and I can't say for certain it was him, but I feel it. I smell it," she closed her eyes as the frustration came full force. With him it was the smell of spicy cologne and synthetic lavender and right now it was a thin sense of the smell rather than a full cloud of it.And she wondered if her brain was playing tricks on her. Or if he had been there and left the scent behind.
"Okay," Taylor said, looking around and then back at Eloise. "Let me drive you home."
"Oh, I mean," she started but he cut her off with a firm shake of his head and sharp blue eyes.
"Not a suggestion, Ladyhawk. Come on." He lightly placed his hand on her waist and pushed her until she was walking next to him toward his truck.
"This could be considered kidnapping," she remarked.
When he smiled down at her, her heart tripped. It was unfair that he could call to her heart so easily. "Feel free to press charges, but I don't think you need to worry."
"Says the kidnapper."
He stopped their walking and pointed to a street lamp, one of those Victorian antiquated-looking ones with the five arms and five glowing bulbs that would glow like little moons at night. On the very top of the middle sphere sat an austere and sharp-eyed brown and white bird; a female Cooper's hawk.
"Cleopatra," she said with a happy voice.
"You named her?"
She gave him a stern look. "You wouldn't name a hawk who acted as your personal sentry?"
"Of course, I would. Dumb question," he said as he took her hand and nodded towards his truck. She missed a step as his fingers laced with hers and laughed a little too forcefully when he stopped to make sure she was okay.
"Clumsy," she explained. But she wasn't clumsy. She was a rather steady human, in fact. Always looking where she was going and being sure to place her steps carefully. She was short-circuiting on the inside as this attractive, funny, interesting, attentive man was holding her hand and guiding her to his truck where he would drive her home. A man who had silently agreedwith her that their world-tilting kisses could lead down no future paths for them.
He opened the door for her and helped her up. She was terrified for three seconds that he was going to reach in and fasten her seatbelt for her. And not because it would be silly of him to do, as she had been buckling her own seat belt for over thirty years, but because she was afraid the simple act of taking care of her like this would push her over the edge and she would do something crazy. Like kiss him. She'd thought about what it would be like to kiss Detective Taylor White again. And then immediately after she thought about it she would shake her head so that the thoughts would not settle and linger.
Luckily, he did not fasten her into her seat but before he started the truck he turned to look at her, his face very serious.
"Would you mind if I took you somewhere first?"
"Where?"
His blue eyes, which looked unfairly blue in this moment with the clear sunshine and his navy blue button-up, moved over her face briefly before he replied. "I want to show you my cabin."
"Oh-" She wasn't sure what she had expected him to say, but that wasn't it. "Sure. I'm inviting Cleopatra," she said as she leaned out the window and pointed up to the hawk making eye contact.
"Don't trust me?"
"Well, you're being very mysterious, and for a man that's not good."
He began driving as he asked, "For a man?"
"Women can be mysterious and it just adds to their allure. When a woman is mysterious it's poetic and invites you into the inner sanctum once you start learning her secrets. You get a key to see behind the scenes of how she operates, how she makes life around her more beautiful."
He nodded along. "Agreed."
