“Yeah,” she whispered softly, putting a scoop of eggs onto her plate.
He couldn’t help but do the math. Kat had only been married for two years, which meant…
“You’ve been a widow six years, and you never remarried?”
Kat shook her head, a puff of air escaping on a low chuckle. “I never date.”
This surprised him even more than the whole suicide bit. “Ever?”
“Nope.” She took a bite and swallowed it. “I’m pretty much married to my job. I’ve been asked out by a few of the guys at the lab, but they aren’t really my type.”
“And what is your type, Kat?”
Her eyes met his, but she didn’t answer. Not with words, anyway.
Quit reading into shit that isn’t there.
Breaking away, she looked back down at her plate. “What about you?” She moved the eggs around with her fork. “You ever get married?”
A loud snort escaped before he could stop it. “Hell no.”
This seemed to surprise her. She waited a few more seconds before asking, “And what about this? You being here with me, I mean.”
“What about it?”
Kat licked her lips nervously and shrugged one of her delicate shoulders. “I didn’t know if there was a girlfriend back in the city. Someone who might be…I don’t know. Upset that you’re stuck in a tiny cabin with another woman?”
She’d tried to make the question sound benign, but Matt knew she was fishing. From the nervous look in her eyes, he could tell she wanted to know for personal reasons rather than casual conversation.
I’ll be damned.
He could shut her down right now. Lie and say he did have a girlfriend. A serious one. Instead, he decided to play with her in a different way.
Purposely turning his voice lower, he raised a brow and locked his eyes on hers. “You asking for a friend, or are you interested in a…ride…down memory lane?”
Kat’s lips parted in silent shock as a red hue began to spread beneath her cheeks. Her eyes widened slightly, the chocolate surrounding them becoming nearly as black as her pupils.
Gotcha.
“I-I was curious.” She blinked and looked away. “That’s all.”
Oh, this is starting to be fun.
“I bet you’re curious about a lot of things. After all, we’re not kids anymore.” Matt let the heat he was pretending meant nothing seep into his teasing eyes. “A lot can change in ten years.”
Kat’s eyes shot back up to his. Matt gave her a wink, just to fuck with her, and it was all he could do not to laugh when she became flustered while trying to change the subject.
“You, uh…” Her voice cracked, and she had to clear it. Finding a sudden interest in the food on her plate, Kat finally managed to speak again. “You mentioned Derek coming by today. Do you know if he’s learned anything more about the explosion?”
He considered continuing his enjoyable taunts but decided to let her off the hook. For now.
“Not yet. He’s supposed to be bringing me the files on all the people we’re looking into. Hopefully we’ll get a lead from one of those.”
Matt didn’t tell hershewas one of those people.
Taking a sip of her coffee, Kat held the warm mug between her hands as if she were cold. “As much as I hate to think of Todd, or anyone else I know, being involved in something so nefarious, part of me hopes Derek finds something. At least that way we’ll know if we’re looking in the right direction.”
“I agree.” Matt swallowed a bite of crispy bacon. “Can you think of anything that seemed suspicious or out of place at work lately? Someone you didn’t recognize, a co-worker acting strange…things like that?”
