“Oh, for the love of Pete,” she groaned, dropping to her knees to gather the mess. “I swear I’m not usually this… kinetic.”
She scooped the pages into a crooked pile, mortified. When she laid them on the table, her cheeks were burning. Coop watched her with a different look now, one she couldn’t quite decipher. The corner of his mouth twitched before he smoothed it away.
Although the increased heat in her face said she absolutely had, she pretended not to notice.
She climbed to her feet and fisted her hands on her hips, facing him across the table. “So, what’s it going to be? Do you plan to arrest me?”
“Nothing places you at the crime scene, but we’ll run your prints to be sure.”
“Great,” she drawled. “But don’t leave town, right?”
“You know the drill,” he replied.
That was the sad truth. Knowing too much about what she shouldn’t made her a suspect. It had played out the same way in every case. His doubt still stung. But really… what did she thinkwould happen? If she hadn’t lived with thisgiftfor nearly three decades, she wouldn’t believe it either.
“Since you’re not sure yet, that only leaves option number two.” She looked at him thoughtfully. He hadn’t outright laughed in her face, like O’Reilly and so many others. He seemed… decent. “Leon Valley is a quiet little suburb for this type of violence. Do you want to tell me why someone would kill Debra Wilson?”
“Even if I knew, I couldn’t say.”
“I didn’t think so,” she said, huffing a laugh.
This time, both corners of his mouth lifted. “Why’d you ask?”
“You never know when you’ll get lucky.” Realizing how that sounded, she stifled a fake yawn and looked at her watch. “I need to get some sleep before work in the morning.”
“Just one more thing, then I’ll take you home. You reacted when my partner touched you, but not when I did earlier tonight.”
She frowned. He was too perceptive. “My kitchen was full of smoke. I was… distracted.”
He placed his hand palm up on the table. “You’re not distracted now.”
Wanna bet?She kept that thought to herself.
Erica stared at his hand: big, strong, masculine. She couldn’t see the nails, but she’d bet money they were neatly trimmed. No ring, either.
Did she dare put it to the test?
After spending her life avoiding touch, now, he wanted her to volunteer.
“Humor me,” he pressed.
Curiosity surpassed caution. She sat and laid her fingers against his palm then waited.
“What do you feel?”
Another few seconds passed before she whispered, “Nothing.”
Now a skeptic herself, she grasped his other hand. Still nothing. No emotions. No images. No scary sounds or unexplained smells.
“What about now?” he asked.
“I don’t feel anything. It’s amazing,” she said with wonder.
Coop lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t know why, but I’m mildly insulted.”
She laughed, despite herself. “I didn’t mean to.”
His fingers curled around hers. A dark brow quirked in question.
