He tilted her chin with his thumb and kissed her. The kiss was soft. Tender. A first date kiss. But it wasn't without passion. Wasn't without intent as he swiped his tongue between her lips, finding hers and deepening the kiss, if only for a moment.
She pressed her hand to his chest and rested her head on his shoulder.
He shut his eyes and held her for a minute without worrying about anything but the warmth of her and the stillness his hands had found.
The minute would end. He knew that. But for now, he held her and let everything else wait.
Chapter Five
The morning light, still soft, peeked through the palm trees, as the breeze rolled off the Everglades, holding off the humidity a little longer.
Juniper sat on the porch with her bare feet on the bottom rail and a mug of coffee going cold against her palm.
Hump day.
Mark used to love hump day. To him, the middle of the week meant work was winding down, and the weekend was rolling in. That man played as hard as he worked. He called it balance. She’d never been sure what to call it since she’d had no idea how to relax or take a vacation until Mark had strolled into her life.
He’d always been the optimist, and when she'd first met him, it had driven her crazy. Now, she tried to remind herself that the glass was always half full, even when it wasn't.
One of the things she loved about this rental was that even though she wasn't on the water, she could still see it. Currently, mist lay over the mangroves on the far side of the channel like the opening credits of a romantic movie with a hint of yellow and orange from the morning sun trying to peek through.
Or maybe a mystery. Could even be a horror if you cued up the right music. Didn't matter. It was beautiful. Another thingno one had told her about Calusa Cove was that it was the kind of place that stole a person's soul. Economically, this place was a hellhole, but it sucked you in and robbed you of any reason to care.
Down the bank, a heron stood in the shallows. It didn't move. It just stared into the water like breakfast was going to jump out of the murky depths.
Juniper had always been a morning person but even more so now. Nothing quite like the way everything came quietly alive in this town.
She took a sip of her coffee and adjusted the volume on her earbuds. Her laptop rested on her knees, screen dimmed to almost nothing, and Bea's voice came through low and dry. "Are you sure this wasn't about Sterling?"
"I'm positive," Juniper said. "It was a single man robbery. The guy wanted the cash in the register." She set down the mug on the boards. "That's not what I called about."
"I'm not done with the report on Halloran. I need a few more hours."
"I'm being patient."
"Then why did you wake me up at this ungodly hour?" Bea asked.
"I want you to get me intel on a man named Doyle Malone, former Army." She watched the heron strike and come up with nothing. She felt bad for the bird. It was its third attempt at breakfast.
"You're going to have to give me more than that."
"I don't have more. All I have is that he's former Green Beret and he worked with Sterling in JSOC."
"What's got you looking sideways at this one? Do you think he came for what Sterling's got filed away up there?"
"I don't believe so." She was almost sure of it, but she only had her gut for an explanation and that wasn't good enough.
"Then why am I doing a check on him?" Bea asked.
"This guy rolled into town all slick. He hit on me like he didn't know I was friends with Sterling and like I was the only woman in the bar. Then he shows up where I'm having dinner with Sterling, which seems convenient. Of course, the night ends with the two of them taking down a burglar."
"Yeah. We should definitely look at this guy, Doyle. Just because he was employed by our government, doesn't mean he's clean."
"I know," Juniper agreed. "But without more information, I have no idea what I'm working with, and a general Google or even an AI search turned up little."
"So, let me get this straight," Bea said. "You were on a date with Sterling."
"No," she said. "Not really. Well, sort of, but it's not like that." Only, it was exactly like that, kiss goodnight and all. And freaking Fletcher and Baily's two oldest boys witnessed that one, which meant, the entire town probably already had them married with two kids.
