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“It is a date,” he said, unruffled. “But I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask, considering it sounds like you’ve been really busy.”

“I’ve been feeling fine,” I told him. “There was just a little weakness right after my…incident…but I’ve been up and around ever since. I walk the dog twice a day, and I’m on my feet for hours at a time at the bar.”

Immediately, his expression sobered. “How have you been holding up?”

I knew he wasn’t asking about my physical health. “All right, I suppose. I mean, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a shock. I just wish it felt as if the police were doing more.”

Adam sent me an inquiring look. “You don’t think they are?”

A very good question. Logically, I knew that just because Joe Ruiz hadn’t called me with any follow-up questions didn’t mean he wasn’t tracking down other leads. He’d probably decided I didn’t have anything else of value to offer, so he wasn’t going to waste time questioning me again.

I shrugged. “Oh, they probably are. And I know these things can take time, especially when you’re dealing with zero witnesses and not a lot of physical evidence. Maybe this is something that should have involved the FBI, not just the local police. The Prescott P.D. could be out of their element with something like this.”

Adam considered that comment for a moment, then sipped some Chianti. “They’ve always seemed very competent to me.”

I supposed he should know. An ER doctor most likely had a lot of experience dealing with local law enforcement.

“You’re probably right,” I said. “This is my first murder, so I didn’t know what I should expect.”

Some people might have chuckled at a remark like that, but Adam’s expression was serious as he said, “Well, I hope it’s your last.”

“I’ll drink to that,” I replied, and we clinked glasses.

From there, the conversation moved on to much lighter topics, like how he’d grown up in Flagstaff and gotten his undergraduate degree there, then went to the University of Arizona in Tucson for medical school.

“I chose emergency medicine because I like the puzzle aspect of triage,” he said. “It’s very hands-on, exciting work.”

“Isn’t it exhausting?” I asked.

“Sometimes,” he admitted, before adding with a small smile that did interesting things to my midsection, “but this is Prescott, not downtown Phoenix. Mostly, it doesn’t get too crazy.”

He had a point there. Then again, I’d lived in the greater Phoenix area my entire life and had never been involved in a murder until I’d moved to supposedly sleepy Prescott.

We talked about Hazel’s house and about my Etsy business, which admittedly had been on the back burner since I’d moved here. Not that it mattered much; it had already been on life support. I still sold a couple of things every month, but it had been an eon since I’d added anything new.

“Do you think you’re going to keep it?” Adam asked.

By then, the food had arrived. I’d just taken a bite of ziti, so I went ahead and chewed and swallowed before I replied.

“I’m not sure,” I said. “I miss parts of it — I just love thrifting and finding pieces that can be salvaged and repaired. And if there’s not enough left of them for that, then that’s when I’d make something new, like taking a beaded collar off a vintage sweater that’s full of moth holes and transferring it to a new blouse, or saving the buttons from a dress that’s falling apart and using them on a top I designed.”

“It sounds like a fun business,” Adam said. I could tell he wasn’t just playing nice, either, because there was a spark of genuine interest in his clear gray eyes. “I hope you don’t let it fall by the wayside.”

“Well, maybe I’ll turn it into kind of a part-time thing,” I replied. “Now that I’m getting more settled in and have my schedule figured out a bit better, I can probably make some room on my days off to go thrifting and put a few things together.”

“That sounds like a plan.”

We chatted about other things, too, about what I could expect from winter in Prescott and how there was almost always something going on, some kind of live music or show or community event. I could tell he was trying to see if I’d be interested in attending any of those with him, and I wasn’t about to say no.

“But it can be kind of hard when my only days off are Tuesdays and Wednesdays,” I said.

Rather than look deterred, he only smiled. “Hey, I’m an ER doctor. My schedule’s pretty crazy, too.”

“Then I suppose we can play it by ear,” I told him with an answering smile.

We lingered at the restaurant longer than I’d expected, deciding on tiramisu and coffee to finish the meal. I didn’t have to be anywhere tomorrow, and it didn’t seem as if Adam did, either, because he didn’t appear too worried about the way we left a little after ten.

The drive didn’t take very long, and soon enough, we’d parked at the curb, and he’d gotten out before I could tell him he didn’t need to walk me to the door. But I had to admit that it was kind of nice to sit there and wait as he came around to open the truck’s passenger door, and to have him follow me up to the porch.