Last Chance Christmas (Last Chance #5)(23)
Author: Hope Ramsay

She thought it might take a lifetime to learn everything there was to know about his face.

He turned toward her. “I guess I should thank you. Sheriff Bennett refused to do a grid search of the swamp when we found Jimmy’s car a few days ago. If you hadn’t taken that photograph, we might never have found him, and his wife would have been left to wonder.”

“Was he murdered?”

“Not clear. He was shot in the head, but it could be self-inflicted. Jimmy was having some problems. We’ll have to wait for the coroner’s report.”

She nodded and took a sip of her lukewarm coffee.

“Just in case this wasn’t a suicide, I want you to move back to town.”

She turned. “Why?”

“Because until just recently, Jimmy was living in the river house where you’re staying. And while there is good reason to think he might have committed suicide, there’s also good reason to think that he might have been murdered. Jimmy was kind of a screwup. And he was into something—there were irregularities down at the chicken plant, and he was the CEO. Hettie was making him clean up his act, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we were dealing with something nasty. And as long as that’s the case, I want you where I can keep an eye on you.”

“I’m a big girl, you know.”

He turned his gaze on her like a truth-seeking missile. “I know that, but I’d feel better if you were living someplace neutral. So I called Momma, and she’s getting the apartment above the Cut ’n Curl ready for you.”

“But—”

“I know you love to argue, but I’m not going to argue about this. And the next time you want to take a long walk in the swamp, I would appreciate it if you would let me know first. It’s just stupid for anyone to go off into the swamp on their own. We have gators and poisonous snakes out there.”

“And other living things,” she said. Like hunters.

Stone held her stare, and to her surprise the corner of his mouth lifted just a little. “You know, I admire you. Most any other woman would be shocked and horrified by what we found out there today. You stood around and took photos.”

She turned and watched the water droplets on the windshield. It was easier when she didn’t have to look at his face. His face made her brain short-circuit.

“Sheriff Bennett has claimed jurisdiction over the case, you know,” he said. “This swamp is outside the town limits. Which is why I’d appreciate it if you would let me see the photos you took today.”

She turned, her heart pounding. “I’m not a crime scene photographer.”

His eyes gentled, and she found herself drawn up into the heat and the kindness she found there. He knew some of her secrets. “I know that,” he said, “but I’d like to see them anyway. You never know what small thing, like a speck of red in the background, can break a case wide open.”

She shivered. “You won’t like the photos I took today. You won’t find anything remarkable in them,” she whispered.

“You can’t be sure of that.”

She closed her eyes and sagged back against the seat. “I’m pretty sure.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re in every one of them,” she confessed in a hoarse whisper.

She heard him exhale, but she didn’t dare open her eyes to look at him. She’d just confessed that she was infatuated with him. And she wasn’t about to explain how he looked like Carmine Falcone, or how framing him in her lens made the shadows disappear. If she was going crazy, then she’d try to go crazy in a dignified way.

Thankfully, he didn’t respond to her confession. Instead, the engine of the Crown Vic roared to life. He pulled the cruiser onto the road, the windshield wipers thumping and the tires hissing over the wet pavement.

Ten minutes later, he pulled the cruiser up in front of Hettie’s river house. “I’ll help you get your things,” he said.

She hazarded a glance in his direction. It unsettled her right down to her core. He was so handsome and so steady. She couldn’t let herself fall for him. That would be stupid. “I’m okay on my own.”

“No, you’re not.” This was not an argument. It was a statement of fact.

“You come out here on patrol every night. I feel perfectly safe out here.”

“I know. But with you in the apartment above the Cut ’n Curl, I’ll have Momma looking after you, too. And don’t underestimate the abilities of my mother.” He gave her one of his rare smiles, complete with all those sexy lines at his mouth and eyes.

“And,” he said, reaching out to run his finger through her damp, shaggy hair, “Momma’s going to want to give you a makeover. I take that as a real positive sign all the way around, and I’m not normally a positive thinker.”

She cocked her head. “A makeover?” Her voice kind of squeaked, but mostly because of the electricity Stone’s touch had created all across her scalp and down her spine and right into her middle.

He grinned like a wicked co-conspirator. “Yeah. I personally don’t think you need a makeover. I think you’re okay the way you are, kind of like a firefly, tiny but bright and fierce. Momma, on the other hand, ascribes to the notion that natural beauty can always be improved upon, and she’s going to try to improve you.”

“And you’re telling me this, why?”

“Because if you play along with Momma, she’s going to help you get your daddy’s ashes scattered at Golfing for God. She likes you. She’s been telling everyone in town all about your photo album theory. I wouldn’t be surprised if Reverend Ellis figured out a way to use this idea of us all being one big family of man in his sermon on Sunday—it’s the sort of Christmassy thing that he would probably do.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Honey, I don’t kid about this. Your photo album comments have gone viral in Last Chance. And that means Momma is going to watch over you like an angel. And that makes me feel good. So you’re just going to have to get with the program, because I’m not arguing about this.”

“But—”

“Lark, I’m a small-town policeman. And policing in a place like Last Chance requires the ability to manipulate churchwomen and hairdressers without them knowing that they’ve been manipulated. So, see, the makeover is going to be entirely Momma’s idea. And I’m asking you to play along with it.”

Laughter snuck up on her. It started as a little giggle, but grew into a full-blown guffaw that made tears leak out of the corner of her eyes. Laughing pushed back the shadows. It was a gift from some wonderful, clean, safe place that she had forgotten about.

“So,” he said, once she had stopped giggling, “you’ll move into the apartment above the Cut ’n Curl, and you’ll let Momma do this thing. For me?”

“I’m afraid,” she said.

“I know,” he whispered back, his eyes so sober and honest.

“I’m not talking about my camera. I’m just saying that I’m not a big-hair, lots-of-hair-spray kind of girl.”

He ran his hand through her hair, like he was tousling a child’s hair, but it was so much sexier. “Yeah. I like that about you. I’ll grump and tell Momma that I don’t want you to be changed too much. That should help.”

Time seemed to hang suspended for a moment as his hand stalled in her hair, and then he pulled her gently forward. She came willingly, knowing that this was what she’d wanted since last night. This time he didn’t kiss her cheek.

The kiss was softer than she expected—almost shy and tentative, but incredibly warm and unbelievably erotic. She had never been kissed like this before.

And in a corner of her mind she knew, without question, that she had more experience in kissing than Stone Rhodes did. But somehow that didn’t matter. This kiss was not about recreational sex, or passing the time, or having fun.

No, Stone Rhodes was not a guy like that. And when he decided to kiss someone, he moved in like a marine, with clear intent. His kiss was deliberate, as if he’d been thinking about it for some time.

But there was nothing deliberate about the groan that escaped him when she deepened the kiss. There was nothing planned about the way his hand pressed the back of her head, or the way her own palm found the side of his face and explored the texture of his beard.

And it wasn’t surprising that, by the time they managed to pull away from one another, the inside windows of the cruiser had gone all steamy.

They stared at each other for a moment, but neither of them was ready to discuss what had just happened. One thing was certain, though: If Stone Rhodes wanted to keep her safe, even from phantoms, she was going to let him.

Hadn’t she been fantasizing about a man like this since she was seven?

“I don’t have a lot of luggage, but you can help me pack Pop’s car,” she said. Her voice was surprisingly strong and clear considering the way her heart was pounding in her chest.

“Good.” He turned and snagged his Stetson from the backseat, then opened the cruiser’s door to a cold, hard rain.

Chapter 13

David looked up from his lunch to find Lizzy Rhodes standing over him smiling. His face grew hot.

He’d been trying to avoid Lizzy all day. Not so much because Mom disapproved of her, but because of the crazy way he’d felt last night when he’d kissed her good night. He still hadn’t quite come to terms with the fact that Lizzy seemed to like him back.

He stared up at her, feeling confused and conflicted. “My mother thinks it’s a bad idea for us to be friends.”

David was kind of pissed off at his mother. But at the same time, he understood that Mom was going through a harder time adjusting to the move from Michigan than anyone else in the family.

And it had all come to a head last night. Mom created a big scene and threatened to take David and his brothers back home to the Midwest. This morning Mom and Dad were not talking to each other.

David kind of wanted to go back to Michigan, too. But he also kind of wanted to stay here and get to know Lizzy better.

Lizzy pulled out a chair and threw herself into it. “Are you going to let your parents push you around like that?”

“Mom’s kind of mental right at the moment. It’s not easy living here, you know?”

“Yeah, I guess. So are you not going to be my friend now?”

“Are we friends?” Why couldn’t he let himself believe that Lizzy liked him?

She cocked her head. “Of course we are. I came to your house last night, and…” Her voice faded out, and when David looked up, her face was kind of red.

A smile tugged at his lips. “You’re blushing.”

“You are, too.”

“What were you about to say?”

“I was just about to say that I didn’t mind you kissing me last night.”

His whole body got hot. “That’s good.” His voice cracked. He was such a dork.

“I don’t want our parents to tell us we can’t be friends. That would be like what happened when Abe Chaikin came to town and tried to have lunch with Nita Wills at the Kountry Kitchen. I think all of us have moved on from those times.”