Her Detective's Secret Intent. Tara Taylor Quinn

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Lemonade Stand, the unique women’s shelter in town that had founded the High Risk Team. Everything she’d heard during her time with the team about the ways information could travel to the wrong people.

      Marriage meant records.

      The haze of panic receded. “We weren’t married.” She told him the truth. No one could find what didn’t exist. She was safe.

      And no one knew that Jeff was Ethan’s father. She hadn’t named him on the original North Carolina birth certificate, and their new identities certainly didn’t name him. To begin with, she’d kept the secret to protect Jeff from her father’s wrath; Jeff had so little time to live and she couldn’t bear the thought of bringing more tension into his life. And when he’d died before Ethan was born...she’d just kept the secret.

      Tad sat back, adjusted his knife on the table. Took a sip from his straw. What was he thinking?

      Surely, in today’s world, he didn’t respect her less for having a baby outside of marriage?

      She wanted to tell him that they knew Jeff was dying. That they’d decided not to marry so there couldn’t be any legal chance she’d be held responsible for any of his medical bills.

      It seemed to be taking an inordinately long time for their dinner to arrive. But then, it was Friday night and the place was packed. Ethan had glanced their way a few times, but was still happily engaged with Jimmy. The two were in the sandbox now, trying to plow roads for their cars around the other children playing there.

      All in all, less than ten minutes had passed. It just seemed like forever.

      “I haven’t dated anyone since Ethan was born.” She had to tell Tad something that would get them out of this awkward mess. “A conscious choice I’ve made.” For reasons she’d never tell him, no matter how badly she wished she could.

      Tad wasn’t asking her out, but she was guaranteeing that he wouldn’t, although her heart was clamoring for a chance to see what life with him would be like.

      Even if just for the months he was there.

      Because it was only for however many months he’d be there. There’d be no risk of having to live a whole life of lying to him... It would be a question of living in the moment for the few months he was around.

      Which her heart was telling her would be better than nothing.

      It would be great, actually, to have such a memory to take with her into the future. To hold close. A good secret to combat all the bad ones...

      “In honor of his father?”

      “No. But...” She searched for an explanation that would shut him down. And yet she didn’t allow anything remotely credible to surface. Would it be so wrong to get to know him better? He wouldn’t be staying, had an entire life, an important job, to return to.

      “I haven’t had the time,” she finally said, wondering if leaving a door open to him was emotional suicide. Or maybe it was the only personal bliss she’d know in her life. “I’m a single mother, and not all men want to take that on. Added to that, until last year I was in school full-time and working, too.” While becoming a PA had only taken two years of additional schooling, she’d been unable to take her college degree with her and had to earn that all over again, too. Thankfully she’d been able to test out of more than two years of that, having to pay just for the class equivalent, not actually retake the classes.

      “So now that you’re fully accredited and have more time...”

      Oh, God. Was he going to ask her out? Flooded with heat, she felt she was possessed by something stronger than herself—this desire to get closer and closer to him.

      She shrugged when he didn’t complete his sentence.

      He nodded, as though her lack of a definitive “no” was interesting.

      She smiled.

      He nodded again.

      And dinner was served.

      * * *

       What in the hell was he doing?

      Walking the dark streets of Santa Raquel sometime after midnight, hunched in his department-issued coat with the collar turned up, Tad warded off the thirtysomething-degree chill of California ocean air. He’d intended to head over two blocks to the beach, but had only gone one and then turned, choosing sidewalk instead of sand.

      If it hadn’t been for dinner arriving, he was pretty sure he would’ve asked out his client’s daughter. The subject of his current job.

      If he ever hoped to work in law enforcement in North Carolina again, he couldn’t be pissing off the state’s chief fire marshal—a man with more connections, both law enforcement and political, than Tad could ever hope to have.

      Did he hope to go back to some form of law enforcement work?

      He’d quit his job.

      The department had refused to accept his resignation, so officially, he was on administrative leave for the year they’d agreed upon.

      Time for the department to fully investigate, review and further discuss his last case or, more accurately, the one really bad decision he’d made in a career of relatively great ones. His solved-cases record was better than that of anyone in the department.

      They wanted to keep him on.

      They also wanted him to take some time to get his head on straight. To show them that he’d be able to regain any trust he’d lost with his peers.

      But...did he hope to go back?

      Noting that he’d crossed the fourth block with at least two largely cracked cement pieces, he thought about Santa Raquel’s finances. Figured fixing cracks in the sidewalk of a seasonal tourist town should be on the radar. Someone could trip. Fall. Sue the municipal government.

      The town, which was more resort-like than not, didn’t seem to be hurting for money. Based on the number of large, well-maintained homes in the area, he supposed the town was doing just fine. Sidewalks didn’t last forever. They cracked.

      And a detective was bound to make one bad decision in his lifetime.

      But what if he made two?

      What if he asked out the daughter of his client? A woman he’d been hired to find? And keep watch over?

      In his line of work, there’d been more than one occasion when the means justified the end.

      Would that be the case here? Could he convince the chief that dating his daughter, casually, of course, was the best way to stick close to her? To spend time with her son?

      And what about Miranda? What right did he have to mess with her life? As if she hadn’t already been through enough?

      She knew he was only in town for a matter of months. Their conversation that evening had gone in an unexpected—and much more personal—direction. Thanks to Ethan, who’d put the simmering tension between him and Miranda right out there.

      So...if СКАЧАТЬ