What She Saw

by Barb Han

  Walking through the aisle caused her pulse to race. A man walked past. She froze, pretending to be interested in a feminine napkin package. She mentally chided herself for being ridiculous. But this felt so much bigger than she could handle. If word got out, there’d be questions, and there was no way she wanted this tidbit getting around.

  Her heart played a steady beat, hammering her rib cage.

  It was then she realized she should’ve bought the other items first so she could immediately cover what she came for.

  Taking in another deep breath brought enough calm over her to pick up the pregnancy test and drop it into her basket. She moved over two aisles and randomly threw in any item that she might ever need. Allergy pills. Stomach acid reducer. Cotton balls.

  It shouldn’t be a big deal to get from where she stood in the middle of the store, and yet it felt like miles away.

  She turned and out of the corner of her eye caught sight of a youngish man who favored his left leg when he walked. The hairs on the back of her neck pricked. She told herself that her reaction was most likely because of the conversation she’d had with Zach and Lopez a little while ago and not because the Jacobstown Hacker was in The Mart walking twenty feet in front of her.

  His back was to her, but she could see that he was average height and build, maybe even a little wiry. She’d learned the hard way that wiry guys could be surprisingly strong. His hair was light brown in a short cut, commonly referred to as a buzz. He wore Carolina-blue basketball shorts and a dark hoodie.

  There were all kinds of logical reasons that could account for his slight limp, Courtney reminded herself as she kept one eye trained on him. He turned at the end of the aisle toward the sporting goods section. This guy could be coming from the gym. He could have strained a muscle in a workout. Or he might play sports and could have tweaked his ankle during a game. It could’ve been a pickup game. How many of her colleagues in Dallas had done the same during last-minute lunch-hour basketball rounds?

  She was being paranoid, but with no answers in Breanna’s murder after weeks of investigating, everyone with a limp was worth checking out. The reality that the killer knew the area struck. He really could be any guy she’d just walked past in order to follow Blue Trunks. Ice-cold creepy-crawlies trailed up and down her spine when she really thought about it. A familiar shot of adrenaline jacked her heart rate up a few notches. She used to get a burst of excitement when that happened. Now, it felt a lot like dread as she reminded herself to control her breathing. Her stress response was out of whack after what had happened on her last job.

  Courtney increased her speed as she rounded the aisle. She ran smack into a hard, male chest that felt more like a wall.

  Before she could tell the man to watch where he was going, she blinked up. Jordan Kent.

  “What are you doing here?” The words flew out, and her cheeks flamed with embarrassment. If he saw the pregnancy test in her basket...

  No, he could not see that. She subtly shifted her elbow backward in order to use her body to block the contents in the basket. Her skin still sizzled from the weeklong fling they’d had a month and a half ago.

  The tall, over-the-top handsome rancher took a step back. His dark curls were barely contained underneath a black Stetson. A slow grin spread across perfect lips and straight white teeth in one of those smiles that had been so good at seducing her. He had the sexiest dimple on his right cheek. He was one seriously irresistible, hot package. Another bout of nausea struck. She didn’t want to be reminded of exactly how tempting he’d been.

  Jordan quirked a dark brow. “Shopping. Why? Is it against the law now?”

  * * *

  COURTNEY STARED AT Jordan like he had two foreheads. He’d been used to teasing her when they were kids but running into her in the least likely place a month and a half ago, he’d seen her in a whole new light.

  “Why aren’t you still in Idaho?” She blinked at him like he might be a mirage or something.

  “Family business. I was asked to come home.” The last time he’d seen Courtney ten years ago, she’d been the cute but young friend of his little sister. Running into her after a decade of absence had caused him to see that she’d grown into an intelligent, strong and beautiful woman. An attraction like wildfire had spread through both of them, and they’d been consumed by the flames for a solid seven days and nights.

  But their time together wasn’t all incredible sex and lighthearted teasing. She woke in the middle of the night many times shaking and crying. He’d comforted her until she fell back asleep. When he’d tried to sit her down and talk about it on the seventh day, she’d made it clear that she had a job to begin and a new life that didn’t involve him.

  He’d thought about her more times than he cared to admit in the past thirty-seven days. Her quick wit. Her soft curves. Those pink lips.

  Hell, he had no business appreciating those anymore. She’d been real clear on where they stood. It was most likely his bruised ego that had him thinking about her more than he knew better than to allow. Usually he was the one walking out, not the other way around.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked as she tried to look around his shoulder. Did she have a boyfriend? The only thing he’d known for certain about her during their fling was that she wasn’t married. He should’ve asked about a relationship but assumed she wouldn’t have spent the week in bed with him if she’d been dating someone else.

  He’d also thought about that haunted look in her eyes when she first woke from a nightmare. That, he might never forget.

  She was almost a foot shorter than his six feet three inches. She had to come in at five feet six, maybe seven. Her shiny auburn hair was pulled back in a low ponytail. She had just enough curves to be a real woman, and his fingers itched to get lost on that silky skin of hers again.

  “Sorry. I was just watching someone, and...” Her face twisted, and she took a step to the right in order to get a clear view of the person.

  Jordan had never felt awkward with a woman before. Normally, he spent time with people who didn’t expect much in return. After a few rounds of hot sex and mutual enjoyment, they’d part ways. Neither side tried to drag out the fling or make a big deal out of walking away.

  He told himself that he felt a pang of jealousy with a strong dose of heartache seeing her again because he knew Courtney, but that wasn’t completely true. He couldn’t put his finger on exactly why this felt different from the many others he’d spent time with. It just did.

  “Well, I should get out of your way, deputy,” he said to her. Her cheeks flushed, and her tongue darted across full pink lips. Jordan ignored the warning shot to his chest.

  It didn’t matter. Courtney seemed to have no interest in him. But the week he’d spent with her had felt like a homecoming. Not since he’d lost his parents—and maybe even long before then—had Jordan felt like he belonged somewhere. Sure, he and his five siblings had taken over the family ranching business along with associated mineral rights. Their inheritance was spread across three states, with significant holdings in Texas.

  No one in his family needed to work another day for a paycheck. They got up at 4:00 a.m. to face a long day of work because ranching was in their blood and they loved the land. Jordan was no different. But the ranch didn’t feel like home to him anymore.

  He stepped aside.

  Courtney grabbed his arm and motioned for him to scoot back over.

  Well, he really was confused now. “What’s going on, Courtney?”

  “I’m sorry. I was watching a possible suspect.” She glanced at Jordan, and those eyes with cinnamon-colored flecks sent a bolt of lightning straight to his heart. He needed to develop a thicker skin when it came to her, because right then he wanted to haul her against his chest and welcome her back home properly. But that ship had sailed when she’d refused to speak to him again.

  Damned if she wasn�
�t distracted now. Sure, his ego took a hit. Most women made themselves a little too available for the youngest and only single Kent brother.

  He told himself that was the reason he felt a sting in his chest and not because he had stronger feelings for Courtney.

  “Don’t let me stand in the way of your job.” Hadn’t those been the words he’d used when she’d told him that their time together had been special, but she needed to focus on her work at his cousin’s office?

  “I’m sorry, Jordan. It’s a case I’m working on. It’s getting inside my head a little bit,” she said by way of apology. “I should go.”

  Courtney turned toward the front of the store. He should’ve walked away right then and there. It was his fool pride that had him standing his ground like it didn’t matter. His bruised ego wanted to say otherwise, but that’s all it was.

  Jordan glanced down, and then he saw something in her basket that gave him pause.

  Was this the reason she’d rejected him?

  Evidence that she had been in another relationship stared back at him.

  Chapter Two

  Courtney issued another apology before ducking down the nearest aisle in order to put as much distance between her and Jordan as possible. She could only pray that he hadn’t seen the contents of her basket.

  Blue Trunks had disappeared. She searched aisle after aisle with no luck. Biting back her frustration and shock at seeing Jordan in Texas again, Courtney used the self-checkout machine and stalked toward her SUV. Her situation was bad enough without running into Jordan.

  As she tossed the bag onto the passenger seat, she saw Blue Trunks moving through cars.

  She closed the door to her SUV and hit the auto lock on her key ring. She stuffed the keys inside her pocket before resting her hand on the butt of her weapon. The sun was high in the sky, and it was cold enough to require a coat. She wore a deputy jacket, which essentially was like a billboard. She didn’t mind as she doubled her stride so that she could get a look at Blue Trunks’s face.

  He stopped at his vehicle, an older-model pickup, which was not uncommon in these parts. He glanced around, and her blood chilled. She was still too far away to make out the details of his face.

  “Excuse me, sir,” she shouted, but his head dipped, disappearing before he acknowledged her.

  She might not have been close enough to get a description of the color of his eyes, but he’d heard her. She’d bet money on the fact. Didn’t that send another chill racing up her spine?

  It meant he was guilty of something. The pickup jutted forward as she got closer, and then it disappeared before she could get a look at the plate. There were enough cars moving in and out of the busy lot to block her view.

  Running to catch up to Blue Trunks caused her to be winded, which wasn’t normally a problem for her. She’d been athletic growing up and had easily passed the department’s physical fitness requirements, a stumbling block for many applicants. She woke every morning at 5:00 a.m. to run. It was a habit she’d picked up after playing high school sports.

  Courtney’s mother had disappeared with her baby brother when Courtney was ten years old. Her brother, Cord, had been supposed to start kindergarten that year. With a mother who could walk away from a ten-year-old child and a father who had no problem with lengthy punishments, what chance did Courtney have at being a decent parent? She’d asked her ob-gyn to shut off the possibility of parenthood permanently, but he’d said she was too young to make a lifelong commitment to that decision. Courtney had other ideas. A wave of panic washed over her, and she needed to talk herself down as she realized her hands were shaking.

  A wave of panic slammed into Courtney at the thought of being pregnant. What if parenting skills were inherited?

  There was a strong possibility that she wasn’t, she reminded herself. As she turned to make the walk back to her vehicle, she chewed on a few facts. She and Jordan had used protection every single time. She would’ve been on the pill except that it had been a waste of money after the cop she’d been dating seriously enough to have sex with had been killed practically in front of her eyes. Since sex had been the last thing on her mind when thinking about returning to her childhood hometown, she hadn’t bothered to get a new prescription. Plus, she would be changing doctors once she got settled.

  A wave of nausea struck like a physical blow. She pushed through and kept walking.

  Back at her vehicle, Courtney opened the passenger door and held on for dear life. She took in a few deep breaths, reminding herself to blow them out her nose slowly in order to calm her racing heart and churning stomach.

  The overwhelming feeling of panic crushed her ribs.

  “Are you all right?” She’d recognize Jordan’s voice anywhere. It had that deep timbre that wrapped around her. That man could make reading the ingredients of a soup can sound sexy.

  “Yeah. Got a hold of something at a potluck that isn’t agreeing with me.” She tried to wave him off.

  “Can I get you some water?” There was genuine concern in his tone, and it caused her heart to squeeze.

  As much as she didn’t want to come off as a jerk, she couldn’t afford to let him stick around. Especially with the way her body reacted when he was close. Muscle memory had her wanting to feel his hands on her, rough from working outside. For having such rough hands, his touch had been surprisingly soft. And those were more things she couldn’t afford to think about.

  The pregnancy test should be safely tucked inside the bag, but she’d tossed that onto the passenger seat before she’d turned away. She didn’t want Jordan seeing something he shouldn’t or asking questions she didn’t have answers to.

  Courtney took in a deep, fortifying breath. “I’m okay. Thanks for offering, though.”

  A stomach cramp doubled her over. She turned away in time to empty the contents onto the parking lot. So much for being fine.

  The next thing she knew, Jordan was next to her, comforting her. His hand on her back caused a whole different kind of reaction in her body. One that was totally out of place under the circumstances.

  “That must’ve been some potluck,” he commented.

  She didn’t respond.

  “I saw the test in your basket, Courtney,” he said flatly. “Are you pregnant?”

  * * *

  COURTNEY STOPPED THROWING UP. Jordan expected a response to his question. He waited. Because if she was pregnant, that meant she’d been in a relationship with someone else during their brief fling. Jordan might have the reputation of a playboy, but there were lines he never crossed and that was one of them. “Courtney—”

  She stood up straight and stepped away from him.

  “Take this.” He handed her a bottle of water, which she took and then used to rinse out her mouth.

  “Are you planning to answer me?” This whole scenario was off. He couldn’t imagine she would use him to cheat on someone else. He didn’t normally misread people or their intentions.

  Courtney locked gazes with him. “If I knew the answer to your question, I wouldn’t need the test, now would I?”

  “Why didn’t you say something about being in a relationship?” he pressed.

  She issued a grunt and twisted up her face with a how dare you look. She was offended?

  “Is that what you think? I could—” she made eyes at him “—with you while two-timing my real boyfriend?”

  Jordan started to speak but was cut off.

  “Because if that’s the kind of person you think I am, this conversation is over.”

  What exactly was she saying?

  Jordan had to stop a second to let her words sink in. The gears in his head started grinding. The realization struck him like lightning on a sunny day, fast and out of the blue. He was the father. If she was pregnant, a struggling little voice in the back of his mind called out.

  “If you’ll exc
use me, I have a murder investigation to get back to.” She walked past him, and her shoulder bumped him as she passed by on her way to the driver’s side of her vehicle.

  Ignoring the intentional snub and the rockets of electricity from contact, he turned and caught her by the elbow. “Hold on. You’re not getting away that easy.”

  “Neither one of us is if the test comes back positive,” she retorted.

  “I didn’t ask for the easy road, but I deserve to know the outcome as much as you do.” He held his ground. He got it—Courtney was scared, and she didn’t do weak. The brave front she put up could be equated to a bull in a china shop, but she seemed to be clinging to hope, so he didn’t call her out on it. He could tell that she was forcing her strength by the way her chin jutted out. Knowing her since they were kids had its advantages—being able to read her was one of them. And even though she’d annoyed him in his teen years, he’d noticed quite a few of her little quirks. They’d been damn adorable then—a fact he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge in high school—and had turned straight-up sexy as an adult.

  He almost laughed out loud. Courtney Foster would balk at being described as adorable.

  The tension in her shoulders released like a balloon letting out air. Now it made sense why she was out here shopping on the outskirts of town when there were plenty of stores in Jacobstown. She didn’t want to take the chance that anyone would see her buying a pregnancy test. He got it. Everyone in town knew each other, and people talked. Having a baby would be a big story. The news that Courtney Foster had come home after living in Dallas for the past decade had just died down after a month of hitting the gossip rounds, according to his sister Amber. She’d said there’d been talk for weeks. It was a main topic of conversation and had given the townsfolk a break from chewing on the other big news in Jacobstown—the Hacker and the possibility he would strike again soon.