“I mean it, Hunter. The only reason you’re even here at some armpit of a gas station in the middle of nowhere is because of me. I intend to take care of expenses on this trip.”
“I’m here because I want to be here,” he corrected her. “It was my idea to go after the woman you’re looking for.”
“Right. The woman I’m looking for. That’s my point. For all intents and purposes, you’re my private investigator. You’re working for me, so I should be footing the bill along the way.”
He paused at that, his hands on Belle’s crate as he closed the door. “Let’s get one thing straight. I’m not working for you. I’m doing this because I want to do it, because I was looking for something to occupy my time, and because I need to be doing something useful.”
“And I appreciate all those reasons. Believe me, I do. But you’re still here because of me.”
He sighed at her obstinate tone. “Look, I can afford it, okay?”
She lifted her chin. “So can I.” So she had a pitiful resident’s salary with medical-school debts that would probably take her the rest of her natural life to repay.
“Anyway, that’s not the point,” she went on, thrusting the card out to him again. “You’re already going to have to give up a couple weeks out of your life on this quest. Please let me pay for expenses.”
Belle chose that moment to break in, a slightly frantic note to her bark this time. Hunter let her jump from the vehicle, where she danced around them, eager to be off.
“You’d better take her,” Hunter said, holding out the leash.
“Okay, as long as you take this.”
She didn’t wait for an answer—as she reached to accept the leash, she handed the Visa to him in return. With a victorious laugh, she hurried away after Belle, certain she was leaving him glaring after her.
Chapter 4
By the time he finished pumping gas into his Jeep, that cold, damp wind seemed to have picked up and a few stray snowflakes drifted down.
Hunter looked up at the heavy gray sky. The weather forecasters said the storm wasn’t supposed to hit this part of the state, but it sure looked to him like those black-edged clouds were boiling around up there, ready to blow.
Maybe they could still outrun it before the center of the storm passed over. If the storm was heading east, as most low-pressure systems moved here in the Intermountain West, it might clip past them.
He might still have to drive through a little snow, but by the time they hit southern Utah in a few hours, it would probably be mostly rain.
Anyway, he didn’t mind snow. He had spent his youth driving the canyons of the Wasatch Front, skis strapped to the roof, looking for fresh powder.
When he was a kid, skiing had been his passion. He’d even been on the junior U.S. ski team for a while.
For the adult in him, skiing had been therapy. When he was stressed over a case and couldn’t quite find the answer to whatever puzzle he was working on, he would take a few hours of personal leave and head for the slopes. More often than not, while his body focused on turns and terrain, his mind was able to come up with an answer.
He was chagrined to realize that even though most of the ski resorts had been open since mid-November, he hadn’t been able to summon the energy to go yet.
The nozzle clicked off, signaling the tank was full. With a sigh, Hunter tightened the gas cap, then went inside to pay.
On the way, he pulled Taylor’s credit card out of the pocket of his jacket and shoved it in his wallet before pulling out one of his own, new since his release and still shiny enough that the gilding on the numbers hadn’t worn off.
He had absolutely no intention of letting Kate foot the bill for this trip. He meant what he’d said to her—this whole thing was his idea. He would pay his own way.
He decided he wouldn’t make a big deal about it, though. He would just keep her card in his wallet until the trip was over, then give it back to her. He wasn’t prepared for another confrontation with her, not when it made her eyes look bright and vibrant and gave her skin that appealing flush, raising all kinds of questions in his vivid imagination, like if she would look like that in his arms.
Inside the convenience store, he grabbed some liquid caffeine from the soda dispenser. He probably should have asked Kate if she wanted something, but he hadn’t thought of it and he didn’t have the first idea about her beverage preferences.
Being forced to consider someone else’s likes and dislikes was a novel experience. Or at least not something he had considered much since his arrest three years earlier.
That was one of the unfortunate side effects of prison—behind bars, the world condensed to one of survival, to thinking of self before anything else.
At least for him it had. He knew men with families on the outside could spend their time thinking about them. He hadn’t had anyone but Taylor. Though he worried about her, in his heart he had known she could take care of herself, as she had proved so adroitly a few months earlier.
It would take him a while to get into the rhythm of having someone else to consider.
He paid for the gas and his drink then carried it outside. He moved the Jeep so someone else could use the pump, and a few moments later he walked across the street to the park, where he could see Belle still gleefully chasing after a ball.
Without direct sunlight, colors were saturated in the over-cast sky. The russet, sleek dog and Kate with her bright blond hair and gray sweater looked vibrant and alive playing in the light snow covering the ground.
Even from a hundred yards away, he could see Kate’s smile light up her face as she watched Belle scramble through the snow after that ball as if it were made of raw hamburger.
She was breathtaking in that pale light, like something out of an impressionist painting.
He had always been attracted to Kate, he acknowledged now. He had never done anything about it, in fact he had gone out of his way to avoid situations like this one where they would be alone.
He couldn’t do anything about it. For one thing, she was Taylor’s closest friend. His sister hadn’t had all that many close friends and he wasn’t about to screw this up for her by messing around with Kate.
He had a poor history with women. Until Dru, most of his relationships had ended after only a few months, usually because the women he dated tired quickly of his complete dedication to his job. Dru hadn’t minded; in fact she had encouraged him to talk about work. In retrospect, he wondered how much of that was genuine interest and how much was her reporter instincts, nosing around for a good story.
He had a feeling their relationship would have gone the way of all those others if she hadn’t told him after only a few months of dating that she was pregnant.
Since her murder, he’d had plenty of time to think about things between them. He knew now that he had tried to convince himself he loved her because he’d thought she was pregnant with his child and he’d wanted fiercely to make things work between them.
His son deserved a father and Hunter intended to be part of his life. The best way to accomplish that—the right thing to do—was to marry his child’s mother.
Dru had refused, though. Oh, she hadn’t minded him taking her to doctor appointments and fussing over her, but she wasn’t ready to marry him, she said. Now he knew the reason why. She had likely known—or at least suspected—that he wasn’t her baby’s father.
Kate’s laughter rippled across the cold air suddenly, distracting him from the grim direction of his thoughts.
He could never act on this attraction simmering through him, he thought as he approached them. He didn’t have room in his life right now for a woman and, even if he did, it wouldn’t be this particular one.
“Hey.” She greeted him with a smile. “I’ve almost worn her out. A few more throws and I think she’ll be good for a while.”
He held a hand out for the ball. When she gave it to him, he hurled it to the other side of the park.
“All right, show o
ff.” Kate laughed as Belle let out an ecstatic bark and set off after it. “Let me guess. You were a baseball player in another life.”
He shrugged. “All-state in high school. When I wasn’t skiing, I was throwing a ball through a tire hung up in the backyard. I played one year of college ball and had dreams of the majors, then I messed up my shoulder.” Not that the Judge had ever encouraged those dreams for a second.
“So you decided to become a cop instead.”
“Right.” He didn’t add that he had dreamed of being a cop as a boy but had entered the police academy mostly in an effort to piss off his father, who would see nothing else for his son except that Hunter should follow in his footsteps and study law.
To Hunter’s surprise, he had thrived at the academy. By the time he’d graduated first in his class, he knew he had discovered his calling.
Or he thought he had, anyway. As much as he had loved being a cop, first on the beat then as a detective, he had been betrayed by the brotherhood. He couldn’t work upholding a system he no longer respected.
“Do you miss it?”
He wasn’t sure what to say, since the answer to that question was anything but an easy one. Did he miss it? Yeah. He’d been a good cop, a dedicated one. But he certainly didn’t miss it enough to jump right back into the fray.
He was spared from having to answer by the return of Belle, who came panting back with the ball tightly clenched in her teeth. She rushed to Hunter and dropped the drooly thing like an offering at his feet.
“Good girl.” He rewarded her with one of the treats he’d brought from the Jeep. She gulped it down then barked with joy when Hunter threw the ball hard for her again.
What was it about dogs? he wondered. They never seemed to get tired of the same activity. Give Belle a ball and a little attention and she was content for hours.
“Do you?” Kate asked again. He sighed. He hoped she would let the matter drop, but he supposed he wasn’t really surprised when she didn’t. The woman was nothing if not tenacious.
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “I loved being a detective, helping people find justice. Giving them answers. The badge meant something to me.” He gazed across the park at a pair of forlorn swings, chains rattling in the cold wind. “But I had already come to hate the politics of the job before I was arrested.”
She nodded her understanding. “I suppose it’s the same as medicine. I love treating patients but I can’t stand dealing with insurance companies and HMOs. I guess it’s true that sometimes you have to take the bad with the good.”
“And sometimes it’s easier to walk away from both.”
She opened her mouth to argue but before she could say anything, Belle came bounding back with the ball. She came running at them just a little too fast, though, and bumped into Kate’s legs in her rush to get to Hunter.
Kate wobbled a little and tried to keep her balance but the light layer of snow made gaining traction difficult. She gave a small cry as her legs started to slip out from under.
He didn’t take time to think—if he had, he would have known reaching for her was a bad idea. Still, he couldn’t let her fall.
He grabbed her to keep her upright, blocking her from falling with his own body. Her hands came out to grab something solid to hang onto—his shirt, as it turned out—and his arms came around her.
Though she was small, only five-four, maybe, she was sturdy. Still, she felt tiny and fragile in his arms.
“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice gruff.
“Yes. Yes, I think so.”
Hunter wasn’t. He felt frozen, cast in bronze like that statue in the corner of the park of a couple of soldiers crouched over what looked like a piece of World War II heavy artillery.
How long had it been since his arms had held a warm female? Forever. So long, he’d forgotten how absolutely perfect it could be to feel all those intriguing curves and angles, to be surrounded by the mouthwatering vanilla-sugar scent of her, to know he only had to bend his head down a little to capture that perfect, lush mouth for his own.
He had to let her go. The thought flickered through his mind then flew away like a killdeer on the side of the road.
Her eyes, wide and lovely in that delicate face, gazed up at him, full of confusion and embarrassment and what he thought might be sexual awareness—though it had been a hell of a long time since he had seen it, so maybe he was wrong about that last bit.
She made no effort to pull away. Instead her hands seemed to curl in his sweater and her dewy lips parted a little as she hitched in a ragged little breath.
They stood there, eyes locked and bodies entwined, as the moment seemed to drag on forever. He was vaguely aware of the cold seeping through his boots, of those swings creaking in the wind, of a pickup truck driving past. But nothing else mattered but this moment.
This woman.
He had to think he would have gotten around to letting her go eventually, but Belle took matters out of his hands. She whimpered as if she knew she’d messed up and nudged the back of his leg.
The contact seemed to jerk him back to his senses. What was he doing? In another second, he would have thrown caution to that cold wind and done exactly what his body was loudly urging him to do. He would have kissed Kate Spencer right here in a public park in Nowheresville, Utah.
And what a disaster that would have been!
Kate took a step backward quickly, and he was instantly cold, far colder than he should have been even with the chill wind.
“We should probably be on our way again,” Kate murmured. Her voice sounded a little thready, a little breathless, as if she had just hiked the steep trail behind his family’s ski cabin in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
“Yeah. You’re right.” He scrambled for something to say. Should he apologize? No, he hadn’t done anything. Not really, only held her a moment—or two or three—longer than strictly necessary.
“I, uh, need to give Belle some water now. That will take me a few moments, if you need to make a trip inside the gas station.”
She looked blank for a moment, as if she couldn’t quite figure out why she might need to make a trip inside the gas station, then he saw understanding dawn in her eyes.
Despite his best intentions, he couldn’t help being amused, charmed, by the color that spread across her elegant cheekbones.
She was a doctor who had undoubtedly seen things that would make his hair curl, but she could still blush at a suggestion that she might need to use the ladies’ room.
“Right. Yes. I’ll only be a moment.”
They walked across the street together, then their paths diverged as he headed for the SUV and she went inside the gas station. He paused and watched until she went inside, reliving the heat and rightness of holding her in his arms for those few seconds.
If he responded so forcefully just to a platonic embrace, how the hell was he going to keep his hands off her this entire trip?
In the surprisingly clean restroom of the gas station, Kate stood at the sink for several moments, her cold hands covering the heat still soaking her cheeks.
She was such an idiot. She wanted to die, to sink through the floor—or at least to hide in this bathroom for the rest of her natural life.
What must he think of her? He had only been trying to keep her on her feet after that lovely show of grace and poise she had demonstrated. Just extending a courteous hand—like his habit of opening the door for her, keeping her upright had been only another polite gesture.
But the moment she found herself in such close contact, surrounded by those hard muscles and that rugged, masculine scent of him, she dug her hands into his sweater and held on for dear life.
And then she had made things worse by standing there, staring into his eyes, willing with all her heart for him to kiss her.
She fought the urge to bang her head against the mirror a few dozen times. She was an idiot! One who should certainly know better than to make mooneyes at a man who had no interest in her w
hatsoever.
Still, there had been a moment there when she thought she saw something in those dark blue eyes. Something intense and glittering and just out of reach. And he hadn’t exactly pushed her away, either, even after she regained her balance.
Why not? she wondered.
She certainly wasn’t going to find any answers staring into the mirror of some convenience-store bathroom. If she didn’t hurry, they would be on the road forever.
She blew out a breath, did her best without a comb to straighten the wind-tangles from her hair, then walked out into the convenience store.
By the time she bought a couple bottles of water, some power bars and deli sandwiches that looked surprisingly fresh for later, she had nearly regained her equilibrium. At least she felt a little more centered, almost in control.
At the Jeep, Kate found Belle in her crate and Hunter leaning against the vehicle gazing up at the dark clouds, his arms folded across his chest. He straightened at her approach.
“Sorry I took so long,” she said, hating that breathless note in her voice. “I bought some provisions so we don’t have to stop for lunch.”
“Good idea.” He moved around the vehicle to open the passenger door for her, which reminded her of something else she meant to bring up.
“Would you like me to drive for a while?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Maybe later. We’ve barely started.”
She wanted to remind him not to overdo it, to pace himself, but she was afraid that would sound entirely too much like a nagging wife, so she held her tongue. Besides, she knew if she had just spent the last thirty months in prison, she wouldn’t want to give up one iota of control to another person, in driving or anything else.
With her small bundle of provisions, she climbed into the passenger seat. He closed the door then walked around to the driver’s side and a few moments later they were back on the road.
After they left the gas station, she tried a few times to make conversation, but gave up when his answers were short and choppy.
Never Too Late Page 5