The bus lumbered to a stop at Pike Place Market, and Maisy snapped off a few photos of the large neon Public Market and Farmers Market signs and the clock above the entrance to the various shops and stalls. As she did so she took note of the people waiting to board the bus, especially the handsome man bracing himself on a cane next to an older gentleman who had to be his father. The two looked too much alike not to be related. In front of them were a man and woman with a young boy, probably tourists if she had to guess.
But then again, she was a tourist today in her hometown.
The people boarded the crowded tour bus and the noisy clamber of someone rushing up the steps drew her attention. The young boy with the family. Barely seconds later, the older man and his son came up the stairs, the younger man wincing with each step he took.
The man was fit, in excellent shape actually, and she wondered if it was some kind of sports injury as they followed the family up the aisle and took the two seats directly opposite her. The young man was on the outside seat, his father on the aisle beside her.
The older man smiled at her and she returned it since he seemed like a nice enough person. His son...too stoic and serious. Tense, especially as his father bumped his arm and jerked his head in her direction.
The man shot her a quick look and rolled his eyes before mumbling something to his father.
Really? she thought, her ego a little stung by what seemed like a rebuff. But not stung enough to avoid the older man when he pleasantly said, “Are you enjoying the tour, young lady?”
“I am, thank you,” she said.
“Are you a tourist? I’m a tourist, but my son lives in Seattle,” he asked, eyes wide behind the thick lenses of his glasses.
“You might say that,” she said as his son murmured, “Dad, please.”
* * *
EMBARRASSED HEAT FLOODED FBI Agent Miguel Peters’s cheeks as his father tried his very obvious matchmaking with the pretty woman sitting across from them on the tour bus.
He’d told his father time and time again that he had no interest in a relationship right now. Or maybe even ever. As the supervisory special agent of the Seattle Behavioral Analysis Unit, his personal time was limited. He’d thought his father would be aware of what that took, considering Miguel’s mother had been a renowned BAU profiler. One who’d paid for it with her life, cementing his decision to follow in her footsteps.
But as his father kept up the conversation with the young woman, he had to admit that his father couldn’t have chosen better. Not only was the young woman beautiful, with amazing blue eyes and enticing girl-next-door looks, but she seemed bright and interested. Caring as she patiently answered his father’s questions and engaged him with some of her own.
“Are you enjoying your visit, Robert?” she said, and her glance skittered between his father and him.
His father likewise shot a look at him before he said, “I only just arrived a day ago, but I’m enjoying your hometown so far, Maisy.”
Hometown? Miguel thought. Great. More reason to encourage his father to continue with his matchmaking with Maisy. Maisy? What kind of name was that anyway?
“It is lovely. That’s why I decided to share it with people on my blog,” the young woman said as the bus lumbered to their next stop at the Chittenden Locks. While some of the tourists on the bus hurried off, Maisy stayed back with the pair.
“Don’t feel you have to stay with us,” his father said.
She smiled—She is even prettier when she smiles, Miguel thought—and waved off Robert’s suggestion.
“I’m going to stay on until the last stop at King Street Station and take some photos there before hopping back on for the other stops,” Maisy said.
As Maisy stood to snap some photos, his father elbowed him again and murmured, “Perfect.”
Like Maisy, his father and he had planned on staying on the tour bus until the station and then heading to the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibition near the Space Needle.
Determined to avoid his father’s meddling and the attractive Maisy, he turned his attention to the locks, which connected the salt water of Puget Sound with the fresh water of Salmon Bay. Boats were lined up to pass through the locks, which also provided safe passage for salmon to spawn.
Barely minutes later, the bus was in motion again and in just over fifteen minutes they were pulling up in front of King Street Station. Slower than usual because of his injury, Miguel hung back, allowing the family who had come on with Maisy at Pike Place Market to rush off. Maisy and his father went next, heading down the stairs with him following, the stitches in his leg pulling with each step. But he was determined to show his father that he was fine during this visit. Especially since his father had rushed out to Seattle when he’d heard Miguel had been shot.
As Maisy and Robert left the bus and strolled toward King Street Station, they started chatting again, Miguel tagging along behind them. When they reached the station, Maisy walked toward one side, probably to take photos for the blog she had mentioned, and his father trailed afterward, leaving Miguel no choice but to go with them unless he wanted to seem antisocial. Truth be told, Maisy probably already thought that, although if she had half a brain, she’d have seen through his father’s obvious attempts to get them together.
When Maisy looked in his direction, he forced himself to smile and bear it. As he did so, he noticed one of his BAU members, Lorelai Parker, the assistant to the FBI’s director, waiting by the chairs at one side of the station. He was about to go say hello when his phone rang.
His BAU director was calling. Olivia Branson was in Washington, trying to secure additional funding for their office, and probably needed some information from him.
He held up a finger, turned and took a few steps away, certain that he would need privacy during the call, and he wasn’t wrong.
“Good morning, Olivia.”
“I wish it were. Do you have time to talk?”
Miguel glanced back toward his father and seeing that he was busy chatting with the young woman, he took the call.
Copyright © 2021 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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ISBN-13: 9780369709264
Christmas Data Breach
Copyright © 2021 by Kia Dennis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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