“The best.”
His gaze finally landed on her face, and he stared at her for a full minute before speaking. “Courtney, please keep this door locked.” He rested his hands on her biceps, stroking gently as a lover might do. “I’m sure I don’t have to remind you, we’ve had a few robberies lately, not to mention all the pranks people like to play this time of year.” He paused for a moment, and then said, “Oh yeah, and I beg you to stop telling the kids in the neighborhood ghost stories. Especially Jake.” He slid his hands from her arms to her hips, rubbing his thumbs against her hipbones.
Her heart hammered in her chest.
Tread carefully. You don’t want to scare him away.
“Jake’s already heard all the stories. It’s not like my grandmother didn’t tell them to anyone who would listen.”
You’re scaring him away.
“Most just thought your grandmother missed her husband, so she made up stories about him wandering the halls, talking to her, waiting patiently for her to join him.” Abruptly, he stepped back, shoving his hands in his pockets.
Well, this man certainly knew how to turn her on and hit her hot button at the same time. Major accomplishment, two points for the cop. “She didn’t make up anything.” Heat rushed to her cheeks. “You heard the noises too that night you kis… I know you heard the noises. More than once. Grandma even said you’d heard them a few times right before solving cases.”
“My gut instincts as a cop are simply that. I’m good at what I do. And noises don’t constitute ghosts. Besides, this time of year, it just encourages even the best of kids to act out. That’s the last thing I need on a Halloween night.”
Well, this hadn’t gone quite as planned. “My grandparents are together now. And they are watching out for me. And you.”
Until the big oaf figures out it’s his job.
Shut up, Grandma!
He rolled his eyes again. “Can I help you clean up?” he asked.
Typical of him to change the subject. “Sure. Why don’t you strip, and I’ll clean your uniform.”
He burst out laughing. “Doubt you have anything that would fit me.”
“Well, lots of people clean naked.” She winked.
He chuckled. “I’m sure they do, but I don’t. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” And with that, he disappeared into the night.
“Oh, guacamole,” she mumbled. She scurried into the house and bolted up the stairs. She touched up her makeup, fluffed her hair, and put on some strawberry body spray for good measure and ran back down the stairs to whip up something in the kitchen.
Something that would stir his senses.
After stripping out of his food-covered uniform and putting on something more comfortable, Owen stood on his front porch, leaned against the post, and stared at Courtney’s house. For years, he’d listen to the stories her grandmother told of people who possessed certain extra special talents. Hers was connecting with the dead. She’d even tried to tell Owen he had the same talent, along with a few other hidden talents, like his gut instincts. Hell, as a kid, Owen had wanted to believe them, especially when Courtney’s grandmother was the one telling them. As a teenager, he’d use the stories to get Courtney to snuggle up close. Worked like a charm back then, but he wasn’t a teenager anymore.
More importantly, he had an open case on his desk, and it was Halloween.
The time when all bad things happened.
When she’d called about the possible intruder, he’d really been hoping to finally catch whoever was behind the sudden rash of break-ins. In the beginning, he’d figured it was just a kid with an overactive imagination, but not so much anymore, based on the last few cases.
It worried him that Courtney rarely locked her doors, and even though he knew she was one tough cookie, he couldn’t afford to let anything happen to her on his watch. Her grandmother would certainly reach out from the grave and castrate him.
Damn right, I would.
He shook his head at the threat lingering in his mind. Missing the old woman was driving him nuts, literally. He snagged the squeegee and marched across the road with the same unsure feeling he had the day Courtney moved away, like his world was about to change. She always had an uncanny ability to make him act like an insecure idiot.
Well, not anymore.
The closer he got, the faster his heart pounded. She’d been his best friend from the time he could remember until the day Courtney’s mother blew back into town and moved her across the country.
That was a lifetime ago and had no bearing on things today.
Just being neighborly, he reminded himself as he rang the doorbell. Small beads of perspiration trickled down his forehead. He wiped them with the back of his hand. True, it was unseasonably warm at a whopping fifty-five degrees, but certainly not sweat weather. A dog howled in the background as the wind rustled the leafless branches.
“Hi.” She greeted him with a smile and a face full of white powder. Her blue eyes sparkled as she glanced upward and to the right at a small lock of light-brown hair that fell out of her ponytail. She pursed her lips and blew at it, sending some of the white powder across the room.
“What are you doing now?”
“Making another cake for Nicky and some of my grandmother’s famous homemade French toast.”
“I guess I’ve got clean up duty all by my lonesome.” For some reason, he felt a sudden jab to his gut. Normally, he was used to being alone. It was how he liked it, wasn’t it? He didn’t have to answer to anyone, or make sure he didn’t say the wrong thing. All of which was something he’d been notorious for in his last attempt at a relationship. She’d moved in,
