“I’ll tell Sheriff Tanner. Maybe we can connect him to some of the other crime scenes.” Joe took the photo from her and put it back in the file.
“Nothing yet on the belt buckle?” she asked.
“No, but we’ve got people from three different agencies out there looking,” Joe assured her. He picked up the file and stood. “I’ve got to get to the office. I’ll call later if anything new comes up.” He let himself out.
“There’s an omelet for you in the pan on the stove,” Jack told Riley.
Riley made a grunting sound in response and grabbed a clean plate from the drying rack by the sink. He transferred the omelet to the plate, took the seat Joe had vacated and started eating without a word.
Jack caught Hannah’s eye, lifting one eyebrow.
She shrugged.
“If you’re going to talk about me, do it aloud,” Riley said, setting his fork down by his plate.
“Bad morning out at the stable?” Jack asked innocently.
“No, everything’s fine. I just didn’t sleep well.”
“I didn’t, either,” Hannah admitted. “The coffee helped.”
Riley looked at her, his expression softening. “You didn’t have to get up so early.”
“I don’t want to sleep away what time I have left here in Wyoming. I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything.”
“You have,” he assured her. “We may not find the guy before you leave, but you’ve already given us leads we didn’t have before.”
“I wish I could remember more details. Maybe something about the car, or his voice or-something.”
Riley finished his omelet and washed it down with the rest of his coffee. “Actually, I thought about that while I was trying to go to sleep. I think we may have been doing the wrong things to try to jog your memory.”
“What do you mean?”
“The only thing you’ve really remembered was the belt buckle. And that happened when you weren’t actually trying to remember, right?”
She nodded, her cheeks growing warm as she remembered the intimacy of that moment, alone in Riley’s bedroom. He’d been sitting there watching her, close enough to touch.
“It gave me an idea.” Riley’s voice took on a dark, warm color that left her with no doubt that he also remembered that moment between them. He held out his hand, his gaze challenging her to take it.
She put her hand in his and rose from the table.
“Jack, you don’t mind cleaning up, do you?” Riley didn’t wait for an answer, closing his fingers around Hannah’s and leading her to the back door. He reached into the mudroom and grabbed their jackets off the hooks, letting go of her hand just long enough to help her into her coat.
Taking her hand again, he led her outside.
“Feel like a little exercise?” he asked, waving toward a wooden post to the right of the door, where Jazz and Bella stood, saddled and a little restless, breath rising from their nostrils in wispy curls of white.
She grinned, her mood immediately lightening. “We’re going riding?”
“You bet.” He handed her Bella’s reins, and she pulled herself up in the saddle. The chestnut mare nickered softly, her muscles twitching as if eager for a good run.
Riley mounted Jazz and took the lead, guiding the horses through an open gate toward the pasture beyond the stables. Once they were out in the pasture, he gave Jazz a swift nudge in the side and the shiny black gelding sprinted ahead, hitting a full, joyous gallop in a matter of seconds.
Excitement flowing like blood in her veins, Hannah urged Bella into a run and flew across the pasture in pursuit.
“THAT DOES IT,” SHE SAID LATER, watching the horses grazing a short distance away, their coats glistening with a light sweat after the morning run. “We’re definitely adding trail rides to the Cooper Cove Outdoor Experience.”
Riley had led them to the upper reaches of the pasture, where the grassland met the foot of Sawyer’s Rise. Flat, wide boulders dotted the area, providing a dry place to sit after the exhilarating ride.
“You’re a good rider.” Riley settled next to her on the boulder rather than finding his own seat on one of the nearby rocks, though her choice of seats was barely big enough for two. She didn’t know whether to be glad for his warmth or worried by the sudden acceleration of her pulse.
“I’m no cowgirl.” She smiled to cover her sudden nerves. “Bella’s a great horse.”
“She likes you.” He reached up and combed his fingers through her tousled hair. “We need to find you a hat.”
She closed her eyes, trying hard not to lean into his light touch. She might as well stop kidding herself-she was halfway over the moon about this guy, and all the self-lectures in the world wouldn’t do a damned bit of good.
So what if they’d be parting ways forever in just a few days? People had vacation flings all the time. Would it really be so wrong to enjoy whatever there was between them, even if she knew it could never last? Once she got home, she could file it away as a nice memory, to take out now and then and remember with fondness.
Couldn’t she?
Riley’s fingers crept lower, moving gently against the muscles of her neck. “How’s your head? Any more pain or dizziness?”
“No,” she answered. The headache she’d awakened with was long gone, banished by the invigorating ride. She felt better than she had since the attack. “You don’t have to treat me like an invalid anymore. I really feel fine now.”
He shifted until his legs were on either side of her and added his other hand to the neck massage. “I wouldn’t have brought you riding with me if I didn’t know that.”
Giving up her resistance, she relaxed back against his chest and gave herself permission to enjoy being close to him.
“Too bad we don’t have a deck of cards with us,” he murmured in her ear. “We could play another game of smackpop.”
“Popsmack,” she corrected with a chuckle. “We don’t need cards-we could just take turns. You can start. Ask me anything.”
“Anything?”
She nodded. “Except how much I weigh.”
“I already know. I peeked at your hospital chart.”
She groaned. “Completely unfair.”
He tugged at her hair. “Can I ask a question or not?”
She sighed and settled back against him. “Shoot.”
“Does the Crappie Queen have to wear a crown?”
She nudged him with her elbow. “Smart aleck.”
“And maybe one of those-what do you call it-sashes?”
“It wasn’t like I was in a pageant or anything,” she protested. “I’m just the best crappie fisherman on Gossamer Lake. I know where all the little suckers are hiding, no matter what time of year.”
She felt his lips nuzzle her earlobe. “Do you wear little shorts when you fish?”
“Only in the summer,” she murmured, moving her head to make it easier for him to keep doing whatever amazing thing it was he was doing to the side of her neck. “And that’s two questions.”
“Sorry. Your turn.”
She pondered what to ask, not wanting anything to shatter this perfect moment of contentment. She could keep it light, she supposed, like he had. Something he could answer yes or no, so he wouldn’t have to remove his lips from the side of her neck for long.
Before she had a chance to speak, however, Riley’s cell phone rang. Relaxation was over; Riley stood, stepping around the boulder as he answered. “Hey, Joe, what’s up?”
As he listened to Joe’s response, his expression darkened. He shot a quick look at Hannah. “We’ll be right there.”
“What’s happened?” she asked when he rang off.
His expression went grim. “Someone’s leaked your name to the press.”
THE FIRST FLUSH OF ALARM had passed quickly on the ride back to the house, settling into a low-level sense
