unit.”
“There are benefits to working in unison,” he admitted, pulling a glass from the cabinet. “Want some tea?”
She shook her head. “I don’t suppose Zachary will ever be in the military. He likes structure, but let the drill instructor give him an unexpected order, and he’d fall apart.”
“Is that why he was upset? You changed something on him?”
“He made plans to ride at the Twin Harts stable without asking me. Promised the horses, you see, and you’re not supposed to break a promise.” She settled on the bar stool, watching him pour a glass of tea. “How did the talk with Trevor go? Do you believe his version of things?”
“I don’t know.” Harlan brought the tea over to the counter. The only thing between them now was the breakfast bar.
Stacy was struck by a sense of intimacy she hadn’t felt with anyone in a long time. By the end of her marriage, she and Anthony were more like acquaintances than friends, much less lovers. But with Harlan, she felt…connected, somehow. She was beginning to think of him as someone she could count on to be there for her when she needed him. It was a dangerous conceit.
“You still think he might be up to something?” she asked.
“I don’t know. His story sounds plausible. I’m definitely going to want to look deeper into his background. I’m not sure I’d let Zachary go riding with him alone anymore, either.”
“I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to talk Zachary out of wanting to ride tomorrow afternoon.”
“What do you have to get done tomorrow?”
She rattled off a long list of responsibilities. “We’re working against the clock anyway, and I can’t expect everybody else to work harder just to accommodate Zachary’s obsessions.”
“How about this? Some of that stuff you can do from here, after hours, right?”
“Yes, but someone has to get Zachary fed and bathed and ready for bed-”
“I can do it.”
She shook her head quickly. “It’s too much to ask.”
“You didn’t ask. I offered.”
“But why?”
“Because it will help you and Zachary.” His eyes darkened, and the air around them crackled with heat. “Let me help you.”
Blinking back the hot tears stinging her eyes, she nodded. “Okay. I’ll only take off as long as it takes to drop him off and pick him up.”
Harlan shook his head. “No, go riding with him. You do know how to ride, right?”
“Yes, but-”
“It’ll make his day. And he’ll be safer out there if you’re with him.” Harlan reached across the space between them and slid his fingertips along the curve of her jaw, making her shiver. “Zachary’s not the only one around here who needs a break from all the stress.”
She took a swift breath through her nose, fighting tears again. This time, she wasn’t able to stop them from spilling.
Harlan came around the counter and pulled her into his arms, his large hand curving around the back of her head in an awkward yet tender caress. “It’s okay,” he murmured. He seemed out of his depth, somehow, as if her sudden emotional breakdown scared him to death, but the fact that he was making an effort to comfort her anyway made her heart contract with an overwhelming rush of affection.
He was a man in a million. If she were any other woman, in any other situation, she’d be crazy not to snap him up before another woman figured out what a prize he was.
But she wasn’t another woman. And this wasn’t another situation.
She eased away from his embrace, swiping at her tears with her fingertips. “I’m sorry about that. I’m okay now.”
“Why don’t you go wash up? I’ll check the fridge and see what I can rustle up for dinner.”
She couldn’t hold back a watery smile. If Harlan wanted to play nursemaid to Zachary over the next couple of days, he needed to know a little of what it would entail. “Tuesdays are hot dog night. No mustard. And exactly twelve potato chips for Zachary. No more, no less. He likes apple juice with hot dogs. Not tea, not milk-apple juice. I have juice boxes in the fridge-that will do. And he only eats hot dogs from the small green plate.”
Harlan gave her a look of pure panic, but he nodded. “Is there a list somewhere? For when I watch him alone.”
“I’ll leave you one,” she promised.
He smiled his relief, making her heart skip a beat.
A man in a million, indeed.
“WE’RE WAITING FOR some information from California- Trevor Lewis grew up in San Mateo, but he’s been working as a horse groom throughout the Southwest for several years.” The second Harlan walked into the CSI offices on Wednesday, Vince Russo greeted him with a sheaf of notes he’d been working on all morning. “Lewis seems to have a good record with the stables where he’s worked here in Texas. We have preliminary info from stables where he worked in Arizona and New Mexico. Hopefully more by this afternoon.”
“And the stuff from Cali?”
“Probably tomorrow. Might be in the evening, though. Our California contacts aren’t very quick to respond.”
“Maybe we need new California contacts,” Harlan grumbled. “Where’s Coltrane?” Wade Coltrane was an experienced undercover agent, and Harlan had decided he needed someone on the inside of the governor’s staff.
Vince looked at his watch. “Halfway through his vows.”
“His vows?”
“He and Lindsay eloped. They decided a big wedding would take too long, and besides, when you already have four-year-old twins, why wait?” Vince grinned. “They found a little bed-and-breakfast up in Lubbock that had a wedding chapel nearby. Carrie thinks it’s the most romantic thing she’s ever heard of. I have a feeling it’s going to be hard to surprise her when it’s our time to get hitched.” Vince had fallen hard for the country music star when he’d been tasked with protecting her a couple of months earlier.
“Why am I always the last to know about anything that happens in this place?” Harlan asked. Some investigator he was.
“You’ve been a little busy.”
“Yeah.” Harlan took the notes Vince gave him to his desk and settled into the leather office chair, leaning back until the chair springs creaked. He looked over the notes, trying to find patterns that might give him a better idea whether Trevor Lewis was just an ordinary guy who worked at a stable or if he was a real threat to Stacy and Zachary.
And the governor, of course, he added with a mental kick to his own backside. He’d been hired to protect Lila Lockhart, first and foremost.
But he couldn’t quite make himself accept that anyone’s safety was more important than Stacy’s and Zachary’s.
“There was one thing in those notes that nagged at me, but I haven’t figured out why,” Vince said, rolling his chair closer to Harlan’s desk. “When Trevor Lewis was working on a ranch outside Melrose, New Mexico, he asked for a week off in the middle of foaling season. He’d been working there less than six months and didn’t have vacation time built up, so he took the time off without pay.”
“I think he has an independent source of income,” Harlan said, filling Vince in about Trevor Lewis’s apartment. “It’s nicer than yours or mine. Rent at that apartment complex is close to a grand or more a month-I priced it when I was looking for a place to live.”
“But why take off during foaling season? What did he need the time off for?”
“I don’t know,” Harlan admitted. “What was the date?”
“March 21.”
