solemnly, as if he’d spent a great deal of time contemplating the perfect choice. Which, knowing Zachary, he probably had.
She headed down the hall with her son, fully expecting to find Harlan sleeping on the sofa. After their lovemaking, before she’d fallen asleep, he’d asked her if she thought he should go back to the sofa, since Zachary was so resistant to any little change in his routine. She couldn’t remember her answer, but it was just like Harlan to think about what would be comfortable for her son.
Only Harlan wasn’t on the sofa. Or in the kitchen. And the bathroom in the hallway had been dark when they passed it.
Her sense of joy began to fade into unease when she glanced out the front door and saw that his truck was no longer parked out front, the way he’d left it the night before.
Where on earth had he gone?
THE FIRST GRAY LIGHT of dawn was peeking over the flat horizon in the east when Harlan’s cell phone rang. He was sitting in front of the picture window in Jeff Appleton’s living room, wishing he were back at the Twin Harts guest ranch, skin to skin with Stacy, but he’d promised to stay at Appleton’s place to keep an eye on his daughter while Jeff went on a mission to get the sheriff and a local judge involved in the latest break in the investigation into the Austin bombing.
It was Appleton. “We got the warrant. We’re about to execute it now.”
Harlan felt a rush of relief, followed almost immediately by an anxiety chaser. What if they found nothing incriminating at Trevor Lewis’s house? Would he blame the invasion of his privacy on the governor? Call it a vendetta against him?
Harlan could very well be making things a lot harder for Stacy, he realized as he settled back down to wait for word from Jeff Appleton. And that was the last thing he wanted to do.
He wished he could call Stacy and tell her what was going on, at least to forewarn her. But it wasn’t yet four in the morning. She wasn’t likely to be awake at this hour, and if he called, he risked waking Zachary, as well. Stacy didn’t need the added stress of dealing with a sleepy, cranky little boy.
Hopefully, the search would be finished by dawn, and Harlan could wake her with a kiss and the good news that Trevor Lewis was no longer a threat to Zachary or anyone else.
Then what? After tonight’s fundraiser, his job with the governor was over. She hadn’t mentioned adding him to her permanent staff, and after the stress of dealing with the politics of her position, Harlan didn’t think he was interested in such a job.
Really, the only draw at all was being with Stacy and Zachary, and since he had no intention of leaving Freedom as long as the two of them remained there, he could see her and Zachary whenever she’d let him, couldn’t he?
After signing the divorce papers and putting his disaster of a marriage to Alexis behind him, he’d sworn he would never make the foolish mistake of marrying again. And until he’d met Stacy, he hadn’t met a woman who’d tempted him away from that vow for a second.
But Stacy was different. She was tough and loyal and as trustworthy as a woman came. And if he could just convince her that he wasn’t going to flake out on her the way her jerk of a husband had done, maybe they really had a shot at happiness.
At least, he hoped so.
But first, they had to figure out who was gunning for the governor. Because as long as that threat remained, Stacy and Zachary would never really be safe.
The hours since Zachary woke her had passed slowly, unaided by anything approaching actual sleep. She’d tried to go back to sleep after Zachary was finished with his snack and safely tucked under the covers again, telling herself she was overreacting to finding Harlan gone when she awoke. But as the sleepless hours ticked away, the truth seeped through the barrier of self-protective lies she’d constructed.
It had been sex. Good sex-no, great sex-but that was all it had been. It hadn’t been the start of some wonderful new relationship. It wasn’t going to be the first of a lifetime’s worth of nights spent curled up in Harlan McClain’s strong arms.
And the sooner she dealt with those facts, the sooner she’d get past the pain and shame and get on with her life.
Giving up the pretense of sleep, she rose for good, directing her restless energy to the task of cleaning up the painful reminders of their brief intimacy, changing the sheets and pillowcases so that they no longer smelled like him. She picked up his discarded clothes and packed them away, along with the rest of his clothes, into the pair of large duffels he’d brought with him after he moved in.
He wouldn’t need to be here after tonight’s fundraiser, after all. He could go back to his real life-and let her and Zachary get on with theirs. Zachary wasn’t going to be happy, of course, but she’d figure out some way to distract him until he settled into the idea of Harlan no longer being around.
At 6:00 a.m., she called Charlotte Manning to make sure she could still watch Zachary during the fundraiser, but once she heard her friend’s gentle voice, she found herself blurting out the mistake she’d made the night before, giving in to the need to cry on her friend’s shoulder. She didn’t go into details, but Charlotte was a smart woman who easily read between the lines.
“Are you sure you have this right?” Charlotte asked after Stacy finished, her voice soft with sympathy and concern.
“How else am I supposed to read it?” Stacy dashed tears from her cheeks with angry jabs of her fingertips. “Not a note, not a goodbye, just slam, bam-”
“Come on, Stacy. He’s in the middle of an intense security project. How do you know he didn’t get called away for something related to the fundraiser?”
The surge of hope Charlotte’s words evoked was almost embarrassing. “I thought about that, but it doesn’t explain why he didn’t at least leave me a note.”
“I just think you should discuss it with him before you jump to any conclusions.”
“There’s nothing to discuss,” Stacy said sharply. “Harlan and I both knew before we got ourselves into this mess that neither of us wanted anything serious. Anthony cured me of that kind of romanticism.”
“And that’s why you’re crying your heart out over a one-night stand?” Charlotte’s voice flattened. “Anthony hurt you, Stacy, but that doesn’t mean Harlan-or some other guy-is going to do the same thing.”
“I’m glad you can still believe in true love and happily ever after,” Stacy said, meaning it. Maybe, if she were stronger and braver, if she didn’t have Zachary’s welfare and happiness to worry about, she’d be more willing to take a chance on something impossible.
But she couldn’t take any more chances, especially after making the mistake of putting aside her lingering doubts last night and taking a leap of hope.
“Stacy, at least talk to him-”
“I have to go. You need to get ready for school, and Zachary will be up any minute.” She said a quick goodbye and hung up before Charlotte tempted her good sense any further.
She woke Zachary and dressed him for school, expecting Harlan to walk through the door any moment with some lame excuse about where he’d gone and why he hadn’t left her a note or called. She was ready for him, however-his bags were packed by the sofa and she was cleaned up and sobered up by cold, hard reality.
No tears. No arguments. No begging for any sort of reconsideration. And if she felt hurt or ashamed by her mistake last night, she’d be damned if she showed it.
But by the time she had to leave to take Zachary to school, Harlan still hadn’t arrived or even called.
She wrote a quick note and tucked it under the canvas strap of one of the duffels, where he couldn’t miss it.
Taking a final look at the bags sitting on the floor by the sofa, she followed Zachary out the front door.
JEFF ARRIVED HOME a little after 7:30 a.m., his grim expression making Harlan’s gut twist with apprehension.
