As she stepped away, he let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, Hud looked up from his desk to see his deputy standing in front of him, grinning. “You found the motor home we’re looking for.”
“Well,” he said, his grin shrinking some. “I think so. It was returned yesterday, and it did have damage to one of the bedroom doors.”
The marshal got to his feet. “Tell me it hasn’t been cleaned or the damage repaired.”
“It hasn’t. It was rented by a man named Herbert Lee Reiner out of Sun Daisy, Arizona.”
Arizona? Hud recalled one of the inquiries he’d gotten about Natalie Berkshire was from Arizona. “Send a forensic team.” He frowned. If the man had used his real name to rent the motor home, then maybe this wasn’t the right one.
As the deputy left his office to notify the team, the marshal returned to his computer to gather what information he could about Herbert Lee Reiner. Married to Doris Sue Thompson for fifty-two years. Herbert had been a postman until his retirement. That meant his fingerprints would be on file.
It didn’t take long before their names began coming up in newspaper articles. The articles read much like the ones that had run in the Billings newspaper. The older couple were the grandparents of an infant with health problems born to their youngest child. The other name that came up in the baby’s death was Natalie Berkshire.
BRICK WOKE TO the sound of the shower. He looked around the motel room, then at the queen-sized bed he lay in. The covers weren’t overly disturbed. He hadn’t had a nightmare. That alone surprised him.
He stretched, feeling better than he had in weeks. That too surprised him. Maybe what he’d told his father was true. Maybe this was exactly what he’d needed, something he could sink his teeth into, he thought as Mo came out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel.
“Oh, good you’re awake.” She dug in her suitcase, pulled out jeans, a T-shirt and white panties and bra. “I thought you might want a shower,” she said pointedly when he hadn’t moved.
He’d been doing his best not to look at her since the towel was pretty skimpy. “You think I need one?”
“I just don’t want to have to try to dress in that dinky bathroom.” She cocked her head toward the open bathroom door. “Do you mind?”
He threw back the covers and swung his legs over the side. Last night he’d slept in his boxers and nothing else. He hesitated.
“I’ve seen men in a lot less,” Mo said, shaking her head with obvious amusement.
As he strutted past her into the bathroom, he heard her chuckle. He stepped into the bathroom and opened his palm to remove the keys to the pickup he’d grabbed before coming in here. He tucked them under a towel and turned on the shower, smiling to himself. If Mo was planning to leave in his pickup this morning, she was in for a surprise.
He recalled last night when she’d told him he wasn’t going to break her heart. It had sounded way too much like a challenge, he thought. But that was the old Brick. He hadn’t been serious about any woman—at least not for long. That apparently was how he’d gotten the reputation—news to him.
When he thought about Mo, about the look they’d shared at the café, about how his body had reacted with her standing so close last night and again this morning in that towel... The woman had been taunting him. Well, if she thought for a moment that he was going to make a move on her...
Brick turned the shower to cold for a few moments before climbing out. He wasn’t going to let this woman distract him. In the mirror, he ran his fingers through his dark hair. It was a lot longer than he usually wore it, he thought. Also, he had a day’s stubble. He rubbed his jaw, but decided to leave it, not wanting to take the time to shave. Grabbing a towel, he dried off, then pulled on his boxers. He stepped back out of the bathroom.
Mo was gone.
Chapter Eight
Mo looked up as she came out of the local grocery store. From the expression on Brick’s handsome face, he’d thought she’d left him for good. She could see that he was upset and trying to hide it—now that he’d found her. She felt almost guilty for giving him a scare. Also for giving him a hard time last night. She had seen firsthand that the man definitely had a way with women. But then, she’d known that the moment she’d laid eyes on him.
He was too good-looking, too cocky, too full of himself, she’d told herself. And yet since they’d hooked up, so to speak, she’d seen another, more vulnerable side of him. Not that she was going to let that fact weaken her resolve to keep everything between them professional.
“You could have left a note,” he said, walking up to her.
She laughed. “You sound like we’re a thing. If you must know, I went out to get us some doughnuts and coffee,” she said, indicating the bag she was holding in one hand and the to-go tray with two coffees in the other. She handed him the bag, then took one of the coffee cups from the tray and handed it to him. “Also, I looked for an apartment.” He blinked. “Not for us, sweetie. For Natalie.”
The morning was sunny and just starting to warm up. She could smell pine and river scents drifting on the breeze. There was a picnic table on the lawn in front of the small motel. She walked to it and sat down. To anyone watching, they might look like a married couple on vacation.
She opened the bag of doughnuts and offered one to Brick as he joined her.
He took a glazed one and said, “An apartment for
