“You were the highlight of his day.” Nash kissed the top of her head. “Do you feel like eating anything?”
“Not really, but I’m not ready to go back to your place without Wyatt. Does your friend still have Denali?”
“Don’t start worrying about Denali, too. The dog is fine.” He cupped her damp face with his hands, sweeping his thumbs across her tears. “Wyatt will be fine, too.”
“Then why am I so worried about him?” She grabbed his wrists. “It’s not just leaving him that broke my heart, but the feeling in the pit of my stomach that Wyatt will never be safe unless he’s with you. Jaycee felt that way, too.”
“Jaycee brought Wyatt to me because he needed a bodyguard, but a bodyguard does not a father make. She was being sentimental. If my sister, Eve, were here, Jaycee would’ve left Wyatt with her. Jaycee only ever felt safe in the confines of my family.”
“You don’t think he needs a bodyguard anymore?” Emily bit her bottom lip and hugged herself.
“He’ll be safe in the system. A judge is not going to hand over a baby to some junkie or a shady, money-laundering businessman.”
“That leaves you.” Emily grabbed the front of his shirt. “You have to take him if you can, Nash. I know it’s asking a lot of a bachelor, and one with a full-time career and rodeo fetish, but it has to be you.”
Nash raised one eyebrow. “Fetish?”
“You know what I mean.” She released his shirt and smoothed her hands over his chest. “Jaycee had her wits about her for once when she left Wyatt with you and named you his guardian.”
“It’s a big responsibility.” Nash wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead with the heel of his hand. “I’d have to think long and hard about it. Now, let’s get to some AC and have some lunch or at least something cold to drink.”
He opened the truck door for her, averting his eyes from the car seat in the back. Could he be a father on his own? Emily’s presence in their lives had been the only reason the responsibility for Wyatt had seemed easy the past few days. Could he find another Emily?
Before he shut the door, he pinched a strand of honey-rose hair from Emily’s sticky cheek and tucked it behind her ear.
Another Emily? Never.
He drove a short distance to a small café, where he and Emily sat across from each other, both slumped in their seats. They’d ordered iced teas but waved off food for now. His hunger clawed at his stomach, but he didn’t want to eat while Emily was still in mourning for Wyatt.
As he stirred some sugar into his tea, he asked, “Nothing from Lanier yet?”
“I’d tell you if there were.” She spun her phone on the table. “I laid it all out for him in my last text. I told him Jaycee was murdered, DCS had Wyatt and I was officially off the case.”
“His silence is strange.”
“And I suppose you haven’t gotten any more proof that he is involved with Las Moscas.”
“I’d tell you if I had. I’m the only one with his file right now—me and Special Agent Webb.” He snatched a plastic menu propped up on the edge of the table. “You need to eat something. I know it’s hot out there, but try some soup at least.”
She plucked a menu from the stack and ran her finger down the selections. “Tomato bisque.”
“Good choice.” Nash raised his hand in the air to get the waitress’s attention.
When she came over with a refill for their tea, Emily ordered her soup and he asked for a club sandwich and homemade chips.
“Have you contacted your friend about my car and Denali?”
“We texted. He gave me directions to the car, and I’m going to pick up Denali when his girlfriend gets home from work.” He covered her hand with his. “Stop worrying about everything. Wyatt is safe and whichever one of those losers is his father, even if he wants Wyatt, isn’t going to look too impressive to the family court.”
She put her other hand on top of his, creating a stack as big as that club sandwich on the way. “Especially with someone like you in the picture, someone Wyatt’s mother named. That has to carry a lot of weight.”
Nash avoided the topic of his guardianship. “I’m going to have to tell my sister about Jaycee. Although they weren’t close in the end, I know Eve is going to be upset about the news.”
“It’s hard losing people in your life.” Emily gazed into the whirlpool she’d created by stirring the tea with her straw.
“What happened to your father?”
She released her straw and it continued to swirl in the glass. “He was chasing a murder suspect—the East Side Strangler. They’d gone to the guy’s apartment, and he slipped out the back. My father gave chase, and the man turned and shot him.”
“I’m sorry. Did the police catch the killer?”
“He died in another shoot-out—suicide by cop. That guy was not going in as a cop killer.” Anger flashed from her green eyes, replacing the sadness.
Progress.
“And you followed in your father’s footsteps.”
“For a while, as you discovered.” She pulled back from him as the waitress delivered their food.
As he sliced his sandwich in two and took a big bite, she kicked the toe of his shoe. “You’re starving. You didn’t have to hold off because of me. Did you think I’d tag you as insensitive if you ate after leaving Wyatt?”
“Exactly.” He wiped his mouth with a napkin and pinched a thick chip between his fingers and held it out to her. “Try one.”
As she crunched into the chip, he asked the million-dollar question. “What happened to your career as a cop? You got fired, didn’t you?”
“For going above and beyond.” She shrugged and plunged her spoon into the steaming soup.
“When a cop says he...or she is going above and beyond, that usually means trouble.” He pointed a salty finger at her.
