“You were lucky,” she told them over coffee at Quinn’s one morning. Liz and Mike were there, and Archer pranced around Officer Easton as if she were feeding him Beggin’ Strips.
In between stroking his head, she ruffled his neck and crooned that he was a good dog. “Good thing this handsome boy wasn’t around that night.”
“He was with us,” Liz blurted.
The officer gave her a nod. “That saved him. We investigated a similar case about eight months back. One of our pro basketball players was being stalked by a woman who tried breaking into his house. There are lots of similarities between the two cases. Unfortunately, in the basketball player’s case, the gentleman had a dog. That dog was fed a poisoned meatball right before the attempted break-in. The suspect in your case is facing animal cruelty charges in addition to everything else.”
Sarah gasped. “What happened to the dog?”
The officer just shook her head, and something pointy dug into Sarah’s heart.
Quinn put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed, and she dropped her head against his chest, drawing comfort from his warm strength. “How do you know it’s the same person?”
“The evidence lines up,” Officer Easton answered.
Sarah looked up at Quinn. The blood had drained from his face, and his mouth hung open. “Thank you for being here that night, Officer,” he finally croaked.
She stood to leave and sent him a wink. “Couldn’t let anything happen to my favorite left-winger.”
That night in bed, Sarah shivered as she snuggled close to Quinn. “Thank God Archer was with your mom and dad. Who could do something like that to a defenseless animal?”
“A wacko named Dory, apparently. Hopefully they lock her up for the rest of her life,” he replied.
“Amen to that.” Sarah rolled over and rested her chin on his chest. His fingers tunneled through her hair, and she relished the feel on her scalp. “Gotta hand it to you, though, Sparky.”
“Hmm?”
“Yet one more woman falls under the Hadley spell. I think you have a new admirer in Officer Easton.”
He flashed his full-dimpled smile. “I promised her some tickets. And speaking of the Hadley spell, how come you’re immune?”
She grinned. “Who says I am? Those impressive hockey reflexes of yours kept me safe—twice—and kept you from getting stabbed.” She tried not to gush, she really did, but it was hard not to. Truth be told, she went a little weak-kneed every time she thought about how he’d dropped Wolf and how he’d shoved her out of harm’s way while twisting his own big body away from Dory’s lethal knife. Power, action, speed—heady attributes that drew her like metal to a magnet.
“Speaking of impressive, your quick thinking saved our asses. You knocked her down before she could carve me up, you’re the one who called nine-one-one, and you thought of tying her up. And you held it together under a shit ton of stress. Courage and grace under fire, Sunshine. I’m awed by you.” He picked up her hand and kissed every finger.
His unabashed admiration heated her neck and face. “But I fell apart afterward.”
“So what? So did I,” he laughed. “As I recall, we both had a serious case of the shakes after the police left. What matters is you were sharp when it counted.”
“Like you said, we’re a good team.” She kissed him long and deep.
Chapter 37
Back to Reality, Whatever That Is
As weeks passed, Colorado loosened more COVID-19 restrictions, and the NHL announced its Return to Play Plan. Teams would begin training camp in mid-July—what would normally be smack in the middle of the off-season. After training camps came team qualifiers and round-robins for playoff seeding, with all games being played in Edmonton or Toronto.
Sarah stood in Quinn’s kitchen, staring ahead vacantly, sipping hot tea in a bid to settle her jolting tummy. Spread out on the counter were Paige’s blueprints, and while the project had held Sarah’s attention earlier, her mind was too far adrift to finish her notes.
Archer let out a yip and took off toward the garage. Quinn’s home. Sarah’s jolting stomach positively galloped … with excitement and dread.
He burst from the hallway, Archer dancing at his feet, tossed his gear bag on the floor, and strode toward her.
“Hey,” he said before he leaned down, cinched his arms around her, and kissed her silly.
She gave him a little shove when they came up for air. “You’re all sweaty!”
“No, I’m not. I took a shower after practice just for you so I’d smell good and you’d want to jump my bones as soon as I walked through the door. Now kiss me and jump my bones already.” He leaned in for another kiss, but she slipped out of his grasp.
A nervous laugh escaped her, and she took another swallow of her tea. “I jumped your bones before you left this morning.”
“So?” He winked at her, and his eyes shifted to the blueprints. “What are you doing with Paige’s drawings?”
“Wrapping up.”
He grabbed a sports drink from the fridge and twisted off the cap. “What did you find?”
Engineering talk was a welcome segue, and she pounced on it. “They’re going to need more piers for that foundation, and the HVAC system has to move.”
“I get the foundation—it looked a little suspect to me too. But why the HVAC?”
“Because a support column needs to go there.” She blinked. “You studied the blueprints?”
He grinned. “Yeah. You know what I do for my work, so I thought I’d check out what you do—in your other job.”
My real job. “Yeah, about that.” Another swig slid down his throat, and she stared in awe as it moved along the thick column of his neck.
“About what?” he asked.
“I’ve been sending out resumes,” she blurted. “In fact, I have a virtual interview tomorrow.”
“That’s great they want you, but aren’t you getting on it a little soon?”
She rushed into her prepared speech. “I don’t think so. Your
