She regarded him oddly, but said nothing. Feeling like a sneak, Luke practically raced to the phone booth. He reached the detective on the third ring.
“I was able to come up with a little more information,” he said and gave him what he had. “Does that help at all?”
“Some,” Hill said. “I ran the name through the computer after we talked, just to see if anything turned up based on what you had this morning.”
Luke sucked in a breath. “And?”
“Nothing much beyond the usual, social security number, credit rating, that kind of thing. There was one thing I found a little odd, though.”
“What?”
“Looks to me as if she’s been investigated before. There are some inquiries on the credit history.”
“Couldn’t that have been for a car loan or a job reference or something?”
“Possibly. It just didn’t seem to track that way.”
“How recently?”
“A few years back.”
Luke felt his heart begin to thud dully. “In the fall?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. Most of the inquiries seemed to be around September or October.”
Erik and Jessie had been married on November first. Her name had started coming up at White Pines only a month or two before as someone about whom Erik was serious.
“Do you know something about that?” Hill asked.
“Not for certain, but I’d put my money on Daddy,” Luke said, fighting his anger. He’d known that Harlan suspected Jessie’s motives in marrying Erik, but he’d had no idea he’d gone so far as to check her out. “My guess is that Harlan was doing some checking before Erik and Jessie got married. He probably wanted to be sure that the Adams name wasn’t about to be sullied or that she wasn’t going to take Erik for a fortune.”
The detective didn’t react to Luke’s explanation except to say, “Maybe you can get the information you’re after from your father, then. He was probably pretty thorough. Do you want me to wait until you check it out?”
“No, get started. Even Daddy probably couldn’t bust his way into sealed adoption records.”
“What makes you think you can?”
“Because you’re going to tell me exactly how to go about it, and then I’m going to tell Jessie. She’s probably the only one who can get through the legal red tape.”
“If she wants to,” Hill reminded him.
Luke thought of the sad expression he’d seen on her face earlier. “She’ll want to,” he said with certainty.
“She might not like what she finds.”
“I’ll be with her every step of the way,” he vowed. “It’ll be okay.”
“You’re the boss,” the detective said. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I have anything. Where will I find you?”
“At White Pines.”
“Home for the holidays?”
“Exactly,” Luke said dryly. “Just your typical family get-together.”
It would be a lot less typical when he cornered his father about having Jessie investigated before the wedding. He was filled with indignation on her behalf. In fact, he might very well do something he’d been itching to do for years. He might wring Harlan’s scrawny old neck.
Luke’s expression looked as if it had been carved in stone when he came back from making that phone call. Whatever it had been about, the call had obviously upset him.
Jessie watched his profile warily on the ride home, wondering if she should try to probe for an explanation for his change in mood. She supposed she ought to be used to his sullen silences, but having caught a few tantalizing glimpses of the other, gentler side of his nature, she wasn’t sure she could bear this return to an old demeanor, an old distance between them.
“Bad news?” she inquired eventually.
“You could say that,” he said tersely.
“Can I help?”
He glanced her way. “Nope. I’ll take care of it.”
Jessie’s gaze narrowed. “You jumped in this morning when you saw I had a problem,” she reminded him. “Why won’t you let me return the favor?”
“Because I can solve this myself.”
“I could have solved my problem myself, but that didn’t prevent you from butting in, because you cared.”
Luke’s gaze settled on her and his mouth curved into the beginnings of a smile. “You saying you care, Jessie?”
“Well, of course I do,” she said hotly. “Luke, you know how I feel about you...” At the warning look in his eyes, her voice trailed off. Then, irritated with him and herself, she added determinedly, “And about what you did for me and Angela.”
“Let’s not start that again.”
“Well, dammit, it’s not something I’m ever likely to forget.”
“Stop cursing. It’s out of character.”
She lost patience with all the verbal tap dancing. “Lucas, you are the most exasperating, mule-headed man it has ever been my misfortune to know. It’s no wonder I’m cursing.”
He grinned at her outburst. “I care about you, too,” he conceded, his voice gentler. “If I really needed help with this, Jessie, I swear you’d be the first person I’d turn to.”
Ridiculously pleased, she said, “Really?”
“Cross my heart.”
“So does it have something to do with the ranch?”
He laughed. “Give you an inch and you go for the whole damned mile, don’t you?”
“You know a better way to get what you want?”
An oddly defeated expression passed across his face. “No, darlin’, I can’t say that I do.”
“Luke?”
“Drop it, Jessica. There’s nothing for you to worry about.” He glanced at her. “Except maybe how you’re going to bring Mother and Daddy to heel.”
She heaved a sigh. “I’d rather tackle your problem.”
“No,” he said with a grim note in his voice. “I can just about guarantee that you wouldn’t.”
Before Jessie could respond to that cryptic remark, he’d parked the fancy four-wheel-drive car in front of the garage and climbed out. Before she could move, he had her door open. He reached out, circled her waist with his hands and lifted her down from the high vehicle.
He was close enough that she could feel his warmth, close enough that his breath whispered against her cheek. She would have given anything to stay just that way, but the reality was they were at White Pines and there were far too
