of our former fair city, a powerful man and a dear friend who had introduced us to each other a long time ago. My husband knew there was no way I could turn down that particular summons.
After a moment’s hesitation, he offered me a slight grin. “You’re welcome to stay here and enjoy the summer heat, but they’re putting me up at the Belmont
“I’ve got things to do here,” I said stubbornly.
He wouldn’t let me pout though. The big bear wrapped me up in his arms and said, “You can work on your puzzles just as easily there as you can here. They have pencils and erasers in Charlotte, too, you know. Come on. It’ll be like a second honeymoon, only this time it will be on someone else’s dime.”
“Some honeymoon. You’ll be at police headquarters all day and half the night, if I know you.”
“They need me, Savannah,” he said somberly. “More importantly, Grady could be in some real trouble. This guy isn’t messing around.”
I studied him a moment before I trusted myself to speak. “And don’t forget the other highlight here; you get to be a cop again, don’t you?”
“Nobody’s going to shoot at me. Don’t forget, I’m just a consultant,” he said. “I won’t be anywhere near the line of fire.” He touched his chest lightly as he said it, gently rubbing the scar where the bullet had entered.
I knew there was no point in arguing with him. I looked wistfully around the cottage and realized that he was right. There was no way he could refuse to help our best friend. Besides, a getaway might be nice. It was just too bad that my husband, despite his protests to the contrary, would probably be putting his life on the line, and that was something I never thought I’d have to deal with again.
There was no use worrying about it now, though.
I smiled as brightly as I could manage and said, “Let me pack a few things, then I’ll be ready to go.”
He looked at me skeptically. “It’s really going to be that easy? I don’t have to twist your arm to get you to go?”
I reached my arms up around his neck and kissed him. “If you’re going, I’m going.”
He smiled down at me. “That’s why I love you so much.”
“One of the many, many reasons, I’m sure,” I said, matching his smile with one of my own.
“ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO HATE THIS, SAVANNAH? I CAN turn around and we can go back to the cottage, if you’re that dead-set against it. You’re more important to me than anyone else in the world, even Grady. You know that, don’t you?”
We’d been driving nearly two hours and we were fast approaching Charlotte. Normally the trip felt like it took forever, but it seemed like ten minutes to me this time. I was dreading every mile of it as the markers sped past, and my husband knew it.
“It will be fine, Zach. Grady Winslow is our friend. I just hate to see you putting yourself back in danger.”
“Come on, you know me. If I hear even a car backfire, I’ll run the other way.”
“We both know better,” I said. I patted his shoulder holster and touched his gun. “Don’t ever try to tell me that. You couldn’t wait to get back into that harness.”
“You weren’t supposed to notice that,” he said.
“Zachary Stone, just because you were the police officer in the family doesn’t mean that I don’t notice things, too. My puzzles make me aware of anything that changes or doesn’t fit into a situation. Life is one big math problem waiting to be solved, if you look at it the right way.”
He shook his head and laughed gently.
“What, you don’t believe me?” I asked, trying to keep the slight hurt out of my voice.
“No, ma’am, I would never say that, even under gun-point. It’s just that I never have understood your fascination with numbers. You see them in entirely different ways than I do.”
I tried to snuggle close to him, despite the seatbelt holding me steadfastly in place. “That’s all right; it wouldn’t be any fun if we were exactly the same. I like to think we complement each other.”
He smiled. “You do look pretty fantastic today.”
“Complement with an ‘e’, not an ‘i’, you goof,” I said.
“I knew what you meant,” he answered with a grin, “but I stand by my earlier statement.”
“If I could lose fifteen pounds, I might just agree with you,” I said.
“Don’t you dare lose an ounce. I love you just the way you are.”
I grinned at him. “That’s probably a good thing, because I’m not about to go on a diet in Charlotte. I can’t wait to hit some of our favorite restaurants.”
“Does that mean you’re warming up to the idea?”
I thought about it, considered the possibility that despite his protests to the contrary, my husband might land himself in danger again, but then I realized that this was what he’d been made to do.
Before I could form a reply, he said, “Strike that last question. I’m not sure I want to know the answer.”
“No, it’s fine. I realize that you need to do this, and I want to be with you.”
As he got off the interstate at an exit much earlier than the one for the police station, I asked, “Where are you going?”
