Page 58 of Refuge for Cherilyn

“Ah. And I guess you had them put your number in this one?”

“You’ve got me all figured out, woman,” he said with a laugh.

“Your mom and dad put theirs in it too, so that’s good, I suppose.”

“Very. If they didn’t like you, they wouldn’t have done that. Did you guys have a good time?”

“Yeah. They’re really nice. Wow, and your mom’s a great cook. It was delicious. Your dad played the cup and nut game with Lara and had her laughing her head off. When it wasn’t under the cups, he’d pretend to pull it from behind her ear, and she thought that was the funniest thing she’d ever seen. I bet he did that for an hour and a half, and she laughed every time.”

“Yep. That sounds like my dad. Did Candace behave herself?”

There was a giggle. “Yeah, after your mom took her outside and read her the riot act. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but it was quite the storm out there on the porch. Leslie’s really hurt, but she does love Candace. I think they’ll be okay.” She stopped, and Shaw waited. When she finally spoke, his heart leaped at her words. “I wish I had a family like that.”

“You can. Someday. Maybe sooner than you think. It’ll happen, Cherilyn. Trust me, it will. Oh, and I met the Texas guys tonight. They seem really nice, but they don’t have any better grasp of this than we do. The only thing they may offer is the ability to get the DNA done a lot faster than we could.”

“Well, that’s something, right?”

“Oh, it’s more than something. If we can link it to somebody who’s in the system, we’ll be in much better shape in the investigation.”

“Good. Well, I guess I’ll see you when you get here. How much longer?”

Shaw looked at the clock on his dash. “About three hours.”

“Okay. I’ll have the girls in bed by then.”

“Good. That’ll give us some time to ourselves.” He hoped that was what she was thinking about, because it was certainly whathewas thinking about.

“Yep. And that’s a good thing.”

“Yes, ma’am. It sure is. Kisses, babe. See you in a bit.”

“Kisses back. Bye.”

He had a woman to go home to. Now to find a killer, and theyhadto find him. If anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.

* * *

Leslie had fought like hell,but Cherilyn and her girls had insisted they could clean up the kitchen, while Candace sat at the table and poked around on her phone like the rest of the people in the room weren’t there. After they’d talked and laughed all evening, Leslie gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and told Cherilyn she’d love to have them all to the Harrisons’ house for dinner. The younger woman couldn’t believe it. Somebody really liked her enough to want to invite her to their house! That had never happened before, except for Shaw.

Ah, Shaw. Her heart sighed every time she thought of him. He was strong and handsome and smart, and he had a decent job too. That was a real plus. He treated her with respect, which was more than she’d had with Frankie. It wasn’t like Frankie had been a bad man. He just wasn’t much of a man at all.

She’d gotten everything done, clothes in the dryer, dishes in the dishwasher, when she heard the TV snap on in the living room and went to see what was going on. Candace sat there, remote in hand.

“Hey, I thought you were in bed.”

The girl didn’t even look Cherilyn’s way. “You thought wrong. I stay up pretty much all night.”

“I kinda think your dad isn’t going to allow that.”

The eye roll was almost audible. “He thinks he can tell me what to do, but he can’t. I can do what I want.”

Cherilyn sat down in Shaw’s recliner and smiled at the girl. “Anything he tells you to do is only for your benefit.”

“Oh, yeah? Letting them take my car? I don’t think that was for my benefit.”

“You do know that in Kentucky, if you get caught driving underage, your driver’s license is denied until you’re eighteen, right?”

“I’d just keep driving without one.”

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