Page 41 of My One and Only

It reminded her that she’d promised to ask her friends from the service if any of them were interested in work. She’d forgotten all about it in the aftermath of Cam’s accident. So she composed an email, sent it to the fifteen email addresses she had, and hit send.

She was about to start calling repair shops about the blue truck when someone knocked on the door. When Cam called out, “C’mon in,” she looked up and saw Don Kincaid walk into the room.

Focused on Cam, Kincaid didn’t notice her immediately. She would have recognized him, but he hadn’t aged well. He looked ten years older than Cam. As he started for Cam’s desk, he must have caught sight of her out of the corner of his eye, because he looked over at her. Frowned.

“Jo? Jo Finster?”he said.

“Hi, Don,” Jo said. “It’s Jo Hatch now. How’re you doing?”

He shrugged. “I’ve been great since I partnered up with Cam. Love what I’m doing.”

“Always good to love your job,” Jo said.

“What are you doing in Ogden?”Don asked.

“I was visiting my mom,” she said. “I’d been working at the local library, but ran into Cam and he offered me the use of the extra desk in his office,” she said easily. “Believe it or not, it’s a lot more quiet here than at the library.”

“Cam’s a generous guy,” Don said. He turned to Cam. “You have a few minutes to review some job applications?”

“Sure,” Cam said. He pressed his hand to the left side of his head, and Jo didn’t think he was even aware of the gesture. “Can you bring them in here?”

“Yeah, but,” Don frowned. “Easier if you come into my office,” he said.

“Normally I would,” Cam said. “But my head still hurts like a son of a bitch. I really don’t want to walk down the hall to your office.”

Don waited a beat too long. Finally said, “Of course I can bring them in there. I should have realized that your head would hurt. I’ll be right back.”

He glanced at Jo, and Cam waved his hand. “She’s busy with her own work. We won’t bother her.”

Don held Jo’s gaze for a long moment, then nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

He walked out of the office, being careful to ease the door closed. As soon as he was gone, Cam looked at Jo. “I couldn’t think of any reason to have you join us in Don’s office. I hope we don’t disturb you.”

Jo smiled at him. “Don’t worry. You won’t. I have to say I’m impressed by how quickly you thought on your feet. Great reason for not wanting to go to Don’s office alone.”

Cam sighed. “I’m trying to be a cooperative protectee,” he said. “It’s the least I can do after being such an ass the past few days.”

Jo swiveled in her chair. “Trust me, Cam. I’ve guarded a lot worse than you.” She grinned. “I had to threaten to toss one guy out the window from the seventeenth floor if he didn’t stop harassing me. You’re a piece of cake after that dickhead.”

“Glad I haven’t veered into dickhead territory,” Cam said.

“Believe me, if you did, I’d let you know.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you would,” Cam said. He nodded at her yellow pad. “Making any headway?”

“I’m writing down my plan. Then I’ll start implementing it. But I talked to my boss. She’s sending me registration info on blue Ram trucks from this area. Once your meeting with Don is over, I’ll start calling repair shops. If we’re lucky, someone has a blue Ram pickup with front-end damage and we can get the VIN. Find out who it belongs to.”

“That sounds too easy,” Cam said.

“Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “It does. It’s never that easy.”

Cam nodded toward the door. “What’d you think of Don?”

Jo shrugged. Don had made her skin crawl, just like he had when they were in high school. But she wasn’t going to tell Cam that.

“He hasn’t aged well,” she said after a moment. “But he seemed pleasant enough. He’s wondering what I’m doing here, though.”

“He can wonder all he wants. I’ll fill him in after we catch the guy who hit me and the problem is solved.”

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