Page 19 of Deputy Brand Gets Her Man
He fell into step with Willow and they walked back up the driveway toward their respective vehicles. She said, “Well? Did that tell you anything you wanted to know?”
“No,” he said. It had come out involuntarily, and it was true, and now he had to explain himself. He said, “I’m not sure I believed her.” That too, was the truth.
“What made you feel that way?” she asked.
He shrugged, and then continued with the honesty bit, because it seemed to be working. She was getting drawn in. “Whenever she was talking about my father, she looked everywhere except at any of us.” And he knew just by Willow’s expression that she’d noticed it, too. “Maybe we ought to know a little bit more about her.”
“Well, I can’t run a background check on her just because you think she’s lying,” she said.
“I wasn’t asking you to.”
“I feel like you kinda were.”
He had been. She didn’t miss a thing. “I didn’t mean for you to feel that way, Willow. Seriously. I didn’t, I was just thinking out loud.”
She nodded slow, her eyes on his. “What were you lookin’ for out back? You weren’t inspectin’ the fountain, that’s for dang sure.”
He’d planned ahead for this, at least, and the lines he’d come up with spilled as smoothly as water had once flowed from that water feature. “I wondered if there was a bench and if maybe he sat on it and planned all the crap he pulled in Quinn. And I wondered if any of the older guys I worked with were out there planning it with him.” He shrugged. “Stuff like that.”
She met his eyes. He gazed right back, not even blinking. He was very good at lying to someone’s face. However, it had never given him such a sick feeling before. He almost had to lower his gaze from hers. It felt like he couldn’t hold the lie when her intense brown gaze was probing his eyes.
Then she blinked, and he was saved. He turned away and sighed, a little light-headed. What the hell was that about?
They were standing beside their respective cars on the roadside, neither in a hurry to leave. It was a warm day, but not hot. Autumn was full on, and while it didn’t cool much, the days got shorter, the nights downright chilly.
She said, “Can I ask a rude question?”
“Sure, ask away.”
“You said there was a snag with your inheritance. What if it doesn’t come through? Will you be okay, financially?”
He frowned at her a little. “I’m supposed to have a call with the lawyer tonight. Should find out what’s up then.”
“Yeah, but…are you worried?”
“A little. I’m not exactly a skilled laborer. What I have won’t last forever.” Unless he found the gold. “I kind of need the inheritance.”
“Or a job,” she said, eyebrows high, challenging him.
He shrugged. “Ethan keeps trying to hire me on at the honky tonk. Needs security, he says. Not sure I’m cut out to be a bouncer.”
“What are you cut out to be?”
“Independently wealthy.”
She rolled her eyes. He didn’t think she’d liked his response at all. And he needed her to like him. And maybe not just because he might need her help to find his treasure. Maybe not just because of that at all. So he said, “Nothing I’m ready to talk about it. Is that okay with you?”
“Well, of course it’s okay with me. It’s your thing, you don’t have to tell me ever. Unless you want to.”
He nodded. She looked like she was waiting for something, but he’d been about as honest as he could for about as long as he could. It felt off. Wrong. Vulnerable, like he was showing his belly, and he needed her to stop looking at him the way she was.
“What are you doin’ after your shift?” he asked.
“Gettin’ a shower, and a meal, and hittin’ the hay.”
“You want some company?”
“For which?” She shot him a mischievous grin.
