Page 102 of Hot Stuff
“I wish I’d known you when I had to do my report. I could have picked your brain for all the details.”
“You could have emailed any one of us. We’d have been glad to help you.”
“Oh, I did. Natalie Redding was really great. She found someone in the organization to answer all my questions.”
“Good. I’m glad you got what you needed, but if you’re ever curious about either business, let me know.”
“I will.”
“Ready to eat? I’m starving.” Walker nudges his sister with his shoulder. “Gannon’s already at the table. If we don’t get in there soon, he’ll eat it all.”
Shelby laughs. “He’s not that bad.”
There are subtle signs when a woman is in love with a man and not wanting anyone to know. I see them in Shelby. I’m not sure why they’re hiding their relationship; it’s been going on for years if the PI’s report is accurate.
How Walker hasn’t gotten suspicious is beyond me. Then again, if you’re not looking for something, you tend not to see it. I’ll just have to be ready for when they do announce their relationship.
I’m sure there will be some fallout. They’ve both lied by omission for years. That’s going to hurt Walker no matter how he feels about his best friend and little sister getting together.
“What do you want to drink with dinner? I’ve got wine.”
“Water. I don’t want to open a bottle for one glass. With us returning to Baton Rouge tomorrow, it’ll go to waste.”
“Good point. Water it is. Be right back.”
I watch him head for the kitchen when the front door buzzer fills the apartment. “I’ll get it!”
I leave Shelby and Gannon quietly arguing over what to eat and head for the door. Opening it, I find Henry on the doorstep.
“Ah, Ms. James.” He glances behind me. “Is Mr. Alcott in?”
“He is, do you need him?”
“Um, yeah.” He glances to the side. “Someone left him a…package.”
I tilt my head quizzically. I’m not sure why he’s being guarded. We’ve met several times now. “Can I take it?”
“Um, no.” He straightens. “I think it best if you get Mr. Alcott.”
I nod but I don’t get a chance to turn before a sound has me leaning forward and peering to the left.
The breath I suck in gets caught in my throat.
Big gray-blue eyes stare up at me. Eyes identical to the ones I’ve spent hours looking into.
Shelby is right.
As much as we know it can’t be true, the little boy in front of me is the spitting image of the man in the apartment behind me.
Walker
“I don’t understand,” I whisper in Oakley’s ear so the boy doesn’t hear me. “How do you just leave a kid on someone’s doorstep?”
“I don’t know. I’m trying to work out what her game is.”
“We have to call the police.” I don’t want to. The kid looks lost. And scared. He hasn’t said a word since he came inside.
He didn’t even utter a sound, just nodded his head, when Oakley offered him ice cream.
