Page 12 of Island Holiday

“Good.”

She felt herself wanting to babble and made a hasty exit. All the way across the room to the couch. She had her own setting up to do and new searches to launch. So why did she keep checking him out? He was the same man she’d shared a plane with. The same man she’d worked with a couple of times.

As he’d said, face to face was different.

The crisp fragrance of the Carolina coast lingered on his clothing, hers too. But it smelled better on him. His personal chemistry supercharged the scent. Like adding salt brought out the flavor of food. She felt almost dizzy, in a delightful way that was impractical in the extreme right now. Maybe salt air had a similar effect. Making her reaction to his presence less about an untimely infatuation and more likely some mysterious aromatic physics.

That was easier to live with.

She had everything nearly ready to get started when he walked up behind her.

“Water or pop?”

She turned, noticed he was offering her a Diet Coke. “Pop?” She took the bottle and set it on a coaster on the end table.

“Blame the Midwest.”

“Fair enough.” She sat down, got comfortable, and reached for her laptop. “I’ll worm my way into his credit card history and see if I can find any hints there.”

“Sounds good.” The chair scraped across the tile as he sat down at the table. “I don’t do family holidays anymore.”

She twisted around to face him. “What?”

“You asked why I was available,” he said, keeping his gaze on his laptop. “It’s because I’m on my own. There isn’t any family waiting for me to come home and join the festivities.”

“Oh.” What tragedy had he endured? “I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” he murmured. “On the flip side, it means I’m in this with you one hundred percent.”

“Okay.” That was good news for the young women they were trying to locate. “Thanks.”

A thousand new questions, all of them intrusive, raced through her mind. She wouldn’t ask a single one. Not now. And though she had the internet at her fingertips and above-average skills with background checks, she wouldn’t overstep.

If he wanted to share more, she’d listen. She put her mind on the task, but her curiosity about Connor kept running in the back of her mind. A big shiny distraction she had to resist.

Had to.

Yes, he was compelling. But she was sure if she went snooping where she didn’t belong, he’d know. A person didn’t get a reputation like Connor’s at the Guardian Agency without a good reason and superb performance.

Was it the family tragedy that drove him into his tech-centric career? Better to bond with the algorithms than people? Except she’d seen him work. The man anticipated what people woulddo. He could read the clues in body language. Again, where had those skills developed?

It was strange how much she suddenly wanted his story and hoped he’d tell her everything. Maybe she could lean into his admission about tracking her and turn that around on him. Get his whole story and balance the scales.

Focus.

She needed to stay in her lane or call the office and admit she couldn’t do the job.

She let the idea of balanced scales simmer in the back of her mind while she continued the financial investigation. Something was bound to show up as she combed the credit card activity for clues and searched for the real names behind the shell companies that protected Zimmer and his consulting gig.

And there was more than a little comfort in the team-effort of Connor’s presence. What she didn’t find, he surely would.

Chapter 5

Sonya was obviously restless.Connor was feeling it himself. After a few hours of quiet working with little more than the sound of fingers on keyboards, he figured they needed a change of scenery.

Although dedicated to her efforts, she’d gotten up periodically to stretch and move around. He tried to time his own breaks to align with hers, in case she was afraid of interrupting him. But she didn’t chat much. He wondered if it was just her habit from spending so much time alone or something about him in particular.

Contrary to what he’d implied earlier, he didn’t know her that well. He had facts from the background work and understood her general tendencies in the time since he’d started keeping tabs on her. That didn’t equate to any true understanding of her hopes or fears or goals.

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