Page 30 of Sadie's Guarded Harbor

“We need to talk to him. Soon.” She grabbed a piece of paper from her desk drawer and scribbled something down.

He leaned forward for a better view. “What’s that? A list?”

“Lists help me focus. Keep me organized.”

He read down the numbered lines. “Are these tasks in a certain order?” He chuckled, unable to hide his amusement.

“As a matter of fact, they are.” She hoisted the paper in front of his face.

He ran his finger down the lines. “You still haven’t looked at the drawings?”

“Next on the list.”

He glanced at the time on the bottom corner of Sadie’s computer. “You plan to do that tonight?”

She offered him a shy smile. “I thought I’d take them home. Once I put Amelia to bed, I’ll have plenty of time to look them over.”

“What will you do for dinner?” The question popped out of his mouth before he could think better of asking it.

She shrugged. “Haven’t thought much about that yet. After I pick up Amelia from the shelter, I’ll probably throw something together. Something quick and easy.”

“After such a long day, that sounds like too much work. You and Amelia are going with me to Katherine’s for dinner.” He dipped his fingers into the front pocket of his pants.

“What?”

“Katherine wants me and Owen to go to her place for dinner. You can come with me, and you can browse through the pictures on the way. Then we can pick her brain. If you’re not there, I might forget to ask something important.” He pulled his eyebrows together, trying to look solemn.

She rolled her eyes, but a hint of a smile burst on her lips. “You don’t want me and my daughter tagging along.”

“You’re my partner on this. We should be together when talking to key witnesses. Besides, Amelia cracks me up, and she’ll probably love spending time with my nephew. He’s only a year younger. Plus, Nora will be there, and we both know how much Amelia loves Nora.”

“Your sister is a key witness now, huh?” Sadie asked, ignoring all his other bullet points.

“Could be.” He grinned, dipping his chin so they were eye-to-eye. “Come on. You don’t really want to look at creepy pictures alone in your dark house, do you?”

She pressed her lips together, pulling them to the side. “Are you sure?”

“Wouldn’t have brought it up if I wasn’t sure.”

“Katherine won’t mind? I wouldn’t want to put her out.”

“Not at all. She’s a nice person. I bet you’d like getting to know her better.”

She finally lifted her eyes to his. Something lingered behind her brown irises—excitement, hope, nervousness? “I’d like that.”

He grabbed her coat from her chair and held it open. “Coming to dinner or getting to know Katherine?”

Turning her back, she stuffed her arms in the coat then glanced over her shoulder with a grin. “Both. It’ll take me some time to drive to Pine Valley to grab Amelia, and I’d like to head home and change.”

“Sure. Forty-five minutes long enough? I’ll stop home and change, too. Then I’ll pick you up.”

She nodded and scooped the evidence bag with Shawn’s drawings and her to-do list off her desk. “Perfect.”

He watched her walk out the door with her belongings pressed to her chest. No purse, no coy look back to see if his eyes were on her, no presentation of what she thought people wanted to see. She was one hundred percent herself. A deadly combination of badass cop and mysterious woman. A combination he was finding harder and harder to resist.

Sadie placedher fork on her empty plate and pushed it away. Licking every last dribble of the creamy sauce from the chicken pot pie Katherine made was too tempting to keep the dish under her nose.

Much better than the chicken nuggets she’d planned to pop in the oven.

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