Page 39 of Cold Case Discovery

So Jack just had to rely on himself. He reached out, gave Grant’s shoulder a squeeze. “You’ll make a hell of a father, Grant. You’ve had some hands-on practice.”

He shrugged. “Had some good role models to follow too.” He patted Jack on the shoulder, likehewas one of them. “You don’t have to pretend with Chloe around us. No one’s going to cause a problem here. Seems to me you guys should havesomewhereyou don’t have to pretend.”

“I’ll, uh, talk to Chloe about it. Not sure how comfortable she’d be.”

“Sure. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“Even to Dahlia?”

“Well, maybe not that shut. But she won’t tell anyone. You have my word.”

And Grant’s word was good as gold. Always had been.

Jack didn’t think he’d had much to do with that, but maybe...maybe some. A tiny, little bit. And it made him feel pretty damn good that he had.

CHLOEFOUNDRYlaughing with the dogs. Carlyle was watching them with an eagle eye, but from a distance. Giving Ry the illusion of being in charge.

It made her heart twist that it looked like he was handling it just fine. Why hadn’tshebeen able to keep him out of trouble?

Well, didn’t do to think about now. She walked over to Carlyle first. “Hey. How’s it going?”

“As long as the animals are around? He’s fine. Not irritating at all. Might have wanted to pound him on the walk over while he was whining about his tough lot in life—please, buddy, I win. Still, I think we’ll be able to keep him busy and out of trouble without a pounding.”

“I can’t tell you how much I—”

Carlyle held up a hand. “Don’t thank me. It’s rude.”

“How is thanking you rude?”

“Because it is,” Carlyle replied. Then she gave Chloe a kind of sideways look. “So, is this whole protect-you-on-the-Hudson-Ranch thing Jack Hudson’s version of trying to get in your pants?”

Chloe choked on a sharp inhale. “What? No!”

“Is that because he’s already in your pants?”

“Carlyle!”

“Sothat’sa yes.” Carlyle looked back at Ry, who was getting the dogs into the barn one by one. “Iknewit.”

Chloe knew if there was anyone she’d slipped up around when it came tomaybehinting she had a thing for Jack, it was Carlyle and only Carlyle. But... “You did not.”

“I totally knew it. I just couldn’t figure out why all the secrecy about it.”

Chloe could hedge, lie, make up a story, but she was tired and emotionally wrung out, and hell, Carlyle was her friend. “He didn’t want to tell anyone because he didn’t want to see me get needled at work over it.”

“Aw. That’s actually sweet. You know, at first I thought he was kind of a cold fish, but he’s grown on me. He’s just like all uptight goody-two-shoes because he’s always trying to make everything right. It’s annoying as all get out, but it’s kind of sweet when it doesn’t tick me off.”

Chloe shrugged jerkily. Sure, it was. That’s why it was so damn unnerving. “Well, anyway. We still work together, so—”

“Weren’t you applying for that K-9 job at Bent County?”

Chloe pulled a face. She hadn’t told anyone about that...except Carlyle after a few too many at the Lariat one night.

“I’m not going to apply for some job just to... Whatever.”

“No, you were going to apply for it because you love dogs and were getting tired of the same old same old in Sunrise.”

Chloe hadn’t hit Submit on the application because as much as she wanted to try her hand at the K-9 unit in Bent County, she hadn’t wanted Jack or anyone else to read into her switching jobs. One way or another. Because she’d needed to prove to herself she was strong enough not to go switch jobs in the hopes she’d have a future withsome guy.