Page 4 of Dairy and Deadly

“So small,” Caro agreed, fluttering her lashes at Johnny. “About my other reason for visiting…”

“Hold on a sec.” He held up a finger at her and followed Ashley from the room, hating to end their visit so abruptly.

Stepping outside the door, he increased his stride to catch up to her. “Coward,” he rasped.

Ashley’s feet shuffled to a halt. She spun around to face him, searching his expression. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Though her voice was bland, there was a suspicious twitch to her lips that told him she was lying.

His gaze narrowed on her. “I think you do.”

She tipped her face innocently up to his. “I’m just getting out of your way, Romeo,” she gestured toward the open door of his office, “so you can get back in there and?—”

“Please stop,” he groaned, glancing worriedly up and down the hallway. Though no one else was in sight, there were security cameras every few feet in the building. With his luck, one of his fellow PIs was listening in on their conversation right this second, laughing his backside off.

“Oh, come on!” Her eyes danced with a delicious brand of amusement. It warmed his heart despite his forthcoming tête-à-tête with Caro that Ashley’s abrupt departure was sentencing him to. “You’ve got a reputation to maintain as the latest and greatest heartthrob of Heart Lake.”

“Says who?” he spluttered, feeling his face turn red.

“I didn’t catch her name,” she snickered, “but I was assured by a complete stranger at the diner last night that the key to your heart is one of the town’s best kept secrets.”

Her explanation made his chest ache. It sounded like the story of his tragic past had finally hit the local gossip channels. Part of his story, at least.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Ashley continued in a gentler voice, “I turned up the volume on my noise-canceling ear pods and only pretended to listen to her after that. I can nod and smile like a pro,” she finished with another one of her infectious chuckles that lifted some of the heaviness in his chest.

Though he appreciated her attempt at humor, he felt compelled to set her straight on one item in particular. “No matter what you hear about me, Ash, my heart isn’t as bullet proof as some folks make it out to be.”Far from it. He was still picking up the pieces of what was left of it.

“I can relate.” Her smile faded as a hand crept unconsciously toward the opposite shoulder.

He could only presume it was where she’d been shot. “Sorry,” he said quickly. “Poor choice of words on my part. Didn’t mean to bring up?—”

“I can handle it.” Her voice was dry as she lowered her hand and stuffed it in the pocket of her coat. “I’m not made of glass.”

“Yeah, but you broke up with the last guy you dated for being insensitive.” The words shot out of him before he could give them more thought. He hadn’t meant to insinuate he was gunning to be the next guy she dated, even though he was. Maybe.

Her eyes widened. “You’re a lot of things, Johnny Cuba. Insensitive is not one of them.”

Her words caught him off guard, but he tried to pass it off as a joke. “Another point in my column?”

“Two more points, since you were nice enough to offer me a tour of your dairy farm.” The engaging way she cocked her head at him made him wonder if she was actually considering taking him up on the offer.

“Johnny?” Caro’s voice carried to them from inside his office.

He held out his business card again, upside down this time so she could see his cell number scrawled on the back. To his relief, she accepted it and tucked it in her pocket.

As he backed away from her, he pretended he was holding his cell phone to his ear. “Call me, and we’ll set up a time.”

“Maybe I will.” Her smile was back as she turned away from him and glided up the hallway.

Chapter 2: Plotting & Planning

Ashley’s cell phone started buzzing again as she pushed through the double glass front doors. She tried to ignore the sound, knowing it was probably her ex. Again. Instead, she focused on her surroundings. One of the biggest parts of her job was to pay attention to what was happening around her.

She glanced back at the brown brick building she’d just exited. Word on the street was that the two-story that housed Lonestar Security’s headquarters had once been a post office. That would certainly explain its old-time charm. The checkered tiled floors, richly carved crown molding, and white stone accents were downright breathtaking. Johnny was fortunate to work in such a beautiful building. The elegant wall panels in his office alone looked like something that belonged in a magazine.

In comparison, her office was a mobile one, the four-wheeled kind. While teasing him about what the Heart Lake rumor mill was busy churning out about him, she’d failed to enlighten him on the juiciest secret the town was harboring — that an out-of-town PI was attempting to solve a murder case while living in her car.

Sort of.

She preferred to think of it as her longest stakeout yet, one that currently had no end in sight.

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