Page 344 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

Addie inhaled. Her uncle had quit smoking cigars years ago, but the house still held that oaky tang. “Russ, you here?”

There was a two second pause of complete silence, and then, “Addie?”

She yelled back, “Yeah!”

“Office!”

Buster’s leash still hung by the door. He should’ve thrown that out with the cigars.

Addie wandered through the house to the office where he’d worked for as long as she could remember—taking cases freelance after he retired from the marshals. Skip tracing. Who knew what else. She’d learned it was best not to ask because he certainly wasn’t going to offer up the information.

He stood at the doorway, a frown on his face as she approached. Addie was trying to figure out how to play this off when he said, “You need a nap.”

She’d never been able to pull anything over on a man trained to spot the inconsistency in any story. “That’s only part of why I’m here.”

Sure, she needed rest—according to Matt. According to him, she also needed to get to work, so she figured Zimmerman’s opinion didn’t matter. She was here now, under the Seattle office assistant director.

Matt Zimmerman’s view didn’t have any sway.

He motioned over his shoulder. “I’m in the middle of something. Then we can talk about this new assignment of yours.”

“You know about that?”

He just smiled that grin of his.

“Coffee?”

“Sleep,” Russ ordered. “You’ve been driving, and you haven’t stopped working since you landed, right? I’ll make the coffee, and when you wake up from a nap, we can have a conversation.”

Uh-oh.Addie winced. Seemed like he kept close tabs on her. “Sounds great.”

She wasn’t going to admit she liked the idea, even if it was snooping.

He peered toward the front door. “Moving truck?”

“I didn’t get that far before I left.” She’d figured she was either not staying in Benson that long, or she would pay someone to pack her things and move them here.

While he finished up whatever he was in the middle of, she would get back in her car and find a bed and breakfast…the next state over.

She peeked over his shoulder and saw two men on the monitor of his computer. One had dark hair that fell over his forehead. The other filled the screen, a blond guy with a muscle shirt on—and one arm missing just below his shoulder.

She frowned.

Russ cleared his throat.

“Okay, fine. I’ll disappear again even though I just got here.” She walked away down the hall.

“I know how to find you.”

She waved, though a pang moved through her. She wanted to be someone found—especially by a good man like Russ. But did it always have to be her uncle? Couldn’t she be seen by a hot guy who justgot herwithout either of them having to explain? At least she had this—because her mom sure hadn’t given her anything. Addie had stayed away from Benson too long, but the fact they cared about each other wasn’t something likely to change anytime soon.

Too bad she couldn’t be good at her jobandthe kind of niece and sister who visited regularly. The two were not mutuallyexclusive. It didn’t work like that—kind of like life. It wasn’t possible to have everything. If it was, she would know someone who did.

Addie hauled her suitcase and purse in from the car and dumped both inside the door of her old bedroom. It looked the same, except he’d hung a photo from her FBI graduation on the wall. The two of them stood together, Russ smiling in a way she’d never seen.

Mona had been at an elementary school science camp that week.

Addie looked at the screen of her watch. Her sister would be home from school soon unless she was working her job at the chicken sandwich chain in town. Maybe she and Russ could go there for dinner.

---