Page 54 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

“You could slide it around to the small of your back, though that wouldn’t exactly be comfortable in a chair.” He wasn’t going to argue with her. She could wear it or not. She didn’t have to do what he said, so there was no sense in them discussing it further. He backed away and indicated the area around his chest. “I know some women like to wear it higher, under, uh… You know, you have some space there beneath, uh…”

She giggled. “I see what you’re saying.” She scooted the holster up beneath her breasts, then shook her head. “Yeah, how stupid do I look trying to get it from there?” Her right elbow jutted up as she pulled the gun from the holster.

“I take it your goal is to defend yourself and look good doing it?”

That made her smile. “But wait. I wouldn’t wear it over my clothes, so first I’d have to lift my shirt, flash the guy.”

He looked away, realizing what she was saying and trying not to picture it. “It would be a heckuva distraction.”

That elicited another laugh.

When he glanced back, she’d pushed the strap down and below her pants’ waistline. “I guess that’s okay. I could tighten it, and it could double as a girdle.”

As if she needed that. As if she wasn’t enticing enough already.

“I feel like a crazy person,” she said.

Her words brought Garrett’s thoughts and eyes back where they belonged. “If you were crazy, you would make no effort to protect yourself, despite the stalker and the burglar. This doesn’t make you crazy, it makes you sane.”

She held his eye contact for a long moment, then nodded. “Okay. Okay, you’re right. I’ll try to get used to it.” But she moved to take it off.

He laid his hand over hers on her hip. “What are you doing?”

“I don’t need to wear it here.”

“First, you want to get used to it. You just said that. Second, if someone were to break in, don’t you want it with you?”

“But...”

He heaved a sigh. “Do what you want, but if I were you, I’d wear it around the house. Not when you’re sleeping, but have it close by. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

She studied him for a long moment, then collapsed on the sofa. “Fine. I’ll keep it on. For now.”

Until you leave.She didn’t need to say the words out loud.

“Maybe we should revisit the idea of you moving back to the hotel.”

He thought she’d shoot that down immediately, but she seemed to consider it. “He or she or…they were looking for something. I don’t know what, but if there’s some clue about my mother’s whereabouts?—”

“Is that what you think they’re after?”

“What else could it be? If Marion Eaton was right, my mother killed a woman. Dad told me she got into some trouble and then disappeared, so I’m thinking she must have gone missing right after that happened. I mean, that day, that week? I don’t know. Maybe they think I know where she is.”

Her words tracked very closely with what Uncle Dean had said.

“Or maybe they think the answer is here at the house. If that’s the case, then I need to be the person to find it, to do right by her as Dad asked. If they thinkIknow, then moving to town won’t do me any good. They’ll find me there, whoevertheyare.” She shook her head. “No. No, unless I leave town entirely, I don’t see how moving to a hotel will do me any good. I might be safer—maybe—but I’d be exposing the house. I need to stay here and finish what Dad started.”

Garrett regarded her a long moment. Her cheeks had more color than they’d had before, but her eye makeup was smudged, thanks to her tears. She looked somehow both exhausted and determined. “Would your father really want you to put yourself in danger?”

Aspen’s eye contact faltered. “He’s not here.” She met his gaze again, shoulders squared. “I’m going to figure out what happened back then—and find my mother—and no intruder or stalker is going to stop me.”

He wouldn’t be able to talk Aspen out of her chosen course, which meant he would need to stick very, very close.

But first, he was going to find out exactly what his uncle knew.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Aspen’s first thought as she came to awareness was that something was wrong.

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