Page 52 of Shelter for Sharla

“Want me to stay with them tonight so you guys have the run of the house?” Cruz asked, grinning.

“No need. I’ll probably come back here.”

“No! You should get some rest! We’ve been working night and day on this. Take a break. It’ll come together. Our analysts are the best. They’ll get it.”

“But what if they don’t?”

Cruz rolled his eyes. “Okay then. You want to sit here and stare at that paper all night, you go right ahead. I’m getting some rest. Catch up with you later.” With a backhanded wave, he was gone.

Carter stood and stretched, then grabbed his own jacket and headed to the house. Sure enough, Sharla’s car was in the driveway. “Something smells good in here!” he called out as he opened the door.

“Good! I didn’t burn it too badly!” she yelled back, laughing. When he stepped into the kitchen, she met him with a smile and a big wooden spoon in her hand. “Hi!”

“Hi.” The kiss she gave him was a welcome bit of paradise in an otherwise shitty world. “Have a good day?”

“Good enough. You?”

“Still haven’t had any movement in that development.” He hadn’t told her what they were working on, so if anyone asked, she honestly didn’t know. That was best for her safety.

“Bummer. Maybe you’ll get a break tomorrow. How does spaghetti sound?”

“If it tastes as good as it smells, it’ll be delicious.”How ironic?I’m eating Italian food while an Italian is terrorizing my world, his brain muttered and he almost laughed. “Back in a minute.”

Changing into a pair of jeans and a tee, Carter looked in the mirror and finger-combed his hair. When he padded sock-footed back into the kitchen, Sharla had plates on the table and was pulling hot bread from the oven. “You really went to a lot of trouble. Anything I can do to help?”

“Yeah. Get some dressing out of the refrigerator. I want Italian, of course. Get whatever you like too. Oh, and the grated parmesan.”

Italian sounded good to him, so he pulled the bottle from the refrigerator’s door and grabbed the can of cheese. She’d already placed the salad plates on the table, and the salad was green and leafy and looked delicious. “Wow. This looks… wow. Babe, you didn’t have to?”

“I know, but I was hungry for spaghetti and I like to have a salad with it. And nobody?nobody?cooks spaghetti for just themselves. If you’re going to do it, there have to be leftovers.”

“Won’t be any tonight. I plan to eat every bite,” Carter announced as he sat down and placed the dressing and cheese on the table.

But he didn’t. There was way too much, and he realized she’d made enough for Cruz in anticipation of him being there. She hadn’t asked where he was, but he knew she wondered, so he told her. He got a frown in return. “Pity. I wanted to get to know him a little better.”

“Oh, Chelsea’s ‘mom, get to know that good-looking guy’ routine get to you after all?” he asked and grinned.

“No. He just seems… interesting. He has somebody, right?”

“Yeah. Her name’s Mickie and from what I can tell, the guy’s totally smitten.”

“That’s sweet. I don’t know anybody else who’s totally smitten with somebody except me.”

“Hey, wait a minute!” Carter cried in mock argument. “I’m totally smitten with you!”

“Oh, you are?”

“Yeah. I am. But you already know that.”

“So what are we doing tonight? Watching some of that sitcom on streaming? Going to the grocery? Rolling around in your bed for a few hours?” she asked and winked.

He knew she was going to have a fit. “No. I’m going back to the office.”

“Carter! What the hell? You’ve been there for two days, and you’ve barely taken a break! Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

How could he explain to her that in one blinding second, he could unravel the puzzle and all the pieces would fall into place? “Babe, there’s so much paperwork with this case that if I don’t stay on top of it, it’ll get out of hand. But it’ll be over soon, I promise.”

“But I miss you,” Sharla whined. That kind of whining was very unlike her, and he wondered if he was pushing his luck.

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