Page 23 of Between a Rock and a Hard Cowboy

She drew back and frowned at him like he’d suggested they play strip poker.

“Or not…” he said, sorry he’d suggested it.

It was going to be a long night.

She pursed her lips and stared at him. It was disconcerting and he began to wonder what she was thinking.

Finally, Eva let out a huff. “Okay. I’m going to tell you something and you have to promise you won’t get mad at me,” she said in an unexpected burst.

Intrigued, he nodded. “Okay.”

“I have a confession. I took the key out of the desk drawer last time I was at the house.”

The key.

He drew in a breath. He didn’t know what he’d anticipated she’d confess to, but it wasn’t that she’d stolen his family’s key out of his great-great-grandfather’s desk.

ChapterEleven

Eva held up one hand, palm facing him to cut off any forthcoming comment before he made it. “You can’t get mad I took the key. You promised.”

He should have expected this from her. She was obsessed with that key.

Why was she telling him—his eyes widened as his brain offered a solution.

“Shit. Did you lose it?” he accused, expecting the worst.

That would be the only reason she’d tell him rather than just returning the key to the drawer in the office where she’d found it. Make thatstolenit.

“No. Of course not. Jeezus.” She scoffed, before continuing, “I have it with me because once I saw this place, I started wondering if anyone tried the locks here in the lodge. Judging by the size and construction of this building, it was obviously a big deal to your ancestors. Why wouldn’t we find the lock here?”

The answer to that was because Linc’s father wasn’t a dumb man. He would have thought the same thing as Eva and though Linc hadn’t asked, he’d bet his dad had already tried every lock here.

But given this was the first time Eva had looked happy to be here all night, why not? Let her try for herself. It would give her something to do and keep her from bitching about the lack of power and WiFi.

“Go for it.” He shrugged, standing. “I’ll grab the flashlights.”

She actually smiled as she shoved her hand inside her laptop bag and felt around—and he feared once more the key was lost until she emerged with it held between her fingers.

Letting out the breath he’d been holding, he started to wonder if he should hook one of those GPS tracker keychains to it for the next time someoneborrowedit or, God forbid, misplaced it.

By the light of the two military-grade flashlights, one for each of them, they began their systematic search.

Thank goodness she decided they could look for any locks outside tomorrow, in daylight, after the snow had hopefully stopped. At his suggestion, they started near the fireplace—mostly to get good and warm before they moved to the colder areas of the building.

He let her take the lead. It made her happy—or at least less cranky. Especially since he didn’t hold much—if any—hope she’d find the keyhole anyway. Not here, where he’d lived for nearly a year without seeing any mysterious keyless locks.

It would be counter-productive to wrestle her for control of the key right now. Tomorrow though, before she left his sight, he’d have possession of that key.

Besides, it was amusing to watch her rush to a new lock, then slump away disappointed after a few moments of grumbling and some creative cussing when the key didn’t fit. It wasn’t quite Netflix-level entertainment, but under the circumstances, it was a good distraction.

He had to hand it to her though, she was tenacious. And not afraid to get her hands dirty. Literally. She was ready to crawl inside the fireplace, with the fire, to check the chimney when he’d stopped her, promising they could look there tomorrowafterthe fire was out.

The crazy woman even laid on her back to inspect the underside of every table on the first floor. Looking for false bottoms or secret compartments, she’d said.

Even the grandfather clock got a full inspection, inside and out. That had yielded some extra loud grumbling and cussing when the clock chimed while her head was inside the cabinet. He managed to not laugh out loud, but his poorly contained smile earned him one of her increasingly familiar glares.

“You about ready to give up yet?” he asked as she wiggled out from beneath yet another table.

---