Page 62 of Stormswept Colorado

Understanding dawned on her beautiful face. “You want them to look into the creepy email.”

I nodded. “Forward the message to me, and I can share it with Aiden. I already mentioned this morning that I need a private chat with him.”

“Unofficially? Not as Silver Ridge Chief of Police?”

I touched her chin, a brief slide of skin on skin that only left me wanting more. “I’ll just be asking as Teller. Your date for the wedding who’s looking out for you.”

Ayla blinked at me with those long lashes.

Then she said, “No.”

Damn. She had every right to tell me no, but I’d thought we were past that. “No?”

“You don’t have to fix this for me. If you’re talking to Aiden about me, then I want to be involved. We can talk to him together.” She pulled her phone from her pocket, checking the time. “How about an hour from now?”

“I’ll check with Aiden and text you to confirm.”

“Okay.” She started to step away, but I caught her hand. After checking we were alone, I brushed a kiss to the inside of her wrist, feeling the delicate throb of her pulse.

“I’m glad you’re trusting me to help you.”

She whispered, “I’m really glad you’re here.”

TWENTY-ONE

Teller

An hour later,Ayla met me in that same hallway. I whistled quietly. “You were pretty earlier, but you’ve leftprettybehind in the dust. Wow.”

Ayla wore a long-sleeved emerald-green dress. The wide neckline swooped to reveal a hint of enticing cleavage, and the skirt flared out at the waist, showing off the curves of her hips and ending just below her knees.

She touched the lapel of my sport coat. “You clean up well.” Beneath the coat, I’d worn a striped button-down tucked into dark gray slacks. It was nothing special. Not in comparison to her.

“You nervous?” I asked.

“You can tell?”

“When I’m paying attention.” Now that I was getting to know her better, it was impossible to do otherwise. I linked our fingers. “It’ll be okay. We’ll get through this, and then we can focus on the wedding again.”

She nodded. I started to let go of her hand, and was surprised when her fingers tightened on mine. “You’ll stay with me the whole time?” she asked.

“Of course.” Again, I marveled at the shift between us. But atthe same time, it felt natural to be this close to her. Even if it was just a temporary thing.

We went to the end of the hall to the door markedOffice. I knocked. It opened right away. Jessi Shelborne, half of the duo that owned the inn, stood there with a curly haired toddler on her hip. “Ayla! It’s wonderful to see you again. And you too, Chief Landry.”

Ayla gave her a hug, then patted the toddler on the head. “And who’s this munchkin? You were in your mama’s belly last time I was here.”

“This is Zoe. She was just giving her dad a goodbye kiss because it’s naptime. Thank goodness we hired an event coordinator. Otherwise I’d be running around with my hair on fire.” Jessi glanced down, noting our linked hands, but there was nothing more than fondness in her gaze when she smiled. “I’ll see you both at the ceremony.”

Aiden gave his wife and daughter another kiss before they left. A pang of something bittersweet hit me. But I brushed that aside as we stepped into the office and shut the door.

Aiden nodded a greeting at me, then held out his hand to Ayla. “It’s been a minute,” he said.

Ayla laughed. “It has. Your daughter is adorable.”

“Not going to argue with you there.” He hooked a thumb at the other man in the room, who’d been leaning casually against a wall and watching us with a lopsided smirk. “You remember River Kwon? Chief Landry mentioned you had an issue involving computers, and River’s our computer guy.”

“Yeah. Hi, River.”

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