Page 31 of Stormswept Colorado

“I’m not criticizing your nephew! Ollie’s as sweet as can be. Maisie adores him. But he does keep things exciting. He’s…spirited.”

I laughed. “Yep, that’s what they call it these days. Ollie’s got a big spirit and then some. But if he’s acting out, that has more to do with his dad not being around. I had to grow up fast, and I don’t want that for Ollie.”

“Same,” Ayla said softly. “I grew up way too fast.”

And there went that fist in my chest, squeezing at the thought of Ayla hurting.

I knew almost nothing about this woman except what she’d revealed in her song lyrics, or what other people had said about her. And I wasn’t dumb enough to believe that was the whole picture.

But I found myself actually wanting to know. I was curious about the real Ayla. She was more than I’d given her credit for.

Ayla gathered her hair over one shoulder, and I caught the scent of caramel. “I wanted to thank you again for letting Bryan go and not formally booking him. That would’ve been a mark on his record, and he might’ve gotten fired from the agency he works for. He has a wife and son to provide for.”

“Not a problem.” But I didn’t mind hearing Bryan was officially off the market and not a potential love interest. As if Ayla’s love interests had any relevance tome. “To be honest, I wasn’t thinking that much about Bryan when I made the decision. I did it for you.”

“Forme?”

Shit, I needed to backtrack. That sounded like I was trying to make a move on her. “You impressed me with how tenacious you were. Defending your friend. Could’ve gone about it a better way?—”

“No argument there. I still can’t believe I put my hands on you.”

I was holding my nephew, so I didn’t let myself think about Ayla putting hands on me in a different context. “But, you convinced me I should be more flexible. Being a troublemaker isn’t always a bad thing.”

She didn’t say anything, and she was looking down, so I couldn’t see her expression.

Ayla was close enough that I imagined putting my arm around her, drawing her up against me. Which was a foolish urge.This woman didn’t like me. It was possible I downright scared her.

Yet she was sitting here with me. Relaxing in the quiet darkness. Like this wasn’t such a bad place to be.

“Is Bryan feeling okay?” I asked. “He took quite a punch. He declined a visit to the hospital.”

She glanced up. My gaze zeroed in on her lips as they pursed. “He mentioned he had a headache. Went back to his hotel. But he was a mixed martial arts fighter before.”

I whistled. “Then he’s probably been hit in the head in the past. If he’s had concussions, that makes a subsequent one more likely.”

She cursed, pulling her phone from her coat pocket. “I should call him.”

“Better yet, I’ll send an officer to check on him. If he’s not doing well, they’ll take him to the hospital.”

“One of your officers would do that?”

“Barring some other emergency, yes. Of course. Hell, I would do it myself. But I’d prefer to delegate.”

Ayla hesitated, then nodded. “Okay.”

I carefully slid a hand into my pocket to extract my work phone and unlocked the screen. “Which hotel is he staying at?”

“I can text you the info.”

I gave Ayla my number, and a moment later, a message popped up from her. A ridiculous part of me got a small thrill that I had Ayla Maxwell’s phone number. Susan would give me so much shit if she knew, and I deserved it.

Using my voice-to-text feature, I sent a message to the department, asking anyone available to do a welfare check on Bryan Krueger. Since we were a small crew, we often did things informally. “Someone will head over to check on Bryan,” I said. “We can go from there.”

Ollie shifted around, but he didn’t wake up.

“Thank you.”

Then another potential issue occurred to me. “Bryan’s supposed to drive you to Hartley tomorrow?”

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