Page 155 of Don't Say a Word
I laughed. “You looked me up, didn’t you?”
“Of course I did. Have to know who I’mtailing.”
“And you didn’t want to enlist?”
“Nope. We moved a lot, and Mom was responsible for all of us—me and my three sisters. My dad was a good dad, but he worked a lot and deployments were really hard on my mom especially.” He paused. “He died overseas.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“I was eighteen. I miss him. My mom never really recovered. Maybe because it was only a couple years after my sister died. Or maybe it was like she expected the worst their entire marriage and when the worst happened, she couldn’t deal with it.”
There was more to the story, but I didn’t push. This wasn’t the time or place.
“So, three sisters. Where do you fall?”
“Middle.”
“Middle of four?”
“I have a twin sister. She’s only two minutes older than me.”
I laughed. “Well, I am anactualmiddle child. I have an older brother and sister, and a younger brother and sister.”
“All the baggage we middle children have,” he teased.
“Where do we go from here?” I asked.
“Well, I was hoping I could take you for dinner sometime this week.”
My stomach did a little flip when I realized he was flirting with me. “I meant our cases. Mine, yours.”
“I knew what you meant.”
But he didn’t answer my question.
“Well?”
“You first. Dinner?”
“Really?”
“I can think of a lot of things we can do, places we can go, but we still have to eat at some point. I like eating.”
“I’ll think about it. But I don’t want to be shut out of this case.”
“I wouldn’t think of it.”
“Okay. How arewegoing to take down Manny Ramos and Melissa Webb and John Brighton before they hurt anyone else?”
“Well, funny you should mention that, because I have a plan.”
He told me his plan and I smiled.
I was really beginning to like this guy.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Margo Angelhart
