Page 321 of Love Bites

I stopped an arm’s length away from him. We shared a secret now. A doozy of a secret. Whether I believed in it or not didn’t matter. I smiled up at him. “Why won’t you step inside Calamity Jane’s?”

“I don’t like the smell.”

I raised my brows. “You think it’s haunted?”

He shoved his hands in his pockets, his shoulders hunched, tense. “I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts.”

“I don’t, but humor me.”

“Either you believe or you don’t.”

We’d reached a stalemate, a typical ending to our usual dance routine. I sidestepped. “What about the Purple Door Saloon? You made me switch chairs that day I had lunch with Jeff. Is there a bad smell in there, too?”

He broke eye contact. “Something like that.”

His discomfort with this subject couldn’t be more obvious, yet he wasn’t shutting me out. That made my stomach all tingly. Since he was in the sharing mood, I asked, “What do you do for a living, Doc?”

“I’m a financial planner.”

“Really?”

His gaze came back to meet mine. “Surprised?”

I nodded. “I guess I hadn’t expected you to do something so …”boring.

“Mundane?”

“Yeah.”

“Not all of us can handle the wild roller coaster ride of realty, Violet.” The corners of his eyes crinkled with mirth. His body didn’t seem so rigid anymore.

“I could use a financial planner in my life.” As soon as I got some finances to plan.

“You don’t even know if I’m any good.”

I had no doubt—on many fronts. I grabbed a handful of his T-shirt and tugged him toward me. “You can show me.”

Doc took my hands in his, running his thumbs over my palms as he frowned at the cloth wristbands. “How are the rope burns?”

“Healing.” I squirmed under his feather-light touches. “How’s your throat? Still scratchy?”

“A bit. Yours?”

“The same. Thanks for saving me.”

“I didn’t. I almost got you killed. I should have figured out Wolfgang’s connection to the girls on the swim team.”

“The police hadn’t, and that’s their job.”

“But a big clue was right there on the Rec Center walls, and I’d been in there almost every day.”

“Yeah, but Detective Cooper said Wilda was missing in the team picture, only her name mentioned.”

“I should have tried harder after you took me to Hessler’s place on Friday, but I couldn’t think straight.”

“Because of the house?”

“Because of you. You mess up my head.”

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