Page 19 of Texas Scandal

“Have you been on that thing all night?” She motioned toward the laptop.

“On and off,” he admitted.

She sat cross-legged on the couch as Loki overshot and smacked into a wood coffee table. Thankfully, both dog and furniture were fine. The thud turned out to be the scariest part of the incident. His wagging tail was a whole tornado of its own.

Melody reached over and petted him. This dog understood the fire drill phrase,stop, drop, and roll,because that was exactly what he did. She recognized the maneuver from last night with the lawyer. “I know what this means.” Loki wanted belly scratches. The bighearted pup really was growing on her. She wasn’t ready to officially declare herself unafraid of large dogs, but Loki had wormed his way into her good graces a whole lot faster than she thought possible. His owner was making headway there, too, which was exactly the reason she needed to keep her guard up around him. On a soul level, she realized how deeply a man like Tiernan Hayes could hurt her.

He brought over a fresh cup. Their fingers grazed as he handed over the mug, causing more of those sensations to rocket through her.

Something had been niggling at the back of her mind since waking up. She took a few sips of coffee in an attempt to clear the coffers. She also realized she might be overstaying her welcome.

“Did you sleep last night?” she asked.

Tiernan shook his head.

“How are you still operating?” she asked. “I wouldn’t be able to form sentences without at least a couple hours of sleep under my belt.”

“You’d be surprised what growing up on a cattle ranch will do for you,” he said on a chuckle. “During calving season, we got used to going two to three days without sleep. I don’t even want to tell you all the places I was found asleep as a teenager.”

Melody couldn’t help but smile at the images of him, head back with his mouth open, passed out, rolling through her thoughts.

The niggling feeling returned. This time she knew what it meant.

“My brother made a point of saying he’s been out of town for a few days trying to get his head straight about our father’s case,” she said.

“Was he setting up an alibi?” Tiernan asked.

“There’s only one way to find out,” she said. “But I don’t think my lawyer would approve.”

Chapter Eight

After hearing Melody’s idea, Tiernan had no doubts Prescott wouldn’t give the go-ahead.

“If I’m in the room with my brother, it’ll be easier to tell if he’s lying when I ask him where he was. His voice always shifts an octave when he’s being untruthful and he doesn’t blink as fast,” she argued. Her point was valid. He just didn’t think it was a good idea to put herself at risk.

“Reporters could be camped out in front of his home or office, or both,” he pointed out. “At the very least, you’d be handing yourself over to the dogs, which doesn’t seem like the right play.”

“It’s going to happen sooner or later,” she argued.

“This thing could die down,” he said. The sharp look she threw his way was the equivalent of a dart. He was grasping at straws to try to keep her from following through. “Then again, it might not. News in this area is few and far between. People could be chewing on this for a while.”

“The case might be more cut-and-dried if a suspect was behind bars,” she said. “As it is, people will think there’s a killer on the loose and they will worry they might be next. That will keep interest in the story alive, and we all know where there’s interest there will be almost constant coverage.”

“No arguments from me there,” he said. Corinne had set out to tarnish his reputation by spreading rumors he was a player and a boozer who would end up in the tabloids someday under the heading “Tiernan Hayes Falls from Grace.” Melody’s problem was on a much bigger scale. The stakes were higher. Attention would be on her for a long time to come.

“Plus, let’s face it. I can’t stay here much longer,” she continued. “You have work to do. You must be behind after yesterday.”

“I figured out a plan to catch up,” he said as her gaze darted toward the exit.

“Which probably doesn’t include having a houseguest,” she said.

“It’s no trouble on my end to have you here,” he said, thinking she might have someone out there worried about her. She wasn’t close with her family but that didn’t mean she didn’t have friends she could stay with or a guy. She hadn’t looked at her phone once in the short time he’d known her, which didn’t gel with what he knew of her workaholic life. It also led him to believe she was doing this on her own. “Unless someone else is out there concerned you haven’t checked in.”

She shook her head. “There’s no one special. I work all the time as right hand to the owner of the company, so the few friends I used to have gave up on me a long time ago when I declined invite after invite.”

“Working on your career is important,” he said, able to relate a little too much to the scenario she described. He had buddies on the circuit. There were people he could call to go out for a beer who still believed in him. The thing about having any amount of fame was that women dated him for his name. A few he’d believed were actually interested in getting to know him turned out to be snapping incognito selfies.

Then he met Corinne. She’d done a number on him, and he’d shied away from dating ever since. Head down, a year passed before he realized he hadn’t been on a date. All of which brought him to his current single status.

---