pillboxes, the rack with hand-carved walking sticks. She’d decorated the gallery in the mountain colors of rust, green and blue. It blended with everything she sold, making the ambience of the gallery welcoming, yet sedate, unpretentious, yet undoubtedly exclusive.
Already, Phil Trujillo had opened the door into the room beyond. “Is this for storage?”
“Yes. Right now it’s crammed full of work I’m going to display for Christmas and an artist’s opening coming up.”
She hurried after the detective, saying to Jake, “He needs to be careful with my inventory.”
Jake caught her elbow. “Phil’s no bull in a china shop. He knows what he’s looking for.”
Jake’s fingers were hot on her skin. “And that is?”
He shrugged and released her. “He’ll know when he sees it.”
“Are you speaking from experience?”
“Intuition goes a long way in catching a criminal. But so does good eyesight.”
Jake was being flippant now, but the serious expression on his face told her he didn’t consider any of this a laughing matter.
“Tell me something,” Trujillo said as he reentered the gallery. “Would any of that stuff in there be worth a bundle on the black market?”
Tori motioned to canvases propped against the far wall. “I have a few artists who are well-known and their work is becoming more scarce. The right word in the right circle of private collectors who don’t care about fenced goods, and the thief could set up a nice retirement account.”
“We’re assuming this is a man,” Jake said, “but we shouldn’t necessarily make that assumption, should we, Phil?”
The detective’s eyes became hooded now. He’d shared all the information he’d intended to share. Everything else was not for public consumption. “I like facts better than assumptions.”
While the two men nosed around, Tori checked the remaining inventory in the storage area, once in a while looking over her shoulder.
Finally she admitted, “Everything appears fine in here, too.”
“Then there’s no reason why you can’t return home,” Trujillo said. “Let’s lock it all up and you can be on your way.”
Ten minutes later, as Jake was driving Tori home, he asked, “Have you ever thought about putting a security system in your home?”
“I’ve thought about it.”
“It’s like the tile in your bathroom, right? You’ve been meaning to call somebody sometime, but just haven’t gotten around to it?”
“Exactly,” she admitted as she let out a sigh.
“Do it, Tori. With a baby in the house, you’re not going to want to take any chances.”
She glanced over at him. “I will.”
In her driveway, he didn’t switch off the ignition. “I’ll wait until you’re inside.”
It was almost dark now. “Are you sure you don’t want to come in and have that bowl of stew?”
“Having supper with you wasn’t about the stew in the first place. It was about clearing the air.”
“We haven’t done that.”
“I think we have. You want to stay friends with Nina, and you don’t want to feel awkward around me. Does that about sum it up?”
That was essentially what she’d said and he’d obviously been listening. “I suppose.”
“Look, Tori. There has always been chemistry between us. I stayed away from you when you were seventeen and eighteen because you were too young to handle what I wanted. Now—”
“I’m old enough to handle anything,” she interrupted him with spirit.
“Yes, you are. But you’re also going to be a mother. Where can a man not interested in a permanent relationship fit into that mix?”
The question was almost a challenge, as if he was daring her to say she wanted a roll in the hay, a quickie in the afternoon at his apartment, a hot, short interlude while her baby slept in the room next door. Of course she couldn’t say any of those things. She thought more of herself than that. She thought more of the child she was going to adopt than that. She’d never had a hot affair, and she’d only ever had one relationship—her engagement and marriage to Dave.
Reminding herself that Dave had left, just as her father had left, she replied, “A man doesn’t fit into the equation at all.”
Then she flipped open the handle on the door and put one foot on the running board. “Thanks for coming along with me tonight, Jake. And for…clearing the air. I’m sure neither of us will feel any awkwardness now.”
As she climbed out, slammed the door and hurried up her front walk she heard Jake call, “Tori, wait.”
His command echoed in her ear. Still, she ignored it and practically ran inside.
She wasn’t about to lose her heart again to any man—not even to Jake Galeno!
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