he would appreciate discussing in any depth.
Now she couldn’t resist risking it.
“Chase?”
“Huh?”
“About Josh.”
“What about him?”
“I was just wondering how he feels about you still playing the big, protective brother. I mean, he’s—what?—well into his twenties and on his own now. I was just, you know, wondering.”
“Don’t wonder.”
There was a bite to his words that bordered on the severe. She’d been right. He didn’t like anything that approached criticism about his concerns for Josh.
Haley immediately dropped the subject.
* * *
Chase parked in front of Haley’s terrace house, shut off the engine and went around the SUV to see her to her door. The trip back to Portland had been as uneventful as the one before it had been action-packed. As far as he knew, she had been honest with him, giving him everything he’d asked for about Josh and his brother’s departure from Portland. Chase had no reason to linger, but he suddenly found himself reluctant to part from her.
He knew that examining that reluctance would be a mistake. It was better just to apologize for having wrongly apprehended her, thank her for helping him and leave her here and now before making a fool of himself.
She was digging her house keys out of her purse when he remembered something. “Would you mind taking this?” he asked her, removing one of his business cards from his wallet and handing it to her. “My address and phone number are there. I’m thinking that if you should hear from Josh, you’d do me the favor of contacting me. There’s no guarantee that he’ll write or call me, but you...”
“Yes, of course,” she said, accepting his card. “And having my own address and number as you did before you turned up here yesterday, maybe you’d return the favor if Josh should get in touch with you first. I would like to know he’s all right and how he made out with the big story he was so eager to hunt down.”
“I’ll do that,” he promised her.
She had the key inserted in her door and was unlocking it when a woman with a helmet of tight curls and a long nose flew out of the house adjacent to hers. She had a packet in her hand and was waving it as she hailed Haley. “Saw you pull up and decided I’d better run out and deliver this. Old Faithful went and pushed it through the wrong slot in the wrong door.”
“This is my neighbor, Phyllis,” Haley introduced Chase, accepting the packet. “Don’t tell me we’re having that trouble again, Phyl?”
“Yep, we’re going to have to talk seriously to that man.”
Haley turned to Chase, explaining, “Our postal carrier is forever mixing up our mail.”
The neighbor lifted her hand in farewell. “Gotta fly. I promised Eddy I’d be on hand for his soccer game.”
“Thanks, Phyl,” Haley called after her.
Chase was prepared to make his own farewell when his gaze was caught by the address on the front of the packet in her hand. The sight of it locked him in place where he stood.
“Can I see that?” he asked.
“It is my address,” she assured him.
“It isn’t that. It’s the handwriting.”
She passed the brown packet over to him so he could look at it up close. There was no mistaking the familiar scrawl. “This is from Josh.”
“I never had any occasion to see his handwriting, so I couldn’t have recognized it. You’re sure of that?”
“Positive.” He gave the packet back to her.
“You’d better come in, then, while I open it.”
He made an effort to contain his excitement as she pushed the door open, scooped up the rest of her mail from the floor of the foyer where it had landed from the mail slot and indicated he should follow her into the house.
It was a modest-sized place. Comfortably furnished, Chase noted, with appointments that spoke of its owner’s tastes. Country-style fabrics, traditional art work on the walls, potted green plants and a minimum of ornaments.
Chase permitted himself no more than a quick visual sweep. He was too eager to see the contents of the packet to be interested elsewhere. Haley placed her mail on the living room coffee table and perched with the packet in hand on the edge of the sofa while Chase hovered over her. He watched as she slid open one end of the thin package with a sharp fingernail.
Upending the packet, she shook it to dump out its contents. Three clear, very small plastic envelopes slid out onto the surface of the coffee table. They could have been sealed pill pouches for traveling. But they didn’t contain pills.
Chase and Haley stared down at them, neither one of them speaking. It was Chase who found his raspy voice first.
“Seeds! My brother sends you three little pouches of seeds? What in hell! Does this have any meaning for you?”
Haley could only wordlessly shake her head.
“There must be an explanation. Look inside the packet. See if there’s something else.”
Her fingers burrowed into the packet, withdrawing a folded note. She spread it open, scanned it silently and then thrust it at him. “I can’t read this scrawl of his. See if you can make it out.”
“It’s worse than usual. He must have been in a big hurry when he wrote it.” Chase read it aloud for her. “‘Take care of these for me, will you, sweetheart? Believe it or not, they’re very rare and valuable. I don’t want to take any chances with them. I thought maybe you wouldn’t mind locking them away at the bank in your safety deposit box. Please.’ And that’s underlined.”
Haley gazed up at him, mystified. “And that’s all? Not even a signature?”
“Afraid that’s it.”
“Well, I have to say this is the damnedest gift I’ve ever received. This half brother of yours...he couldn’t be half-baked as well, could he?”
“I don’t think Josh meant these seeds as any kind of a joke. I think he was totally serious when he sent them.”
“I’d like to go on sitting here trying to figure out what they mean, but right now my brain could use a stimulant.” She got to her feet. “Would you drink some coffee if I made it? It’ll only take a couple of minutes.”
“Coffee would be welcome.”
“Make yourself comfortable. I’ll call you when it’s ready.”
He watched her walk away toward the rear of the house, the slow sway of her perfectly rounded backside sending a shaft of arousal to his groin. Presumably she was headed to the kitchen, and he was headed to
