he knew had no problem spying on women and got to work. It was a tedious task trying to remember the many faces she’d smiled politely at and hands she’d shaken. If only she had been more detail oriented—or, at the very least, invested in creating more than just business relationships—she wouldn’t have had so many question marks in lieu of first names and surnames.
But she did. Something she apologized about when, after he was done with the computer, Caleb finally finished his second call outside the office.
“You do know you’re in customer service, right?” he asked, eyebrow raised and a small smirk turning up the corners of his lips. “Usually that means remembering names.”
Nina resisted the urge to place her hands on her hips.
“Our introductions were brief,” she defended herself. “I just needed to know the basics and say hello. Then, at the grand opening party, I was going to spend more time getting to know everyone. I just didn’t have the time to do that yet.” It wasn’t that much of a lie. Nina knew she’d have to play nice at the grand opening event Dorothy was throwing for the locals and the employees on the ranch.
Caleb snorted but didn’t press. He folded the paper and put it in his pocket.
“Well, I’ll look into the few names you have here and tomorrow we can try to hit up the rest in person. I have a buddy looking into where the email came from until then. He said he can give me an answer tonight or early tomorrow. Does that work for you?”
Nina nodded.
The sky outside of the window was darkening. A feeling of unease started to clench at her chest. Caleb’s expression softened.
“Hey, it’s been a weird day,” he said, voice light. “I haven’t eaten since breakfast and, well, we got off on a really strange foot. I’m going up to Mom’s for dinner. Why don’t you come along? That woman doesn’t make a meal you can’t take seconds and thirds worth of leftovers home with you, so there will be more than enough.”
He smiled. It made the handsome man even more so. Even his eyes, brilliantly blue, held an easy charm.
Her feeling of unease transformed into something else. An ache that was familiar yet just as raw as it had been the day, years ago, she realized her life would never be the same again. Like a switch had been flipped, Nina felt herself shutting down.
“I haven’t even been here for a week and I got caught basically skinny-dipping,” she said, voice hard. “I think it’s best I focus on my work, if your mother decides to keep me around after all of this. I’ve already lost most of the day.” When she wasn’t sure if he was getting the point she was trying to drive home, she added, “I’ll eat here. Alone.”
Caleb’s smile faded, but once again, he didn’t press.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
Nina didn’t watch him go. Instead, she locked the door and walked up to her room. The familiar ache became a bellow in her chest. She sat on the edge of her bed and looked out of the window. In the distance the curve of the mountains held a beauty that did nothing to dissuade the memories about to overwhelm her.
Nina watched darkness veil the field and trees.
It would come for her heart next.
The Wildman County Sheriff’s Department was in need of a paint job. For whatever reason, the previous sheriff had painted the once copper-and red-toned bricks light blue. Since then the weather had changed that to a worn and chipped muck gray. Forget a happy-looking place, the one-story building now looked like a depressed cloud. And that was on its good days.
Yet peeling paint couldn’t squelch the pride Caleb had in the department and the work he and his brother had done during their time there. He still felt it the next morning when he began his day. His metal desk with a perpetual stack of papers in the out tray, a framed candid picture of him and his siblings and the one empty coffee cup that always rested on a coaster felt as much of a home to him as the ranch.
Even on mornings where frustration clung to him like a second skin.
“Hodge said he’d call as soon as he was done talking to his boss,” Jazz reminded him from over the tops of their desks. The fronts were pushed together leaving no space between. It made working together easier than having to hunt each other down. She didn’t look up from the paperwork she was filling out as she continued. “I know patience isn’t always your strong suit but that’s what you’re going to have to wear until he calls.”
Caleb pulled out a stress ball Madeline had given him when he’d been promoted to detective. He squeezed it once, hard.
“Would you practice patience if some creep had sent that email to you?” He shook his head, answering for her. “You should have seen her, Jazz. It scared her and it happened on my land.”
Jazz paused, her pen midword. She sighed.
“Just because someone sleazy did a sleazy thing on the ranch doesn’t mean it’s your fault,” she said. “It’s the fault of the sleazy person. Plus, you’re trying to help catch that very same sleazy person. That counts for something.”
Caleb snorted.
“You just said sleazy four times.”
Jazz shrugged.
“If the shoe fits.”
She went back to the paperwork. Caleb glanced at the clock above the closed door of the sheriff’s office. Declan wasn’t in and probably wouldn’t be until they knew if there was an arsonist running through town. Caleb had decided to keep the incident with Nina under wraps for the time being. Partly because he could handle it, thanks to having no actively open cases, and partly because of Nina.
He had no doubt that his mother wouldn’t have given the woman any grief over what had happened. Almost everyone at the ranch had, at one point or another, used one of the ponds or streams to cool down after a long day of work or exercise. That was nothing to be ashamed of, definitely not to be punished for. Yet the way Nina’s words had hardened as she declined his offer to eat at the main house the night before had made him feel oddly protective. Not just of her physically, either. With a start, Caleb realized he wanted to help alleviate the embarrassment and worry that had colored her cheeks rosy.
He wanted to keep her safe.
He wanted to make sure she felt it, too.
“What about that list of people she gave you yesterday?” Jazz continued, pen moving across her paper. “Did you finish going through it?”
Caleb put the stress ball down and eyed the list in question. There was an X next to each name.
“Yeah. I talked to everyone she could remember the names of already this morning. Everyone had a solid alibi.”
“Did you tell them what was going on with Nina or did you use that Nash family charm I keep hearing about to trick them into talking?”
Caleb chuckled. Jazz was trying
