He pointed toward the neatly stacked logs. The days had turned warm, but the ocean breeze still carried enough chill at night to make a fire worth the effort.
Her face brightened. “Great. I’d love it.” She took a few steps toward the kitchen, then paused in the doorway. “You wouldn’t happen to have hot chocolate in here, would you? Can’t have a fire without cocoa.”
“Check the cabinet next to the fridge.” He crouched in front of the hearth and began arranging logs over crumpled newspaper. “There should be some for the Keurig. Make mine a cappuccino, please.”
“Sure thing.” She opened the cabinet, then glanced back over her shoulder. “By the way, you never mentioned you were working with a room full of good-looking guys. A little warning would’ve been nice.”
He rolled his eyes as he struck a match. “Sorry, but checking out guys for you isn’t exactly my area of expertise.” He touched the flame to the newspaper, waited for it to catch, then looked back at her over his shoulder. “Which one caught your eye?”
He wasn’t sure why he asked. Maybe it was simple curiosity, or maybe the conversation offered a welcome distraction from wondering whether Grace had ignored his call on purpose.
She smirked. “I’m not sure yet, but when I figure it out, you’ll be the second one to know.” She arched both brows in quick succession and laughed. “Maybe the third.”
He laughed and shook his head at the profiler. Suki always knew how to lighten the mood, even in the middle of a murder investigation.
Ten minutes later, the fire crackled behind its screen, casting a warm glow across the living room as they settled into their work with steaming drinks in hand. Sean stretched out on one end of the couch with the Philadelphia files spread across the cushion beside him, while Suki claimed the loveseat, legal pad balanced on her knee as her pen moved across the page.
The hours slipped by in near silence.
The only sounds were the turning of pages, the scratch of Suki’s pen, and the steady rhythm of waves breaking beyond the windows. Every so often, Sean glanced her way and caught the look of complete concentration on her face. He knew better than to interrupt. When Suki got into this zone, she was already piecing patterns together, fitting each detail into place one careful observation at a time. Whatever conclusions she was drawing, he would learn them in the morning with the rest of the team.
By midnight, his eyes stung from staring at reports and crime scene photos for too long. The words on the page had started to blur together, and even the caffeine had lost its effect.
He pushed himself to his feet and crossed to the fireplace. The flames had burned down to glowing embers, neglected while he’d been buried in case files. After securing a metal panel across the front to let the rest die out without drawing warm air from the room up the chimney, he returned to the couch and stretched out, resting his head against the back cushion.
His thoughts drifted to Grace. He wanted to ask her out. Not another casual meal that happened because they ran into each other. Not another evening that could be explained away as old friends catching up. A real date.
The idea had been circling his mind for hours, growing stronger each time he thought about her. Maybe he should run it by Uncle Dan first. The thought almost made him laugh. He hadn’t gone to the older man for advice about women since high school, but Grace was different. No, she was special—that was the only word that fit.
He closed his eyes, picturing her hazel eyes and the way they seemed to shift color depending on the light. He thought of her hair spilling free from its ponytail the night before, long and straight over her shoulders, and remembered the way he’d wanted to reach out and run his fingers through it.
His imagination wandered from there.
He pictured her dressed for an evening out, maybe in one of those simple dresses women wore that somehow managed to reveal everything and nothing at once. He imagined taking her to dinner at the Cranberry Inn, then walking her to her door afterward. This time, when he kissed her, there would be no hesitation.
In his mind, she welcomed him closer.
He could almost feel the brush of her body against his, the softness of her hair, and the heat of her breath against his neck as she murmured his name. The image deepened, blurring into something warm and intoxicating that wrapped around him until the rest of the world faded away.
“Hey, hot stuff, wake up.” The voice cut through the haze.
Sean’s eyes snapped open. For a second, nothing made sense. Then reality came rushing back.
He was lying on his side on the couch with a blanket draped over his lower half, as the morning sunlight poured through the windows. Suki stood over him, holding a cup of coffee, dressed in a brown suit and pale blue blouse, looking far too awake for this hour.
“Wake up, sleepyhead. It’s almost seven.”
He glanced toward the window, where blinding sunlight from above the horizon poured into the room.
Damn. He’d fallen asleep on the couch. And judging by the uncomfortable evidence beneath the blanket, his dreams had carried him farther than he would have preferred.
Dragging a hand down his face, he fought to wake up enough to regain control of both his thoughts and his body. The last thing he needed was for Suki to notice.
Oblivious, she turned toward the kitchen. “You looked too comfortable to wake, so I tossed that blanket over you around one when I went to bed. Go hop in the shower while I make coffee. Should I find us something to eat, or do you want to grab breakfast on the way in?”
Sean took full advantage of her back being turned. He shoved the blanket aside, got to his feet, and headed for his bedroom before she could glance his way. “Something on the way is fine. There’s a decent bagel place in town.”
“Sounds good to me.”
