CHAPTER 12
Mina
When we left the library, following Luke home so we could continue our search felt like a great idea. I wanted to know more about the women we’d identified. We were on to something. I could feel it.
But now, as I stepped out of my car and looked up at the two-story gray house with its black shutters and porch railings, I couldn’t help but think about what else might happen once we were inside. All evening, I’d been exceedingly conscious of his magnetic male presence sitting so close while we combed through thirty-year-old articles. The public setting had helped keep my inner hussy at bay, but we’d be alone now.
I was in some serious trouble.
Resisting him in public wasn’t terribly difficult. I just reminded myself there were others present.
But alone? In his house? Where there was a bed just feet away? This was a fully caffeinated latte after dinner bad idea with a side of extra syrup.
Could I stop myself from following him up the steps to the front door?
Not on my life.
Keys jingled as he unlocked the door and let us inside.
“You can set your bag there if you want.” He tossed his keys onto an entry table, then pointed at it.
I took the folded-up notes from my purse, then set my bag next to his keys. He led me down the short hallway, past a bathroom and a study, to an open-plan room that spanned the rear of the house.
My eyes roamed over the space, taking in the built-in bookshelves flanking a wall-mounted television, a gray couch and chair sitting opposite. To my left, a modern kitchen took up a third of the long room. The soft gray cabinets added a warm touch to the off-white walls and thin-veined, white quartz counters. Under my feet, blonde wood stretched, dotted with rugs in varying shades of gray and cream.
In front of me was a six-person oak dining table. Beyond it, a sliding glass door led to a deck that overlooked a backyard rimmed by pine trees. Through the boughs, I could just make out the neighbors’ houses.
The effect was an interior space that was soothing and inviting, not cold, like one would first think with the lack of color inside.
“Have a seat.” Luke gestured to the sofa. “Do you want something to drink?”
“Water?”
With a nod, he moved into the kitchen, filling two glasses from the filtered water tap at his kitchen sink.
I sank onto one corner of the couch, then immediately regretted that decision when I realized I would be trapped between the arm and Luke’s body. He’d have to sit close so we could both see the laptop screen.
Pulling my bottom lip between my teeth, I worried the corner as I debated whether to get up and move to the table.
“Let’s sit over here,” Luke said.
I glanced back to see him standing next to the table.
“We’ll have more room to spread out.”
Grateful I wouldn’t look like a fool bounding out of my seat thirty seconds after I sat in it because I decided I didn’t want to be so close to his enthralling presence, I hopped up and came around the couch to take a seat on one side of the table. Luke set the glasses down but didn’t pull out a chair to sit.
“I’m going to grab my laptop. Hang on.” In a flash, he disappeared down the short hallway and into the study. When he reappeared moments later, he had a silver MacBook in his hands.
Taking a seat at the end of the table beside me, he opened it. “So, what do you want to look up first?”
Those long-lashed gray eyes lifted to meet mine. For a moment, I got lost in their depths. He had such pretty eyes. Like the turbulent ocean in the winter when one of the big low-pressure systems was about to roll in and dump a bunch of snow on us.
A dark gold eyebrow rose over one eye.
I blinked and cleared my throat, glancing down at my notes. “Um…” Inhaling a breath through my nose, I forced my mind back onto the task at hand and read over the things I’d jotted on the page earlier. “Why don’t we look up Rich Stevenson? See if, maybe, I can figure out why I know that name?”
Luke nodded once. “Okay.”
