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She gave him half a smile. “Sydney.”
“Ellen Sydney Callahan.” It tripped right off his tongue. “I like that.”
“To think I spent the last two hours worrying about what you were going to ask me.”
“Did you? Well, don’t get too comfortable. I went easy on you this time.” He started backing toward the side door, unwilling to turn away before he had to.
“I don’t know, I’d say you roughed me up pretty good.” Her eyes sparkled with amusement.
“Sorry, honey.”
“Don’t apologize. I’ve never had a quickie with a tall, handsome man in black before.”
“You like the Man in Black thing?”
“Zorro, you can do me any time.”
She was still laughing when he closed the door. He honestly couldn’t tell if she was laughing with him or at him.
He felt so good, he didn’t really care.
The sight of Carly laying into Sean was enough to sober him up fast. He heard the words “pompous,” “high horse,” and “sue” before he made it out of Ellen’s yard. The red curls rioting around Carly’s face and the round swell of her stomach under her flouncy white shirt made an amusing contrast to the rest of her: sharp words, sharp nose, sharp elbows flying through the air as she made her displeasure clear. Carly Short, human razor blade. When she saw him, her eyes narrowed as if she were preparing to slice him up.
“You said I wasn’t supposed to go for a walk, not that I can’t drive anywhere. This is insane. This jackass can’t keep me here against my will. I’m not a prisoner. Get this car out of my driveway, Clark, or I’ll call the cops. It’s a violation of my rights!”
She had a canvas bag slung over her shoulder with a towel sticking out the top, and she smelled like coconuts. “Where you headed, Squirt? Taking the baby surfing?”
“I have a doctor’s appointment, smart guy.”
He raised an eyebrow and waited for her to fess up.
“And then I was going to go to the lake for a while,” she grumbled. “I’m bored, Caleb. I can’t stay indoors all the time. I’m not a house plant!”
“Why didn’t you tell me about the appointment?”
“Because I’m not six years old, and you’re not my daddy.”
It would almost be funny, but there were at least a dozen cars in the cul-de-sac now. Which meant Caleb’s ass was on the line.
“You know they’ve taken about a thousand pictures of you since you came outside, right?” Whereas Ellen’s house was tucked back a bit behind a slight curve in her driveway, Carly’s was a straight shot from the road. Anything that happened in front of her house could be seen from the street.
“They can take all the pictures they want. I’m sick of it. I’ve decided I don’t give a flying—”
He cut her off. “And you know if you drive out of here by yourself, fifteen cars are going to be following you by the time you get to Mount Pleasant, and another ten when you leave the doctor’s office? You want to sit in the sand with a bunch of reporters for company?”
“I thought of that. I was going to ditch them.”
Carly knew every back road within sixty miles, and she drove like she did everything else—too fast, with a lot of flair but not much sense. Or she used to. Caleb hadn’t been in a car with her behind the wheel in more than a decade.
“I’ll drive you.”
He tossed his keys to Sean, who’d been standing mute with his hands on his hips since Caleb arrived. Sean was good at mute. It was half the reason Caleb had offered him a job one night a few weeks back when he’d met him at the village pub—Sean didn’t say much, but what he said, Caleb liked.
Katie had gone to high school with him, and she said he was also some kind of genius. Sean kept quiet about that, too. Caleb liked the guy. They were getting to be friends, slowly. Sean didn’t talk enough for it to happen fast.
“We’re taking Eddie and the SUV. After we go, you get Bryce off Mrs. Callahan’s driveway to cover for you, and you move my car over here. Then you call Katie and have her send the backup team over. Once they get here, drive my car to the hospital and park it on the south side. Come around the front, and Eddie will bring you back to Burgess. Then you can send the backup guys home. Got it?”
Sean nodded.
