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“Can you get Sean a refill on his coffee?”
Caleb fixed her with his most determined ex-military-guy look, but she just said, “Please?” and he gave up and went into the kitchen.
Katie looked at Sean. “Let me handle this,” she whispered. “I don’t want him to know what the messages say. Not yet. Besides, he won’t like how you found out about it. Caleb doesn’t believe in breaking rules.”
Sean’s eyes were wary, his whole body considerably tighter than it had been moments ago. After a few seconds, he nodded.
If Caleb knew someone was threatening Judah’s life, he would fabricate a reason to send another agent to New York. He wouldn’t come right out and admit he didn’t want her to go, but she’d know he was protecting her, and she didn’t want to be protected. She wanted to go to Buffalo with Sean.
Partly it was the way he’d just smiled at her, and what he’d said, and the way he’d said it. Okay, mostly it was that. And a little bit his stomach. And the kiss. And the moment on the bed, with his mouth by her ear and his face scratching over her neck.
But it was Judah, too. Sean’s report had stripped off some of Judah’s layers and revealed aspects of his private self. She didn’t like the thought of some other agent showing up and badgering him into spilling his guts. He’d hate it.
He would talk to her, though. He wanted to trust her.
And why not her? Be your best self. This was part of it, wasn’t it? Stepping up to meet the challenges head-on?
Caleb came in and handed Sean a fresh cup of coffee. “Don’t tell Caleb what?” He perched on the arm of the couch, looking at Sean rather than at her, a determined set to his jaw.
Katie sighed. “Sorry, Sean. I suck.”
Sean looked at her expectantly, but he didn’t say anything. He was giving her some maneuvering room. Awesome.
“Look,” she said to Caleb. “I don’t know how to tell you this. It was Sean’s idea, but I know I should have stopped him. I figured I could keep the credit card statement out of sight, and you’d never need to know about it.” She wrung her hands, drawing out the drama a little.
“What’s she talking about?” Caleb asked Sean.
“The hotel,” Sean said. He was guessing, but it was the right guess, and he said it with total assurance. “We had a p-pretty pricey room in Louisville. I wanted us to be in the ssame hotel as Judah.”
“You shared a hotel room?” Caleb asked.
“Yes,” Sean replied.
Katie waited for him to reassure her brother that the room had been a double, and nothing had happened, and Katie had been throwing herself at Judah at the time. He didn’t. He just met Caleb’s eyes, direct and confident, as if to say, Yeah, I shared a room with your sister, and what happened in there is none of your damn business.
If she wasn’t careful, she could really start to like this guy.
Caleb frowned. “How much did it cost me?”
They were talking man-to-man, and she let them, only half-listening as Sean filled Caleb in on their plan to pick the case up again. She sank deeper into the couch, thinking about Judah.
Gay. It fit. Not in an “oh, my gaydar went off” kind of way, but more in the way he held himself back. Alone in his room with her, or even in the hall behind the stage at the High Hat, Judah had been performing his attraction to her. On the phone, over voice mail and email, he was still performing, but she’d caught him in a few moments of honesty, and they had a different timbre to them.
She had no idea why, but he really did want her back on the case.
I need you. He kept saying it, and if any words were her Kryptonite, it was those.
“Hey, Leadfoot? What t-time do you want to go?”
She was staring out the window at the woods, wondering if she’d ever get the apology Judah owed her. What made a man his age incapable of apology? How did anyone remain so privileged, so clueless about how to be a good human being?
“Katie?” Caleb said sharply, cutting into her reverie.
“What?”
“Sean’s talking to you.”
She blinked and dragged herself into the present. Her mind had wandered, comfortable to let Caleb and Sean sort out the rest of the lie she’d manufactured, and now she was disoriented. Stupid daydreaming brain, always getting her into trouble.
