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Sunny smiled when Hope and Gideon walked through the door. She didn’t even notice that her little sister’s attire was totally out of character.
If Sunny showed up wearing a suit, Hope would certainly notice.
Her mother and sister were rearranging the display of new jewelry. They were having fun, chatting away about the grandchildren, who had been left at home with their father. It would do Rainbow a world of good to spend some time with her eldest daughter.
Now to explain away spending the next few days at Gideon’s beach house. Hope had been trying to come up with a good explanation since leaving the station, though she knew her mother would require no explanation at all. She would just figure that her youngest daughter had finally decided to embrace the old free love concept, and since Rainbow already liked Gideon…
No explanation was called for. Rainbow Malory looked Hope up and down, quickly took in Gideon’s casual attire, and whispered, “Undercover?” as if there were a dozen people around to hear.
When Gideon opened his mouth, probably to say, “No,” Hope stepped in front of him and said, “Yes,” loudly enough to cover his answer. “I just need to pack a few things, and then we have to go.” She didn’t like to think that her family might be in danger simply because she was near, so the faster she got out of there, the better off they all would be.
She hated leaving Gideon alone with her family, but she couldn’t very well ask him to come upstairs and help her pack. So she left him perusing the merchandise while she ran to the apartment above, intent on packing as quickly as she could.
Not that she could possibly be quick enough, of course. She gathered clothes, underwear, toothbrush, toothpaste, makeup. All the things she would need to make herself at home in Gideon’s house.
Hope walked downstairs to find the three of them with their heads together, laughing as if someone had an old baby picture of her naked and was showing it off. Laughing as if Sunny had just told one of her embarrassing “Remember when?” stories about her little sister.
“We can go now,” Hope said, her voice almost harsh.
They all three turned to look at her, and she got the feeling they knew something she didn’t. She’d felt that way all her life, as if she were living on the outside looking in, as if she were missing out on some universal truth that was hidden from her and no one else.
“Yeah, okay,” Gideon said, walking toward her, his eyes raking over her hungrily.
She was twenty-nine years old. She’d been involved with men before. Romantically, sexually, emotionally. And none of them had ever looked at her this way. None of them had ever looked into her with eyes that made her knees wobble.
None of them had been Gideon Raintree.
“I’m cooking Saturday night,” Sunny called. “If y’all are finished with your undercover thingie, come by after the shop closes. I make a mean peach cobbler.”
They said goodbye and left the shop just as three tourists—mother and daughters, judging by their similar round faces—entered, drawn there by a colorful display of wrapped stones in the window.
Hope tossed her bag into the back seat of Gideon’s Mustang. She couldn’t help but remember driving him home last night. He’d been so out of it that she’d been sure he would be in bed for days. She’d been certain he needed to be in the hospital. And here he was, looking as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
“Are they safe there?” she asked before Gideon had a chance to fire up the engine. She had seen what Tabby could do, and while she wasn’t afraid for herself, the idea of a woman like that going near her family made her stomach and her heart turn.
“If I didn’t think so, they wouldn’t be there,” Gideon answered. “They’re under constant surveillance, just in case.”
“How did you manage that without telling the chief everything you know?” And how did he know that was just what she needed to hear to maintain her peace of mind? Rainbow and Sunny might be flakes, but they were her flakes.
“I didn’t tell the chief anything.” He pointed to the storefront across the street, not to the busy café but to the upstairs window. “I hired a private team to keep an eye on your family, at least until Tabby is caught. Though I don’t believe it’s necessary,” he added crisply. “Tabby wants me, and she might want you. I don’t think your family’s even a blip on her radar.”
Twenty-four-hour surveillance didn’t come cheap; she knew that. She could complain because her new partner had taken such a move without discussing it with her first, and she could offer to pay, since this was, after all, her family they were talking about. But instead she just said, “Thank you.” And she meant it.
Thursday—8:37 p.m.
He wasn’t surprised that Hope’s bathing suit was a modest black one-piece. She looked great in it, but what he wouldn’t give to see her in a skimpy bikini like the ones Echo wore when she was here. Something tiny and insubstantial, and maybe red. Beneath the conservative suits she wore to work, Hope Malory had a great body.
They’d studied the files over sandwiches and soda, but eventually they’d both started to lose what energy they had left, after last night. Words began to blur. They started making mistakes. Gideon’s response to that kind of weariness was always the water.
The waves were ferocious, and night was coming, so they didn’t go far from the shore. Churning salt water pummeled them both. They didn’t stay close together. There was no holding hands or laughing in the surf. How could there be? He didn’t yet know what they were. Partners yes, but probably not for long. Friends? No, Hope Malory was many things, but she was not his friend. Lovers? Maybe. It was too soon to say. One tryst did not a lover make.
As darkness crept up on them, they left the ocean and walked toward the house, a few feet of sand and an air of uncertainty separating them.
“Hi, Gideon!”
Honey, his blond next-door neighbor, leaned over her balcony and waved. He’d never once seen her in the ocean. He’d asked her about it once, and she’d said she didn’t want to mess up her hair. With her hair slicked back and water dripping off her nose, Hope looked more beautiful than any other woman he’d ever seen. It was a realization he could have done without.
“Hi,” he answered, his voice decidedly less enthusiastic than hers.
