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CHAPTER TEN
C incinnati might not have the number of elite colleges and universities that Boston boasted, and University of Cincinnati didn’t have the reputation of Harvard, but the campus was impressive just the same.
Sitting in the University Pavilion on Monday, waiting for an opportunity to speak with an upper-level records clerk, Ramsey took in his current surroundings, and tried to picture what Jack Colton might have seen twenty-seven years before.
“It says here that UC has 42,000 students.” Lucy was reading a pamphlet they’d picked up at the information desk downstairs.
“It’s also been rated by U.S. News and World Report as one of the Nation’s Best Top Tier Universities.” He’d seen the quote on the UC website over the weekend. “It’s a small town, complete with a Main Street.”
It was important to stick to facts. To research. And not be distracted by the feminine arm sharing space with his arm on the joined chairs. He’d almost hugged her when she’d met him at the airport earlier that morning.
“It’s a public research university.” Lucy’s familiar voice took on a different note in person. Why hadn’t he noticed that before?
They’d driven past the University Hospital complex on their way to this appointment and had parked near the pavilion. They hadn’t had a tour of the campus yet.
He needed something to come of the upcoming meeting. He needed something new to go on. “Did your business yesterday go okay?” Lucy leaned toward him, trying to keep their conversation private in a hallway bustling with people.
Amelia.
“Fine.” He’d caulked the toilet. Fixed the drywall. And now where he’d plastered needed new paint. Amelia had made stew and brownies and given him distance as he worked.
She’d had nothing new to add to what she’d already told him about Jack Colton. He had no reason to continue visiting her.
But he’d told her he’d be back.
He could visit with Amelia, but not the people who’d given birth to him? Loved him? Raised him?
That was Ramsey. The guy who looked after strangers but let down those he cared about. And precisely why he wasn’t going to acknowledge that Lucy Hayes, the sexiest woman he’d ever met, was someone he could care about.
“How’s your mother?” he asked. Not a sexy question at all. In the car on the short drive from the airport, they’d kept the conversation solely on Jack Colton. On the records they were going to request.
Strictly business.
“Back to normal. And a bit whiny because we aren’t leaving her home alone anymore. Marie will be sleeping there for the next few months.”
“When did she get home?”
“Saturday afternoon.”
He’d been polite and asked. Anything more was none of his business. So he glanced at the pamphlet she held. And noticed how dainty her hands looked next to his.
Those fingers hardly looked strong enough to hold a gun, let alone shoot one. But the holster he’d noticed beneath her brown corduroy jacket as she’d climbed out of the car bore testimony to the fact that she’d mastered both the holding and the shooting.
Had those fingers mastered a man’s body, as well? Would she know where to grip? How to please?
Or was there something left for him to teach her?
“I told Amber we’d be going to see Wakerby tomorrow.”
“Good.” Justification for him to be sitting next to the woman who occupied so many of his thoughts.
And made him better at his job, too.
Lucy rested the pamphlet in her lap, atop slender, feminine legs. They weren’t long, model limbs. But he’d bet they were long enough to wrap all the way around a guy…?.
Holy hell.
Lucy had never attended college. She’d gone straight from high school to the police academy and then into detective school through the police department. But Monday morning, she felt like a college girl as she walked through campus with Ramsey.
