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“I’ll bet you are, sonny.” She winked and walked out the door he still held open. He turned and headed in, nearly dropping his tools when he felt a quick but unmistakable squeeze in a personal zone.
He waited until the door clicked shut behind him. “Did she just pinch my ass?”
Ginny’s shrug was non-committal. “You have to watch Ms. V. She’s more plugged in than she lets on.” She leaned against the reception counter and folded her arms, as if to dispel any notion her comment represented solidarity of any sort. The silent message reached him loud and clear. I’m keeping my distance. “What are you doing here, Buchanan?”
She used his last name only. Summed him up and damned him in a single word. He aimed to prove her wrong. “You have a problem I can solve.”
Her brows shot up. “I do?”
As an answer, he put his toolbox down on the floor and held out the shopping bag.
She eyed the bag like it might contain a live rattler. “I’ve been solving my own problems for a long time.”
“Okay. I’ll just leave this with you, then.” He pushed the bag into her hands. “Instructions are inside.” Hoping she didn’t call his bluff, he reached for his tools, and bit back a smile when curiosity got the better of her and she peeked in the bag. A ‘v’ formed between her brows, and then she reached into the bag and pulled out a small, round device.
“What’s this?”
“That, sweet Virginia, is a state-of-the-art, motion sensitive, night-vision-enabled HD surveillance cam. I could have gone with something larger and more visible, if your goal was to deter your graffiti artist, but I figured you wanted to catch the bastard, not force him to get creative.”
She stared at him for a moment, seemingly at a loss for words. Then she looked back at the camera resting in the palm of her hand. “It’s so…small.”
“Professional grade. If something triggers the motion detector, the digital camera will record and send the video to your phone. A friend of mine is kind of an expert on this type of thing, and he helped me pick it out. He also assured me it’s easy to set up. I’m sure someone so adept at solving her own problems will have no difficulty, but”—he tapped his toolbox—“I’ve got my tools and some time, if you want me to handle the install.”
She dropped the camera into the bag and handed it to him. His heart lightened when she rested her hand on his chest. “Sorry I acted like a bitch. I can’t believe you thought to do this, and I’d be incredibly grateful if you’d install the dang thing for me. Thank you.”
He resisted the urge to move into her touch, because it was an unconscious gesture of gratitude, not a come-on. Plus, if he decided to push his luck, the installation might be delayed for hours. “You’re welcome. I’m going to get the camera positioned before it starts raining.”
“I can help. Hand you tools, or—?”
“No.” He pushed the door open and paused there to admire her, all slim legs and glowing skin in cuffed, white shorts and a slouchy, pink, shoulder-revealing top. Whenever she moved, the wide V-neck offered a peek at her subtle cleavage, snug in some lace-trimmed white thing she wore beneath. She raised an arm to run her fingers through her hair, and the sleeve went sliding. He had a sudden desire to lick her from the point of her shoulder to the tips of her toes, with plenty of detours along the way.
Thunder boomed aggressively in the silence, breaking into the moment they were having. She blinked, and he got the distinct impression he hadn’t been the only one contemplating detours, especially when her cheeks turned almost as pink as her shirt. “Okay, then. I’m going to…um…finish cleaning up.” She spun an
d bee-lined to the back of the salon.
He gave himself another moment to admire her flustered retreat, not to mention her tight little ass in the white shorts, and then stepped out on the sidewalk and got to work. Installing the camera didn’t take long. He mounted it to the base of the carriage-style fixture that hung over the door, so the wrought-iron and frosted glass obscured the lens from any eagle-eyed onlookers. A flip of a switch, the camera’s green “active” light came on, and down he went.
Back inside he followed the instructions to download the monitoring app to his phone, and then hers, while she sat beside him, uncharacteristically quiet. Over the occasional rumble of thunder, he could practically hear her warring with herself about whether to ask the questions on the tip of her tongue, and figured it was only a matter of time before curiosity won out. Three…two…
“Where’d you learn how to do this?”
“It’s amazing what you pick up during six years with the SEALs.”
“So, surveillance was your area of expertise?”
“No.” He hit the new icon on his phone and pulled up the view from the camera outside. He showed it to her. “I’m going to program the scan area a little tighter to the wall, because you don’t want an alert every time someone walks past your shop.”
“Sounds reasonable,” she replied, but he could tell by her cautious tone she hadn’t missed the fact that he’d dodged her inquiry. He zoomed in and adjusted the setting, feeling her eyes on him the entire time.
For some inexplicable reason, he found himself circling back to her question. “I have a friend in Cincinnati who also used to be with the SEALs. He’s the technical guy. I went to see him today, explained what I needed, and he hooked me up with the cameras.”
“Ah. Well, I really appreciate you doing this. Can I reimburse you for the equipment? I have no idea how much stuff like this runs, but—”
“Don’t worry about it. He owed me a favor.”
She hesitated. He looked up from the phone screen and held her gaze, so she could see he meant what he said, but ended up lost in her clear green eyes. Finally her eyelids dropped down and her mouth tipped up at one corner. “All right. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
