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Abby showed them to a booth half hidden near the back of the restaurant. She set the menus on the table in front of them and grimaced. “I heard about what happened. Can I get you both a whiskey neat?”
“Make it a double,” Cassie said.
“Same,” Drake added.
Abby nodded and hurried away to get their drinks.
Cassie sat staring at the menu without seeing it. Earl’s eyes were forever etched in her mind.
“Do you think someone killed him?” Cassie whispered.
Drake nodded. “Those lifts are safety rated. They don’t fall.”
“Someone had to have lowered it onto Earl,” Cassie said. “But who?”
He didn’t want to say it but felt he had to. “He had to incapacitate Earl first. The lift would’ve gone down slowly.”
Abby arrived with the whiskey and set it on the table in front of them. “What can I get you two to eat?” she asked.
Drake ordered a chicken salad with an extra plate and fork. “We’ll start there. If we’re still hungry, we can order something else.”
Abby nodded and hurried away to fill the order.
Cassie shook her head. “I don’t think I’ll ever be hungry again.”
Drake reached across the table and took her hands in his. “The memory will fade.”
He would know, she thought. He had to have seen much worse in battle.
She had to pull it together. A sheriff’s deputy couldn’t fall apart over a crushed mechanic. Cassie sat up straighter and squared her shoulders. “I have to work the day shift tomorrow. By the time we eat, it will be too late to go stargazing.”
Drake nodded. “I figured as much. It’ll also be late for you to drive home and then back at O-dark-thirty in the morning. You should stay in town tonight.”
“I have no desire to camp out in the sheriff’s station, even if there is a cot stashed in the far corner of the storage room. I need a real bed with a real pillow.”
“I have one of each.” Drake grinned. “A bed and a pillow. I even have a small couch.” He squeezed her hands. “Stay with me. I promise to let you sleep.”
Sharing a bed with him would not equal sleep. She frowned, but the invitation was out there now, and she couldn’t just brush it aside. Not when she wanted to take him up on it and spend the night lying naked in his arms. Heat coiled low in her belly and radiated throughout her body.
Staying with him would also help her banish the image of Earl. If she went home to the ranch, she’d lie awake well into the night, afraid to close her eyes for fear that every time she did, she’d see Earl’s sightless eyes staring back at her.
“Okay,” she murmured softly.
“And if you stay, you won’t have as far to drive in the morning. Which means you will get to sleep a little longer.”
Her lips twitched. “I said okay.”
Drake laughed. “You did, didn’t you?”
She arched an eyebrow. “You didn’t think I would.”
“I wasn’t sure after I pretty much rejected you last night.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “You should know I had to take two ice-cold showers before I could even consider sleep.”
“Good. So did I.”
He held up a hand. “But we can just sleep. You and I both have to work tomorrow.”
Cassie nodded. “Yeah, we’ll sleep.” She almost laughed at the absurdity of thinking they’d only sleep. She had a condom in her back pocket. She’d left the ranch that morning with every intention of putting that condom to use. Drake couldn’t use the lack of protection as an excuse to abstain. If he really wanted her, she was ready. She lifted the glass of whiskey to her lips and sipped the amber liquid, letting the alcohol burn down her throat, warming her insides.
