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Her eyebrows went up. “You like what?”
“Having a lack of other men here.” He couldn’t believe he’d said that. He cleared his throat. “I mean, you never know what you’d end up with. Some men aren’t what they seem. If a man’s a gambler or a playboy or a wife-beater, how would you know unless you lived with him?” His face saddened. “I’ve been to so many wrecked homes,” he confided. “Wrecked homes, wrecked lives. It goes with the job, but I never get used to it.”
“And you never have anybody to talk to when you get home,” she said softly.
He sighed. “I had Anyu.” He fought the pincushion in his throat. The grief was very new, and almost unbearable. “She’d sit on the sofa with me and laugh at me while I talked to her.”
She put a hand on his arm. “It takes time to get over a loss. It hurts so much, when it’s new.”
They stared at each other, remembering loved ones they’d lost.
“I’d have liked a dozen kids and a wife who wanted to just stay home and take care of them.” One side of his mouth pulled down. “Debby didn’t want that. She didn’t like kids. She didn’t like dogs, either.” He frowned and laughed. “Funny, isn’t it, that she’d give me a puppy.”
“She knew you liked animals, I imagine.”
“She didn’t know anything about me, really,” he said. “We got married in a fever, but it was only a physical thing, at first.” He grimaced. “She didn’t want to get married, but I did. I’m painfully conventional. I couldn’t just live with a woman I wasn’t married to. I go to church,” he added softly. “She thought that was outdated. She came up here very rarely. I knew her career came first. It was hard to get used to being second place in her life.” He sighed. “I guess she was a good doctor. I wasn’t allowed to come to her apartment. Well, I went there once and she fidgeted and danced around so that I felt uncomfortable and left.”
Abby was frowning. “That sounds odd.”
“It does, doesn’t it? Like there was something she didn’t want me to know about.”
Or someone, Abby thought to herself. It sounded very much as if Debby was seeing somebody in Denver. Somebody her husband wasn’t allowed to see or know about.
“Or someone,” Cody said suddenly. His eyebrows drew together. “There was this doctor she talked about, her mentor in neurology. He came to the funeral. He was crying. He made it known that she wanted to be buried in Denver, not here. Crazy, I never thought about that before.”
“I don’t think people in love notice things like that.” She laughed softly. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been in love. Infatuated, yes, a time or two. But never like in books, where the heroine can’t bear to be separated from the hero even for a few minutes.” She sighed. “Lawrence and Mary had that kind of love for each other, especially after Lucy was born.”
“I love kids,” Cody said.
“Oh, me, too,” Abby said, her voice soft with longing. “Lucy has been the greatest blessing of my life. I love her so much.”
“It would be nice if she had kids to play with.”
She nodded. She was thinking about children. Her sadness showed in her face.
“What’s wrong?” Cody asked tenderly.
She looked up at him. “I would never put Lucy in a foster home,” she said. “But no sane man is going to want a ready-made family, if you know what I mean.”
He smiled slowly. “Give it time. You’ve only been here for a few weeks.”
She laughed. “That’s true. We get some very handsome men at the office on occasion. Mostly they’re married, but there’s this one guy.” She looked thoughtful. “He’s private security for someone local, he wouldn’t say who. He was a dish. Tall and dark-haired-and-eyed. Every woman in the place, even the married ones, couldn’t take their eyes off him. He could play leading roles in movies, that’s how good-looking he is.”
Cody felt a sudden and devastating pain. Was it jealousy? He couldn’t remember ever feeling it before. “I may know the man you mean,” he said after a minute. “He’s working a case with me. With our department,” he corrected. “His name is Lassiter. His father owns a detective agency in Houston.”
“Houston? Then why is he here?” she asked.
“No idea. He and I are tracking down the same escaped fugitive. We think he may be hiding in the area.” He couldn’t say more. It was a case that might have classified significance. The man was so ordinary-looking that he could conceal himself even in a small town. He’d done murder and worse than murder. He wasn’t going to be easy to find.
“You’re very thoughtful,” she said.
He smiled. “Sorry. I was wrapped up in the case for a minute. You be careful going out alone,” he said, and the smile faded. “That goes for all of you. The man has said that he isn’t going back to prison, so he’ll probably try suicide by cop. He won’t care if he has to kill again to get money to stay alive. You understand?”
“I understand.” She smiled at him. “Thanks. For caring, I mean,” she added, embarrassed. “All Lucy and I have is each other and Hannah.”
“You have me,” he said surprisingly. He touched her cheek with his big hand. “I’ll be around if you need me.”
She looked up at him with soft, puzzled eyes. “And we’ll be around if you need us. Like today.”
