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“Fine. No. It is not my passion.”
“What is?” She asked the question as a sedan passed them, her hands tightening on the steering wheel because that car was going a little fast for the weather conditions.
He was happy that she didn’t try to turn around and chase the guy. “Okay, I’m going to tell you something and it’s going to sound like the dumbest thing in the world because I do not look like this person. Accounting. I really like accounting. All my life I’ve loved numbers and spreadsheets and balancing things. I never had the opportunity to explore it until I went to college because my parents weren’t interested in that kind of thing.”
“They should have been because you were,” she countered. “I know I wish mine had been interested in anything I enjoyed. The only thing we had in common was the military, so I know where you’re coming from. Why not pursue accounting? I would bet the Trading Post can use some help at tax time. There are a lot of small businesses who could use at least a part-time accountant. You put them together and you have a full-time job.”
“I graduate in May with a degree in marketing. To switch to accounting would be at least another semester, and my brother’s company already has a kickass accountant. She used to work forensic accounting for the CIA. She doesn’t need an apprentice. She’s got a whole team. This is where I’m needed.”
She reached out and put a hand on his. “Okay. I’m sorry I brought it up. I won’t again. And thank you for indulging me with the talk about kids. I feel better now. I’ll talk to Hale when the time feels right.”
He couldn’t help but feel like he’d disappointed her. And himself. “It’s not that I don’t want to… What’s that?”
Up ahead he saw a familiar truck, crushed against the guardrail.
“That’s Hale’s truck,” Elisa said with a gasp. “And he was with my dad.”
The rear lights blinked off and on, looking ghostly in the swirling snow.
And Van prayed they had arrived in time.
Chapter Fourteen
“See, I knew if I could get a look at that code from above I could crack it,” Mel Hughes was saying as Hale turned out of the parking lot.
They needed another car.
He was alone in a car with the woman he’d recently fucked so dirtily and gloriously’s father, and it was not a position he’d ever been in before. He was the guy who never met the parents. That was Van’s job during the few occasions they’d found themselves in a more serious relationship. He was the “friend” who hung around way too much.
This was the most serious relationship of his life, and he couldn’t lean on Van when it came to developing a friendship with Elisa’s father. He was on his own, and he was deeply worried he was going to fuck it all up.
“They’re an arrogant lot. Think no one can figure out their codes.” Mel rolled down the window and shoved a fist out into the air as a blast of cold entered the previously warm cab of the SUV. “I can always find you. This town is not your brothel. Take that crap up to Creede.”
Hale was pretty sure the town of Creede—which had absolutely once had a brothel in it—didn’t want to be the approved mating ground for whatever had covered Mel in the blue goo he’d showered off an hour before. Now he was wearing a set of coveralls the maintenance staff had loaned him. He rolled the window back up and seemed extremely pleased with the way the day had gone.
Hale had no idea what to say to the man. So he kept driving. The snow was coming in harder now, and the sun was starting to go down. It had been warm enough to turn the road into slush, which was far more dangerous than snow. Something felt off.
“So, you used Mr. Roberts’s suite to tempt my daughter into sin?”
Shit. “Uhm, I thought she could use a nap.”
Mel’s lips kicked up in a grin. “I’m teasing you, son. Elisa is a grown woman, and a smart one at that. And there’s no sin in loving a person with your body. Sex is a natural thing to do when you love a person. Or when you’re merely attracted to a person. Sex without commitment can be all right as long as everyone understands the boundaries.”
He needed to make sure Mel understood his intentions. “That is not what’s happening. It’s the other one.”
“Other one?”
“You know, the other one.”
“I believe I need to hear you say that,” Mel insisted.
“It’s the love one. It’s the commitment one,” he said.
Mel nodded as though he’d known it all along. “Then it’s all fine and very romantic of you to make a special afternoon for her. You seem like a good fellow, Hale. But your friend is a fool if he leaves you behind. Stop worrying about that. It’s out of your control. You need to worry about finding a place for you and Elisa to live.”
