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He nodded and then frowned as he checked his mirrors. “Smokers are picky about their brands and very few people roll their own.”
“True.”
She remembered the fire alarm that had evacuated his office on Christmas Day. She’d been late to see her nephews because she’d driven into Columbia to ask him to look into the dogfighting circuit. Twisting around in her seat, she caught the strap of her camera bag and pulled it to her lap.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking on something.” She pulled out her camera and flipped open the case that held her SD cards.
“I told you I had a camera.”
“Always good to have an extra.” She swapped out the empty SD card for the full one in the case and started skimming through pictures.
“Will your camera even work in low light?”
She didn’t bother to dignify that with a reply. Wouldn’t he be surprised if she’d caught their mystery smoker loitering outside of the Columbia FBI office?
“Don’t worry about my equipment,” she said, clicking past a series of shots of deer. “Do you have something in mind for us today as the celebratory couple?”
“We could do a museum.”
“It’s an option.” But it didn’t sound all that romantic to her.
“Whatever we choose, we have to be convincing about being engaged.”
“You keep saying that.” It worried her how easily she thought she might fall into the role of doting fiancée. Despite a few of Dale’s annoying traits, she liked him. “Based on J.C.’s reaction, we’re doing just fine.”
Despite her grumpy reply, she’d recognized his sincerity when he’d offered to help explain this to her family when they were done. Gruff and aloof, he had good intentions, but she doubted he would say the right thing if she took him up on the assist. Whatever family situation he’d come from had probably been the polar opposite of her upbringing. Part of her wanted him to open up about it—as a friend—while another part of her feared the emotional cost of a deeper connection with him.
Because she genuinely liked him. She definitely liked kissing him.
No. No repeat performances allowed, she thought, forcing her attention back to the slide show on her camera before the memory could distract her again.
He would probably toss this case out the window and run away screaming if she admitted her feelings out loud. He didn’t act like a typical commitment-phobe, and she’d met her share. No, he acted like a man who’d been burned. Badly.
Life hadn’t been a walk in the park for her either. Everyone thought they knew why, but the obvious reasons weren’t always the root cause of the problem. Losing her dad to cancer had been horrible, no question, but learning to move on and live without him had been the biggest struggle. Heart and soul, she’d been all too willing to linger in that frozen emotional wasteland of grief.
“Heather?”
Pulled out of her reverie and back to the present, she noticed they were nearly to the city. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“I asked what you were looking for.”
She hesitated, knowing the admission would reflect poorly on her, but she said it anyway. “I was in Columbia for a little while on Christmas Day.” And she’d known he would be at the office, because he’d said as much when he’d joined her family for dinner the night before.
“Why?”
“A few reasons.” Dogfighting and state parks were the top two on the list. Right after Dale himself.
“You came to see me.”
“Yes. And I left when the building was evacuated.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want to approach you on the street and the excuses I’d given my family about being late wouldn’t hold up long enough to see how the evacuation sorted out.”
“I left during that mess anyway.”
