Deadline

“I was afraid that—”

“That what?”

“I don’t know! Stop asking me questions.”

“That’s what I do.”

They did another two-step dance, and again he blocked her path to the door.

“Get out of my way.”

“One more question? Just one. Please?” Taking her silent glare for consent, he asked, “How did you discover that I was here?”

“I saw the sun reflecting off something in the window.”

“Must’ve been the lenses of the binoculars.”

“Remember to guard against that the next time you spy on someone.”

“When did you sense someone watching you?”

“That’s two questions.”

“Have you sensed it only since I moved in, or before?”

She opened her mouth to speak, but paused. Looking beyond him toward the beach, she recalled the eerie feeling that had swept over her last night. Speaking to herself, she murmured, “The sensation was strong enough to raise goose bumps.”

After a moment, her eyes moved back to his. They were light brown, flecked with gold. Tiger eyes. And the intensity of that amber gaze shocked her out of her momentary fog. “I’ve got to go. They’ll wonder where I am.”

He let her pass, but said to her back, “I apologize for frightening you. You’ve been put through hell. I don’t want to contribute to your troubles.”

“Then don’t,” she said without turning around. “Stay away from me and my children.”

* * *

Eva Headly barely allowed her husband through the back door before demanding to know where he’d been.

“Nowhere.” He brushed past her and continued down the hallway and into his den.

She followed. “You’ve been gone for hours, Gary. You didn’t answer your cell phone.”

“You’re keeping track? I can’t go out now without asking your permission?”

“Don’t take that tone with me.”

Headly knew better than anyone that Eva, who had the face and disposition of a saint most of the time, was no shrinking violet when riled.

“Are you seeing another woman?”

He gave her a look.

“Well, it happens, you know. Men your age—”

“My age? Now I’m a classification? What, sixty-five to death?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

She stared him down. He was the first to relent. “I didn’t tell you where I was going because I didn’t want an argument.”