“It won’t take long,” Dave assured her. He launched into the story he’d already told too many times to count, and when he was finished, Bailey just looked at him for a long minute or two. They probably taught that move in investigator school. How to Make Potential Suspects Squirm 101.
But Dave had played with the big boys for a lot of years. He’d made deals, negotiated contracts and the one thing he’d learned had been “he who speaks first loses power.” So he kept his mouth shut and waited her out.
It didn’t take much longer.
“All right, thank you. I appreciate your time,” she said and scooted out of the booth.
“That’s it?” he asked, hardly daring to believe she wasn’t going to pepper him with even more questions.
“You were expecting rubber hoses?” Her smile was friendly, but her eyes were still too sharp for comfort. “Oh. Just one more thing. I hear you’re engaged to Alex’s housekeeper Mia Hughes.”
Dave went stone still. “And?”
“Nothing.” She shrugged a little too casually. “It was sudden though, wasn’t it?”
“I suppose. Is there a problem?”
She paused for a moment as if considering her answer before finally saying, “No. Look, I happen to agree with Sheriff Battle. You’re not a suspect. But I have to talk to everyone who knew Alex. I’m hoping that someone knows something they don’t even realize they know.”
Nodding, Dave said, “Okay, I get that.”
“Good.” She stood up and bumped into Nathan Battle as he walked up to the booth. “Sorry, Sheriff, didn’t see you there.”
“It’s okay.” Nathan glanced at Dave, then looked at Bailey. “Am I interrupting?”
“No,” she said with a last glance at Dave. “We’re done here. Again, thanks for your time, Mr. Firestone.”
When she walked away, Nathan took her seat, signaled to his wife, Amanda, for a cup of coffee then asked, “So what was that about?”
“The usual.” Dave watched Bailey leave the diner and shook his head ruefully. “That was me, being officially ruled out by everyone.”
“About time,” Nathan said, wrapping one arm around his wife’s expanding waist when she brought him coffee.
“Damn straight,” Dave agreed and lifted his own coffee for a long, satisfying drink.
* * *
The next day, Mia was feeling Dave’s absence. He’d ridden out early that morning with Mike Carter and several of the other ranch hands, and watching him ride off had torn at her. She hadn’t even noticed over the past two weeks just how much she’d come to depend on having him around. They’d had a nice little routine going.
He worked outside and she studied in the library, preparing for her final exams. Yes, she still had time, but Mia wasn’t taking chances with her future. They still managed to spend time with each other every day. They shared lunch, sometimes taking a picnic out to the lakeside. She helped him with the ranch ledgers and he’d showed her how to ride a horse. And one spectacular weekend, he’d arranged for his company plane to fly them to San Antonio. They’d had dinner on the River Walk and then went dancing. It had been the most romantic time in her life and it had ended all too soon. There had been warmth and laughter and an ease between them that she’d never felt with anyone else.
And now he was gone. Without him, the house felt bigger and far less warm. She could still smell him in the room they shared and caught herself listening for the sound of his boot heels on the floors.
But he would be gone at least two days, so Mia was just going to have to deal with it. Actually, being without him would be good practice for when this month with him was over. When she moved back to her suite of rooms at Alex’s house, she wouldn’t be seeing Dave again. Wouldn’t go to sleep in his arms or wake up to his kisses every morning. Her heart ached at the thought of that and she realized just how deeply she’d allowed herself to fall in the past couple of weeks.
Oh, Mia knew that she had been ripe for the kind of acceptance and belonging she’d found at the Royal Round Up. The ranch hands were wonderful. Delores, Dave’s housekeeper, had practically adopted her. And the big house felt like home.
She’d hungered for home for so long, it was no wonder Mia had embraced what she’d found here. But it was so much more than that. She didn’t want to think about it. Didn’t want to even consider it. But the sad, hard truth was that she was falling in love with Dave. Oh, she knew that road led only to misery, but she didn’t know what she could do about it now. And maybe she wouldn’t change it even if she could. Yes, there would be pain coming her way, but the only way to avoid that pain was to not feel the way Dave made her feel. And she wouldn’t give that up for anything.