The desk clerk tucked the phone under his chin. "Yes, ma'am. You can leave a message if you want, but he's not in his room because he's standing right here. Would you like to talk to him?"
Kathleen? Tanner reached for the phone, but the clerk was already hanging up. "Captain O'Connell said she'll be right down, sir, if you'll wait."
"Thanks. I could use more coffee, anyway." It was definitely going to be a long evening. What was she planning? He never knew for sure around Kathleen. It could be anything from demanding her rightful place in the investigation to rappeling off another church tower.
Footsteps sounded in the stairwell—hurried, light treads that slowed on the last three steps before the door eased open.
The determined gleam in her eyes left him with no doubts. She had her sights set on flinging herself off the tallest building.
Yet when Tanner looked deeper into Kathleen's eyes, he found an edginess lurking beneath her determination. She swept a hand down her flowing shirt, treating him to a tantalizing outline of her breasts, before she braced her shoulders and charged forward.
Tanner leaned back against the coffee cart and let her come to him. Better to see exactly where she was headed. He'd given as good as he'd gotten back at the chapel that morning. From past experience, he suspected Kathleen's anger might not be as quick to cool as his.
Her brisk strides drew his attention down to her slim legs. Had she poured herself into those pants? With her baggy shirt flowing below her hips, it wasn't as if she'd left everything out there for display. But the way those pants molded to her calves, her legs might as well have been bare. Her wet hair, the long shirt, made for fantasy material … Kathleen after a shower, wearing only his shirt.
"Hi." She cruised to a stop in front of him. With a flick of her head, she swung her hair into place. Revealing her bandage.
The fantasy image disappeared faster than the airman's food.
"Want some eggnog?" Tanner thumbed toward the milky carafe perched in an ice bucket, then stirred two fingers in the air over a potful of something resembling hot tea with floating dirt. "I'm not sure what's in that other thing there. Looks like somebody forgot to strain it."
"Hot cider. Those are cloves."
"Ahhh. Guess it beats cactus."
She sidled past him to pour a cup of cider. Fewer than three inches separated them as she leaned, shower-fresh and smelling so good his mouth watered.
Work, investigation, pin-pull actuators, load ramps, he mentally chanted to numb his body. It wasn't working.
Then she stepped away. Tanner finished his coffee in one long gulp, watched Kathleen over the rim, assessed his opponent.
Half sitting on a sofa back, she blew into her cup. Imagining those same puffs of air against his neck almost sent him across the room toward her.
He forced his eyes away, down to something safe, like her feet. Damn. She even had sexy feet with slim, bare ankles peeking just above her simple white canvas shoes.
Sexy, restless feet that shuffled, tapped, flexed, before she stopped and crossed them. Nerves looked strange on Kathleen. He'd never seen her wired before. Fired up, yes. But wired, never.
They couldn't work together with this kind of tension. Time to make the peace and set their eyes on work.
"I've been thinking." Tanner barreled ahead, unwilling to watch her twitch for another minute. "You were right about using this time to work on the case. We can take the 'night owl' out Friday. The rehearsal isn't until Saturday morning anyway, since that's all the time the crew could get off given the mess overseas. Lucky for Cutter, he was already set to rotate out. Meanwhile that gives us two full days to work through reports."
"You want to work with me."
"Yes."
"Let me help?"
He nodded. As long as he was spotting her if she pulled any lone-ranger stunts, he could live with that, not that Kathleen left him any choice.
She smiled, just a regular smile that shouldn't have the power to rob him of the ability to breathe. But it did.
Her eyes sparkled like a sky full of northern lights right outside his windscreen. Awesome, unexpected and rife with the power to distract him from his job until he crashed and burned.
Tanner pivoted away to refill his coffee. "Why did you want me to wait for you?"
"Oh! Right. I have something for you."
"For me?" he said over his shoulder, replacing the pot.