The more time they wasted, the longer he would have to worry about her. She'd been right after all. They never should have stopped working for the holidays. With three days left until Cutter's wedding, maybe they could plow through and wrap things up for good. No doubt she would be happy to hear he'd backed off having her stay in Charleston.
And if they stuck close together, he wouldn't have to worry about her rappeling from a control tower.
Tanner sealed up a lid on his coffee cup. He would need the extra caffeine with all the work he planned to cram into a short time. Work that would help distract him from thoughts of jumping Kathleen.
"Captain Bennett?"
"Yeah?" He turned to the desk clerk.
"There's a message for you." The airman set aside his fork and pulled a folded paper from under the counter. "From a, uh, Captain Baker."
Crusty had been looking for him? "Thanks."
Tanner started to ask when Crusty had left the message, but the switchboard rang.
While he waited, Tanner read the few scrawled words: Need to talk with you. Soon. Crusty.
Folding and refolding the note, he hated the thoughts that charged through his brain. Crusty's obvious evasion. His hostility at persistent questions. Crusty suggesting a detour that would take them off the main road. It was one thing to consider his friend might have been negligent, but that he would deliberately set out to hurt them…
The raw spot on Tanner's palm stung. He could still feel the slick dampness of Kathleen's blood between his fingers. A fresh jolt of anger punted through him.
Crusty was hiding something, and Tanner intended to find out what. Once he had Kathleen safely settled away for the night.
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.