by Lisa Olsen
Allison gave her a grateful smile, “Thanks Lexi, you’re so good at those kinds of things.”
Lexi bit back the sarcastic retort that leapt to her lips, leaving the bland smile there while the detective got to his feet. Now that he stood she could see just how tall he was, easily over six feet which meant he would tower over her five foot four frame but he was well matched to Allie’s five seven height. Once again she wondered what things would have been like if her sister had married someone she could get along with reasonably well. But then again, it was probably for the best that her brother in law wasn’t someone she could drool over…
Detective Ryan was all business now that Allison rejoined them, no sign of that laid back quality in the set of his impressive shoulders. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ve got the list of Neil’s friends and associates; I’ll make a few calls and see if I can come up with anything, okay?”
“And you’ll call me? Either way, whether you find anything or not?” Allie pressed.
“I will,” he nodded, edging towards the door and Lexi took pity on him.
“Okay, thanks; we’ve got it from here. I’ll see the detective out and I’ll be right back Allie,” she smiled, scooting past him to the front door before she spoke again. “Thanks again for the help, Detective. It’s really nice of you to offer to call around, but I can do that too if you’re busy.”
“It’s no trouble, a few calls won’t take up much of my day,” he shrugged it off. “I have to say I’m a little surprised to see you pitching in so eagerly to track him down though,” Ryan paused on the front porch.
“Yeah well, she’s my sister. Sure he’s an asshat, but he’s her asshat,” she gave him a lopsided grin. “Besides, if he skipped out on her I wanna know before he cleans out the bank account.”
Gabriel’s smile was back as she followed him out onto the porch. Turning to lean a little closer to her, he dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “You know, off the record, I always thought Neil was kind of a tool too, but I think I like asshat better. Let’s hope for your sister’s sake he comes back in one piece though.”
Lexi stared after him for a moment, at a loss for words. “Are you sure about that? That would leave Allie off the market,” she called after him.
“She’s not my type,” he replied with a wink so fast she thought she might have imagined it. The question remained, just who was his type?
