Lilly soaked up all the activity around her, but Sara didn’t allow her to venture farther than a couple of steps from where Sara sat on a bench enjoying the salty, warm air. Sometimes it seemed as if she’d lived here forever instead of only three years. The two times she’d gone back to Memphis, she’d felt trapped without the sea air and the sound of the waves. Odd since she’d spent the first twenty-five years of her life in the home of Elvis, blues and the mighty, muddy Mississippi River. But she’d fallen irrevocably in love with Horizon Beach’s stretches of sugar-white sand overlooking blue-green water.
She loved her home, her job, her girls. Only one thing was missing. If she stopped looking for the right guy, would he walk into her life?
Momentary weakness made her look toward the building on the other end of the pier. No Adam in sight. She didn’t know if she was glad or disheartened by his absence.
She redirected her gaze to a ship on the distant horizon, likely a navy vessel headed toward Pensacola. An unbidden wave of loneliness hit her. Her watch showed she had to sit where she was for another forty-seven minutes. How had only thirteen minutes of the hour Tana was required to stay at the pier passed? She glanced in Adam’s direction again and saw him talking to a family loaded down with fishing gear.
This morning sure would be easier to endure if Adam Canfield were three shades of ugly.
But he wasn’t. Far from it.
She pulled her gaze away from the concession hut and back toward the people lining the pier. Most were men. Perhaps one of them was the type of date she sought.
Some she scratched from the list because she simply wasn’t attracted. Others wore wedding bands or showed evidence of habits she didn’t like and refused to have her daughters exposed to. That left only a couple remotely attractive candidates, but she had no idea how to actually meet them.
Maybe it was time to give online dating a try. A disgusted sound escaped her as she considered the possibility.
“That bored, huh?”
Adam’s voice was as sexy as the rest of him. Her torment was complete.
She pointed toward the long line of fishermen. “Not really my thing.”
“You ever tried it?”
“Not in the ocean. But I went with my dad on the river, a couple of lakes.”
“Not the same. The fish here give you more of a challenge, a bigger workout to reel them in.”
“Last thing I want to do on my day off is fight with something.”
He stared at her for a beat before saying, “Right.”
Any hint of his fun-loving self disappeared, and Sara mourned its loss. Now he was all business as he shoved his hands in his pockets. “It might be nothing, but I had a prowler at my place last night.”
“Patrol typically works thefts.”
“Nothing was taken. House wasn’t even broken into. But I saw someone running out of my backyard, and for some reason I thought of the kid you were looking for. He still missing?”
Lilly bumped into her knee, and without looking Sara pulled her daughter up onto her lap, held her close as if talking about one missing child would make her own disappear.
“Yes. Did you get a look at the person? How big was he?”
Adam shook his head. “I couldn’t see him well, couldn’t even swear it was a him. Didn’t follow whoever it was. Too dead on my feet. I doubt I could have caught a turtle at that point.”
“Plus, not a good idea to chase unknown prowlers into the night.”
“True,” he said. “I looked around the backyard this morning but didn’t find anything.”
“I’d still like to take a look.”
“Be my guest.” He said it as though he didn’t expect her to find anything, either, and he might be right.
Still, she had to search for herself. When her brain had been fixating on him and her hormones, she should have been trying to figure out where else to look for David Taylor.
“Sometime later today?” This was a serious matter, and yet a sizzle passed through her when her eyes met his.
He didn’t say anything for a few seconds. When he finally broke eye contact, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Sure. I don’t get off work until one, but you can go by without me there. It’s 715 Conch.”
She nodded.
“Well, see ya later.”
At his goodbye, Lilly gave him a big smile and an enthusiastic wave. “Bye-bye.”
He looked startled by Lilly’s gestures, but he gave her a half smile and a little wave back. He couldn’t have looked more uncomfortable if he’d tried.
Chapter Three
Sara took deep, slow, quiet breaths as she drove down Conch Avenue. This was a potential lead in an investigation, nothing more. If she were lucky, she’d find some clue Adam had overlooked. It’d bring her closer to finding David Taylor and occupy her mind with work instead of images of Adam that refused to go away.
Not since she’d had a major crush on Steve Dane in the ninth grade had she felt this type of all-consuming yearning for someone. Only this was more powerful, more adult than her feelings for Steve had ever been. And if she were being honest, that scared her. She had a life plan, and tall, sexy and not particularly driven wasn’t a part of it. Though she had to admit she wondered if there was some hidden side to Adam, something other than physical attraction that was pulling her toward him. He’d already proven himself a hero. He and his actions at the pier were on the front page of the paper for all to see.
What was she thinking? She’d seen him with more women than she could count. She didn’t want to become one of the many former dates of Adam Canfield.
“This is cool,” Tana said from the passenger seat. “Going out on a real case.”
“You and Lilly will stay by the car.”
“Ah, come on. I want to see what you do.”
“This isn’t that exciting,” Sara said as she eyed house numbers. “I’m just going to be walking around a backyard seeing if someone dropped anything identifiable.”
Which was a stretch.
“I can help look.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Sara glanced at Tana, at her eager face. She’d been curious about Sara’s job ever since she’d brought her home two years ago. “Because you’re not trained to know what to look for, and I’m pretty sure the department would frown on me bringing two kids to work with me.”
“But you’re not on the clock today. We could all just be visiting a friend.”
“Well, that wouldn’t exactly be true, would it?”
“Adam could be a friend.”
Sara rolled her eyes at Tana’s persistence and went back to checking addresses. When she spotted 715, she wasn’t surprised to find it was a totally unadorned bachelor residence. While his next-door neighbor displayed several hanging pots of bright purple and pink bougainvillea, his little white clapboard house sported an unremarkable lawn, a few untrimmed bushes along the front of the house and a leaning mailbox.
She pulled in to the driveway. “Remember, stay close to the car and watch your sister.”
“Fine.” Tana didn’t sound as if she thought it was fine, but she really was a good kid and Sara could depend on her to make sure Lilly didn’t do something like wander into the street. The two of them weren’t biological siblings, not even adopted sisters yet, but Sara had treated them like sisters from the moment they both came to live with her.
Sara reached over and ruffled Tana’s hair a little. “I’ll try to be quick. Then we’ll go get something to eat.”
Tana swatted Sara’s hand away like a normal annoyed teenager. Sara smiled as she got out of the car.
She reined in that smile, however, when she spotted Adam stepping out of the side door into the carport where his little black sports car sat. If she started smiling at him, she might not be able to stop.
She mentally kicked herself for not making it here earlier, before he got home. But she hadn’t expected him here so soon. It was barely
after one o’clock.
Sara steeled herself, focused on the fact that right now she was a detective working a case, not a woman appreciating a man’s very fine physical attributes.
Adam nodded to the girls as she approached him. “I see you brought backup. Little early to have them in training, isn’t it?”
He said it with a hint of humor, but she still felt like she’d made a bad parenting decision bringing them. Not that she’d had much of a choice. Ruby was visiting her sister in Panama City, and time was of the essence when working a missing child case.
“Their sitter is out of town today.” She took a few more steps to look into his backyard. “Tell me exactly what you heard and saw.”
He repeated the story of how he’d come home late after the bar closed, had heard something around the side of his house, had eased to the corner to check it out and seen someone disappearing into the neighbor’s yard.
Sara searched the carport, examined the windows and door lining the back of Adam’s house for signs of attempted entry. After checking the entire backyard, particularly the spot where he’d seen the person leave the area, she sighed in defeat.
“See, nada,” he said as he leaned against an old metal clothesline pole.
She scanned the yard one more time, frustrated that the person hadn’t left behind any clue to his or her identity. “Could have been anyone. David, someone casing the neighborhood for theft purposes, a teenager taking a shortcut home.”
When she glanced at Adam, he was watching her with a question in his eyes. “What?”
“Just curious.”
“About?”
“When I first met you, I didn’t peg you for a cop. But when you slip into work mode, it’s obvious.”
“I’m not sure you mean that as a good or bad thing.”
“Both.”
“Care to elaborate?” As if she could concentrate with his white T-shirt doing nice, sculpting things for his upper body.
“It’s good that you’re looking for this kid.”
“Thought you said he could take care of himself.”
“Maybe he can, maybe not.”
She shifted her weight and lifted her hand to shade her eyes from the sun. “And the bad part of me being a cop?”
“Not sure I want to reveal that to someone who packs a gun.” He grinned, making it obvious how all those women had ended up on his arm.
“You don’t believe in women being police officers?”
He shook his head. “I’m not taking that bait. Just seems a dangerous career choice for anyone.”
“Living is dangerous.”
The muscles in his face tightened, and a darkness seemed to settle on him. “Can’t argue with that.”
He pushed away from the pole and headed back toward the driveway. She followed, wondering what had prompted him to comment on her choice of career. Chalk up his disagreement with that choice as another reason to steer clear of him until her little infatuation faded away.
He nodded toward the girls. “When I first saw you with them, I thought you were babysitting. But someone told me they’re yours.”
Sara squinted at him and the abrupt change of subject before responding.
“Yeah. They were in foster care.”
“You adopted them?”
“Yes.”
“You must stay really busy.”
“I do, but I’m never bored.”
He laughed a little, and she liked the sound of it, deep and rich.
As they approached her car, Tana gave her a funny look she couldn’t read. It looked…mischievous somehow, but Sara couldn’t imagine what she might be up to. Had Tana wandered away from the car when she wasn’t looking?
Lilly tugged on Tana’s hand as if trying to get her into the car.
“She’s getting hungry,” Tana said as she resisted her little sister’s efforts.
Lilly stopped tugging on the immovable Tana. “Pizza!” she said as she jumped up and down and clapped her hands.
Adam laughed as he stepped up beside Sara. “Guess we know what she wants.”
“We’re going to Freddie’s,” Tana said. “You should tag along so you and Sara can talk more.”
Sara’s eyes widened as she heard the words come out of Tana’s mouth. “Mr. Canfield and I are done here.” She looked at Adam briefly, doing her best to suppress a blush. “If you hear or see anything else, let me know.”
“Will do.” He looked at her funny, too, as if he knew what was going on in her flustered brain and found it amusing.
Once she and the girls were in the car, with both girls waving to Adam, Sara resisted the urge to flee from the street at a high rate of speed.
“What was that all about?” she asked Tana.
“He’s hot. You should go out with him.”
Sara’s mouth dropped open, but she couldn’t speak until they reached the end of the street. “Just because someone is ‘hot’ doesn’t mean you automatically go out with him.” Geez, the guy had charmed a barely teen and a three-year-old without even trying.
“So you do think he’s good-looking.”
Sara rolled her eyes. “You’ve been listening to Ruby too much.”
“You’ve always said Ruby’s a smart lady.”
Trapped by her own words. Sara resisted the need to bang her head against the steering wheel.
ADAM WAVED AT THE GIRLS, still confused by how friendly they were toward him but amused by it, as well, since it flustered Sara. She seemed too serious and in need of a good fluster.
His mouth watered, but he fought the sudden desire for Freddie’s pizza. After all, it was the best pizza in town.
Instead, he went back inside and stared into his refrigerator. When a half-eaten pack of lunch meat and a leftover taco stared back at him, he acknowledged the cruel fact that he’d have to go grocery shopping soon.
But not today. He downed a few corn chips and decided he needed some more sleep if he was going to get through another night at the bar.
He noticed that morning’s paper with his image plastered on the front page. He ground his teeth as he read the headline again—the one proclaiming him a hero. He was anything but a hero. On his way to the bedroom, he pitched the paper in the trash can with enough force that it rocked before settling back into its spot.
Dreams invaded his sleep again, but this time no one was killed. No one was in the desert of Iraq. And the woman in his dream made him feel very, very good.
When Adam woke, the need for a long, cold shower soaked into his brain. It flowed past all the lingering images and feelings from the dream of him and Sara getting to know each other in something other than a professional capacity. He closed his eyes and relived the dream until the fact that she wasn’t real and warm and soft in his arms right that minute caused him to growl and head toward the shower.
Was he doomed to never have a decent night’s sleep again? If nightmares weren’t ripping at him, dreams about enthusiastic sex with a woman he’d sworn to avoid had his body buzzing.
He stripped and stepped into the shower. Tonight, he was going to be at his flirting best, and maybe he’d hook up with someone who’d make thoughts of Sara Greene fade away for good.
It didn’t work. That night or the next or the…hell, nearly a week went by without relief. No matter how much he tried to work up interest in the women he met across the bar, he couldn’t. His fixation on Sara made no sense.
“Little off your game, aren’t you?” Suz asked at one point.
“Bite me.”
Suz laughed and went to mix a couple of drinks for the Friday evening crowd.
As if things weren’t turned upside down enough, he looked across the bar and spotted Sara step into the Beach Bum with several guys. He recognized them as local cops, probably out for a drink after work. She glanced in his direction and caught his gaze for a moment before returning her attention to her friends.
Adam fisted his hands and redoubled his efforts in flirting with Candy, a stunnin
g blonde who’d parked herself at the bar. But his eyes kept veering toward Sara.
SARA HAD DONE PRETTY well all week, filling her days with work and activities with the girls to keep her mind off the man she couldn’t have, shouldn’t want. Each time she started to fantasize about Adam, she reminded herself that she deserved more than a love-’em-and-leave-’em kind of guy. The girls deserved people in their lives who wouldn’t end up leaving.
Work had kept her extra busy. In addition to the David Taylor case, a couple more had come across her desk. It’d been one of those weeks when she’d eaten fast food on the run for too many meals and one day ran into the next.
By the time another Friday afternoon had arrived, she’d spent the last few minutes of her shift staring at the top of her messy desk. And wondering what had happened to the world when even a small town like Horizon Beach had enough cases to keep two detectives and a dozen patrolmen busy.
When some of the guys had invited her out for a wind-down drink after work, she’d uncharacteristically said yes. She really did need the down time before going home. After all, in addition to Ruby’s persistent assertion that Sara needed time for herself, Tana had told Sara that morning that she “needed a life.” She hadn’t said it in a mean way, more matter of fact, which was Tana’s usual way of approaching any and all things. She said what she thought without beating around the bush.
But Sara wanted to draw the line on “getting a life” at hanging out at the Beach Bum, which is where Keith had chosen for the after-work drinks. She nearly backed out when she followed Keith into the parking lot and realized his destination, but she’d never been that big of a chicken.
Instead, she followed Keith, Shawn Winters and her fellow detective, Peter Jensen, to the open table at the front edge of the bar. At least it was as far away from Adam as she could get and still be in the Beach Bum. Despite telling herself not to, she glanced toward the bar and wished she hadn’t.
The Family Man Page 3
