It Had to Be Him (18 page)

Casey opened her mouth to answer when a knock on her office door interrupted her. Thank goodness. Meg’s plan wasn’t the best one, but nothing better had come to mind.

Ryan stood in the doorway beside a frowning Ben.

Casey whispered, “We need to talk about this some more, Meg.” Then she turned to their brothers. “Hey, guys. What’s up?”

“We wanted to talk to Meg about something. Glad you’re here too, Casey.” Ryan flopped down onto a chair beside Meg as Ben sat on the edge of the desk.

This couldn’t be good. She figured the parenting-by-committee thing would stop once she became a mother, but apparently not. “What’s going on, Ry?”

“When Granger took my gun from you the other day, he left prints. So I ran them. I’ve been looking into his background.”

“Dammit, Ryan! You promised you’d stop doing that to all my boyfriends.” She turned to her sister and Ben. “And you two wonder why I never told anyone Josh’s name?”

Casey ignored her and said, “What’d you find on him?”

“I’m sitting right here, you guys. Stop!”

Ryan turned to Casey. “His prints weren’t in the database, but his background check is too sterile. It’s like it’s so clean and perfect, it’s fake. Even
my
background report has more information than Granger’s.”

“Oh, so now it’s a crime to have a perfect background check?” Meg stood to leave. “I’m outta here.”

“Sit down and talk to us, Megan.” The command in Ben’s tone made her stop mid-stride. He’d
never
spoken to her like that. He was the one always on her side.

Taking her seat again, she said, “What?”

Ryan asked, “Has he told you where he’s been for the last few years? There’s virtually no banking activity except for regular deposits I can’t trace. And what do you know about his past? How did you two meet?”

She gave them the CliffsNotes version of her and Josh’s short relationship.

Ryan took a little pad of paper from his chest pocket. “What was the address of the condo and the name of the business he worked for?”

She told him, then asked, “Why are you guys doing this? Is it a crime to buy me a car? You’re the ones who made him give me the money he won’t take back.”

Ryan flipped his notebook shut. “Yeah, see, that’s what’s weird. He has a boatload of cash in his bank accounts, but no assets except his truck. He doesn’t own any real estate. Doesn’t even rent a storage unit for his things that I can find. It just doesn’t add up.”

“I’m fairly sure accessing his private information without just cause is illegal, Ryan, so either turn yourself in or cut it out!”

Her brother shrugged a big shoulder. “We want to be sure Granger is who he says he is. Did you ever meet any of his friends or people he worked with?”

“Okay, that’s it! I’m done. I have to fly to Denver and back this afternoon and then get a room ready for Josh, the apparent serial killer, all by five thirty. See you guys later.”

Megan slammed the door closed behind her and replayed Ryan’s last question in her mind. She hadn’t met a single friend or co-worker of Josh’s. If they went out with others, it had always
been with her friends. Looking back, that
was
a little weird. She’d ask him about it when she saw him later.

Josh put his truck into park just as Megan’s new car pulled up beside him. He grabbed the bags of groceries he’d picked up and got out.

When he spotted Meg in a red dress and matching sexy, tall heels freeing Haley from her car seat, he stopped dead in his tracks.

He needed to step up his game and figure out a way to show her that she could trust him again. He wanted to get back to the place they once were. Before he’d hurt her, they’d talked about getting married. But what more could he do?

Haley hopped out and ran toward him with a big smile. That she was happy to see him sent a wave of heat to his chest.

“Hi!” She held up a plastic bag. “Me and Grandma made you cookies.”

Doubt rifle-packing Grams knew they were for him. “Thank you, Haley. We’ll have them for dessert.” He turned to Meg. “It’s just spaghetti. You didn’t have to get all dressed up for
me
.”

She grabbed a duffel and a bottle of wine from the front seat. “It wasn’t for you, pal. I had a meeting in Denver.” She held up his favorite vintage. “I got my loan today so we’re celebrating.”

“Congratulations. But I’m still enjoying the dress and the wine, even if they weren’t for me.”

He couldn’t take his eyes off Megan’s curvy butt as she led the way to the front door of the large but forlorn cabin that begged for a coat of stain.

She tilted her chin over her shoulder, sending him a cute grin. “Well, look fast, because I’m not done fixing up your room, so I’m losing the dress and heels in about two seconds.”

If Haley hadn’t been walking beside him, he would have suggested all the fun ways he’d like to help her out of that dress. “Too bad for me. And why wasn’t that door locked, Meg?”

“City boy.” She rolled her eyes as she tucked the bottle of wine beneath his arm. “Haley will show you where the kitchen is. Be right back.”

Haley smiled and led the way. The kitchen was about as vintage as Zeke’s shop. Formica counters, avocado-green appliances, and peeling vinyl on the floor, plus an old wooden table in the corner filled with crayons and paper.

Hopefully the appliances still worked.

Haley laid her cookies on the table, then climbed onto a chair. “I’m gonna draw you a picture.”

“That’d be great. Thanks.”

He dug through the drawers, finally finding a corkscrew to open the wine so it could breathe. Then he started the sauce. It wouldn’t be able to simmer as long as he’d like, but it was better than opening a jar and dumping it on top of noodles.

A light tap on his leg made him look down into a set of big brown eyes. “Now we have to put it on the fridge.” Haley thrust the paper she’d been working on toward him.

“Wow. This is fantastic.” He wasn’t entirely sure what he was looking at.

He found a magnet shaped like an ear of corn with “Iowa” scrolled on the bottom, and attached the picture to the green refrigerator at Haley’s eye level. Then he knelt beside her. “So, tell me about that.” He pointed to the biggest of the three blobs.

Haley slipped her little arm around his neck and snuggled up to his side. “That’s you. See? Yellow hair. Like me!” She pointed to the other blobs. “I’m the little one and Mommy is this one. A family.”

A family.

Emotion clawed its way up his throat. That she’d accepted him so easily and drew him in the picture sent a pang to his chest.

He whispered, “Thank you, Haley. That’s the best picture of a family I’ve ever seen.”

Megan joined them again, wearing jeans, a tight T-shirt, and no shoes, and looking just as hot as she did in the dress. She plopped down beside them and laid a kiss on top of Haley’s head. “Good job, sweetheart.” Meg smiled at him. “Haley likes that you both have blond hair. All the Andersons are brunettes. She wanted to ‘match’ someone. She’s very big on matching right now.”

“Knucks for yellow hair, right, Haley?” He held out his fist for a bump.

Haley fist-bumped him and then ran back to the table. “I’m gonna make you another picture of us!”

“Can’t wait to see it.” He stood and held out his hand to help Meg up.

She glanced at his hand, but hesitated. Meg hated to appear weak or to need help. She finally relented and placed her hand in his.

She asked, “So, how was your day?”

He pulled her to her feet. “Zeke offered me a job. I didn’t realize how much mechanical work there was to be had in such a small town.” He poured out two glasses of wine and handed her one. “He even let me take his prized chopper out for a spin after I did some maintenance. I had fun today. It’s just a bonus he’s paying me.”

“So, you’re working for Zeke now?” Meg blinked at him. “And you know how to fly a helicopter too? Seriously. How is it that we didn’t know that about each other?” She hopped up on the counter next to the stove.

“I didn’t know that about you because you never talked about living here or about your family much. I got my license recently so
you wouldn’t have known that about me.” That was mostly true. He’d gotten a license under his real name right before he’d left the FBI. He’d been dying to take Zeke’s chopper up and saw it as an opportunity to stop lying to her about one more thing.

He took a pull from his wineglass and then started on the salad. When he glanced at Meg she was frowning into her glass. “What?”

She laid her glass beside her on the counter without taking a sip. “Speaking of not knowing things about each other, why didn’t you ever introduce me to any of your friends or people you worked with?”

Because he was undercover, in the middle of an investigation. They all knew him as Sam Coulter.

He forced his shoulders to remain relaxed and smiled as he worked on the salad. He’d tell her the truth. But not all of it. “Just when I’d make friends as a kid, they’d get adopted, or transferred somewhere else, so I’ve never been the type to need many. And you know how much I was working back then. I sort of drifted apart from the few friends I had. But the last thing I wanted to do was spend what little free time we had with my co-workers. I spent way too much time with them as it was.”

“So it wasn’t because you were embarrassed by me . . . or something?”

“No! I just preferred you to myself.” He lifted a crouton to her lips. When she opened her mouth, he popped it in. “What brought all this on?”

She waved a hand. “Just something Ryan said. Never mind.”

The suspicious sheriff who clearly didn’t trust him. The FBI had doctored Sam Coulter’s data, but no one except Megan and his handler knew Josh’s real name. He’d have to ask Watts about that.

But first he needed to wipe the worried frown off Megan’s face.

He moved between her legs and leaned close. “Congratulations on your loan. I’m happy for you.” He laid his mouth on hers, taking his time, savoring her soft lips, teasing and nibbling until she moaned.

He leaned back and whispered, “That was nice, but I want more. I want what you promised me the other night in the bar.”

Her eyes tilted Haley’s way before she whispered, “I had too much to drink that night, so no fair holding me to any promises I might have made. And the jury’s still out on whether I’m going to sleep with you.”

He pulled her into a tight hug so she couldn’t belt him. “I’m glad you’re considering sleeping with me, but I was talking about your promise to hand over your old car. I need a part from it for another job. Then we’ll shoot it up for fun.”

“Why didn’t you just say that? You are the sneakiest son of a—” He cut her off with another deep kiss.

Her whole body melted into his. If not for Haley, he would have thrown Meg over his shoulder and taken her to bed. Instead, he had to settle for ending their kiss and staring into her pretty blue eyes.

She stared right back. “I hate when you do that. Kiss me stupid, then trick me into saying stuff. But you’d never lie to me, would you, Josh? It’s the one thing I can’t abide.”

He held her steady, searching gaze, hating the FBI, and himself even more, for every single lie he’d ever told her. “I’d rather cut my heart out than lie to you, Meg.”

A
fter their fantastic dinner—any dinner was fantastic if Meg didn’t have to cook it—she turned back the bedspread and fluffed the pillows on Josh’s bed. The mattress was old and sagged a little, but it’d be replaced soon with the same ones they used at the hotel. She’d have to talk to Casey about going in on a larger order so they’d get better pricing.

She turned to go check on Haley and ran into Josh’s hard chest. He backed her up until the mattress hit her legs. The next thing she knew she was on her back, pinned to the bed by his big, hard body.

He swiped away a piece of fallen hair from her forehead. “I’m here to convince the jury to vote in favor of forgiving me and giving me another chance.”

All his weight should have made it hard to breathe, but it just felt good. Too good. She needed to keep her defenses up. “Where’s Haley?”

“She asked if my phone could play movies like yours. We pulled up some Disney thing.”