4 Malice in Christmas River by Meg Muldoon

said. “What’ve you been up to today?”
    He shrugged.
    “Oh, you know. This and that,” he said.
    I glanced over.
    He tried to hide it with a half-smile, but I noticed it easy enough.
    A cloud had just passed over Daniel.
    Something was still bothering him.
    There was something he still wasn’t telling me.
    “What is it?” I said.
    He looked away and then shook his head.
    “Nothing.”
    “It seems like something, Daniel.”
    “It’s not.”
    I placed a bowl in the top half of the dishwasher and let out a long, frustrated sigh.
    “What?” he said.
    I leaned against the sink and after a moment, half-turned toward him.
    There was something in his expression that I wasn’t expecting.
    Something like fear.
    “I just…” I started.
    I thought about John and Kara.
    “Sometimes I just worry, that’s all.”
    “About what?” he said.
    “About us not talking. About all these long nights you’re working. I’m afraid… I mean, what if things change, Daniel? What if you don’t always feel the way you do now about me?”
    I bit my lip.
    It was probably just the exhaustion from the long day I’d had, pulling at my emotions. Making things distorted, like the mirrors in a funhouse.
    But in that moment, the fear felt very real.
    Daniel scanned my face. His expression softened.
    “Cin, of course things are going to change,” he said. “And of course I’m going to feel differently about you.”
    I looked up at him.
    “What do you mean?”
    He put down the mug he was holding and then rested his hands on my waist. 
    “I mean, of course I’m going to be more in love with you next month than I am now,” he said. “Of course I’m going to love you more in a year than I do today. That’s only natural.”
    “But what about… I mean, you’ve been holding things back. You haven’t been telling me everything that’s going on. I can sense it.”
    “You don’t want to know everything, Cin.”
    “Maybe I do.”
    “Well, maybe one day soon we’ll revisit this,” he said. “But don’t mistake me not telling you the details of what I do as me feeling different for you. Those are two separate things.”
    He pulled me close to him. I could smell the sweat of a hard day’s work on his skin. But it wasn’t a bad thing. It smelled right.
    “I love you, Cin,” he said. “Nothing’s going to change that. Ever.”
    He kissed me hard then. If I’d been less tired, I might have been slightly embarrassed, him kissing me in front of the open window so passionately.
    But then again, nobody was out in the meadow tonight to see us.
    “I love you too,” I said in between kisses. “And nothing’s ever going to change that either.”
    I let him sweep me up in his arms and pull me away.
    We left behind the half-loaded dishwasher.
    It could wait.
     

 
    Chapter 20
     
    Daniel’s side of the bed was cold and empty when I got up the next morning.
    Today was one of the busiest days of the year for the Sheriff’s Office. The Rodeo was a nightmare for law enforcement. Drunk driving, public indecency, medical emergencies… the whole thing took a lot of policing. And unfortunately, the organization of all that fell to Sheriff Daniel Brightman. Which meant an early morning, and an even longer evening.
    I just hoped I hadn’t kept him up too late the night before.
    I lay in bed, thinking for a few minutes about last night. About his assurances that he’d always love me.
    This morning, in the light of day, I believed him with my whole heart.
    And while Laurel had been trying to help, she could keep her advice.
    She didn’t know our marriage. Or how strong our relationship was.
    I rolled over to his side of the bed, wishing he was still there. I lay on his pillow, and breathed in the smell of his aftershave, thinking of the way he’d held me last night after we…
    I let out a happy sigh.  
    I was crazier than an old bag lady hoarding an army of kittens for my husband.
    And nothing was going to change that.
    After a