soup.”
“For me?” Annie stopped in her tracks, pulling her hand free. The Fensom family was Nick times ten. And he was more than enough for her solitary self to deal with right now.
Nick turned with a weary sigh. “Is friendly concern against your scientific principles, too? You know, sometimes people just do what feels right. They don’t stop to calculate how it’s going to affect the future. My family’s like that. They’re good people.”
“I wasn’t insulting them. But we just met. They don’t even know me.”
“Call it guilt by association. If I’m taking care of you, they’ll want to help, too.”
“Why?”
“Damn it, woman...” His hands sliced through the air, emphasizing the frustration in his tone. “There isn’t always a reason. It’s just what families do. They support each other.”
“I’m not family.”
The frank, unadorned statement halted the hand-speak and softened his expression. “If I promise not to let them all show up on your doorstep at the same time, will you stop arguing every little thing and just let me take you home?”
“To the lab,” she corrected him.
His shoulders deflated with a weary sigh. But those blue eyes were smiling. “Right. I’m driving you to the lab. Come on, slugger.”
This time, he didn’t try to take her hand. Instead, he shortened his stride to walk beside her into the hospital’s waiting room. And as the greeting and concern of Nick’s family swarmed around them again, Annie was painfully aware that while he offered her the support of a comrade-in-arms, he’d never made that promise not to kiss her again.
Chapter Five
“Are you sure you want to chauffeur me around for another twenty-four hours? Maybe you need to check in on your sister. You haven’t seen your family all day. Or eaten a meal.”
Seriously? She was going to try that cutesy schtick on him now? Nick shifted the Jeep into Park, ignoring Annie’s winsome smile. Ceaseless debate hadn’t gotten rid of him at the hospital or the crime lab, and feminine charm wasn’t going to dissuade him now.
“You asking me out to dinner?”
“No.”
“Do you have a car to get to work in the morning?”
“No, but that’s because you wouldn’t take me to mine.” She pointed to the brownstone apartments across the street. “You know, once I’m inside, I can still call a cab and go get my car after you leave.”
“No, you won’t.”
Annie muttered something distinctly unfeminine and sank back in her seat. “You are leaving, right?”
Nick leaned back in the heated seat, surveying the fenced-in parking lot with its empty guard booth and security gate where he’d swiped her resident card to raise the plastic guardrail that was more about privacy than protection. Frustration radiated off her in waves at his silence, and Nick grinned. If she hadn’t learned yet what a stubborn son of a gun he was, she’d understand soon enough.
The light at the far end of the lot flickered on and off with the gusting night wind, and the streetlamps outside the lot were spaced far enough apart that they left plenty of shadows where a perp could scale the fence without being seen to jack a car, do some vandalism or commit an even more personal crime. He’d be on some landlord’s case about standard safety expectations if any of his sisters lived here.
The smile was back when she tried to reason him out of his protective penance again. “You said you live over near Raytown. No way is this a convenient drive from there.”
He scrubbed his hand over his jaw and watched the flakes of snow gather on his windshield where they melted and ran down to pool against the wipers. He was bone tired, in sore need of a shave and in no mood to go another verbal round with Annie. But the woman wouldn’t quit.
“I can take Blue Ridge Cutoff by the stadium and get home in no time. It’s not like there’ll be any baseball games there this time of year to back up traffic.” He thought she’d been
“For me?” Annie stopped in her tracks, pulling her hand free. The Fensom family was Nick times ten. And he was more than enough for her solitary self to deal with right now.
Nick turned with a weary sigh. “Is friendly concern against your scientific principles, too? You know, sometimes people just do what feels right. They don’t stop to calculate how it’s going to affect the future. My family’s like that. They’re good people.”
“I wasn’t insulting them. But we just met. They don’t even know me.”
“Call it guilt by association. If I’m taking care of you, they’ll want to help, too.”
“Why?”
“Damn it, woman...” His hands sliced through the air, emphasizing the frustration in his tone. “There isn’t always a reason. It’s just what families do. They support each other.”
“I’m not family.”
The frank, unadorned statement halted the hand-speak and softened his expression. “If I promise not to let them all show up on your doorstep at the same time, will you stop arguing every little thing and just let me take you home?”
“To the lab,” she corrected him.
His shoulders deflated with a weary sigh. But those blue eyes were smiling. “Right. I’m driving you to the lab. Come on, slugger.”
This time, he didn’t try to take her hand. Instead, he shortened his stride to walk beside her into the hospital’s waiting room. And as the greeting and concern of Nick’s family swarmed around them again, Annie was painfully aware that while he offered her the support of a comrade-in-arms, he’d never made that promise not to kiss her again.
Chapter Five
“Are you sure you want to chauffeur me around for another twenty-four hours? Maybe you need to check in on your sister. You haven’t seen your family all day. Or eaten a meal.”
Seriously? She was going to try that cutesy schtick on him now? Nick shifted the Jeep into Park, ignoring Annie’s winsome smile. Ceaseless debate hadn’t gotten rid of him at the hospital or the crime lab, and feminine charm wasn’t going to dissuade him now.
“You asking me out to dinner?”
“No.”
“Do you have a car to get to work in the morning?”
“No, but that’s because you wouldn’t take me to mine.” She pointed to the brownstone apartments across the street. “You know, once I’m inside, I can still call a cab and go get my car after you leave.”
“No, you won’t.”
Annie muttered something distinctly unfeminine and sank back in her seat. “You are leaving, right?”
Nick leaned back in the heated seat, surveying the fenced-in parking lot with its empty guard booth and security gate where he’d swiped her resident card to raise the plastic guardrail that was more about privacy than protection. Frustration radiated off her in waves at his silence, and Nick grinned. If she hadn’t learned yet what a stubborn son of a gun he was, she’d understand soon enough.
The light at the far end of the lot flickered on and off with the gusting night wind, and the streetlamps outside the lot were spaced far enough apart that they left plenty of shadows where a perp could scale the fence without being seen to jack a car, do some vandalism or commit an even more personal crime. He’d be on some landlord’s case about standard safety expectations if any of his sisters lived here.
The smile was back when she tried to reason him out of his protective penance again. “You said you live over near Raytown. No way is this a convenient drive from there.”
He scrubbed his hand over his jaw and watched the flakes of snow gather on his windshield where they melted and ran down to pool against the wipers. He was bone tired, in sore need of a shave and in no mood to go another verbal round with Annie. But the woman wouldn’t quit.
“I can take Blue Ridge Cutoff by the stadium and get home in no time. It’s not like there’ll be any baseball games there this time of year to back up traffic.” He thought she’d been
Similar Books
