Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

E ven though she hadn’t told Aaron yet, she had already decided what the weekend would bring. Bailey’s parents wanted to spend time with Murielle, so she was going to make arrangements for the little girl to go there for the weekend so she and Aaron would be alone. He didn’t have the duty for the weekend, so that meant she could put on the coat several times a day until she got the information she needed. That was if she could live through it.

They’d no more than waved goodbye to Murielle on Friday evening when Aaron turned to Maisey and grinned. “So did you do this to give us some time alone?”

“Of course.” Resting her forearms on his shoulders, she leaned in and gave him a kiss. “And I did it so I could do more work on the case.”

He rolled his eyes. “How did I know you were going to say that?”

“Because you know me so well!”

“Can we at least fool around a little before you go all ‘Murder, She Wrote’ on me?”

Maisey laughed. “Of course!”

Two hours later, Aaron rolled off Maisey and onto his back beside her, then threw a forearm up and over his eyes. “Whew, woman, you’re a hellcat in the sack!”

“So now you’re complaining?”

“I am not complaining! Not at all!” Rolling to his side to face her, he gave her a little peck on the cheek and threaded his fingers through hers as her hand lay on her belly. “I felt so bad when we talked to your cousin the other day, and I remembered how I felt when you and Murielle were taken. I was terrified. I can’t imagine how much worse I would’ve felt if that asshole had killed one or both of you. It would’ve been unbearable.”

“Yeah, I was thinking about when you had that wreck in your cruiser, even before we were dating, and how badly that scared me.”

His eyebrows shot up. “You were scared?”

“Yeah! I mean, I didn’t know you that well, but I already had feelings for you, and if you’d―”

“You already had feelings for me? You never told me that.” He lifted their clasped hands and kissed the back of hers. “I had feelings for you too. I just didn’t quite know what to do with them.”

“Remember the doped-up phone call you made to me?” Maisey asked with a chuckle.

“Yeah. I do. And I remember you teasing me about it. Was that anything like the story with the swimmin’ hole?”

“NO!” Maisey shuddered. “No, nothing like it. You called me. I was one person. When that happened, there were probably two dozen…” And she stopped. She just couldn’t go on. It had been the most humiliating thing that had ever happened to her, and she’d finally managed to forget it. “The only person you were embarrassed in front of was me.”

He pulled away and laid his arm out so she could curl into his embrace. Once her cheek was on his chest, she sighed as his arm tightened around her, and he kissed her forehead before he whispered, “I won’t ask you about it again. I can see it really upsets you, and I don’t want that.”

Tears filled her eyes. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Don’t cry. I like a laugh like everybody else, but I’m not cruel.”

“No. You’re not. You’re a good man.”

“And I’ve got an idea for what we can do tomorrow.”

“Yeah? Something special?”

His voice was sarcastic when he said, “Oh, yeah.”

She waited as long as she could stand before she snapped, “What? What are we doing?”

“Patience, baby,” he said and patted her cheek. “I’m taking you to meet VinceSkidmore.”