Marley bowed her head and muttered what sounded like, “Really inconvenient.” He could have misheard.
“I’ll take her from you at the shop,” she said. “But you don’t have to carry her and come with me if you don’t want to. We’ll be just fine.”
“Nope.”
“What do you mean, nope?” She was motoring again.
“You’re not going on your own.”
“Do you know how you sound? You can’t tell me what to do.” Her voice rose a notch. “You hardly know me.”
“Doesn’t feel like that, though, does it?”
“Oh, dear,” she said. “So many problems.”
She broke into a jog and he lengthened his stride. “I’ll help any way I can,” Gray said. “I hope you’re not going to try what Nat wants. Solving this case is his job, not yours.”
“You don’t know anything about…” She didn’t finish.
“Explain it, then, whatever it is.”
She scuttled in her hurry to make conversation impossible.
“I’m not just going away,” Gray said. “You can run, but I can run faster.”
“Chauvinistic drivel.”
“I’ve got your dog and she likes me. Run away and she’s mine.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You’re magnificent when you’re mad.”
“Get some original lines.” Marley looked both ways and crossed Royal with Gray right at her side. Headlights slicked across rain-soaked road. “This is serious. I don’t know why you can’t understand that I need to be alone so I can think and make decisions.”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. I know a softy when I meet one. You’re a softy, Marley. You’re going to do anything to try to get those women back.”
Once again, she stopped running. “Of course I will,” she said, hands on hips, pointed chin raised. “What kind of person wouldn’t go to any lengths to help someone else get back to safety?”
“Would you like to take down names?”
She threw up her hands and caught Winnie’s chew just in time. “I’ve never based my decisions on the way other people behave.”
“I just bet you haven’t. You’re special, Marley.”
Their eyes met. “Really special,” he told her. “Are we going to have some time together—just the two of us?”
The shop was a few yards ahead. “Can we talk about that later?” Marley said.
“Whatever you say.” But he would rather know now. “We’re supposed to have dinner tonight.”
“First things first. Something’s happening. I’ve got to hurry. Give me Winnie and I’ll call you later.”
He held the dog against him. He was liking the feeling of her in his arms. “What does something’s happening mean?” Whatever it was, it made him nervous.
She bounced on the soles of her feet. “Only…nothing. I just meant there’s a lot going on.”
“No, you didn’t. Do you think there’s a new development? Are you getting vibes or whatever?”
“When you face up to your own vibes you won’t find them so funny.” Her teeth came together sharply.
“More mysteries?” he said, but he did get feelings. The only true surprise about this conversation was that Marley seemed to know what he did or didn’t feel.
She didn’t enlighten him.
“What’s worrying me is that you could do something that’s dangerous.”
“I’m not your responsibility.”
“I think you’re getting to be my responsibility—I like it that way.” He didn’t see any way to step back and make this a leisurely game of “getting to know you.” In fact, he wasn’t even going to try pussyfooting around. “You’re not getting to be my responsibility. You are my responsibility. So give it up. Hey, just say the word and I’ll be your responsibility, too.”
“You already are,” she said. Her blush was furious. “Please give me Winnie,” she said quietly. “I promise I’ll call you. If not tonight, then tomorrow.”
Gray reached for her, but let his arm drop to his side again. “One woman is dead. You heard Nat. She died hard and I’m not standing by and risking your life. I won’t do it, Marley, I mean it.”
“How can you stop me?”
“I’ll go to your family and tell them what’s going on.”
She laughed, but her heart wasn’t in it. “We’re a tight family. We stick together.”
“Good. Tell me how you go about this out-of-body stuff.”
“What?” She gave him an amazed stare. “Are you out of your mind? I can’t explain something to you when I wouldn’t know how to explain it to anyone else.”
“You leave your body and go somewhere else.”
Marley looked right and left, grabbed his elbow and towed him into the shop. She closed the door resolutely behind them, but the bell jangled on.
“Hello,” someone called from deeper in the shop. “Can we help you?”
“It’s Marley, Uncle.”
“Good, good, I’ve been looking for you.” A man came into view. Husky in a toned, muscular manner, he was handsome with definite signs of the same genes as Marley. He shaved his head, but his brows were auburn and his eyes a glowing green. He wore a green jacket over an open-necked shirt and green plaid cravat.
“Who are you?” the man asked, frowning, his attention ricocheting between Gray and Marley.
“Gray Fisher,” Gray said, smiling, keeping a firm hold on Winnie and offering his hand. “Marley’s one of a kind. I don’t blame you for being suspicious of any man she brings home. Ouch!”
Marley had, very surreptitiously, stepped on his toe. Apparently he’d said something wrong.
His jaws tightened, but Gray kept on smiling. “You are, sir?”
“Pascal Millet.” He shook Gray’s hand. “Marley’s uncle and guardian.”
Oh, yes, and there was ice in those words. “You’ve done a great job raising her as an honorable person, sir.”
“How would you know? Marley, who is this guy? He’s trying to impress me and we both know what that means. You and I need to talk.”
“Gray is my friend, Uncle,” Marley said.
Gray nodded and tried not to look too smug.
Another man entered the shop from upstairs. This one also exuded health, but he didn’t have Pascal’s elegance. The newcomer wore sweatpants and a muscle shirt. Blond tips scattered his hair and complemented sharply defined, male-model features.
“Pascal,” he said. “I could hear you two floors up. You have to consider your blood pressure. Let me make you an energy drink.”
“Anthony,” Pascal said, indicating the man. “My trainer.”
“Good idea, Anthony,” Marley said. “Please look after Uncle Pascal’s nerves. Gray and I are going up to my workroom. He’s interested in the restorations I do.”
“Is he really?” Pascal said, his voice entirely too soft.
“Sit, sit, at once,” Anthony told him, pulling a chair over.
Marley and Gray left the two of them. They arrived at her workroom and she unlocked the door.
“Any reason why you keep that locked all the time?” Gray asked. It seemed odd to him.
She didn’t answer. He walked into the workroom behind her and she locked them in.
“I don’t like to be interrupted when I’m working,” Marley said abruptly. “What I do calls for concentration.”
He nodded. How did you argue with that?
“You’re going to wait a few minutes, then leave,” Marley said. “Thanks for bringing me back.”
He sat on the same stool he’d used before and Winnie crawled higher on his neck.
Watching her dog, Marley frowned. “I don’t understand what she’s up to.”
“She likes me. Some women do.”
“I like you,” Marley said. “I’ve got a bunch of questions about you, but I do like you.”
“More than like me, maybe?”
“Don’t push it.”
“D’you have any more of those chocolate-covered coffee beans?”
“You’re stalling,” Marley said, but she went to her big, cavernous cupboard and delved inside. Then she spun around. “We left without the fresh pralines from Aunt Sally’s. Will they eat them down there?”
She looked so stricken, he laughed. “If they do, I’ll get you some more.”
“Oh.” More crumple and shove followed and she emerged with the coffee beans and a bag of broken chocolate pieces. She gave him the beans. “Take those with you,” she said.