The concern in Katie’s voice vanished, replaced by interest. “You did? But I thought…”
“Not for that.”
“No? Because, you know, she’s really a-”
“Can you just come down to Grandma’s?”
“Is Sydney still with you?”
“Yes.”
Katie paused and he could almost hear her smiling. “Sure. We’ll be right there.”
“Good.” Cole squeezed his eyes shut, trying to alleviate the pounding between his temples.
The door to Grandma’s bedroom squeaked open and he punched the off button on the phone.
He turned to face Sydney. “She okay?”
Sydney nodded, blinking glassy, reddened eyes, rubbing her upper arms as if the air-conditioning was too cold for her. “She’s fine.”
“You okay?” he asked, peering more closely. Was she upset about her career? That would be understandable.
“I’m perfect.” She waved away his concern, as if it was a gnat buzzing around her head.
Okay. No sympathy. Fine. “What did Grandma say?”
“She said the brooch was at the ranch for several months in 1978.”
“Does she know who faked it?”
“My best suggestion is you talk to the local people who were around back then. Maybe-”
“So, she doesn’t know.”
Sydney took a sharp breath, as if he was annoying her again. “Maybe you could find out who saw it, if anyone seemed to have a particular interest in it…”
Cole told himself to ignore her mood. She had to be disappointed in the turn of events. Her career was on the line, and he couldn’t blame her for thinking about herself.
He nodded. Interviewing the neighbors seemed like as good a place as any to start.
Sydney turned to gaze out the front window, tugging the elastic out of her hair and finger-combing it to redo the ponytail. “While you talk to the local people, I’m going to California-”
“California?” Where the hell had that come from?
She nodded, still gazing at the snowcapped mountain peaks on the far side of the valley. “Gwen is, uh, sending a list of likely antique dealers. There’s a concentration of them in California, and I can check-”
“Uh-uh. No way.” Cole shook his head. He acknowledged that she was a valuable asset to the search, but he wasn’t letting her take over completely. It was his family, his property. She simply had a passing commercial interest.
Sydney turned to face him. “What do you mean no way?”
“I’m going to California.”
“You don’t know a thing about antiques.”
“If you go, I go.”
“But somebody has to stay here.”
“Kyle can interview the neighbors.”
Sydney jerked back. “Kyle?”
“He and Katie are on their way here.”
“Now?”
“Yes. Now.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You told them?”
“No. But I’m about to.”
“But…”
“But what?”
Sydney bit down on her lower lip, the wheels of her brain obviously churning a million miles an hour. “I just think the fewer people who know…”
“Kyle’s my brother.”
She got a funny look in her eyes.
Was she worried?
Afraid?
Scheming?
Would he ever be able to trust this woman again? She couldn’t have predicted the brooch had been faked. But Kyle had pegged her as an opportunist. Was she trying to make this latest turn of events work for her?
“I think this’ll work better if you stay here,” she said, her gaze darting away from his.
“Not going to happen, Sydney.”
“But-”
“Kyle can do the home front. I go with you.”
“I, uh, work better alone.”
He took two steps toward her. “Tough. Get used to me. Because I’m your new partner.”
Cole just had to come to California.
He had to be underfoot. He couldn’t have stayed home and interviewed the neighbors like a good little cowboy.
Sydney wriggled beneath the desk in her hotel room at the Sands in Oceanside, searching for the power outlet for her rented laptop. Why did they always have the electrical plug stashed behind furniture? Did they cater to contortionists?
It took all her strength to inch the desk away from the wall. Then she yanked out the lamp cord, plugged in her converter and shimmied her way back up to the chair.
She pushed her hair off her face and shot an uneasy glance at the connecting door as she flashed up the power. The front desk had given them adjoining rooms, but she hadn’t opened the door, and Cole hadn’t knocked.
Right now, all she wanted was to get Gwen’s e-mails downloaded. Neither Cole nor Gwen knew Grandma’s secret, and handing Gwen’s leads to Cole in careful sequence was the only way Sydney could get the job done.
They were here canvassing at antiques stores, just as she’d told him. But Oceanside was also the city where Harold’s illicit lover, Irene Cowan, had once lived.
As soon as Sydney ditched Cole, she was heading two blocks down to city hall to take a look at the historical property records. The new tax rolls were online, but Irene Cowan wasn’t a current property owner. So if a trail existed in property records, it was going to start on microfiche.
While the blue bar edged its way along the bottom of her computer screen, a knock sounded on the adjoining door. Sydney stood up, silently urging the e-mail download to hurry.
Cole knocked again.
The word “complete” came up, and Sydney snapped the lid on her laptop before crossing the room.
Cole stood in the doorway in a crisp, white shirt, a burgundy tie and a beautifully cut charcoal suit with polished, black shoes. He was freshly shaved and his hair was neatly combed. If the clerks in the antique stores were female, Sydney was pretty sure they had a shot at getting information from them.
“I thought we’d get more cooperation if we looked like big buyers,” he said.
Big buyers nothing, the staff would be too busy flirting with Cole to care whether or not they’d make a sale.
Sydney glanced down at her black jeans and the cropped, lacy top that was streaked with dust from her foray under the desk. She was definitely outclassed.
She opened the closet and took an ivory suit in one hand and a little black dress in the other. “Professional or flirtatious?” she asked.
His gaze moved back and forth. “What usually works best for you?”
“Professional,” she said. Then she paused. “No. I’m lying.” She hung the suit back up and closed the closet. “Flirtatious wins hands down.” She rounded the privacy wall to the powder room.
Cole laughed behind her. “I know it would work on me.”
“Yeah? Well, you’re easy.”
“So is most of the male population of this country.”
“There’s a list of antique stores on the desk,” she called, bailing on this conversation before it went bad.
She wiggled out of her jeans and peeled off her blouse, turfing the white bra that would show at her shoulders. “I thought we’d start on Zircon Drive,” she called.
“Does Gwen think one of these dealers has seen the Thunderbolt?” he asked in return.
“Nothing specific so far.” Sydney ran a brush through her hair and dug into her makeup bag.
“So, what exactly are we doing here?”
“We take the picture of the fake around to the employees and see if they recognize it.”
“And if they don’t?”
His voice was closer, and Sydney quickly glanced around for the dress. Not that she was afraid he’d come in. He was way too much of a gentleman for that. It was more that his voice and her naked body were a potent combination.
She slipped the dress over her head, the silky fabric teasing her breasts on the way down.
“Sydney?”
“Then we move on to the next store,” she said in a voice that was more than a little husky.
Cole was silent for a moment. “You really think this is going to work?”