Troublemaker Read online

  CHAPTER 22

  BO WAS GOOD WITH LEAVING THINGS UP IN THE AIR FOR a while until she was able to give the situation more thought or until something actually happened. She’d have felt a lot worse about being pressured to make an immediate decision because this was too important. She could think of this thing she and Morgan had going on, as he’d put it, though it felt strange to regard herself as half of a couple. She could imagine him being a part of her life for a while, perhaps even quite a while. She could embrace what they had now without regret despite what he’d told her. Those were the things she could do. What she couldn’t do was bring herself to think in terms of permanency because that meant she’d have to deal with more than she was ready for. She could handle the near future, she could handle the now, but she couldn’t handle more of a commitment than that.

  She wasn’t blind to the circumstances that had shaped her; she had deliberately made the decision to close off the romantic part of life and be solitary. She’d liked being solitary, liked the security it gave her. It had required a traumatic event to get her to change her mind, one that had shaken her to the core and that she would rather have not experienced, but yesterday had happened. It was real, and she dealt well with reality. Things were different now. She had rearranged her priorities, willingly and deliberately.

  On the drive from the lake back to the house, she sat quietly in the back, occasionally glancing at Morgan as he expertly steered the Jeep through the huge granite boulders, around trees, and angled it across dips. She liked the solid set of his head on those broad shoulders, the sure grip of his big rough hands on the steering wheel, the alertness with which he noted every detail, his head constantly turning. Nothing would surprise him, she thought.

  She watched as he reached over to stroke Tricks’s neck and was rewarded by a quick lick. Tricks was practically beaming; she’d had a great day. She had ridden to and from the lake in the front seat, gone swimming, and retrieved her ball until she was too tired to chase it anymore. She’d had a good nap and a chew bone. Looking at that happy, innocent creature made Bo’s heart fill with love and tenderness, and she had to smile.

  “Thank you for her,” she said quietly.

  He gave her a swift glance in the rearview mirror. “I couldn’t let anything happen to either of you. I’d have killed him with my bare hands first.”

  He would have too; that wasn’t an empty boast, it was a flat statement of what he could and would do. She accepted that, was even comforted by it. She wasn’t certain what it said about her that she liked having his lethal ability standing between her and the world. She’d never before felt the need to be protected, but yesterday had proved that bad things could happen anytime and anywhere, and men like Morgan stood ready to step in. Jesse would have done the same, or any of her officers, but even though they would have known Kyle, would they have recognized that something was out of whack simply because he wore a jacket? Maybe, maybe not; they hadn’t dealt with that type of situation before. Morgan had immediately recognized the threat and taken action, and no matter what happened between them in the future, she would love him forever for what he’d done the day before.

  When they reached the house, he got out and went around to unclip Tricks’s harness and let her out, then waited for Bo to climb out of the backseat. When she was mostly out, he gripped her by the waist and lifted her out the rest of the way, set her on the ground.

  “Thanks,” she said, pushing her hair back, then looked up when he didn’t immediately release her.

  He pulled her in and bent his head, taking her mouth in a kiss that was too long and too deep to be comfortable for either of them. She responded with so much warmth and passion that she surprised herself, but that was the “thing” between them, and she accepted the strength of it. When he drew away, she let her head drop forward to rest against his chest, and he stroked his hands up and down her back, down to cup her ass and hold her against him.

  Oh, God, she enjoyed this, the freedom to touch him and be touched. It was enough for now. He was here, Tricks was here, and Bo was a little surprised to realize how happy she was despite what he’d told her. Annoyed, yes . . . but happy.

  They unloaded the Jeep and he took the cooler; with his free arm around her they walked to the house and she unlocked it. Again she had the sense of family, the three of them, with Tricks dancing around their feet while she and Morgan emptied the cooler and put things away.

  Bo hadn’t taken her cell phone with her, wanting to ensure that their peace wasn’t disturbed, and when she glanced at the big industrial wall clock in the kitchen, she was a little startled to see that it was after three o’clock. Either she’d napped longer than Morgan had estimated, or their lovemaking had taken longer than she’d guessed—maybe both. The time at the lake had flown, so what had felt like just a couple of hours was twice that.

  There would be more days spent at the lake. She intended to make an outright habit of it.

  She checked the answering machine: no messages. There weren’t any missed calls or texts on her cell either. She had to suspect that Mayor Buddy had laid down the law and told everyone not to bother her today, which made her want to give him a hug. Just as she had the thought, her phone played a fanfare, her text signal. That was what she got for tempting fate by thinking about the lack of calls. This text, however, was from Daina, who was pretty much immune to Mayor Buddy’s benign tyranny. The message said: You okay?

  Bo texted back: Pretty much.

  Daina: Want me to bring dinner?

  Bo started to say no, then reconsidered: What’s on the menu?

  Daina: LOL. Any takeout you desire.

  Just joking. Thx for the offer, but we’ve got plenty of food.

  Daina: K, let me know if you need anything.

  I will.

  Daina: Is Hot Stuff taking care of you?

  Bo smiled. When had Morgan become “Hot Stuff”? To tease Daina she texted, Who?

  Daina: Oh, pls. The hunk who looks at you like he could eat you up.

  She texted back: Oh, him. But she was taken aback, because—really? Morgan looked at her like that?

  Daina: Snort.

  Bo deleted the texts because she always did, on the theory that she could never be embarrassed by something that wasn’t there. She smiled a little as she put the phone down, glad she had friends, glad she was no longer so solitary. Despite her best efforts to not let anyone matter to her, they did. Slowly and surely she had developed relationships, even if there hadn’t been any romantic ones—until Morgan.

  Because that was the way she rolled, she went to the computer and sat down. She needed to carefully consider all aspects of the situation; to that end, she set up a chart of pros and cons, so she could clearly see and balance each item.

  “You’re working?” Morgan asked from the kitchen. She thought he might be about to cook something, but she didn’t look over to verify her hunch.

  “Not exactly,” she absently replied.

  Under the con heading she listed: Put town at risk. She sat there another minute or so, thinking, but to her surprise she couldn’t come up with anything else. Yes, he had lied by omission, but that came under the risk to the town. He also thought any risk to the town was negligible, that trouble was more likely to come here, to her house. Maybe that also came under the same heading, and he’d taken steps to minimize that risk.

  Other than that . . . what?

  After fruitlessly staring at the blinking cursor for a while, she moved over to the pro column. The first thing that came to mind was that as soon as they had moved into an intimate relationship, he’d come clean. He hadn’t tried to hide it, hadn’t made excuses. His honesty there completely counterbalanced the whole lied-by-omission item. He was a man, not a man-child. He accepted responsibility for his own actions, as well as the actions of others.

  He’d risked his own life to protect her and Tricks.

  He stood willing to back her up any time she needed it but was confident enough t