He nodded. “I know you do.”
“But Chief Delvecchio likes me. He says it’s a bad sign and he probably should have his head examined.”
“He knows you’re good. And smart.”
“I became a marshal for a lot of reasons, Rook. My father’s accident, Nate’s influence, the action, a chance to prove myself – maybe all of them weren’t good reasons, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll end up back on a college campus one of these days. But right now, the service is where I want to be.”
“Mac.” He touched his fingertips to her lips. “You don’t have to explain to me.”
“I fell hard for you, Rook. You know that, don’t you? That night in the rain, when I thought you worked for the IRS or something.”
He smiled. “You have to work on your FBI radar.”
“I should have known. You were so damn good-looking and sexy out there in the rain, and such a hard-ass -”
“I shouldn’t have dumped you the way I did.”
“It was the right thing to do. That’s why you did it – not because of ambition or anything else.”
He lowered his mouth to hers.
“If T.J.’s out on the dock with his binoculars -”
“Do you care?” Rook kissed her softly, obviously not caring if anyone was watching. “I love you, Mac.”
“Rook…Andrew…” Mackenzie almost lost her balance on the rock. “If we fall into the lake, we’re not going to make our flight. Then we’ll have even more explaining to do in Washington.” She grinned at him. “My ghosts await my return. Sarah says she can give me another two months before I have to find my own place. I don’t know about Nate, though. He’s not convinced I won’t attract some other creep to the place.”
“Then you still need a place to live.”
“I do.”
“Brian’s moving out. I’m renovating. Suppose we see what happens?”
“Just one thing.” Mackenzie slipped her arms around Rook and kissed him again. “The Cupid wallpaper stays.”
About Carla Neggers
Carla Neggers lives in rural Vermont with her husband and their two children. Since completing her first novel at the age of twenty-four, she has written over forty books and has appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists.