“I’ll find him,” Johnny said. He slipped her arm around his waist, draped his own over her shoulders. “Guest of honor’s here. And he looks suitably surprised.”
He also locked his gaze on her and Johnny, Melia noticed. And didn’t remove it even when his friends and mother began milling around him.
“Okay, well, I’m uncomfortable,” she murmured. Doubly so when she thought back to the weird conversation she’d had with Cas, who was staring at his father while the bat swung like a pendulum at his side.
“Thirty minutes,” Johnny said softly. “Then we need to make our apologies and leave. Actually, you can make the apologies. I’ll check my truck for incendiary devices.”
“Great. What am I supposed to use for an excuse to leave early?”
“You could say you want to spend some time with your ex.”
“Uh-huh. That’ll make Ethan and Mabel happy.”
“Fine. You need to check on a patient in the swamp.”
“I do need to check on someone. Junior. It might be tricky finding him, though.”
“It’s possible he saw something, Mel. That’ll make the search worthwhile.”
“I have to warn you, Harry says he does a lot of cocaine when he’s alone.”
“Then he should be quite chatty.”
A number of the guests continued to congratulate Ethan on turning thirty-five. Others wandered over to the tables and began filling paper plates with food. Ahead of her, Melia spotted Percy spitting on the grass. In a flash, his wife was poking him in the chest and shaking her finger in his face.
“Don’t you just love body language?” Johnny grinned. “How long have they been married, and he still hasn’t figured out it’s never wise to be rude in front of your wife?”
“Angie’s a stickler for propriety. Oh damn. I really don’t need this right now.” Fixing a smile in place, she kicked Johnny lightly in the ankle.
Ethan removed his badge as he approached. “You two look very much like a couple who’ve resolved their differences.”
“We’re working on it.” Johnny kept his tone pleasant.
“Cas seemed a bit more agitated than usual when I talked to him earlier,” Melia remarked. “Is he upset about something?”
“I don’t…” Ethan’s gaze flicked to his son, still swinging the bat and staring. “I hope not. Big crowds overwhelm him sometimes. There must be upward of forty people here tonight.”
“Fifty or better,” Johnny put in. “You’re a popular man, Sheriff Travers.”
“I do my best,” he said stiffly. “Excuse me.”
Melia watched him head toward his son and sighed. “He’s got enough problems on his plate.”
“Possibly more than you know.”
She frowned. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing definite yet. Just a little background research I’ve been doing. Finish your soda, Mel, and start making your apologies to Mabel. We have a date with a trash picker in the swamp.”
“If we can find him.”
“We’ll find something,” Johnny said and vanished before she could reply.
Mabel didn’t make it easy for Melia to escape. However, being the town doctor had its advantages. The older woman couldn’t argue with the Hippocratic oath. In the end, she reluctantly packed up a basket of food, pressed it into Melia’s hands, and told her she’d put a piece of birthday cake inside for each of them. Johnny should, of course, get the larger slice.
“Apparently it’s a well-established fact that you’re a sugar junkie.” Melia slapped his hand when he tried to lift the red and white checked napkin covering the basket. “Did you go over the truck?”
“All men are sugar junkies, and yes, I did. Engine to tailpipe. We’re good.” When they were both inside, he said, “We’ll stop at home, see if Gert can tell us where Junior lives. Hopefully we’ll be able to get something coherent out of him about the explosion at the clinic.”
“And if we can’t?”
Drawing her across the console, he ran his thumb over her lips, then gave her a kiss. “If he can’t, we’ll go back to your place and pick up where we left off earlier.”
“In your dreams, Johnny.” But even as she pushed on his chest, he kissed her again, and her resolve crumbled. In his dreams, she’d told him. And God help her, in her dreams, as well…
Chapter Fourteen
It took two hours of wrong turns and dead ends, but they managed to locate the shack. Gert even came through with the guy’s name. It was Harry, like his father and grandfather before him. So Junior worked just fine.
Unfortunately, there was no sign of him in or around his swampland hobbit hole. There was only half a loaf of moldy bread in the cupboard, three slices of green-speckled cheese in the ancient ice box, and bottles of mustard, ketchup, and sour milk on the counter.
“Your handyman’s grandson’s a pig,” Johnny remarked. He picked up an old Marvel comic. “He has vintage stuff, though. This is from the fifties.”
Melia found a pipe and sniffed the contents. “I don’t think he’s been here for a while. Did you check Harry’s place behind my house?”
“I’m a U.S. Marshal, Mel. Yes, I did. No one’s been there for a while, either.”
“I’ll leave a note. Then we should go. Before the swamp life gets too active. ”
Her statement had an ominous sound to it that Johnny had no intention of questioning. Leaving was fine with him anyway. He was hungry. He wanted to dig into some of the food they’d dropped off before Gert and/or Bette ate it all. Then he wanted to get Melia naked and under him on any flat—or maybe not entirely flat—surface.
As he helped her into his truck, he realized he was open to switching up the order. Hell, he was 99 percent in favor of it.
He bumped the number up to 100 percent by the time they pulled into the yard. Frogs were croaking, crickets were chirping, and he had Faith Hill tuned in on the radio. She wasn’t the Beatles, but her voice would set the mood until he got Melia inside.
“‘This Kiss,’” she teased as the automatic porch light flicked on. “You always were a hopeful man, Johnny.”
“You always were susceptible to love songs.”
“Some.” She cast him a sexy-as-hell look over her shoulder and stepped from the truck. “Depending on the company and my mood.”
“Right.” He pocketed his keys. “Where’s Gert?”
She squinted through the trees. “I see a glow coming from the guesthouse. She and Bette are probably absorbed in an old movie. What about Laidlaw?”
“Close by, watching the grounds.”
The door was locked, Johnny noted. Hopefully that meant there’d be no surprises inside. He went in first, scanned the front hall and living room, then kicked the door closed with his heel and grabbed Melia’s hand.
“You want to spend time with your ex-husband, remember?”
“I should check my messages first,” she began. But when he swung her around and right up against him, she laughed. “Or not.” Her arms went around his neck, and she tipped her head back so the moonlight washed over her face and gave her hair a lovely bronze glow. “I’m not sure I forgive you yet, Johnny. But I can’t deny I want you. I want to be with you.”
“All things being equal…” He covered her mouth with his, felt the heat inside kick up to full burn. “I’ll take it.”
“So will I.” And placing her hands on either side of his head, she pulled his lips back onto hers.
Did she want slow and cautious, he wondered, or fast and greedy? Her fingers were already working the buttons of his shirt open, and neither of them were breathing steadily at that point.
So…fast it was. And thank Christ for it.
“This is all your fault, you big, sexy jerk,” she berated between kisses. “I had a perfectly fine life going on, and then you crashed in for a second time and turned everything upside down.”
“You’re welcome, babe.”
He felt her knee raise, rubbing him between his legs. A promise and a warning. She could cripple him if she wanted to, or catapult him over the edge of his not inconsiderable control and take them both to a place they hadn’t visited in years.