“Apparently, they want to assess your security. Jake—they contacted him, he contacted me—thinks they want to get a gauge on you as much as that.”
“Okay, that’s good. That’s actually good. I’d like to see them in person. I can get my own gauge.”
“Jake wants them to assign an agent to Westridge, and I’ll add my weight to that.”
“Miles, he could decide to come here tomorrow. Or six months from now. How long am I going to be guarded and watched over?”
“As long as it takes. You live your life, Morgan. That’s what you’ve done, what you’re doing, and it doesn’t change. He’s not going to change that. But when and if he comes here, we’re going to have every available resource. And I’m going to talk to your ladies tomorrow.”
“About what?”
“About me staying a couple nights a week. You’re with me three nights, I’m with you two or three nights. It’s a nice balance. We can argue about it later—you’re on the clock—but it’s happening.”
“This is the second time tonight somebody just rolled over me. I don’t like it.”
“Can’t blame you, but it’s still happening. You can see the first hints of color in the trees.” He looked out and away to the rise of hills and peaks. “Time passes, seasons change. What doesn’t change and won’t? You belong to me now.”
“Oh, wait just a—”
“We belong to each other. We’re people who take care of what’s ours, aren’t we?”
“I don’t see that as as smooth a save as you think it is.”
“Maybe not, but … it’s still truth. I have to go feed the dog. You’ll text me when you get home.”
“As soon as I wave goodbye to Deputy Howe and close the front door behind me.”
“Lock it behind you.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. The next thing you’ll want a code or some sort of safe word.”
“We’ll talk about where my mind went on ‘safe word,’ but it’s not a bad idea.” Frowning now, he thought it through. “The opposite of a safe word’s not a bad idea.”
“Great. If I’m in a struggle with Rozwell, who’d have managed to get past Deputy Howe, through the alarm system, and into the house, I’ll just say hold on while I text Miles our unsafe word. Pineapple.”
“Pineapple’s stupid.” He gave her an absent kiss on the forehead as he considered it.
“Oh, pineapple’s stupid?”
“In this context. Work Howl into the text.”
“You’re serious?”
“Every available resource. Or I can hang out until closing, take you home myself.”
“Then look under the bed and in all the closets?”
Even as she said it, she understood. He worried. Of course he worried when he wasn’t right there. Couldn’t control the situation.
“We’ll try the other way instead. Go home, sit in your turret, and answer all the texts and emails and whatever else you didn’t manage to get to in a normal workday. And if I text something like ‘Say good night to Howl,’ come running.”
“Count on it.”
* * *
In the kitchen, Olivia and Audrey dealt with the last of the dinner dishes and talked about what remained in the top of their minds.
Wedding plans.
“We can look for our dresses at the bridal shop.” Audrey hand-washed the wineglasses they’d used at dinner. “We have to look perfect when we walk Morgan down the aisle. Or whatever’s going to stand for the aisle. I still get teary that she wants us to.”
“No flounces, Audrey. The girl wants simple.”
“Simple—flounce-free—but perfect.”
Olivia picked up a cloth to dry the stemware. “They better pick a solid band because I want to dance my ass off. Who’d have thought, baby, that when she came here last winter, we’d be planning a wedding for next spring?”
“We’ll not only know she’s happy, Mom. We’ll see it. We’ll get to be a part of the life she’s building. I’ll never take that for granted. Never.”
“You’re going to get sloppy and sentimental on me again, which makes me sloppy and sentimental. So I say we knock it off and go watch a movie.”
“I’d like a movie.”
“I’ll make the popcorn.”
“I’ll just take out this trash. And let’s pick something happy,” she added as she tied up the kitchen bag, then pulled out the recycle bin.