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  Ryan gently squeezed her hand. “Are you okay?”

  “You’ve given me a lot to think about. For so long, my life has been out of control or so I thought because things weren’t going the way I wanted. I had a vision of what my life should be, but I wasn’t even near that goal. Maybe instead of planning for the future, I should live in the moment and relish the present.”

  He gave her a lopsided grin. “I’ve been there. It’s not easy savoring the here and now and letting the future take care of itself. I wish I could say I have this not worrying down pat. I don’t, but I’ll keep working on that.”

  “I know one thing. I’m glad the sheriff lives next door to me.”

  His words and smile made her feel not so alone. In order to make this move, she’d given up her friends and neighbors. Although, this area had been her home at one time, she didn’t expect to see many people from her past since she’d only been twelve when her family moved. Ryan had been a pleasant surprise.

  “I didn’t get a chance to ask earlier, but what made you decide on moving into the carriage house? Are you still going to?”

  She nodded. “We should live there. Harriet and I have come to a compromise. Part of that is the decision to live in the carriage house.”

  “Why?”

  “Did you know Harriet had been with child and lost the baby?”

  He shook his head.

  “Richard told me. The boy would have only been a few years older than Shaun. She needs space and time to get used to the fact Shaun is living here. Besides, I want to get a dog for him, and the carriage house would give us more privacy and be a better place to have a pet, especially with guests staying in the big house.”

  “Most people love animals.”

  “I’m not going to hide the dog, but there are some who don’t like pets or are allergic to them. Depending on the situation, the carriage house gives me options when people like that are staying here.”

  “I’ll call my friend with the cocker spaniel and see if he has any left. If so, we could go see if that’s what Shaun wants.”

  “If my son wasn’t asleep, he’d be jumping up and down, celebrating. I’ll tell him when you have something set up. I’ve been reading about cocker spaniels. They sound like a good match for him.”

  Ryan rose. “I’d better go. If I’m lucky, I won’t get a call in the middle of the night about another burglary or worse.”

  She stood, wishing he wasn’t going home. His presence calmed her, especially after the news of the murder, but she needed to find that within herself. “Did you discover who the man in the woods was?”

  “Not yet. He was strangled. We’re trying to ID him with a forensic artist. In the meantime, we’ll keep track of any missing people in a fifty-mile radius. If that doesn’t work, we’ll expand the scope of the search. The murder could be tied to the burglary ring.”

  He closed the small space between them. “Your door is only yards away, but I’m escorting you to your suite. And it’s not because I think you’re in danger right now. I want to. This house’s security system isn’t bad. A few updates and changes will make it better, but a bed and breakfast isn’t the same as a home. You have guests who come and go throughout the day.”

  “But I can make the carriage house like Fort Knox.”

  “Remember what I said about worrying.” He cradled her face between his large palms.

  In the soft lighting, his expression melted her insides. All she wanted to do was wrap her arms around him and keep him right there in front of her. She hoped he would kiss her. His lips were so near. She remembered thinking about him when she was twelve and her big sister had a crush on him. Everyone liked him, but to her he’d been unattainable. He was fifteen and in high school. Popular.

  He bent toward her, his mouth barely touching hers. Goose bumps flashed down her arms. Then his fingers combed through her hair and held her head still while his lips set out to devastate her equilibrium. She tightened her hold on him and pressed closer, needing him to keep her upright.

  Their kiss awakened something that she’d thought died in her after a few years of marriage. Passion. Hope. Fulfillment.

  When his mouth no longer covered hers, she didn’t want it to end. But it had been a long day for Ryan, and he had a lot to deal with—probably tomorrow, too.

  “I’ll call in the morning, and maybe in the evening we can go see the cocker spaniel. I want him to be sure. If that puppy doesn’t connect with him, there will be others. We have an animal shelter not too far away. It would be a good place with lots of choices for Shaun.”

  She stood on tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss. “As a friend told me recently, I’m not going to worry about it. See you tomorrow.”

  After she locked the door to her suite, she immediately went to check on Shaun. He was her life. Whatever was going on at the bed and breakfast, she would protect her son.

  Chapter Six

  “I want this one. No, wait, this one!” Thursday afternoon, Shaun hurried from one cage at the animal shelter to the next. “There are so many to choose from.” He finally stopped in the middle of the row, perplexed. “What do I do?”

  Lacey strolled from one cage to the next with Ryan, inspecting each dog. “I don’t want a dog that’s too big since he’ll stay inside a lot of the time. Also, I think we should get a young one but not necessarily a puppy.” Maybe it was a good thing there were no more cocker spaniel puppies at Ryan’s friend’s house. They would require a lot more work, especially the house training. She had enough new things in her life and didn’t want to take on another. “How about a dog between one and five?”

  Shaun read the information on the sign to the left of him. “A lot of the ages are an estimate if the dog’s a stray.”

  “The shelter doesn’t close for an hour. Take your time. If you’re interested in one, a volunteer will take it out to the play yard for you.” Ryan squatted in front of a mixed breed, brown with splotches of white, its tail wagging and its front paws poking through the chain-link door. “She reminds me of a smaller version of Mick. Not in looks as much as temperament.”

  “Really.” Shaun came back to Ryan. “Yeah, she does. What breeds do you think she is?”

  “It says Corgi and Bull Terrier. It has the long body, squatty legs of a Corgi and the short hair and face of a bull terrier.”

  Shaun knelt next to Ryan. “She’s friendly.”

  “Do you want to take her out to the fenced yard to see how you two get along?” Lacey motioned to one of the workers at the other end of the row.

  “Yes.” Shaun hopped to his feet.

  Two minutes later, Lacey knew that the mutt was perfect for Shaun. He immediately began playing with the mixed breed, first throwing a tennis ball for her to fetch then playing tug-of-war with a rag. Shaun’s laughter blended with the dog’s yelps.

  Standing next to Ryan, Lacey leaned against the side of the building. “I thought we would be here after the place closes because he couldn’t choose. How did you know he’d love this one? He ran right by her earlier.”

  “I have a gift. You could say I’m a dog whisperer.”

  She chuckled. “You are? Why do you say that?”

  “Because I could tell she needed Shaun. He saw it, too.”

  “Don’t make me roll my eyes.”

  “What? You don’t believe me?”

  “You were desperate. That was the third row Shaun ran down, wanting to take half of the dogs in them.”

  “He was like a chocoholic in the middle of a chocolate factory. Too many choices. I narrowed it down for him.”

  Shaun trotted to them with the dog right beside him. “I’m gonna call her Sadie.”

  “Are you sure about her?” Lacey asked, although the smile on her son’s face indicated he was.

  “Yes, and I promise I’ll walk her and feed her.”

  “Okay, then we need to let them know.” Before Lacey had a chance to push off the wall, her son hurried to the door into the building and disapp
eared inside. “I haven’t seen him this happy in ages.”

  “He was five when your husband died. Did he take his dad’s death hard?”

  “His father had little to do with him. He was either gone on the road playing in a band or jamming with his buddies when he was in town. What was hard for Shaun was the bullies in the neighborhood. If I could have moved, I would have. Paying off my husband’s debt was paramount. The men he owed weren’t patient. That was my number one priority, or I would never be able to start over somewhere else. They made that very clear.”

  “So Shaun wasn’t the only one being bullied.”

  “I guess you’re right. When I did pay off the debt, I was still scared they’d hold me there with some other kind of threat, but at least the top guy was a man of his word. I can’t say that about all of them, but no one crossed him.” For an instant, a vision of Remy Gautier popped into her mind. Mean, tough, but honest in his dealings, if a person followed what he dictated.

  She had. “For over two years, I worked two jobs. I missed some of Shaun’s childhood, but a nice lady in our building watched him when he got home from school. All she asked me to do was clean her apartment as payment. Then I received Mr. Hopewell’s legacy. He wanted it to go back to a member of the original family.”

  “It sounds like you had a guardian angel looking out for you.”

  Shaun stuck his head out the entrance. “Mom, we have to leave Sadie here overnight. Their policy before adoption is fixing Sadie so she can’t have puppies. I like puppies.”

  “That policy is in place to keep the number of animals down. The shelter can only handle so many.” Lacey followed her son to the receptionist to take care of the adoption paperwork.

  Shaun stooped and hugged his dog. “We’ll be back after school tomorrow to pick you up.”

  As they walked out of the building, Ryan said, “Let’s celebrate. I don’t know about you two, but that’s hard work, picking just the right pet. There’s a great barbeque restaurant in town. Dinner is on me.”

  Shaun brightened up immediately.

  Ryan seemed to know the right thing to say to her son to cheer him up. He ruffled Shaun’s hair as he climbed into the backseat. In that moment, Lacey realized that the county sheriff would make a great dad. Had he ever married? Why didn’t he have children? Although they’d been neighbors while growing up, she didn’t know a lot about the adult Ryan.

  * * *

  The following Monday evening on the patio at the bed and breakfast, Ryan unhooked Mick’s leash from his collar. “You’re free. Go show Sadie what she needs to do.” When he said go, his dog made a beeline for Shaun and Sadie at the other end by the recently dug hole. “I see you’re getting a pond. When will the gardener have it finished?”

  Lacey sat in the lounge chair next to Ryan’s in an alcove surrounded on three sides by several butterfly bushes with lovely purple flowers. “By Saturday. Shaun and I are heading to Baltimore for the day. We’re going to buy the fish for the pond. You’re welcome to come if you aren’t working.”

  “I just might. Let me see what develops with the burglary case. When I contacted PAC in D.C., I discovered their services were used for each of the thefts. I’m going to Alexandria to talk to the other drivers. PAC will contact me if they receive a call from anyone in this part of Maryland, but we had another break-in yesterday afternoon. The driver service wasn’t involved. I’m sure the person running the gang has figured out that White has talked.”

  “How many times has the ring hit the area?”

  “Yesterday was the fourth time, farther north on the county line. I’ve talked with that sheriff, and he’s aware they could be moving into his territory.”

  “How about the guy who stole the boat? Did you find him?”

  “No. I’ve had what little evidence I saw of the man sent to other sheriffs in the vicinity and to all my deputies. But no one has sighted anyone who looks like him. The video cam of the dock where the boat had been moored showed a man of similar description on the pier nearby. I’m ninety percent sure it’s the lurker I saw.”

  “But still no one has seen him?”

  “No. Frustrating.” Ryan pointed at a yellow butterfly. “We don’t seem to be bothering it while it’s feeding.”

  “They ignore me. I come out here several times a day. I love the different ones that flock to the bushes.”

  “I may need to get several more butterfly bushes. It’s sort of like bird watching. Peaceful.”

  “Gus has a friend who has different bird feeders. I’m going to buy several and put them in various places in the garden. I think the guests will enjoy watching both the butterflies and birds.”

  “How’s it going with Harriet?”

  Lacey slid a glance toward Ryan as he observed another butterfly—black and red—flutter around the cluster of purple flowers. “We take two steps forward and one back.”

  “It could be worse. One step forward and two back. You’re going in the right direction.”

  “Yeah, and it’s only been ten days since we arrived.”

  One of his eyebrows rose. “Just ten days? It seems like you’ve been around longer than that.”

  “Is that a compliment?”

  “Of course. It’s like you never left.”

  She laughed. “Hardly. A lot has happened in that time.”

  He frowned as though a memory from the past caught hold of him and wouldn’t let go. “Yeah, a lot. We aren’t those carefree kids anymore.”

  Ryan had shared some of his past with her, but every once in a while, she could tell he hadn’t totally left it behind. He was still working at living in the moment and letting the past go. She didn’t know if she ever could. “Carefree? What’s that? That’s called growing up, and sometimes it isn’t easy. When I was a child, I couldn’t wait to be an adult. Then I could do anything I wanted. I didn’t have to follow my parents’ rules or the school’s.”

  His face lit with a smile. “Exactly. Then reality hit. We got a whole different set of problems and rules.”

  Giggles floated to her. Shaun lay on the ground while Mick hovered over him, licking his face. Sadie joined the other dog, lavishing her son with attention. “I can’t think of a better place to have come. This would never have been possible at our previous home. There wasn’t even a park nearby, and the closest one needed so much work done to it we stopped going, especially when I saw a drug deal going down not twenty yards from the playground.”

  “I’m glad you’re here, too.”

  She looked at Ryan and couldn’t take her eyes off him. Her late husband had been ruggedly handsome and very talented musically. When she’d first met him, those two things captured her attention and blinded her to the darker aspects of Jason’s nature that she should have considered before marrying him. When Shaun was born, she’d learned how self-centered Jason was. Her son never knew what it was like to have a loving father in his life, even during the five years Jason was in Shaun’s life. What appealed the most to her about Ryan was the way he included and treated Shaun—like Jason should have.

  Ryan reached out and ran his fingertips across her forehead. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Then why the furrowed brow?”

  “Just the past intruding.”

  “It’s behind you. Don’t let it rob you of the present.”

  “You don’t ever let that happen to you? Like a few minutes ago?”

  “I told you I don’t have it down pat yet. I still have flashbacks to dicey situations but not as badly as I used to. When you immerse yourself into the mind of a terrorist in order to figure out his next move, it isn’t pretty. There were times I needed to think like one, and it went against all I believed in. The hate, the disregard for human life.” He took a deep breath. “But being here in this beautiful garden with you and Shaun means a lot to me. I’ll be able to replace those flashbacks with this scene. Much better for me.” He leaned toward her and grasped her hand.

  Rising
, he pulled her up against him. “Maybe we can meet out here later after Shaun goes to bed.”

  His husky soft voice and devouring look melted her against him. “I think I can arrange that.” He caressed her cheek, dipping his head.

  His dark eyes drew her in. For a few seconds, she forgot where she was until a bark sliced through the air. She gasped, stepped back, and looked around Ryan at her son helping Sadie play tug-of-war with Mick. Heat flushed her face. Ryan could make her forget where she was.

  “Who do you think will win?”

  “Mick. He’s got eighty pounds of muscles behind him, and this is his favorite thing to do.”

  Shaun began to lose ground. “I think you’re right for now, but if my son eats much more of Richard’s cooking, he’ll be putting on more pounds, and Sadie hasn’t reached her full size. Did I tell you Richard is giving me cooking lessons?”

  “No. Maybe I should ask him to give me some.”

  “You can always join us. I help him every evening.”

  “Only if I get to stay and eat one of his meals.”

  “Anytime.” Lacey checked her watch. “And speaking of time, my son has school tomorrow.” She walked from the alcove. “You need to go to bed, Shaun. It’s already fifteen minutes past eight.”

  “Ah, Mom. Just a little longer.”

  “No, at this rate you won’t calm down until nine. You have to catch the bus at seven-thirty.”

  Shaun let go of the sash. Mick pranced around with it still in his mouth.

  “That’s his victory lap,” Ryan whispered in her ear.

  The feel of his breath on her neck sent tingles down her spine. She was falling for Ryan. In a short time, he’d broken down all her barriers.

  With a pout, Shaun trudged toward her. “This weekend I’ll be able to play a lot more. No school, Sadie.”

  Lacey watched as he and his dog headed toward the door that led to their suite.