On Pins and Needles (7 page)

But did she tell him to just forget it? To go have his hot chocolate by himself while she retrieved her car alone and went home?

No, she didn't.

What she did say was, “I'd love a cup of hot chocolate.”

“Great. Then let's go before anyone else can drop in here to tell me they're sure Martians landed on your roof eighteen years ago and what we really found in your yard was the space craft.”

“Mmm. That is about the only thing they didn't come up with today,” Megan agreed with a small laugh.

Josh went around his desk to open the door on a closet on the inside wall, taking a short brown wool jacket from a hanger inside.

“Where's your coat?” he asked then, as if the thought had just popped into his mind.

“I ran out so fast this morning that I left that at my office, too.”

Three strides of his long legs brought him to where Megan still stood at the door. “Here. Wear this or you'll freeze to death,” he ordered, holding it open for her to slip into.

“If I wear it
you'll
freeze to death.”

“Nah. The cold will feel good after this hot, stuffy office. I'll wear it on the way back, once you're in your car with the heater on.”

He ignored her further protests and urged her into the jacket.

It was several sizes too big and Megan knew she must look ridiculous but as Josh ushered her out of the office she could smell his after shave on the coat and the feel of it around her made her think about having his arms around her much the same way.

On guard,
she reminded herself sternly. She was supposed to be on guard against the attraction to him sneaking up on her, against thoughts like that sneaking up on her. Against him. After all, it wasn't the walk or the hot chocolate that were potentially dangerous to her. It was her own thoughts. And the uninvited hope that went with them. And that couldn't go on. It had to be nipped in the bud.

So, determined to do just that, as soon as they stepped outside the court house building, she jabbed her nose skyward and took a deep draw of the cool night air, holding
it in her lungs as long as she could before exhaling and hoping that was enough to clear her mind.

Josh misinterpreted the actions. “I know. Beautiful night, isn't it?”

“It is,” Megan agreed as if that had been what was going through her mind the whole time.

The Dairy King was around the corner from the court house. Megan and Josh shared in consequential small talk as they walked there, ordered two hot chocolates and then headed across the town square again in the direction of Megan's office.

It was only once they were back on Center Street, sipping the sweet, creamy drinks as they lei surely strolled the board walk that Josh said, “So where did you and your folks go when you left Elk Creek?”

Megan stopped mid-sip to look at him out of the corner of her eye. “Aren't you ready to go off-duty yet?”

“I am
off-duty.
That was a purely friendly question.”

“Honestly?”

“Honestly.”

“Or at least it was a purely friendly question unless I just happen to say some thing that could be used against my parents.”

“Okay, we don't have to talk. I was just making conversation. Trying to get to know you a little.”

“Without any ulterior motive?”

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Without any ulterior motive.”

Megan didn't say anything for a while, weighing whether he was telling her the truth or if he was
fishing under the guise of friendliness and conversation-making.

She couldn't be sure. But on the other hand, she also couldn't think of anything she might say in answer to his question about where her family had gone after leaving Elk Creek that could be used against her folks, either.

So she finally said, “From here we went to California to work on improving the conditions of migrant laborers. We were there until after the first of the next year.”

“And then?”

“And then,” she repeated as if it were hardly that simple. “And then it isn't easy to remember it all in chronological order. For a while after California we were on a ship in the Bering Sea. But after that? There were picket lines and protests and petitions against fast-burning plutonium reactors, oil spills, toxic land fills, refrigeration units leaking hydro-fluorocarbons, petroleum derivatives seeping into the water basins, and for got ten nerve-gas bomblettes found near suburban developments. We spent time in the Arctic Circle. We went to Russia after Chernobyl. Basically, you name the site of an environmental hazard or a human or animal travesty and that's where I've been.”

“You're well-traveled, is that what you're telling me?” he under stated.

“More or less,” Megan confirmed with a laugh.

“Wouldn't it have been simpler for your parents to do some thing more main stream that still aimed for the same goals? Like going to work for the EPA, for instance?”

“Now you're talking about forcing them into a mold.
That has never worked for my folks. Or for Nissa or I, either,” she added pointedly.

“Have you ever tried?”

Again she gave him a sideways glance, this one even more suspicious and leery than the last. “We're interested in
effecting
change, not in being changed ourselves.”

“Okay,” he said as if he knew when he was up against a brick wall. “What about school then? You left here after the sixth grade. You had to get farther than that. Or was formal education too
molding,
too?”

“Mostly my folks taught us. Occasionally they'd enroll us in a school for a few months if they thought we were going to be in one place that long. But more often they played teacher and then we'd have to take equivalency tests to get credit for having finished a grade. Of course the curriculum on the bus was a lot heavier on the civics and social sciences side than when we were in real schools, but Nissa and I both got our diplomas and scored high enough on the SATs to have our choice of colleges.”

“You went to college?”

Megan turned her head to look straight at him that time. “Don't sound so amazed. I have a degree in biochemistry and Nissa has one in biology. We were both accepted into medical school but decided not to go the traditional route.”

Josh smiled sheepishly. “It wasn't that I was doubting your intelligence. It just didn't sound like you'd ever stayed in one place long enough for higher education.”

“Nissa and I did. Well, for the two and a half years it
took us to get our degrees. Our folks spent most of that time in the rain forest.”

“And then you graduated and went back on the road?”

“Surprised again? Yes, we went back on the road. Our folks aren't the only ones who believe that it's important to stand up to the wrong doers of the world. After college I went on to learn acupuncture and Nissa went into massage and herbal medicine and when we completed all that training we went back to the traveling life style, practicing wherever we were at any given time at Peoples' fairs, Renaissance festivals, or just from the motor home.”

“And then you decided to come to Elk Creek?” he said as if it didn't seem to fit.

Megan laughed again. “I know. We aren't going to find many wrong doers to stand up to around here—especially since even though Nissa and I are vegetarians we aren't as militant about it as our folks are. But the thing is, my sister and I just got really, really tired of living like nomads. We started craving a more normal life. A chance to make friends and have families of our own. To put down roots. Maybe it's latent rebellion against our parents,” she added with a joke. “And
then
you thought of Elk Creek,” Josh surmised.

“It was the only place either of us had ever actually considered home. Certainly it was the place we'd lived the longest in our lives. And there was the house my grand parents had built. A little bit of land. We just decided, hey, what better place?”

They'd reached her office by then and Megan let them in the front door, turning on the lights as she did. “Elk Creek
is
a pretty good place,” Josh agreed, coming in with her.

“Mmm. After today I'm beginning to wonder,” she muttered, more to herself than to him.

“Don't hold today against the whole town. For one, it wasn't the whole town. And for two, this is an odd situation and no matter where you are, in an odd situation, people tend to think the worst and come out of the woodwork with bizarre theories—it was one of the lessons of sheriff's training.”

“But still Nissa and I are faced with having to convince them all—and you—that our parents didn't have anything to do with that backyard burial, then drum up interest and belief in the benefits of acupuncture, massage and herbal therapy, before we can actually make a living and have a life here—that's slightly more than we bar gained for when we made this decision.”

“Is the eternal optimist hitting a bump in the road?” he cajoled with a kindness that was new. And very sweet.

“Who said I'm an eternal optimist?”

Josh shrugged one of those broad shoulders. “I'm just guessing. But don't you have to be to believe you can take on the wrong doers of the world and make them do right?”

“Maybe. I hadn't thought about it like that.”

“It'll all work out,” he assured her.

“It'll all work out?” she repeated with a wry laugh. “But only if you discover what really happened eigh
teen years ago and that my family had nothing to do with it.”

“Which is what you're watch-doggin' me to make sure of.”

“Yes, I am.”

It must have been the return of a certain amount of bravado in her tone that made him chuckle. But it was a nice sound in the quiet of the office.

Then he said, “Maybe tomorrow we can get out and do what we were supposed to do today—talk to your neighbors. You can keep your fingers crossed that something more conclusive will turn up and lead us in a different direction.”

“And what about your acupuncture? Shall we try to do that tomorrow, too?”

He made the face she was coming to think of as his acupuncture face.

“Not tomorrow. If I even come into town we're liable to be stuck here again. I'll just pick you up at your place.”

“So still no acupuncture.”

“I'll get around to it,” he said without much conviction.

“We could do it right now,” she suggested just to see him squirm.

He didn't squirm, though. He just bathed her in the warm brilliance of a thousand-watt grin. “Can't do it now. I need to get home, get to bed. Good police work takes a rested cop.”

“Um-hmm,” she said to let him know she saw through him.

Josh finished his hot chocolate then and tossed the paper cup into the trash basket beside her desk.

It seemed like a signal that he was wrapping things up and Megan couldn't think of any reason to delay that—despite the fact that she tried—so she dropped her own empty cup in the trash, too.

That left the matter of his coat, which she was still wearing.

She knew she needed to give it back to him but she wasn't eager to do that, either. She was enjoying having it around her. Too much, she knew.

So, with one last deep, indulging breath of the after shave scent that infused it, Megan shrugged out of the jacket and handed it to him. “Thanks for that, anyway.”

“Sure.” Josh put it on and smiled. “Thanks for warming it up.”

There was nothing about that that should have titillated her, but somehow it did. The titillation, though, was just one more thing she fought.

“Do you want me to drive you back to the courthouse?” she asked then, hating the breathy under tone her voice had taken without warning. Or good reason.

“It's tempting but I think I need a little more air. Is your car out back?”

“In the alley.”

Josh nodded.

It was a simple, courteous, meaningless exchange. But some thing between them seemed to change suddenly. It seemed to slow down. To turn intimate.

“What time tomorrow?” Megan asked, trying to
combat that sense of intimacy along with everything else she was working against.

“Better make it ten. We don't want folks answering their doors in their pajamas.”

“And you won't do anything without me before that?”

“Not anything that has to do with this case. I don't want to be pegged as one of the wrong doers you need to avenge.”

Megan smiled at his teasing, wishing that she didn't like him so much. Knowing only too well that she
shouldn't
like him so much.

But it didn't make any difference because she couldn't stop it.

Any more than she could stop those thoughts about a good-night kiss from creeping into her mind. Again.

On guard,
she reminded herself once more.
Be on guard against it.

But the warning didn't help any more than wishing she didn't like him so much had.

Because there they were, standing just a few feet inside the door, face to face, and Megan was looking up into midnight-blue eyes that seemed to emit enough heat to melt steel. Certainly enough to melt her and all her resolves.

Then, without warning, Josh leaned in and actually did kiss her. Barely. A simple peck on the lips. An impulse cut short when he realized what he'd done.

The expression on his face—still so close above hers—mirrored her surprise even as he grinned again.
A lopsided grin. “Whoops,” he said as if the kiss had been an accident.

“Slipped and fell, did you?”

“I think I did. Internally, anyhow. Guess I'll have to watch my step in the future.”

“Guess so,” Megan confirmed to hide that she was really wishing he'd kiss her again. Longer this time…

But he didn't. Instead he took two steps backward and opened the office door.