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“So how did you end up trailing three boys tonight?”
Nathan’s voice, warm and low, stopped her in her tracks. After that kiss and her cool brush-off, she’d expected him to barely acknowledge her. “Zoe wanted someone to go with Josh and I was happy to help. This brings back a lot of memories of when I was growing up here.”
After aiming his remote at the cruiser to lock the doors, he leaned a shoulder against the street lamp, his face unreadable. “I haven’t seen you around since Tuesday.”
He’d been watching for her? Just the thought sent a tiny shimmer of awareness through her. “I’ve been here,” she replied. “Don’t you ever take a night off?”
“On Halloween?” He sounded serious, but she caught a twinkle of amusement in his eye. “Not usually. This time of night we have the pumpkin smashers and candy thieves.”
“Tough bunch, I’ll bet.”
“You bet. Later on, I need to check for keggers out at the quarry and do traffic stops for drunks. With luck, there won’t be any major problems.”
“What do you do when you catch a bunch of drunken teenagers? Handcuff them all to the trees while you’re carting loads of them to jail?”
“Nope. They understand the drill. I know who they are and where they live, so they don’t dare try sneaking away. They are all due at my office with their parents by nine the next morning, no excuses. Failure to show means twice the trouble.”
She couldn’t help but shake her head and laugh. “You do a great job from what I’ve seen. You sure helped Josh. Zoe says he’s sleeping better now.”
“Kids see death on television all the time, but seeing the real thing is tough.”
Nathan had handled that discussion with a level of perception and caring that had touched her deeply, and evoked images of him as a loving, protective father. All of which made him even more appealing.
“Guess I’d better catch up with the guys,” she murmured. “I’m trying to keep an eye on Josh without making it look like I’m babysitting. These guys can move pretty fast.”
His gaze swept her from head to toe and a grin played at the corners of his mouth. “I’ll bet you’re quite a fisherman.”
“Huh?” The question stopped her short. Fishing?
“Have you been out lately?”
Not since she was a child, when her dad had taken her out in his old boat with its rusty engine and the two leaky spots along the bow. “Fishing? In the fall?”
“You bet. Super time for walleye and northern if you know where to go. Want to join me?”
She hesitated. “When?”
“Tomorrow afternoon. The water’s warmer then, and the fish are more active.” His eyes glinted with amusement. “Don’t worry—we’ll be fishing and nothing else. If you want to come along, you can pick up a license at the Bait ’n Burger out on the highway. It’s open until ten tonight.”
“You don’t have to work then?”
He glanced up at the crescent moon. “I work around fifty hours a week, sometimes more, and put in a lot of late nights. Nobody will question my schedule.”
“You don’t have a relief deputy?”
“Sure—for two days a week and vacations. During the hours I’m off, the PSAP dispatchers send county deputies over here for 911 calls.”
She knew, from the preliminary reports and other documents Allen had given her, that he was referring to the central ‘public safety answering point’ for fire, emergency, and law enforcement in the county.
“So,” he asked. “Are you on for fishing or not?”
“I...guess so. Where’s your boat?”
“Lake Ryan. Take Main through town, then go south on the highway to Fox and follow it to the lake. When you hit the shore, go left half a mile. Can’t miss it. How’s one o’clock sound?”
There was nothing romantic about slippery fish and fresh bait, but it had many years since she’d done something like this.
Like Halloween, the experience might be another taste of nostalgia, a trip back to the innocence of her childhood before everything had gone so terribly wrong. What would be the harm?
