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He hunted bad guys for a living … and hunting required patience. Going off half-cocked never helped and would only result in a sloppy case that might not hold.
And he’d make damned certain sure this one would stick like friggin’ Gorilla Glue.
He walked into the house carrying his rented tux and shoes in garment bags over one shoulder. He heard laughter from the back deck where he found Jillian and Mia talking a mile a minute about the gala and scribbling notes at the outdoor table while Dallas and Casey engaged in a raucous squirt-gun battle on the lawn.
“Hi, Zane!” Casey yelled. “Mr. Dallas is anawesomeshot.”
“Zane’s better,” Dallas drawled wryly. “I can vouch for that.”
Mia glanced up in silent inquiry at Zane. He shook his head, and her lips tightened.
Jillian rose, still slightly pale, but otherwise appearing recovered from the morning’s cruelty. “Zane! Everything okay?”
He brandished the tux—he’d used it as his cover story to leave the house and stopped on the way home to pick it up. “Yep. Took the shop a while to find the monkey suit I’d reserved for tomorrow night.” Which was the truth. “It’s pandemonium in there because of the gala.”
“I wondered what took so long.” She tucked a strand of hair behind one ear. “About the gala … I have a problem I’m hoping you can help me with.” She inhaled gustily. “Remember Mia volunteered to babysit Casey for the day while Lynn and I wrapped up all the last-minute details? But she’s had an urgent case come up at the office and she and Dallas have to go home to Portland.”
Zane cringed inwardly, knowing what was coming.
“So I was wondering if you … if you’d be willing to keep an eye on him.”
Like he had a choice? After the ugly shock Jillian had experienced, he wasn’t about to give her any grief. Which was why he’d decided not to mention the incident with Farley, or Reynolds’ potential damage to the custody case just yet. No doubt Mia would fill Dallas in on the way home. He draped the garment bags over a chair. “Yeah. I could do that.”
Jillian’s happy grin burrowed through Zane’s chest and twined around his heart. “Great! I really have to get moving and I know Mia and Dallas do, too.” She and Mia exchanged hugs. “I wish you could stay for the gala, but thanks for hanging out with me until Zane got back.”
“I wish we could too, it’s going to be a blast,” Mia replied. “These past couple of weeks have been fantastic. We’ll be in touch.”
Mia gave Zane a hug, and Zane and Dallas did the man-hug-disguised-as-a-cool-handshake thing. His friends left.
Zane ran his tux and shoes upstairs, and loped back down while Jillian went to her room to change out of her shorts and tank top.
Wearing her poppy sundress, yellow sandals, and her pearls in a single long strand, she hurriedly gathered her notes, her purse and a bottle of water. She kissed Casey, then Zane as she zoomed past them toward the front door—probably trying to skip out before Zane could change his mind. “I’ll take Loucinda’s ‘Vette and leave Pink Cooper in case you need a car. Casey, be a good boy for Zane. Zane, if you run into anything you can’t handle, call my cell.” The door closed behind her.
Nerves stretched taut in the sudden silence, Zane turned around and stared at the kid studying him with rapt expectation.
Once again, he reminded himself,how bad can it get?He’s only one little boy.
Chapter 15
Zane cleared his throat. He hadn’t been alone for any length of time with his son since the night of the kite festival. But he’d managed then, and okay … he’d had as much fun as the child before his emotions had ambushed him.
As long as he maintained his objectivity, he’d be fine.
He smiled at Casey. “I’d planned to buy some new duds this afternoon. You can help me.”
Casey wrinkled his nose. “I don’t very like shopping. Especially forclothes.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t shop like a woman.”
“What does that mean?”
“I grab what I want, pay and split. I don’t spend hours browsing through stuff I have no intention of buying.”
Casey rolled his eyes. “Like makeup and yucky girly junk.”
“I promise, I won’t be buying any of that.” He walked into the kitchen and tore the grocery list off the handy magnetic notepad Jillian kept on the fridge beside a magnetic pencil. Super Value-World stocked everything from semi-automatics to kitty litter, so he might as well save Jillian a trip to the grocery store.
He strode back to Casey. “Ready?”
