Shaking his head as he returned to the deck, Seth said, “I think it’ll be a few years before he’s ready to join a team.”
“His coordination isn’t quite there, is it?”
“Nope.” Where had they left off? “Bodyguard,” he said, remembering.
“Yes, he did,” she said, sounding composed. “The man was his occasional driver. I wondered, though, because he looked like a bodybuilder, you know?”
“What was his name?”
“Oh, boy. I didn’t see much of him. McCoy? McCormack? Mc-something. He was there only about the last year of our marriage. He probably got axed after I made my getaway.”
There was something a little too casual about her speech. Seth studied her. “You think his real role was prison guard?”
“Probably. It seemed like every time I went outside, he was there. Stepping out of the garage or whatever, eyes on me. You know Richard wouldn’t have tolerated incompetence.”
“No, I don’t suppose he would have,” Seth said thoughtfully. He couldn’t guess what she wasn’t telling him, but he’d lay money there was something. Had she had a relationship with the man? Had he helped her, or at least turned a blind eye, when she escaped? No, if that were the case, why wouldn’t Robin say?
This was only one reason why he should have kept his hands off her.
“Could this guy have been the one who grabbed Jacob?”
“No.” Not so coincidentally, she chose then to turn her head and focus on Jacob, who had given up on the soccer ball and was rolling down a slight incline.
“You sound sure.”
“The guy in the mask wasn’t bulky enough.”
“But he was too big to be Richard.”
“There’s...a lot of ground in between, you know.”
“Like me, say.”
She stole a look at him, her gaze sliding from his shoulders down his torso and along his outstretched legs. Flushing, she said, “You’re at least as tall as the bodyguard. You’re just not...not muscle-bound.”
He had to shift his weight to accommodate his body’s response to her lingering inspection, and the betraying warmth in her cheeks. The temptation was there to tease, but Seth hadn’t forgotten his earlier thought. Stick to business.
“Does your mother know you found a body in your house?”
“No!” She stared at him in outrage. “I told you!”
“You said you didn’t want to call now. You might have let her know when it first happened. Say, when you were staying at the inn.”
“Well, I didn’t.”
* * *
HE STILL THOUGHT she was lying to him, and he was right. Robin knew she’d never been a very good liar, which was an irony for someone who’d spent two and a half years lying about something as basic as her name.
Even when she wasn’t looking at him, his sharp, assessing gaze made her want to squirm...and tell him everything. She had to get away.
Acid burning her stomach, she asked, “Are we done?”
“We can be.” Seth raised his eyebrows. “Doesn’t mean we have to rush inside.”
“I’m lucky Jacob has entertained himself this long.”
“You’re right. I’m on the job.”
With easy athleticism, he bounced to his feet. In no time he had a giggling Jacob chasing him around the yard. When he let himself be caught, Seth turned the tables and lumbered after her son. He scooped up Jacob, powerful biceps flexing, tucked him under one arm like a football and raced around the yard.
Breath catching, Robin started to rise to her feet. Jacob would be scared... But he wasn’t, she saw in astonishment. They both ended up sprawled on the grass, laughing.
She’d swear Seth was enjoying himself as much as Jacob was. In that moment, she felt something entirely unfamiliar. Yearning was the word she came up with. Why couldn’t Jacob have a father like this, instead of the one she prayed he never meet? What couldn’t she have a man like this?
Seth embodied such contradictions: ruthlessness and a capacity for protection, with kindness and a powerful defensive instinct. The guardedness that she guessed was typical of cops with an ability to live in the moment with a little boy.