“Sounds like your aunt had her own issues.”
Bella nodded. “She did. I had little to do with her after moving out, when I went to college, but now looking back... I don’t know. It couldn’t have been easy for her, losing a sibling and gaining three kids, age ten, ready to head into the tween and teenage years, all at once. She wasn’t much older than me when it happened.”
“I saw on your license when you checked in at the high school that you’re thirty-one. That surprised me. I mean, I know you’re Spencer’s age, but it still seems unbelievable.”
“Why?” She turned onto the main drag through town and headed west, toward the small, quiet subdivision where she lived in an adobe-style midcentury house.
“You look about ten years younger.”
“Until I open my mouth, right?” She shot a quick glance at his profile in time to see the quick grin. “I’ve been told I sound like an old soul, and my deep voice sure doesn’t sound youthful.”
“I think your voice is sexy as hell.”
Heat that had shimmered on the surface of her awareness ignited and spread to her center, pooling in her most sensitive spots. “Uh, Agent? I don’t think that’s something you’re allowed to notice.”
“It’s not. Sorry. Are you a smoker?”
“Nope, never have been. My voice was froggy as a kid, and I never outgrew it. Supposedly it’s similar to my mother’s, but I have no way of knowing. I don’t remember her voice a whole lot anymore.”
“Spencer shared about losing his folks, your parents. That’s an awful break in life, to lose them so early.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t fun. What about you, are your parents still here?”
“Yes, they’re happy empty nesters in Kansas City, Kansas. My mother is an engineer and works at the state power authority. My father is a government contractor. I grew up there, in Kansas, with my two brothers. We have that in common, two brothers.”
“That’s neat. Sounds like you had the perfect childhood.” She tried to keep the envy out of her voice, but it was there in the tightening of her chest. Dang, the attack must be making her more emotional.
“Perfect? Wondering if either parent was going to lose their job as the economy swung up and down? Watching one of my brothers turn to drugs when we were teens?” He spoke matter-of-factly, not with an iota of self-pity. She liked that Holden knew himself well enough to be able to do that, that he knew he wasn’t the sum total of some of his life experiences. “It wasn’t perfect, no, but it was pretty darn wonderful at times. Our parents always did the best they could for us, and now that my brother’s sober we all get together a couple of times a year to hang out.”
“That’s pretty cool, if you ask me. Kansas City sounds appealing, being a larger city. Living in a small place like Mustang Valley can be a bit like being in a cultural bubble. Except we’re lucky that Mustang Valley is in Arizona. By that I mean we have a confluence of cultures, including Native American and Hispanic. I learned Spanish in school from kindergarten.”
“I wish I’d studied a second language sooner. I took German in high school, then Spanish in college. I’m not a natural at languages. I imagine since you’re a writer, you are.”
“I do okay. I haven’t had the opportunities you have to see the world, though. That would be neat.”
“Can’t you do international reporting?” His query hit a sensitive spot in her belly, a vulnerable piece of herself she wasn’t ready to reveal. If she landed this piece with the pageant, she’d very well receive the attention her work needed to propel her to the next level, which she hoped would be on a more national and eventually international stage.
“It’s not that simple. It’ll take me a while to get there.”
He let it go and she relaxed her clenched jaw. Her street sign appeared and she made the left onto the wide paved road.
“I didn’t picture you in a standard suburban neighborhood.”
“Don’t count on it. Why do you say that, though?” She took her time driving around the park that she worked out in. Walking or running proved much less expensive than a gym, and she had a set of weights in her small home’s second bedroom that served as her office, workout room and crafting space. It was a guest room, too, but since her brothers lived close by, no one stayed with her, except if her college friends were visiting. No one really had, except Gio.
“You strike me as independent and preferring your own space to having a next-door neighbor.”
Darn it, he had a true talent. “You’re a natural at profiling, Holden. I mean it.” She turned onto a graveled road that lead through a grove of huge cacti.
“Are you taking us out into the desert?”
She laughed. “In case you haven’t noticed it, you’re in the middle of the desert. It’s called Arizona.” Bella took the last S-turn and pulled up in front of her house, then shut off the engine. She watched Holden, tried to see the view through his eyes, but it was dark back here as the sun had lowered to below her home’s roofline, and the house looked like a dark rectangle surrounded by the glowing golden rays of the last of the day.
“Are you the only one out here?”
“Do you mean my house? Yes. I’m still on city water and utilities, but I get the sense of being out in the country. It’s really not that far to the nearest neighbors, no more than a quarter mile in each direction. But I like how it feels more rural. It’s a nice break from running around Mustang Valley and beyond each day, chasing down stories.”
Holden turned and looked at her. “I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want to put you on edge, but I’ve been checking the rearview and side-view mirrors since we left the diner. No one followed us, which is a good sign.”