Her own lips parted and closed. She felt dizzy. Hot. Then…confused. Shouldn’t he be scolding her?
“Where I come from, you’re expected to fight back when boxed into a corner,” he said cryptically. Was that his way of signaling that he approved of what she did? If so, why had he been so angry that day? Furious.
“Black Mountain,” she blurted, focusing on the most harmless piece of his statement. “Sonia said that’s where you’re from?”
The words barely left her mouth before she realized she miscalculated. This subject was a landmine. He sucked in a breath, his shoulders tensing. “Sonia…” He seemed to groan. Then he shook his head and met her gaze directly. “Something like that. Did she tell you anything else?”
Loren cringed, hating the thought of getting Sonia in trouble. She wanted to deny it—but she couldn’t. “Yes,” she gasped as if the confession were being ripped from her. “She told me you had a wife.”
“A wife.” His lips fell into a hard line. “Something like that.”
Her heart twitched, hating the confirmation. He loved someone once. And yet, she wanted to know more. Needed to. “What was she like?”
Someone beautiful, she suspected. Full-figured and blond, with enough charm to reach a man as guarded as he was.
“She was… Emma.” His voice turned hoarse, and Loren felt a pang in her chest. Pain?
“Your mother,” he said, turning the tables. “What was she like?”
It was her turn to flinch, struck by the agony of memories. Words were never her forte, and even now, they failed to convey just who her mother was. “She was nice,” she said haltingly. “Funny. I loved her.”
“I’m sure she was,” McGoven said. His words didn’t ring hollow like the empty condolences she was used to enduring. It was as if he knew exactly how she felt and was acknowledging that in the most genuine of ways.
She tentatively met his gaze again, and she wasn’t sure how much time passed before he cleared his throat.
“I’ll be busy all day tomorrow,” he said, tactfully changing the subject. “You can take the bed again tonight. I’ll take the couch.”
The bed, Loren thought with a shiver. A bed he just confirmed washis.
“I could take the c-couch—” The look he sent her way rendered her silent.The hell you will,his narrowed gaze conveyed.
“It’s fine,” he said tightly. “You need the sleep.”
Apparently, chivalrywasn’tall dead in the McGoven house.
“Don’t wait up. I have something to take care of tonight,” he added.
And they were right back to square one.
Loren fidgeted, trying to think of some way to undo the damage she’d done. Suddenly, a buzzing ringtone sliced the tension.
Never taking his eyes off her, Officer McGoven reached into his pocket for his cell phone.
“Hello,” he grunted, pressing the device to his ear. He listened for a moment, and then all at once, his entire face changed, his brows furrowing. “Sonia? Slow down—”
A knock on the door gave Loren the distraction she needed to distance herself from what was obviously a private conversation. With her luck, Naomi had forgotten something.
“Sonia! Slow down!” She heard Officer McGoven bellow from behind her. “What are you saying?”
As Loren approached the door, the knocking slowed to a lazy rapping.
Tap, tap, tap.
DefinitelyNaomi—unless there was more than one person out there, who believed the world was full of peons whose duty it was to wait solely on them.
Sighing, she pulled the door open. “Did you forget something?” She began—only it wasn’tNaomistanding there, drenched in the aftermath of another rainstorm.
This visitor was a man.