Angels Fall

giving up the food and sex."
    "Fair enough. But if you change your mind later on, I won't hold it against you." She reached for the water pitcher she'd brought over, the one she used for spring water and thin slices of lemon He took her hand across the table, waited until her gaze shifted to his. "It's not just about food and sex. I have…" What, feelings? he asked himself. Feelings could mean any damn thing. "I care about what happens to you."
    "I know you do."
    "Good. Then we don't have to analyze and dissect it all for the next hour and a half." Her hand felt soft in his, and delicate. He laid it down, but kept his over it on the table. "We'll figure it out, Reece."
    And right at that moment, with his hand warm on hers, she believed him.

    WHEN THEY'D EATEN and put the kitchen to rights, when she was sitting with the tea she liked, he tried the next step.
    "Will you be okay here alone for an hour?"
    "Why?"
    "I thought I'd go get Rick, and we'd take a look at your place."
    "Don't." She shook her head, stared into the flames of the fire he'd built in the living room. "He doesn't believe me about what I saw on the trail. He's done what his job says he has to do, and by all accounts he's done it well. But he doesn't believe me. I went by his office this morning. I saw him, and Debbie and Hank. And when I brought out the sketch, talked about showing it around Jackson Hole, all I saw on their faces was pity."
    "If someone's been breaking into your place—"
    "If they have, we'd never prove it. And how would they? I had a dead bolt installed."
    "Locks get picked. Or keys get copied. Where do you keep your keys?"
    "In the inside pocket of my purse.
    "When you're working?"
    "In the inside pocket of my purse, or if I don't carry one, in my jacket pocket. Right jacket pocket because I'm right-handed, if you want specifics."
    "Where are the purse, the jacket when you're working?"
    "In Joanie's office. She's got a copy of the keys in her key cupboard thing on the wall in there. I don't think we're going to leap to the conclusion that I mistook Joanie for a man, she killed her lesbian lover, and is sneaking into my apartment to torment me."
    "Wouldn't be hard for anyone to slip into the office, make an impression of the key, have one made." The cup shook in her hand before she set it down. "You think it's someone from the Fist?"
    "Possible. Possible it's someone who was staying in the area when this happened. And who stayed on when it got out—which it did fast—that you saw something."
    "But no one's recognized the woman."
    "I didn't say she was from here, or around here."
    Reece sat back. "No. No, you didn't. I guess I just assumed that if she wasn't, he wasn't." 
    "Maybe, maybe not. Could be someone from the Fist, or who comes in with some regularity. Or someone who was camping, hunting, pad-dling in the area. Someone who knows how to cover his tracks, which rules out city slicker for me. Who knew you were going to be gone most of the day today?"
    "Who didn't?"
    "Yeah, that's how it goes. Should make a time line," he considered. "You said you keep a journal."
    "That's right."
    "I'll have a look through it."
    "Not in this lifetime, or any other."
    He started to scowl, then grinned instead. "Am I in there?"
    "Of course not. Whoever heard of a woman writing about a man she's attracted to and/or their sexual exploits in her journal? That's preposterous."
    "Maybe I could just read about the sexual exploits, to make sure you got all the details."
    "I got them. I'll look through it, write down dates and times, if I noted them, that things happened."
    "Good, but not tonight. You look wiped. Go to bed."
    "I could just stretch out here for a few minutes."
    "Then I'd have to cart you up when you conked out. I'm going to head up to my office, do a little work."
    "Oh." Her gaze slid over to the front door. "All right, maybe…"
    "After I check the locks. Go on up to bed. Slim."
    It was silly to pretend she wasn't exhausted, so she got to her feet. "I have the breakfast shift tomorrow. I'll try not to wake you when I get up."
    "Appreciate it."
    "Thanks for the shoulder, Brody."
    "You didn't use my shoulder."
    She leaned down, laid her lips on his. "Yes. I did. A couple dozen times just tonight."

    SHE KNEW he'd check the locks because he'd said he would. And even while she readied for bed, she heard his feet on the stairs. When she peeked out. the light was on in his office, and she heard the light click-clack  of his