Starry Night

you’d like to know how I found you.” She thought it might work out better if she asked questions.
    Nothing. Unfortunately, she’d supposed wrong. Finn Dalton had no interest in speaking to her, no matter how she directed the conversation.
    “If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine, I understand,” she said with a labored sigh. “I mean, I’ve intruded on your life and it’s unbelievably rude of me, I know.”
    They sat in silence for several minutes, but the tension between them was so strong it felt like overactive bass pounding from a speaker. Carrie was quickly losing patience. She hadn’t come this far and jumped through all these hoops to be thwarted now.
    “You wouldn’t believe all the different ways I tried to find you,” she said. It felt like a shallow victory now, seeinghow uncooperative Finn was. But then, this should have been expected. While she was jubilant, he, on the other hand, was hostile.
    Hennessey kept his gaze focused directly on her. “Good boy,” she said, and made sure her voice was soft and cajoling. “You’re a friendly dog, aren’t you?”
    Like his master, Hennessey gave no indication that he’d heard. The canine’s eyes steadily regarded her, watching her every move. With Finn freezing her out, she looked to his companion for some connection. At this point she was willing to accept whatever Hennessey was willing to give her.
    “I hope you know you practically gave me a heart attack, racing up on me like that,” she told the dog. She bent forward and stretched out her hand, making sure he understood that all she wanted was to pet him.
    “He bites,” Finn warned, and from the way he clipped out the words, it seemed he would welcome the sight.
    Hennessey’s gaze flickered to Finn and then back to Carrie.
    “Are you a big, bad wolf?” Carrie asked Hennessey softly.
    The dog’s eyes met hers, and then Hennessey moved to rest his chin on his paws. Then, to her utter amazement, he wagged his tail. Just one wag, one single shift to indicate that he no longer considered her a threat. It was enough to make Carrie want to shout with delight.
    “I’m friendly, Hennessey, really friendly. Can we be friends?” Once again she extended her hand for the dog to see.
    Again, Finn warned her. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
    Carrie slowly withdrew her hand.
    Hennessey lifted his head and looked up at her and then his tail started to move, this time to a full wag, as if to tell her he was willing to trust Carrie if she was willing to trust him.
    “Another traitor,” Finn muttered under his breath.
    “Sawyer isn’t a traitor,” Carrie insisted. “And Hennessey isn’t, either.”
    Finn snorted and then sipped his coffee.
    “Finn … Mr. Dalton,” she said, trying again. She didn’t mean to sound so familiar, and at the same time, “Mr. Dalton” came off as much too formal. “As you’ve guessed, I’m a reporter. I write for the Chicago Herald . Actually, I cover the society page. It’s not my favorite subject, but I was grateful to get the job. I’m a good reporter, and I wanted an opportunity to prove that I was capable of writing something other than who was seen where and with whom. I am sick to death of writing about meaningless parties and who’s getting married and who’s breaking up. So sick that I was ready to quit, and then my editor, who’s been in the business thirty years, said I could have any assignment I wanted if I couldmanage to interview you. Little did I know how difficult finding you would be.”
    Once she’d started explaining, she couldn’t seem to stop. Her hope was that once Finn heard her story he’d be willing to cooperate.
    Eventually he’d have to give an interview to someone, and it might as well be her. She was the one who’d found a way to reach him; that should prove something. He had to know his book was practically a phenomenon and the public was curious to know more about him.
    “If I was able to find you, then others will, too … eventually.”
    He glared at her as if to refute her words.
    “Your book is amazing, and your readers want to meet the man behind Alone . And really, who could blame them? Surely you realized when you submitted the book what it would mean?”
    He remained unmoved, so Carrie tried another tactic. Perhaps he would feel sorry for her. “I gave up spending Thanksgiving with my family in order to find you, but it’d be worth every one of my vacation days and a lot more if you