Scraps of Evidence: Quilts of Love Series (13 page)

“Tess?” he whispered. “Time to wake up.”

“Mmm?” she murmured. “What?”

He turned his head just as she lifted hers and their lips were a breath apart. He kissed her softly, not wanting to startle her, and felt her smile and respond sleepily.

“Mmm,” she said. “Don’t want to wake up.”

And then she did, opening her eyes and staring deep into his.

14

T
ess stared into Logan’s eyes and felt as if she’d dropped into the deep end of the ocean.

She told herself she was having this reaction because she was half-asleep, that she was relaxed from a lovely lunch and the warm sun beating down on her head and shoulders. The waves were hypnotic.

But she knew the effect came from being near Logan. From being kissed by Logan. From his arm wrapped around her waist, holding her close.

“We need to go.”

“Do we have to?” he asked, his face so close his breath whispered across her lips.

“I think we better.”

With a sigh, he got to his feet and reached down to offer his hand. She took it, and he pulled her up to stand inches from him.

“Logan.”

He put his hand behind her head, brought her closer, and kissed her again. “Now we can go.”

Smiling, she shook her head and let him keep her hand as they walked back the way they’d come.

They stamped the sand from their feet when they got to the wooden steps up the dune and walked back to the car.

“Maybe we can come do this again next week?”

“Like the beach, huh?”

He looked at her. “I like you.”

“And I like you.”

“How are we going to do this?”

She started to say something, to ease the tension she suddenly felt, but the words dried up. He was looking at her so seriously and joking about it would be wrong.

“I like to keep my private life private,” she told him. “I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business if we see each other and at some point if we don’t—”

“Don’t project,” he interrupted, tugging at her hand to stop her. “Don’t talk like it’s not going to work out.”

“Okay,” she said slowly.

He reached out to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. “You sure we have to go to this thing?”

“I promised I’d help Aunt Kathy with the food.”

“I thought maybe you had,” he said and resumed walking. “That’s why I woke you up.”

“It was a catnap. I’d have woken up in a minute.”

He grinned at her. “Yeah.”

They went to the party in separate cars, but Tess wondered if anyone would have noticed. Everyone was in the backyard already enjoying a cold drink and checking out the progress of the barbecue.

Tess brought a fresh veggie tray and pasta salad and placed them on the long table loaded with all the items her aunt and others had made.

“Hi there,” Logan said as he set a grocery store bag down on the table and began unloading half a dozen containers of dips and bags of chips and snacks.

“Typical guy contribution,” she teased.

“Hey, it’s what’s popular,” he told her as several children immediately ran over to help themselves.

“So, who do you think you’re fooling?” her aunt asked her when she returned to the kitchen.

“Excuse me?”

“You think arriving in separate cars really fools anyone?”

Tess rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Gordon’s taking credit for matching the two of you up.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Really? How does he figure he did that?”

“He brought Logan here.”

Tess snatched a chicken wing her aunt was taking from a tray and piling into a basket.

“Wow, this is hot,” Tess sputtered.

“You saw me just get them out of the oven.”

“No, I mean it’s spicy!” She grabbed a glass and poured herself some sweet tea. “Can I take those and pass them around for you?”

“Sure.” Kathy handed her the basket. “Just make sure you pass them around to more than you.”

“Very funny.”

She offered them to Gordon first as he stood supervising several barbecue grills. “Why, thank you!” he said, and then he bit in. His eyes widened and he gaped at her. “Whoa! Foul!”

“Yeah, it’s fowl,” she said, pretending to misunderstand him. “It’s a chicken wing.”

He grabbed for a beer he’d stationed on a nearby table and took a healthy swig. “What’d I ever do to you?”

“Told Aunt Kathy you were responsible for getting Logan and me together,” she said, giving him a level stare.

“Well, I did. I met him and recruited him at a conference.”

“You made it sound like you were matchmaking,” she said severely.

“Well, how’s that going?” he asked, giving her a shameless grin.

She glared at him and walked away to offer the wings to a few other hapless victims—er, guests. Logan was next, then Smithers, and Ed. She got the same reactions she had from Gordon—cries of “Fire!” and “I need a drink!”

“Don’t blame me, blame Kathy,” she said with a big smile.

“I think you enjoyed that,” Logan said when she set the basket down on the table.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she responded, looking at him with wide eyes. “Are you having a good time?”

“Yeah, I am. You?”

She nodded.

Gordon clanged two barbecue tools together. “Meat’s ready! Who wants a steak?”

Logan jostled Tess out of the way, as she grabbed a plate and got in line.

“Hey!”

“You’re just one of the guys here, remember?” he whispered with a wicked grin. “You didn’t want to let anyone think we’re dating.”

She just stood there and stared at him and let him have the last word.

This time.

“Logan, Tess, you two sit here!”

Logan glanced at Tess as they walked to one of the picnic tables set up in the back yard.

“I thought—”

“Just do it,” Tess said as she smiled. “Objecting’s just going to get noticed more.”

Other couples sat next to each other. Like Noah’s Ark, thought Logan. He didn’t mind—he was quite happy to be sitting next to Tess. But he wondered how Tess felt about being seated with him so obviously.

Kathy looked at his plate. “Honey, did you get enough food?”

“More than.”

“Well, you just remember there’s more where that came from,” she said, spreading a napkin over her lap. “Here in the South, we believe in making sure folks have more than enough when they sit at our table.”

Tess grinned. “We know you’ve had enough when we have to help you push yourself away from the table.”

“Detectives can eat like that,” Bill Reilly said. “But I never know when I’m going to have to run after a bad guy. Gotta keep my girlish figure.”

There was laughter and good-natured ribbing. Everyone called Reilly “Big Bill” because he had the stature of a running back and had just been featured in a newspaper article for running down a suspect the day before.

“Chief not coming?” someone asked.

“Got the flu,” Gordon told them. He looked at Logan and Tess. “He’s taking some heat from the mayor about the latest murder. Told him to tell the mayor we have our best people on it. Don’t know how long that’ll hold him, though.”

Logan nodded. “Public officials always take the heat when we don’t turn up a killer right away.”

“Could we not talk about such things just one night?” Kathy said in a plaintive tone.

Gordon gave her a withering look. “You knew what you were getting into when you married a cop,” he told her brusquely.

He turned to the man next to him. “Big Bill, how are you liking the sauce on those ribs?” he asked, oblivious to the fact that his wife’s lips trembled and she looked ready to cry.

One of the wives started to say something, but her husband shook his head and she subsided.

“Aunt Kathy, I hope you made your Key lime pie,” Tess said.

“Yes, yes I did,” Kathy said.

Tess stood and picked up her plate. “Well, I’m ready for dessert. Let me help you cut that up and serve it.”

Logan watched the two women walk into the house. Tess’s suggestion had been so quick, so smooth, he wondered if she’d had to use such a tactic before.

“Great steak,” he told Gordon.

“There’s more.”

He patted his stomach. “Couldn’t fit one in if I tried. And that pie is sounding good on a warm night like this. Anyone else finished with your plate?”

“Don’t worry about that, Kathy’ll be out in a minute to collect them.” Gordon took a healthy swig from his bottle of beer.

“No trouble at all.” Logan collected two more plates and started for the house. Yeah, let the little woman take care of the dishes, he thought.

Kathy looked up from slicing the pie when he walked into the kitchen. “Logan.”

“Came to make sure Tess wasn’t in here scarfing down all the pie.”

“I made three,” Kathy told him with a smile.

Logan set the dishes on the kitchen counter. “Can I help?”

Tess reached for a nearby tray and began putting dishes of pie on it. “You can pass these out if you want.”

They exchanged a look. Tess nodded to indicate that everything was okay.

A floral arrangement caught his eye as he waited for the tray to be filled. “Anniversary?”

Kathy shook her head. “No. Gordon sometimes just buys them for me for no reason.”

“Doghouse flowers,” Tess murmured, as Kathy turned around to get another pie.

Logan carried the tray out to the backyard, and Tess helped pass the plates of pie around.

Gordon was holding court still, seeming to impress some of his guests with his knowledge of the Italian statesman Machiavelli and his brilliant work called
The Prince
about how to rise to power. Then, when some of his guests looked at each other blankly, he smoothly switched to regaling them with a tale of hunting down one of the more colorful criminals of years past. With his genial smile and good ole Southern boy drawl, he was apparently quite a popular guy.

Likeable. But trying a little too hard, in Logan’s opinion.

He shook off the criticism. It wasn’t like him to be judgmental.

But he was glad on some level that Tess didn’t seem to like Gordon, although she never showed it, and was professional and unfailingly polite around him. She looked up to him as a mentor for police work, but her nature was nothing like his.

This was the first time members of the department had gotten together since Logan arrived. It was much like the casual get-togethers back in Chicago although the accents were different. He found himself relaxing and enjoying the kind of easy camaraderie born of a mutual passion for the work and the area.

The pie was a hit, and a little while later guests began leaving. Tess stayed to help her aunt clean up, so Logan did as well. He liked the grateful look Tess gave him, but that’s not why he did it. It just seemed the polite thing to do as a guest.

He was walking under one of the trees when a big brown bug unexpectedly flew at him, and he tossed the paper dishes he was carrying up into the air and yelled.

“What was that about?” Gordon asked, hurrying over.

“Biggest roach I’ve ever seen came out of that tree,” Logan said as he bent to pick up the plates.

Tess rushed out into the back yard. “Logan? What’s the matter?”

Gordon crowed. “Boy saw a palmetto bug. Screamed like a girl.”

“I did not,” Logan said. “Tess, I swear it was a roach that was a foot long, and it flew at me!”

He could tell she was trying to stifle a laugh. “Welcome to Florida.”

“Not funny,” he growled, not believing she was finding it funny.

She patted his shoulder. “Time to take you to the alligator farm and see what you think of that. You haven’t seen Florida until you’ve seen your first alligator.”

“They keep them penned up, right?” he asked as he followed her back into the house.

“Yeah, but they’ve got this zipline you can ride over the pen full of them.”

He put the plates into a garbage bag. “What, is that supposed to be some kind of good ole boy fun or something?”

She laughed. “Tourists love it.”

“Gordon likes that kind of thing,” Kathy said as she rinsed some silverware under running water and stuck it in the dishwasher. “He loves putting himself in danger like that. Said he’s tired of pushing paper around since he got his last promotion. But he sure works hard for those promotions and seems to enjoy playing politics to get them.”

Logan thought about that. Some people really enjoyed that sort of thing.

Tess’s cell rang, and she pulled it out and took the call. Logan could tell it was bad news right away. She told whoever it was she’d be right there and looked at him.

“I gotta go. Mrs. Ramsey’s daughter called me. They took her mother to the hospital. Someone broke in and hurt her.”

“Let’s go,” he said.

“You don’t have to—”

He just gave her a look and crossed the room to give his hostess a hug. “Kathy, thanks for having me.”

She patted his cheek. “We almost got through a whole evening without one of you being called out.”

“Leave the rest of it, and I’ll come back tomorrow and help out,” Tess told her.

“Okay.”

Tess narrowed her eyes. “You’re lying to me.”

Kathy grinned. “Oh, get going. There’s nothing much left to do. Maybe Gordon will help. I’ll bribe him with another beer. I hope Mrs. Ramsey’s okay. I’ll say a prayer for her.”

“Me, too,” said Tess as she headed out the door with Logan. “Me, too.”