She placed the broccoli on one baking pan and the chicken on another, then put both into the oven. Next, she began preparing spaghetti sauce, cooking the meat first.

  “Mommy,” Evie called from the room. She must be finished with her bath.

  “I’ll watch the meat.” Callum took her place at the stove.

  Hazel hurried to the room and helped Evie dry off, giving her hair a rub with the towel. “Get dressed, honey.”

  Evie went to the drawers where Hazel had placed her clothes and began digging through them. She’d make a mess and take forever to find something she liked. For the last year Evie had insisted on dressing herself. Usually she didn’t match very well, but she always looked cute.

  Back in the kitchen, Hazel took over at the stove, Callum moving aside. He leaned his hip on the counter and again Hazel became aware of his more than casual observation of her. She resumed preparing the meals.

  A while later, Evie emerged from the room, half skipping her way toward them, her hair an utter mess. In the kitchen, she stopped next to Hazel.

  “Mommy.” She lifted the brush.

  Callum stepped around Hazel and took the brush. “I’ll do it. Your mother is working.”

  Picking her up, Callum took her to the other side of the kitchen island and sat her on a tall stool. Hazel had a great view of her as he began to brush her long hair. Evie brushed her Barbie doll’s hair at the same time.

  “How long are you going to be with my mommy?” Evie asked Callum.

  “I don’t know, Evie. It depends on how long it takes to catch that bad man,” he said, struggling with a tangle.

  His big body and manly hands running the brush through a five-year-old’s hair touched Hazel for some reason.

  “Are you and Mommy going to be friends after?”

  Callum’s hand paused in brushing her hair. “Do you want me to be?”

  Evie shrugged. “Are you working for her?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “But you’re her friend, too.”

  It was Hazel’s turn to pause in her task. Why had her daughter asked such a question?

  “We just met yesterday, but yes, she is a friend.” Callum looked at Hazel with a grin, clearly enjoying this conversation. He began brushing again.

  “Mommy needs more boy friends.” She tipped her head up. “I don’t have a daddy.”

  “You do have a daddy, Evie, he just isn’t here,” Hazel said. Why was her daughter bringing this up now? She wasn’t prepared to have this talk so soon.

  “Where is he?” Evie resumed brushing her doll’s hair.

  “He...wasn’t interested in being with me.”

  “Does he know about me?”

  “Yes, but he has never met you.” Hazel glanced at Callum, who looked back at her somberly.

  Evie lowered the doll and looked at Hazel. “Why not?”

  “He left me, Evie. It had nothing to do with you.”

  “But...doesn’t he want to meet me?”

  “You’re awfully inquisitive for a young girl,” Hazel said.

  “Some people aren’t prepared to raise kids,” Callum said. “Sometimes they aren’t ready until much later in life. He doesn’t know you, but if he did, he would see what a special girl you are.”

  Hazel’s heart burst with appreciation and awe that, without prompting, Callum had told Evie something similar to what she had thought she would say.

  “Do you have a daddy?”

  “I do. We aren’t very close, though.”

  That had surprised Hazel when he’d told her before. He seemed so concerned over his father. If they weren’t close, why weren’t they? Evie had looked up at him with his answer and Hazel could see a connection forming. Did Evie relate her lack of a relationship with her father to his?

  “Do you have any kids?” Evie asked, a fountain of questions.

  Callum finished brushing her hair and put down the brush. “No.”

  “Are you going to?”

  Hazel watched him tense up. She wondered—if it had been anyone other than a child asking, would he have retorted something to stop this grilling? She also began to worry about Evie’s unabashed curiosity about Callum. She seemed to have taken a liking to him rather quickly, which might not be a good thing.

  “Evie, that’s enough. We barely know Callum. It isn’t polite to ask so many personal questions,” Hazel said, sure that Evie’s Curious George mode was too much for Callum.

  Evie’s lower lip puffed out a little in a pout, but then she brightened quickly enough. “Can I go watch cartoons?”

  “Sure,” Hazel said.

  Callum helped her get the television on and tuned to the right channel and then returned to the kitchen island. Hazel had put the chicken into the oven and gone to work on the chops, getting a pan ready to sear them.

  She busied herself in the kitchen for the next few hours. Callum had gone into the living room to watch television with Evie. The two were getting chummy in there. Callum had found a good family movie that adults could enjoy.

  Hazel began putting food into microwavable containers and then into the refrigerator. Her customers could freeze what they wouldn’t use in the next day or two. Instant, delicious meals for busy workers or the elderly.

  “Will you write down the addresses?” Callum asked. “The officer is outside. I checked.”

  While that was reassuring, he couldn’t keep her penned up in here until the killer was caught. She had a life to live. But dragging Evie around with them wasn’t a wise idea, either. Damn that stranger. He was taking her freedom from her. She needed her freedom, but she was no fighter like Callum. Better that he did what he could. He was right. She and Evie were safer here.

  “You’re doing an awful lot to keep us safe,” she said.

  Callum stepped closer to her. He put his fingers beneath her chin. Heat coursed through her as she tried to figure out why he had touched her this way.

  “It’s more than wanting you safe, Hazel. I have a personal reason for doing so. You see, I normally don’t take the cases involving women and children. Protecting them. It just so happens that I fell into protecting you and Evie and now I cannot turn my back. I have to see this through.”

  He seemed to be trying to make her understand why it was so important to him that she stay here in their suite. She still didn’t get it. He had to see this through...but why him? Why didn’t he take cases involving women and children? Why make such a pledge?

  “I can’t explain it right now. All I ask is you trust me,” he said.

  After a moment of stunned perplexity, she nodded. She wouldn’t press him now, but the need to know would gnaw at her until he told her everything. If he ever did...

  * * *

  Mystified over how close he had come to telling Hazel his darkest secret, Callum began loading the containers of food into his truck. What really got him was that he had felt as though he could tell her. And that maybe a huge burden might be lifted if he did. Maybe Charles was right. Maybe keeping all of that bottled up was doing more harm than good.

  Memories of when he had first met Annabel flooded him. He had been at a home improvement store looking at wood-saw blades to remodel his bathrooms. Annabel had been looking at the drills. He’d found that interesting. It wasn’t every day a guy saw a woman buying tools, unless it was for her man. Callum hadn’t seen a ring, so he had gone over to her.

  “Are you a carpenter?” he had asked.

  Her head had come up and she looked at him for endless seconds. She had long dark hair and dark eyes. Very beautiful.

  “No.” She had held up a drill in her hand. “Replacing old doors in my house.”

  “You don’t hire out for that?”

  “Why? Because I’m a woman?”

  From that moment on, he had fallen hard for her. They talked for hours. They spent quiet times together, just comfortable in each other’s company. Callum had thought they had the makings of something special, but he hadn’t had time to really get to know her. They had only begun to explore. They hadn’t been together long before—

  He could not let his mind dwell any more on that. A deep sorrow penetrated his usual wall of carefully crafted indifference. He finished putting the food in the truck and closed the door.

  As he walked to the rear of the truck on the way to the other side, he spotted a black SUV. That in and of itself didn’t alert him, but the man sitting in the driver’s seat did. The guy was just sitting in a vehicle.

  The passenger window rolled down and he barely noticed the muzzle of a gun before diving for cover. He just made it around the side of his truck before bullets hit the bumper and rear tailgate.

  He drew his own weapon and inched up enough to see the shooter. He took aim and fired before ducking as more bullets hit his truck. Hearing the SUV’s engine rev and tires squeal, Callum tried again to shoot the driver. He had to take cover again as the SUV raced by and bullets pummeled the truck.

  When the volley subsided, Callum got into the truck from the passenger side and crawled behind the wheel, fleetingly seeing a couple crouching at the entrance of the inn, one of them with a cellphone to his ear. Starting the truck, he peeled out of the parking space and chased after the SUV. He veered in and out of traffic, seeing the vehicle several car lengths ahead.

  The shooter turned a corner. Callum was slowed by traffic and when he made the turn, he didn’t see the SUV. He searched side streets as he weaved, earning honks from a few drivers. Looking left, he spotted the SUV and nearly sideswiped an oncoming car as he swerved into the turn. He gave the truck full gas, no cars in his way, and careened into another turn. The SUV had vanished again, but Callum saw an alley. Swerving into the turn, he gained on the SUV. The shooter flung out into traffic on a busier street. Other traffic veered out of the way as the driver maneuvered around them, Callum not far behind.

  There was no plate on the SUV.

  The shooter craned back to fire his weapon again and bullets struck Callum’s windshield. He crouched low and stuck his pistol out his window, firing back. The shooter drove erratically and made a sharp right turn, causing a delivery truck to brake hard and swerve.

  With the delivery truck in his way Callum had to stop and then drive around. People scattered on the sidewalk. The SUV had distance on him again. The shooter turned a corner about a block and a half ahead.

  But when Callum reached the street, he didn’t see the SUV. He searched until he reached another road. He checked both ways, but the SUV was nowhere in sight. Making a guess, he drove left. A few minutes later it became apparent he would not find the shooter.

  His cell rang. Seeing it was Hazel, he answered.

  “Are you all right?” she asked. “There are a bunch of police out front and someone said there was a shooting.”

  “I’m okay. Stay in the room. The shooter came after me. I tried to chase him but he got away.”

  She was silent for a while. “I’ll stay in the room. Be careful.”

  “I’ll be back soon.” He liked the concern for his welfare in her voice but not her worry. He thought about rushing back to Hazel, but she was safe in the inn, which had solid security. There were security cameras everywhere and a security team. That was probably why the shooter had waited outside. He knew if he tried to go inside and kill anyone, he’d be captured on video. Besides, the police were there now.

  He called Kerry.

  She answered on the second ring.

  “The killer tried to shoot me just now,” Callum said.

  “I heard.”

  He explained what had happened and that he didn’t get a plate number this time.

  “Well, we can pretty much assume he’s stealing vehicles to avoid identification,” she said.

  “He’s getting bold. He waited for us outside the inn. How did he know we were there? How did he find out so fast?”

  “Mustang Valley isn’t very big. Dales Inn is the only hotel in town. I’m sure he deduced you and Hazel would go there if you weren’t at her place.”

  “What about the ranch?”

  “I’m sure he checked there, too.”

  Callum ran his fingers through his hair as he drove to the address of the first delivery.

  “I’ll put out a BOLO on the SUV and check for any reported stolen vehicles,” Kerry said. “Be careful.”

  Nobody had to tell him that. Ending the call, he gathered the bag with all the containers for Emily Watson, one of Hazel’s elderly clients. With glasses on a chain, her silver hair in stiff curls and a face covered in peach fuzz, Emily smiled her welcome in a floral house dress. Callum was immediately charmed.

  She glanced down at the bag he held. “Where is Hazel?”

  “She’s not feeling well so I’m making her deliveries for her. My name is Callum.”

  “Come in, come in.” Emma stepped aside and checked him out. “My, my, aren’t you a handsome fellow.”

  Callum entered the older Victorian, dark wood floors creaking, letting her comment go.

  Emily shut the door and led him into the kitchen. “Go ahead and put them in the freezer. That’s what Hazel always does. I still have one of her delicious meals in the refrigerator and with it just being me, that lasts a few days. My Irwin passed a few years ago and the kids don’t come around as often as I’d like.”

  She must be lonely and starved for adult conversation. Callum opened the freezer drawer and began rearranging the contents to make room for a week’s worth of meals.

  “Irwin was an engineer and retired a vice president of his department,” Emma said. “He was a good provider. What is it that you do, Mr...?”

  “Colton. I’m a personal protection officer.” That always sounded more palatable than bodyguard.

  “Oh, you’re a security guard?” Emily asked, going to a glass-faced cabinet. “Would you like something to drink?”

  She didn’t recognize his last name. Maybe it was her age. “No, thank you. No, I’m not a security guard.”

  Emma filled a glass with tap water. “Hazel never told me about you. She and I have such lovely talks when she’s here.”

  Callum imagined Emily talked anyone’s ear off when they visited. Plumbers. Electricians. Maybe the mail carrier. And her kids when they came over.

  “She is such a dear,” Emily said. “I know she doesn’t have to stay when she delivers my meals, but she does. She genuinely cares about me. She’s become a friend of mine even if she doesn’t consider me one of hers.”

  “I’m sure she does.”

  “She’s a very good chef.” Emily patted her tummy, which wasn’t protruding much at all. “She felt so bad for leaving that job of hers, but she belongs on her own.”

  “She felt bad?” Hazel hadn’t mentioned that.

  “Oh, yes. Hazel is such a conscientious person. She wouldn’t hurt a flea. She worried about the owner of that restaurant...what was it called? Carolyn’s Kitchen. She and Carolyn were good friends. Carolyn didn’t want her to leave but Hazel followed her heart, and good thing she did. She’s going to be very successful someday. You wait and see.”

  “She already seems to be.”

  “It’s nice to see that she’s finally found a husband and father for Evie. I’m going to have to ask her why she didn’t tell me.”

  Husband and father? Callum stood, finished putting the containers into the freezer, feeling a lump form in his throat. He swallowed.

  Emily smiled fondly at him, making him more uncomfortable. “I always knew it would only be a matter of time. Hazel is so pretty and nice. And her daughter is sweet as can be. But I’m sure you already know that.”

  “Hazel and I aren’t married,” he said.

  Emily waved her hand in dismissal. “You don’t have to get married to be a family these days. Look at Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. They’re a model of how healthy families survive without being taken down by old traditions.”

  Her refreshing outlook did little to calm his inner turmoil. Being a part of Hazel’s family would bring heavy responsibility. Callum would go crazy worrying for their well-being. His line of work brought plenty of danger. The people he protected clients against might go after his family to get to him.

  Emily stepped closer and gave his forearm a few pats. “If you aren’t romantic with her yet, you will be. I’m good at reading people and you seem like a decent man. Unlike Evie’s father. Hazel says she won’t go for the gorgeous and rich types ever again.” She observed him critically. “You’re gorgeous, but I bet you aren’t rich. Bodyguards don’t make that much, do they?”

  What did she mean by that? Hazel had told her she would never be with anyone wealthy?

  “I don’t make millions protecting my clients, but I make more than average,” he said, not going into any details of the company that employed him—or the fact that he was a Colton. This woman was already making him talk too much.

  “I better get back to Hazel and Evie.” He began to back off.

  “Yes, I’m sure they are anxiously waiting your return. It was very nice to meet you, Mr. Colton.” Emily’s face sobered as though something dawned on her. “Colton. You’re Payne Colton’s son?”

  “I am.” Maybe she wouldn’t be so quick to pair him with Hazel now.

  “I heard about the shooting. Who would do such a thing? And how is he doing? Is he going to survive?”

  “We don’t know yet.” Reminded of his father, he planned to go see him in the morning.

  Emily’s mouth pursed as though mulling over something troubling. “What I said before about Hazel not seeing anyone rich... I didn’t mean...”

  Callum held his hand up. “Don’t worry about it. Hazel and I aren’t together that way.”

 

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