Free Defender for Hire by Shirlee McCoy

have noticed Seth eyeing her plate.
    She snagged a dinner roll and tossed it on top of the pile of food. “What?”
    “I’m just impressed that a woman your size can put away that much food.”
    “Obviously, you’re easily impressed,” she said with a smile.
    He wasn’t, but he decided not to tell her that. Why ruin their easy camaraderie?
    They carried their plates back to the table, bowing their heads while the pastor blessed the food and the fellowship.
    It was the same as any other potluck Seth had ever been to, but it felt different, the air lighter, the atmosphere warmer. Until Darius’s phone call, he’d been planning to spend the evening at home. He was glad he’d let his mind be changed.
    He would have told Tessa that, but she was picking at her food, looking about as comfortable as a cat in water.
    “For someone who’s hungry, you sure aren’t eating much,” he said.
    She broke her dinner roll in half, slathered butter on it and set it back on her plate. “I have a lot on my mind.”
    “Want to tell me about it?”
    “I’d rather you tell me about your day.”
    “You want to use my day as a distraction from your troubles?”
    “Why not?”
    “Because, desk duty isn’t very distracting.”
    “Oh.” She looked so disappointed, that he relented.
    “But, I might have a story or two that will work.”
    She smiled, stabbed at a bite of potato salad. “Let’s hear them.”
    He wasn’t big on talking about his work, but for Tessa, he’d make an exception.
    He decided not to think too much about what that meant as he pushed aside his empty plate and began to speak.

SEVEN
    S eth knew how to tell a story, and the stories he told about his job with Personal Securities Incorporated were designed to make Tess laugh.
    They did. More than once.
    But, even as she was laughing, she was thinking that she should leave.
    Not because there were dozens of people around, eating and talking and having a great time while she picked at her food and tried to pretend that she wasn’t enjoying Seth’s company, but because all the pretending in the world couldn’t change the way she felt when she looked in his eyes.
    She swallowed a lump of potato salad and chewed another one as Seth finished explaining how he’d nearly been knocked out by an elderly woman when he’d walked into what was supposed to have been an empty dressing room at a ritzy bridal salon in Seattle.
    “That did not happen!” she said on another breath of laughter.
    “It did,” he insisted. “She’d gone in there to nap while her granddaughter was fitted for a dress. After she attacked me with her purse, she accused me of trying to rush her to her grave. The whole time my client was trying on gowns, I was standing outside the door, being lectured by Mrs. Anderson.”
    She could picture him there if she let herself, all hard muscles and glittering blue eyes.
    She put her fork down, her stomach churning with anxiety. She’d wanted something to take her mind off of her troubles. Seth was giving her a lot more than she’d bargained for. “Thanks for the distraction, Seth, but I’m more tired than I thought. I think I’d better get out of here.”
    “Running away won’t change anything,” Seth commented almost absently, his attention on a small group of people just entering fellowship hall. As relaxed as he seemed, he’d never stopped scanning the crowd or searching for signs of danger.
    “Who says I’m running?” Tessa asked, frustrated with herself for being so transparent.
    “Aren’t you?” He turned the full force of his attention on her, his eyes dark and filled with things she didn’t want to see. He had his own sorrow, his own pain. He didn’t need to take on hers, and she didn’t need him to do it.
    “It’s been a long few days. It’s finally catching up to me,” she responded, the half truth slipping out easily.
    “Sure,” he responded, dismissing her reason so definitively, her hackles went up.
    “What’s that