Free Fatal Inheritance by Sandra Orchard Page A

jerking his attention back to her face.
    His own flamed. Okay, this was definitely not a good idea. “Uh...” He hitched his finger over his shoulder. “I need to feed the dog. Come get me when you’re ready to leave for church. Okay?”
    “Actually...” She stirred her coffee, her unsweetened, black coffee that didn’t need stirring. “I was thinking maybe I’d skip church today. I’m not really up to facing—”
    “We can take the Cadillac,” he blurted on impulse. Anything to convince her not to stay home alone. He’d just have to call Hunter and alter their plan a bit.
    Her eyes lit up. “You got it going?”
    “Yup. Turns out it was just a bad connection. Finally found the problem this morning.” He wasn’t sure what had compelled him to work on the car again this morning. In the back of his mind, he must’ve known he’d need the carrot. He hadn’t told her what Wes had said about the jewelry theft.
    Not that he believed for a second that Bec’s grandfather had anything to do with the robbery.
    But the person who’d been poking around the place might. Might even have been poking around before Bec had arrived. Maybe even had tampered with the hot-water tank.
    His stomach knotted. No, the service tech had insisted the squirrel nest blocking the chimney was to blame for the carbon monoxide.
    “So...” he said, hoping his teasing tone didn’t sound as forced to her ears as it did to his own. “Want to change your mind?”
    She bobbed her head from side to side. “We could just go cruising after church like we’d planned.”
    “We could.... But do you really want me to worry about you being here alone all morning? I might get too stressed to drive this afternoon.”
    She rolled her eyes. “You’re determined to guilt me into this, aren’t you? Or scare me.”
    “Whatever works.” He gave her a wicked grin.
    “Okay, okay. I’ll go. Just give me an hour to shower and dress. And wake up!”
    “Perfect. That’ll give me enough time to pull the old gal out and dust her off.” And contact Hunter to put a new plan in place. Maybe Wes could stake out the church parking lot once they parked the Caddy, and Hunter could still keep an eye on the house, in case Bec’s prowler decided to take advantage of the time she’d be tied up in church.
    With fifteen minutes to spare, Bec showed up on his doorstep dressed to turn every bachelor’s head within a hundred miles. Wow. The instant he stepped through the church doors with Bec in that frothy vanilla sundress with her hair tamed by the doodad accessories that let the most becoming tendrils slip free to frame her face, he’d be the envy of every guy in the place.
    She tugged at a wisp of hair, which sprang back to its curly Q shape the instant she released it. “That bad? It’s impossible to do anything with it in the humidity.”
    “It looks fine,” he said.
    She frowned, and he winced at how gruff he’d sounded. It wasn’t her fault he’d suddenly noticed how attractive she was.
    Oh, boy. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Not to mention how carpooling together to church and then sharing a pew was bound to wind up the rumor mill, especially when the favorite pastime of the church’s older ladies seemed to be trying to hook him up with a woman. As if he needed any more reminders of how big a failure he was at romance.
    He gritted his teeth and reminded himself they meant well. How were they to know that every woman he’d ever dated chose something better over him?
    Bec flounced past him toward the car. Her exotic scent caught him by surprise. As a kid she’d always smelled like sunshine and flowers, except for the time...
    He bit back a grin. “You sure smell better than the time you fell into that stagnant pond.”
    She stuck out her tongue. “Thanks for reminding me.”
    “No problem. What are friends for?”
    “Neil actually gave me this perfume.”
    The grin slipped off Josh’s face.
    Bec waved her wrist in front of his nose.