Free Shadow's Lady (A Pajaro Bay Cozy Mystery + Sweet Romance) by Barbara Cool Lee

something, and she'd come out to California to cool off, or escape, or take a vacation. It was just his suspicious nature that had made him think she must have some other agenda in coming here to this isolated place at this particular time. "So you've never been to California before?"
    "No. Aunt Zee visits the family at holidays, and she and I used to talk a lot when I was a kid. She thinks the rest of my family's a bit too much. So do I," she added, then looked surprised at herself for admitting it.
    No reason for surprise. You'll tell me everything before I'm done.
    "So, you seem to be feeling better," she said, and he realized he'd gotten smug too soon, and this was her attempt to turn the tables on him. Those wide blue eyes looked him up and down, assessing his condition in a way that was too astute for comfort. "Now that you've had a chance to catch your breath, do you feel like talking a bit?"
    About who he was, and how he got here. No, he didn't feel like it. He tried to look tired, which wasn't too difficult to do under the circumstances.
    "I don't even know what to call you...," she said. She waited for his response.
    He hesitated just a fraction. He could make something up. But the mind behind those big blue eyes was too clever for a flippant lie. He had the disconcerting feeling that those innocent eyes might actually see through him to the truth if she stared long enough.
    Besides, the truth was always safer, wherever possible. Lies have to be remembered, they have to be consistent. And she was from the midwest. No connections to town except Zelda Potter, who had easily won the role of official town eccentric against Pajaro Bay's rather stiff competition. That settled it.
    "Matt," he said, hesitating about whether to be Matt Smith or Matt Jones, and then realized that wouldn't work if he ran into 'Aunt Zee' in town. "Matt DiPietro."
    "Nice to meet you, Matt DiPietro," she said. Her smile took his breath away, and he had to remind himself not to care how sweet and kissable she looked with her gold hair all rumpled and her eyes sparkling like that.
    He spoke quickly, covering his thoughts: "I never did thank you for rescuing me. I had taken Shadowfax out kayaking and we got knocked into the water when the storm hit." There. That ought to fill in all the blanks for her.
    She looked appalled. "You could've gotten killed."
    No kidding. He put on a contrite expression, and added in his best surfer-dude voice: "The waves are sick in this weather—I couldn't resist the chance to ride some big ones." Or the chance to come see her....
    "You could've bled to death."
    Getting grazed by a bullet will do that. "Yup. I was dumb. I promise I won't do it again." He smiled winsomely at her. "Is the soup ready?"

    •••

    By nightfall Lori was convinced her patient was almost as good as new. After they had both rested for a while, she managed to help him down the hall to the bedroom. He lay on his back on her brass bed, a situation saved from sexy overtones only by the sight of his injured leg resting on a stack of pillows, with the swollen but healthily pink toes sticking out from the end of the bandage.
    There were dark circles under his eyes, but Matt—now at last she knew what to call him—finished the entire bowl of chicken soup she brought him, along with one-and-a-half toasted bagels. The remaining bagel half went to Shadowfax, who added doggy drool and bagel crumbs to the ocean of black hair he was happily spreading on Aunt Zee's white chenille bedspread.
    "You get some sleep, pup," she said, hesitantly patting the dog on the head.
    "And you too, Matt," she added softly to the man dozing with one arm resting protectively across the dog's body.
    Some memory tickled at the edge of her consciousness. "Matt DiPietro. Why is that name familiar?"
    Matt's body tensed up as he jerked to alertness, and she instantly felt sorry for speaking and pulling him back to consciousness when he had been almost asleep. The leg must be