Free Sex & Sensibility by Shannon Hollis

reports.”
    “Hourly?”
    “Almost.”
    “Oh, good. You can give them to me hourly.” She grinned at him as though they’d been best friends for years.
    Maybe they had. But there was nothing sexual in their camaraderie. The impression that had flashed in Tessa’s mind during their handshake—under the fear—had been one of clarity and warmth. This woman had it all—married to one of the ten richest men in the country, a house in Carmel, a face and figure to die for—and a loving heart to boot. Tessa devoutly hoped that Jay knew how lucky he was.
    “Mandy, do you think Jay could call some of Christina’s friends?”
    She lifted an eyebrow. “Are you kidding? He doesn’t even know who the neighbors are, much less who his daughter hangs out with. Why? Do you think one of them might know something?”
    “It’s possible she might have let something slip,” Tessa explained. “Some clue about anyone new she might have met lately—because obviously it wasn’t in a family situation—or what plans she might have had.”
    “She likes two of the girls at Pebble Beach. I play tennis with the mother of one of them. But there’s a problem.”
    “What’s that?” Griffin asked.
    “Jay has told me he wants this kept quiet. With the media gathering for the PGA event this weekend, I think the risk is too great if we started calling around and people put two and two together.”
    A muscle flexed in Griffin’s jaw. “Can you get around it somehow? Find out without them figuring out why you want to know?”
    “Oh, right,” Mandy scoffed. “Slide a lie about her friend past a teenager? That’ll be a huge success.”
    “So bottom line, we’re on our own,” he said grimly. “He’s got my hands tied from every direction. How am I supposed to find her if he closes off every road I try to take?”
    “Think of it from his side,” Mandy said. “He’s spent the last ten years since his breakup with Barbara trying to get more than alternate holidays with his kid. Now that Christina’s old enough to choose him, he’s not going to do anything to jeopardize the status quo with Barbara.” She lowered her voice, and Griffin and Tessa both leaned closer. “Because, you see, if she gets her degree out here and not Boston, she makes her networks and connections here. That makes her more likely to get a job here, meet someone, and make a life on his side of the country. See where I’m going with this?”
    Griffin straightened. “Please tell me Jay isn’t screwing up my investigation so that he’ll be in the same state as his future grandchildren.” His tone said, Just shoot me now .
    “You know Jay.” Mandy smiled at him, but behind the smile was understanding and the shadow of her own fear. “Always thinking in the long term.”
    “I’ll do everything I can to help,” Tessa said into the silence.
    “I know you will.” Mandy nodded. “But in the meantime, I came to find you for a reason. Dinner is at six in the dining room.” She waved into the echoing space of the entry hall below them, in the direction of a door on the far side. “Right there, in case Griffin hasn’t given you the entire tour.”
    Six. An hour away. “If you guys have other things to do, I’ll just wander around and look at pictures. You never know what might spark something.”
    “Then I guess I’m wandering with you,” Griffin said.
    So much for subtle hints.
    Mandy clattered down the stairs and left her alone again with Griffin. As he stood next to her, she could smell the freshly laundered cotton of his T-shirt and the faint scent of coffee. His thumbs were hooked loosely in his front pockets, his long fingers resting lightly on worn denim. The pose masked any tension he might be feeling, instead projecting a kind of casual masculinity that drew the eye right between his hands.
    She would not look at his button-fly Levi’s. So what if his hips were lean and his legs long and rangy. He was an ex-cop, and cops had fallen off the