a little too eager. She found it vaguely insulting. Not that she intended to let him see it. She wasn’t going to let him think for a second that she was some inexperienced country girl who could be shaken by a simple kiss.
“Well?” he prodded when she still hadn’t started the engine. “Are we going back or not? My gut’s starting to tell me that if Tommy felt safe with you, then he didn’t wander that far off. He’s probably hiding close by.”
“Probably.”
She was very proud that she managed to get the response out without sounding breathless. Obviously they weren’t going to talk about the kiss, she concluded with a sigh. She certainly didn’t want to focus on it. At least he hadn’t apologized and listed a litany of regrets, even if his expression indicated he wasn’t at all pleased with the turn of events between them. She could leave it alone, too. She could pretend that nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Or at least she thought she could. The fact that she hadn’t risked touching the keys for fear he’d see how badly her hands were shaking indicated she wasn’t as cool and calm as she wanted Walker to believe. And the longer they sat there, the worse it got. Darkness had fallen, making the atmosphere in the car just a little too cozy, a little too intimate. The tension sizzling between them wasn’t going to go away, which meant it needed to be addressed.
She took a deep breath, then blurted out, “Look, you don’t have to be embarrassed. I mean, it was just a kiss. No big deal, right?”
“Right,” he said flatly.
Clearing the air apparently wasn’t going to be the snap she’d hoped. Her nerves were still jumpy; his expression was still insultingly grim. She plunged in one more time. “I’ve been kissed before. I’m sure you have been, too. And I suppose I started it with that hug. I was just so relieved that you were willing to meet me halfway on this.”
He turned then and scowled at her. “Daisy, will you please let it drop? Maybe it shouldn’t have, but it happened. It’s over. Forget about it.”
She blinked rapidly at the irritation in his voice. “Of course, yes, I can do that,” she said. With a great deal of concentration, she managed to keep her hand steady as she started the car.
In fact, she even kept her mouth shut until they turned the corner to her block. Then she decided that she couldn’t go the rest of the way home without trying one more time to address the ridiculous tension between them. If they walked into the house like this, her brothers would know in an instant that something had happened. For men, they were way more intuitive than they should have been. She’d learned early never to hint by so much as a down-turned mouth that a date had gone badly. Otherwise Tucker and Bobby would threaten to take on the boy who’d hurt her. Billy Inscoe was practically the only boy she’d known that they hadn’t scared off. Maybe that was why she’d thought herself in love with him, because he hadn’t been intimidated by her brothers.
At any rate, fearing Tucker and Bobby might not have outgrown the habit, she slammed to a stop and cut the lights and the engine, then turned and glowered at Walker.
“That kiss was an impulse, Detective. Nothing more. I’m sure you regret it. So do I. It won’t happen again.”
“I know that,” he said emphatically, frowning right back at her. He gestured toward her house. “Why don’t we just get back there and see if anyone else has had any luck finding Tommy?”
“You don’t deal well with your emotions, do you?” she asked irritably. “I noticed that earlier when we were talking about your sister. You got all stiff and uncomfortable, just the way you are now.”
“Maybe because you were beating the subject to death, just the way you are now.”
“It’s an interrogation technique,” she said. “Tucker told me. Surely you’re familiar with it.”
His lips twitched ever so slightly. “I am, which is why it doesn’t work well on me. I get annoyed.”
“I’ll try to remember that. I just didn’t want Tucker or Bobby to get the idea that you and I have been…” She hesitated, then said, “Arguing. They’re very protective.”
Walker’s lips twitched. “Your brothers don’t scare me. I think I can take care of myself.”
“Okay, then,” she said, forcing herself to let the subject drop. An instant later she faced him as another worrisome issue occurred to her. “You’re not going to yell at Tommy for running off, are you?”
His level gaze met hers. “Are you?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why would you assume I might? I do understand what it’s like to be a kid and to be scared.”
Daisy was surprised by the admission. “I can’t imagine you being scared of anything.”
“Because you don’t know me. I wish you’d try to remember that.”
Daisy doubted she could forget it if she wanted to. The kiss might have been a rare display of intimacy, but he hadn’t let her into his head or into his heart, not for one single second since they’d met.
Sighing, she put the car into gear and drove the rest of the way down the block, pulling into the driveway next to Tucker’s sport-utility vehicle.
“Not much sign of activity,” Walker observed as they left the car.
Just then they heard laughter from the backyard.
“It sounds more like a party,” Daisy said, leading the way around the side of the house. She stopped abruptly at the sight that greeted her.
Her brothers, Frances and Tommy were all sprawled in lawn chairs on the deck facing the river, empty pie plates beside them. Tucker was pointing out some of the constellations visible in the velvet-black sky. Their not-a-care-in-the-world demeanor irked her as much as anything that had happened all day, which was saying something.
“Having fun?” she inquired tartly.
Four pairs of guilty eyes turned her way.
“You might have let us know that Tommy was safe,” she said peevishly.
“You didn’t take your cell phone,” Bobby pointed out mildly. “We had no way to get in touch with you.”
“Somebody could have gotten in a car and come after us,” she said, regarding Tucker accusingly. “I’m sure someone could have spotted us since the streets around here are practically deserted at this time of night.”
“The point is that Tommy is back,” Tucker responded quietly, refusing to rise to the bait. He turned to Tommy. “Son, this is your uncle, Walker Ames.”
The introduction brought on a heavy silence. Daisy watched as the boy warily eyed Walker. Neither of them budged an inch. In fact, Walker looked a little shell-shocked. Finally, after a firm nudge by her elbow, he crossed the deck and hunkered down beside Tommy.
“You look just like your mother,” he said softly, a hint of wonder and sorrow in his voice. “Same eyes, same hair, same smile. I noticed that in the picture Mrs. Jackson showed me earlier.”
Tommy’s expression remained sullen. “So?”
“It’s just that it makes me realize how very much I missed her,” Walker said.
“Then how come you never came to see us?” Tommy demanded.
“Because she didn’t tell me where she was and I couldn’t find her.”
“Like you really tried,” Tommy scoffed.
“One day, if you like, I’ll show you a file with every single thing I did, every place I searched,” Walker offered. “Your mom was my baby sister. I never wanted anything bad to happen to her.”
“Well, something bad did happen,” Tommy shouted, jumping up. “She