permeated the air and she tried to allow the uplifting scents to raise her spirits. It didn’t seem right to be putting together so many celebration arrangements while she still had the image of Meredith in her mind.
She sipped her coffee and winced at the bitter brew her stale beans had produced. She’d had no choice but to bring it from home as the local coffee shops weren’t open for another thirty minutes. Her cupboards were bare; flower season left little time to get groceries. She could always run out later or have Jenny pick some up on the way in.
A solitary light over the workbench illuminated the long list of customers who required fresh flowers for their Passover and Easter celebrations, beginning with the Silver Valley Community Church. The historically significant edifice had almost burned to the ground at Christmas, with Zora and the man who was now her fiancé, Bryce, in the midst of the fire. Keith had been on scene with the SVFD and they’d gotten everyone out and had saved the historic building.
As Kayla snipped stems and stuck them into damp floral foam for a series of six matching arrangements, she allowed her mind to wander. Anywhere but to last night, which was still too scary to replay.
Of course Rio’s dark brown eyes were the first image that appeared. Damn him. It would help to talk to someone about her feelings, but her sister, Melody, lived too far away, and Zora was in the midst of planning her wedding. Although even a bride-to-be needed a break, and Zora knew her best of anyone around.
Zora had been posing as a minister to help ferret out the serial killer who was after female preachers. Why Zora was involved in law enforcement, since she was a therapist, Kayla had never asked. Keith had told her not to, since it could compromise Zora if she was some kind of undercover agent. She’d been in the navy before, so Kayla wouldn’t be surprised to find out Zora led two lives.
Together Zora and Bryce had brought down the serial killer who had used Kayla to take flowers, and a message, to Zora’s college friend while she was acting as the congregation’s interim pastor. Of course, it turned out that the “college friend” was really Zora, working undercover with SVPD.
Somehow during the case Zora had found love with Bryce, SVPD’s other detective. Unlike Kayla, Zora seemed to have no issue with dating a cop.
A scraping noise alerted Kayla to the back door opening—the loading area for the van and incoming shipments. She fought back panic. It might not be an intruder, but she wasn’t expecting Jenny for another two hours.
She grabbed for the largest pair of shears they kept at the workbench and held them in front of her with her right hand while her left reached for her phone.
“Kayla?” The familiar baritone washed away her anxiety with relief, followed by a quick, hot surge of anger.
“What are you doing here so early, Rio?”
He presented a paper bag and two cups of take-out coffee in a cardboard holder. “I knew you had an early start and wanted to make sure you’re doing all right.”
“You gave me coffee last night. That was enough.”
“Still not a morning person, I see.” He set the tray onto the counter and offered her one of the cups. “You can put the scissors down. You’re safe. But I give you points for quick thinking.”
She grudgingly lowered the makeshift weapon and accepted her second cup of coffee from Rio in less than twelve hours. Biting into the soft almond croissant she’d taken from the bag, she looked at him.
“These shears are no joke. They’d kill you as quick as a bullet if need be.” He didn’t react to her attempt at humor. She shifted her weight from foot to foot. “This is delicious, thank you. You couldn’t have gotten much sleep, either.” She remembered that he’d said he never slept much once he got into a case.
“I don’t need a lot. You remember that, I’m sure.”
The heat that had never disappeared between them suddenly scorched her insides and she wished she had more sense. That she had the wherewithal to tell him to get out of the shop and let the door hit him right on his sexy butt.
“Hmm.”
“Hmm, indeed.” His eyes took in everything. With a start she realized she missed this. The quiet morning time together, the intimacy of sharing the day’s first cup of coffee as they woke up.
It was only three weeks. Get over it.
“I’m safe, Rio. As you can see, no one’s here to bother me.” Almost as if last night never happened.
“You’re safe, my ass. I walked right in here. You didn’t even have the back door locked!” His voice was quiet, low, but powered by the ferocity of his concern.
“I imagine it would be awful for you to lose your only witness.”
“I’m not going to leave you high and dry, Kayla. You’re not alone in this. We will catch this killer. And I know you’re worried about Keith, and I assure you I’m working on that, too. Not every case takes as long as his has.”
She didn’t reply. She’d like to believe him that this case wouldn’t languish as Keith’s case continued to do.
Rio leaned against the bench and took a good long perusal of the work area. “I don’t think I ever got back here when we dated.”
“No, you didn’t.” He’d come in the first time to order flowers for a colleague who was in the hospital. The next few times had been to pick her up after she closed shop and he’d waited in his car out front until she joined him. They hadn’t wanted to spend time here—there was little room to do what they both wanted. What she had needed from him—his touch—was best experienced in a bedroom.
“You never answered my calls, Kayla.”
So they were back to that.
“There was nothing to say. We’d agreed to stop seeing each other.”
“And we’d agreed to stay friends. Friends keep in touch.”
“Yeah, well, it’s been busy.”
* * *
Rio chugged his hot coffee as his mind replayed the hundreds of replies he could toss at Kayla in the morning quiet of the shop. They were both tired and on edge. She was probably still scared out of her wits, even though she’d never admit it to him.
But he saw it anyway, in the fine lines around her eyes, the slightly wild look she’d cast his way as he walked into the shop. If he hadn’t called her name first, those ridiculously large scissors may have been lodged in his chest.
“It has. I’m glad for you, Kayla. I know how much the shop means to you.” Busy meant that she’d increased her revenue and that the gossip about the serial killer ordering flowers from her hadn’t tainted her business. It was hard to tell sometimes which way the whisper mill would turn in Silver Valley. Like the rumors around Kayla’s brother’s case. Rio still couldn’t bring the case to closure, months after Keith Paruso had been accused of improper fire-inspection techniques and endangering public safety. Just when he thought he had Keith off the hook, another loophole was presented by the prosecuting attorney, in the shape of a couple Rio believed were being put up to do the dirty business of the cult. The former cult members had arrived just before all the political chaos began, but he had no definitive evidence they were connected to Keith’s case. Yet.
“Thank you, and thanks for the coffee. It’s a nice treat. With that in mind, I do need to keep working.”
“Mind if I stay a bit and talk to you while you work?”
“Not at all.”
He fought not to laugh. Her words were in direct opposition to the sour look on her face. He was the last person she wanted to spend time with.
“You know, Kayla, it seems a little silly to me that two people like us are allowing the past to control whether or not we have a cordial relationship until your brother’s case is closed. We’re intelligent