She knew she was going to lose the argument when he wouldn’t even consider her offer of dinner on the house. “No, I’m going to be here a while,” he argued, ignoring her pointed looks that tried to tell him otherwise. “No sense in getting off on the wrong foot. I intend to start out as a paying customer and stay that way. Besides, the one perk to being with the D.A.’s office is that I do have an expense account. It might not be the world’s most liberal one, but it will suit my needs well in a little town like this in Wisconsin.”
“If you insist.” Holly tried to sound as pleasant as possible. It wasn’t easy. She hated losing arguments. And lately it seemed as if she got in more arguments every day, and seldom won one. This one had all the earmarks of being a major defeat already.
“And I do insist. I insist on paying for my dinner, and I insist on staying here in town. The closer I can stay to you, the better.”
“Well, that might present a little problem, because Safe Harbor isn’t the kind of place where a woman in my situation can just take in a guy off the street without a lot of talk.”
“So tell them the truth.” Alex could be just as argumentative as she was. “Tell them I’m your bodyguard because of the situation Kevin left you in.”
“He didn’t leave me in any situation,” she fired back. “And I can’t tell them the rest of the truth, anyway.”
“Why not? Surely it would be better than having your fine, upstanding small-town friends think you were taking in strays.”
“It really isn’t any of your business what my friends will think. And surely that expense account will spring for a hotel room if we can find one. Your timing is at least a month off. If you could have held off until after Valentine’s Day I could have got you a room at the new bed-and-breakfast.”
“Sorry the bad guys weren’t paying attention to your social calendar.”
“Oh, stow it, Wilkins. I know you’re sorry about a lot of things, but I’m sure that isn’t one of them.” Holly knew she sounded unkind, but she felt unkind right now, and anxious to get rid of Alex Wilkins and the problems he posed.
He wasn’t cooperating. Alex sat still, folding his arms over his chest. “You’d love it if I just walked out of here, wouldn’t you? Well, get used to having me around, because no matter how much you protest, or how many reasons you have to the contrary, I’m staying. And for tonight I’m camping out as close to you as I can get. If you’ll let me have your living-room couch, I’ll take that. Otherwise I’ll sleep in my car in the apartment-complex parking lot. But I’m not going away, Holly.”
The light in his eyes told her he meant every word of what he said. That was a shame, because now Holly was stuck. She had no desire to let Alex Wilkins into her apartment for any reason. But only a heartless monster would let anybody sleep in a car in January this far north. Of course Alex knew that. It was why he’d played that trump card to begin with.
“Don’t get comfortable on that couch, Wilkins. Because you’re spending one night, and one night only, there. And you can be the one to come up with an explanation for my boys about who you are and why you’re on that couch. Remember they’re only five.”
Alex looked thoughtful while he took a credit card out of his pocket to settle his bill. “Now you make sleeping in the car sound attractive.” He’d lost that challenging grin. “If I thought I wouldn’t freeze to death I’d stay there. Five years old, huh? I’ll have to dredge back in the distant past and try to remember what I thought about when I was five. Maybe I can come up with something convincing that will satisfy them and make you happy at the same time.”
Holly picked up the credit card and headed toward the kitchen. “Don’t bet on it. You might convince the boys, but nothing you say will make me happy until you say goodbye.” She was pretty sure that was the truth. Why didn’t it feel much like the truth when she said it?
Holly puzzled the question over in her mind while she got Alex’s receipt and prepared to give him directions to her apartment. Surely any sane, respectable person would be glad to have someone like Alex out of her life as quickly as possible.
Why, instead, did it seem as if he was the cavalry riding up to rescue her? She didn’t need rescuing from anything, did she? Most of her said no, but there was a sliver of common sense that told her yes, she needed rescuing in ways that Alex could probably provide. It was only a few blocks back to the apartment, not nearly enough time to answer a question that complex, so Holly wasn’t surprised when she pulled up in the parking lot with no more answers than she’d had at The Bistro.
Chapter Three
Alex had to admire Holly’s baby-sitter. The kid looked only about fifteen or sixteen, but he seemed very protective of her. This was obviously the first time Holly had ever come home from work earlier than planned, or brought company with her, and the boy eyed Alex suspiciously.
Neither of the rowdy little boys the teenager had been watching appeared to like the idea of a strange man coming home with Mom, either. Holly paid the sitter, and Alex could hear her reassuring him at the doorway that everything was okay. While that was going on, he sat down on the lumpy brown couch in the living room. The little boys stared at him in silence.
“Who are you, anyway?” One of them broke his silence and stepped half a pace closer to Alex. There was still a coffee table between them to keep the kid brave. Alex could see a bit of Kevin Douglas in this one. His brown hair looked as if it had a mind of its own, and his challenging posture made him seem much taller than he was.
“I’m a friend of your dad’s. My name is Alex Wilkins.”
“Okay.” The answer didn’t seem to satisfy the child totally. “I’m Conor. This is Aidan.” He motioned toward his silent brother, who was slightly taller.
Alex could hear the baby-sitter ask a question, and then Holly closed the door behind him. Alex was happy to see that she locked it securely. “So you’ve introduced yourself?”
“I have. Just the basics. I told them my name, and that I was a friend of their dad’s. Anything else I should add?”
“Only that you won’t be here long, and that it’s still time for bed, whether we have company or not,” Holly said firmly. Conor seemed about to protest, but one look at his mother made him think better of it. If he’d gotten that look from a woman, Alex thought, he wouldn’t argue, either. Holly started hustling the two boys toward the hall.
While she was putting the boys to bed, Alex took in his surroundings. Everything was as neat as he’d expect a home with two five-year-olds to be, and under the clutter it was all very clean. Other than the boys’ toys and the basics, there wasn’t much to see.
Holly’s couch wasn’t the most comfortable thing Alex had ever thought about sleeping on. It beat sitting straight up in a car seat, or slouched over in one doing a stakeout, but that was about the nicest thing he could say about it. The couch was far from new, and there had obviously been a lot of kid feet bouncing on it over the years. That would account for the sagging springs, anyway.
The room was warmer than his car would have been, and it was quiet enough. Once Holly had put the kids to bed she came out of their room quietly. She went to a linen closet, got supplies, handed him a pillow and blanket and pointed out the remote for the television. “If you turn on the TV, keep it quiet. Conor’s a light sleeper. Aidan would sleep through a hurricane, but his brother hears mouse footsteps, I swear.”
“I’ll keep it low,” he promised. Holly went to bed at that point. Without another word she disappeared into the other bedroom, and Alex didn’t see her again. He wondered what kinds of thoughts were rolling through her mind.
He knew