In the Shelter of His Arms by Jackie Braun

Author:Jackie Braun
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

TWO weeks passed. Two long weeks during which Roz carefully avoided being alone with Mason. And he made it easy. They no longer skied in the mornings. The first week after getting carried away in his kitchen, they both had found excuses not to and then the weather cooperated with a warming spell that made the trails too slushy to navigate.

But as Roz walked into the tavern just before her shift this evening, Mason not only looked up from his usual place behind the bar, he waved her over.

As she walked toward him, he grinned and Roz felt her traitorous pulse pick up speed. God, did the man have to be that gorgeous?

“What’s up?” she asked nonchalantly when she reached him.

“I think I’ve got a lead.”

She frowned. “A lead?”

“On your mother. You’re still interested in finding her, right?”

She gave a jerky nod, unable to identify all of the messy emotions suddenly sloshing through her. Of all the things she had expected him to say to her, this was nowhere on the list. She felt blindsided, both by the fact he might have found a starting point to unraveling her past and because he was searching in the first place. She’d just assumed, given the strain between the two of them, that he wasn’t on the case.

“You’ve been looking?”

“I said I would.”

“But that was…” She glanced around and even though no one sat close enough to hear her, she lowered her voice. “Before.”

“I keep my promises, Rose. Come on back to the office so we can talk in private.”

She followed him, feeling a little dazed. And, though she didn’t want to admit it, excited. The moment the office door closed behind them, she asked, “So, what’s the lead?”

Mason walked behind his desk and rifled through some papers.

“I’ve been contacting old friends from the Detroit police force and some of the folks I knew at the Family Independence Agency,” he said, referring to the state agency that oversaw the foster care system.

Roz took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Don’t get your hopes up, she told herself. But her heart was hammering as if she’d just run a marathon. She didn’t want to be this excited. Apathy had been her shield for so long. Now, she felt exposed, vulnerable in a way she’d long told herself she wouldn’t allow.

“I had a friend at the department look up the report from the day you were found. A woman who lived nearby had called the police when she spotted you. I’ve got her name, number. If she’s still in the area maybe she’ll be willing to tell me something she wouldn’t tell the police.”

“Oh.”

“It’s a long shot,” Mason admitted. “But I’ve just gotten started.”

He stepped around the desk and gave her arm a squeeze.

“We’ll find her, Rose.”

She crossed her arms, feeling warmed by his touch and oddly chilled at the same time. Too much was happening inside her head, thoughts and feelings she couldn’t process and didn’t understand. And the man standing in front of her played a big part in the muddle.

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