to relief, Paul looked up and caught her eye. “About time,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Her nerves flared like a grease fire. There it was, the moment. She’d come to the kitchen to face it, and the fire wasn’t going to put itself out, so that made it go-time. “Let me sit first,” she told him.
Pursing his lips with almost comic annoyance, Paul watched and waited. “You situated, princess?”
Katy winced. She’d pissed him off. That made sense. Only he and Gretchen had been there, and she’d bailed before transport and paperwork, which wasn’t cool. And then she’d bailed on the department entirely, which was just cowardly and stupid. She picked up her coffee and held it in front of her like a tiny shield. “Go for it.”
“I never got to ask if you were okay the other day.”
She cocked her head and peered at him. “Excuse me?”
“That kid obviously pushed your buttons, and I could see you were losing it, but I want you to know I respect you for stepping back instead.”
Katy nearly dropped her cup. “Wow. Thanks.”
“You sound surprised.”
“I guess I am.”
Paul chuckled. “Don’t blame you. We’re not so good with the praise around here.”
“You can say that again.” Welles scanned the table, as if hoping he might be next in line for a compliment.
“Do something worth praising and you’ll get yours, kid,” Ike barked, though his eyes twinkled.
Katy took a huge gulp of her coffee, mostly to hide as much of her face as possible, and then had to fight to keep the scalding liquid in her mouth instead of spitting it all over the table. Smooth move, slick. But none of this made sense. They all acted like nothing had happened, or, even stranger, like the exact right thing had happened.
Then it hit her. No one knew. Though she quit on him, Gunnar said nothing to anyone. He’d protected her, and all she’d shared with him, even when she probably didn’t deserve it. And then, the next day, he’d apologized. This was no ordinary man, ladies and gentlemen.
She glanced up and found three sets of eyes on her, the accompanying expressions ranging from concerned to bemused to annoyed. “Guess I should get to work,” she murmured with a sheepish smile.
“Everything okay in there, MacBain? That brain of yours seems like a busy place.”
Katy stood and walked her cup to the sink, a new lift in her step. “Busier than you could ever imagine, Higgins. And since when do you care?” She turned back and treated him to her most intimidating glare.
He grinned and shrugged. “Just making conversation, like I do with everyone on the team.”
She tried to hold her glare, but it wouldn’t stay. The team. That sure had a nice ring to it. Before she could think of an appropriately quippy response, the tones sounded.
“Attention Spellbound Falls Fire & Rescue. Units Nine-eighty-seven and Spellbound Ambulance Two are asked to respond to Inglenook Resort for a group of missing kids, all believed to be nine to ten years old. Subjects were last seen in the woods near the stables and have not been heard from in a couple of hours. The children’s parents are onsite and will assist with the search. Copy units nine-eighty-seven and Spellbound Ambulance Two: Inglenook Resort for three missing children, believed to be lost in the woods. Piscataquis out, twenty-two-fourteen.”
Every bit of the previous moment’s pleasure drained from Katy’s body. She’d arranged a playdate for Shiloh and her cousins today. That had to be them.
With a ferocity she’d never felt before, Katy dashed to the bus, loaded her kit, and jumped into the cab. “Whoever’s driving has exactly five seconds to get us rolling or I’m on my way,” she called, just as Gretchen opened the driver’s door.
“I’m on it, MacBain,” she said and fired up the engine.
The ambulance’s back doors slammed shut, and two quick smacks on the side of the bus set them in motion. Eyes fixed straight ahead, Katy started counting to keep her mind from wandering. The last thing she needed was to picture even one of those kids in any kind of trouble.
Chapter Twenty-One
As soon as Gunnar heard “Inglenook” come across on his radio, he turned the truck around and, tires squealing, raced in the other direction. As if he didn’t have enough to deal with, having just discovered that his darling, and highly nosy, aunt had actually been hiding out in Spellbound Falls for days, doing a “different sort” of research, as she put