convince me or yourself?”
She pressed her lips together. “Jonas, I can remember the hardwood floors in that house, my sister telling me our father has Alzheimer’s, but not who stood in my kitchen and shot me.”
All that matters is that I didn’t lose you.
He swallowed hard and forced an easy smile. “You’ll remember.”
He needed to go but didn’t want to leave her. Not yet. “There is another thing I hope you haven’t forgotten. We made a deal. I would try your cream cheese hot dogs if you try a bowl of chowder.”
“We did, didn’t we?” She smiled. “I’d like that, though it might be a few days before I can handle an outing.”
“Take as long as you want. I’m just grateful you’re alive.”
“Me too. You’re my hero. I owe you.”
“If you’re staying, then you just might get the chance to pay me back. Looks as though we’ll be working together a lot.”
She yawned. “I’d like that as long as we never repeat last week.”
“I agree.” He smiled at her, but he couldn’t forget how close she’d come to dying. Couldn’t help asking the what-ifs. What if he hadn’t been there at that moment? What if he’d decided not to go see her? There was another question, though, that he couldn’t let go of. What would happen if he told her right now what he was feeling? Because when he’d found her lying on the floor of her kitchen, he felt a piece of himself dying when he thought he was going to lose her. And now, looking at her, all he could think about was kissing her.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
Jonas avoided her gaze, thankful she couldn’t read his mind. “A couple things. One, I need to go so you can get some sleep.”
“I do need to sleep.” Her eyes started to flutter shut. “It’s getting hard to stay awake. What’s the other thing?”
Besides the fact that I’m falling for you and don’t know how to stop myself?
He shoved aside the thought and squeezed her hand. “We’re going to find who shot both you and your husband. I promise.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry . . . I’m so tired.”
She closed her eyes, and Jonas watched her sleep for a moment, before slipping out of the room. He would find a way to keep his promise to her, and maybe, just maybe, find a way to give her his heart as well.
One
Madison James burned through the final sixty seconds of her workout on the stationary bike, then released a slow breath of air. Rain had kept her inside this morning, but the forecast was calling for sunshine tomorrow. It felt good to have things back to normal again.
She headed to the bathroom, then stopped at the dresser and picked up her US Marshal badge. Today was her first day back on the job. It had been twelve weeks since she’d been shot.
And she still had no idea who’d pulled the trigger.
The doorbell rang, and she hesitated for a moment before grabbing her Glock off the bedside table and heading to the front door. She looked through the peephole, then smiled.
“Jonas?” She unlocked the bolt and the handle before opening the door. “You’re early.”
“I thought you might appreciate breakfast on your first day back. And since I didn’t know what you might be in the mood for, I brought you a bit of everything.” He headed to the kitchen, set a bag and two coffees on the counter, then turned back to her.
“Okay.” She let out a low laugh. “My interest is piqued. What did you bring?”
“Let’s see . . . raspberry vanilla croissants, an apple Danish, and pain au chocolate.” Her stomach rumbled as he pulled the baked goods out of the bag one at a time. “Or if you’d prefer something savory, I’ve got a couple smoked salmon croissants, two with bacon and one with spinach.”
“I don’t recognize the name of the bakery on the bag.” She grabbed a couple plates from the cupboard and set them on the counter. “Where did you find this place?”
“Apparently they just opened a couple weeks ago. Michaels recommended them to me.”
She glanced at the options, then picked the raspberry croissant. “Not that I’m complaining, but it looks like you were expecting to feed an army.”
Jonas laughed. “No, but I did assume that anything that didn’t get eaten here, we could always take to the office.”
She took a large bite of her croissant, savoring the flavor. “Nice way to win brownie points with the