She stopped on the sidewalk, causing him to halt next to her. He looked down, lifting an eyebrow in question. She reached up and touched his jaw, smoothing her fingers over his skin. “I would never expect you to be anything but who you are. And I agree, no one will come between us.”
Once inside his SUV, he quickly warmed her seat and chuckled as she snuggled down. Glancing over at him, she said, “I can’t help it… I hate being cold and that’s why I love your SUV. It gets warm so quickly.”
He reached over and took her hand, linking fingers as he pulled out onto the street. “Then let me get you home, and I’ll warm you up even more.”
The idea of Sean’s way of warming her caused tingles to move throughout her body. “Is that a promise?”
“Babe, that’s a guarantee.”
A grin spread wide on her face as she settled back, watching the nightscape of Hope City move by as, excited about the night to come.
29
“Is everything okay, babe?”
“Yes, I’m fine,” Harper replied. “I just needed to let you know that Mr. Scheer has asked me to go to a business meeting this evening. He was going to go, but his wife reminded him that their daughter has a piano recital.” She laughed, adding, “He loves his daughter, but I think he would’ve rather gone to this meeting.”
“How late do you think you’ll be?”
“The meeting starts at seven, and he said I would be out of there by nine. I just didn’t know which house we were staying at tonight.”
When she gave him the location of the meeting, he replied, “That’ll actually be closer to my house.”
“Okay, sweetie, I’ll just head to your house when I’m finished.”
“Make sure to let me know when you leave.” After gaining her assurance, he disconnected, then looked up to see Jonas smiling at him. “What?”
“Nothing, man. It’s just good to see you happy. Domesticated… but happy.”
He hefted his shoulders in a shrug. “There’s nothing wrong with being domesticated with the right woman.”
“So, Harper is it for you?”
Rubbing his chin, Sean nodded slowly. “Yeah. The more we’re together, the more I’m sure that she’s the person I want to be with.”
“Like I said, I’m happy for you, man.”
They had spent the afternoon poring over the lab results from Shamika, comparing them to some of the notes that Harper had provided from John. After several more hours, their day was coming to an end and Jonas straightened his desk, getting ready to leave.
Sean looked over and said, “Harper’s working late tonight, so I think I’ll get a little bit more work done.” He said goodbye to Jonas, and soon the other detectives left the room as well. When Todd left his office, he waved toward Sean, leaving him alone in the large room.
An hour later, he glanced at the window and saw that darkness had already fallen outside. He had accomplished all he could for the evening and stood after straightening the papers on his desk. Cracking his neck back and forth, he grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and walked to the doorway, flipping the lights off, plunging the room into dark shadows.
With a final glance backward, he startled at the sight of lights glowing from the map board where they had marked the arsonist’s strikes. Stunned, he flipped the light switch back on, and the room looked as it was. Flipping the light off again, he realized the pushpins that Beth had brought from home were glow-in-the-dark.
He grinned at the ridiculousness of the pushpins, glad that she had not brought the ones shaped like unicorns. He started to turn back toward the door when an idea niggled from the recesses of his mind. Leaving the lights off, he turned slowly and stared at the lighted pattern on the board on the far side of the room.
He methodically tried to create a pattern, similar to what he had done with the original pushpins in the daylight. The problem was they did not fall into a regular geometric shape. The spots of light continued to hold his attention for several minutes, but he was unable to discern a pattern. With a final shake of his head, he turned and walked out of the room.
Driving home, he decided to detour by his parents’ house. Once there, he found his mom and Tara sitting in the den.
Sharon looked up and exclaimed, “Sean, how nice to see you,