of a little boys’ room,” he said, grinning, expecting her cheeks to go red and watching it happen. It hit him then that he’d never met a woman who looked so good when she was blushing. Not sure what to do with that thought, he took off, heading to the back of the building.
Halfway down the back was a door with a window on each side. He looked through the glass, waiting for his eyes to adjust. Yep. C.M. furniture. Rows and rows of it. He really needed to go inside, but he’d promised Annie and granted they’d pushed their luck at the other place.
He had enough to go on for now, anyway.
He headed back to the car. Rounded the front of the building to see Annie standing outside of the Porsche talking to someone in what looked like a navy blue security-guard uniform.
She looked over her shoulder just then and spotted him. “Oh, here’s my husband, sir. Jack, I was just telling the officer about your bladder problem.”
Jack’s eyebrows shot skyward. What?
Annie was still talking. “You know, it’s really a horrible thing, Officer. And for such a young man, too. Makes traveling take twice as long as it normally would. What with stopping at every other exit off the highway. This time we didn’t even make it to the next one. We saw this empty parking lot and wheeled right in here. We certainly never intended to trespass, but when nature calls—”
“All right, ma’am,” the flustered-looking officer said, holding up a hand and shooting a look at Jack, who had on his best embarrassed-husband face. None of which was an act except for the husband part. “You all get on down the road now.”
“Yes, sir,” Annie said. “Come on, honey. Let’s see if we can cover ten or twenty miles before the next stop.”
They got in the car then, both of them straight-faced as he did a calm U-turn in the parking lot and headed back to the main road. The tires had no sooner hit the asphalt of Highway 124 than Annie began laughing.
“I guess that’s what’s known as payback?” Jack patted the side of his face where his cheeks were still burning.
“You’re—” The laughter had turned into giggles now, and she could barely finish her sentence. “You’re embarrassed.”
“No, I’m not, really.” He began denying it, then admitted, “Okay, so I’m embarrassed. My bladder problem?”
“Well, I had to come up with something. When I saw him pulling into the parking lot, I nearly had a heart attack.”
“And it’s believable that a big, strong guy like me has a bladder problem?”
The giggles hit her again then, and she actually bent forward, holding her stomach.
“Oh, my goodness, I’m sorry, I—”
“Quite all right. I’ll be looking at an image makeover when we get home.”
More giggles, and he thought to himself that it was a really nice thing to make a woman like her laugh that hard.
Finally, she leaned her head back against the seat and sighed. “I was just hoping I could wear him down by talking him to death.”
“Looked like it was working.”
“I should really be mad at you, you know. I thought we were done for.”
“Have to admit I did, too. Nice to have a partner who thinks on her feet,” he teased.
“Even when it’s at your expense?”
“Even when.”
She smiled again, was silent for a moment and then added, “Kind of odd to have such regular security checks around warehouses, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, it does seem a little coincidental.”
“For us to have run into both of them, they must get by pretty regularly.”
“Must.”
“So what are you going to do about all of this?” Annie asked, her tone more somber now.
Jack sighed. “Good question. I guess the first step is to try to figure out if there’s anyone whose lifestyle seems to be larger than their income.”
“This is terrible,” Annie said, sighing. “I just can’t imagine who it would be. I know most of the people who work there. I go to church with a lot of them.”
“I guess that doesn’t always guarantee living right.”
“Sadly, no.”
Jack glanced at his watch. “It’s nearly three o’clock. Are you starving?”
“A little hungry,” Annie said.
“The least I can do for the Oscar-winning performance is buy you lunch.”
Annie smiled. “The least.”
* * *
THEY GOT BACK to Macon’s Point just before six. Jack pulled into the municipal building parking lot beside Annie’s car.
“I think I’ll go over to the factory and do a little more digging,” he said.
“I wish there were another explanation for what we