you see me when I’m flat-out furious,” he warned.
Her grin never faltered. “You’re forgetting something, Deputy. I’ve been there, done that.”
Justin paused. So she had. And surprisingly, despite the wariness he’d read in her eyes, despite a momentary panic, she hadn’t run for cover. Something told him, though, that they might both be better off if she had. There were secrets with this woman, secrets and lies. He didn’t doubt it for an instant. When the truth finally came out, which of them was going to be the one most hurt by it?
* * *
Every instinct she possessed told Patsy to avoid Justin Adams and yet, when he’d proposed helping her to walk that huge dog and getting ice cream, she hadn’t been able to resist. For Billy’s sake, she reassured herself. It had been a long time since Billy had an innocent outing, an even longer time since he’d had one with an adult male who actually seemed to enjoy his company.
Will hadn’t been the kind of father who carted a messy child off for ice cream unless there was a photo opportunity in it for him. Then the ice cream had been little more than a prop and Billy had been handed back to her the instant the cameras were out of range.
In the living quarters beside the clinic, she’d had only to mention ice cream and Billy had toddled toward her with his arms upstretched.
“Go,” he pleaded, the video forgotten. “Go now.”
“We’ll go now, but you have to walk. I’m not going to carry you, okay?”
“’Kay,” he agreed, his head bobbing. “Big boy.”
She grinned at him. “Yes, you are my big boy.” And the treasure of her life. Everything she was doing, the risk she was taking, starting over in a new place, all of it was for him. She wouldn’t have been able to bear it if he’d been injured—even accidentally—in the cross fire between her and Will.
Justin stuck his head into the room. “All set?”
At the sight of him, Billy ran straight toward him on unsteady legs. “Hi, ya.”
“Hi, yourself.”
“We go for ice cream,” Billy announced.
“I know.”
“You, too?”
“Yep, me, too.”
“Mama, Justin go, too.”
“That’s right, baby.”
Billy raced for the clinic and passed Punk as if he weren’t even there. “Le’s go, Mama.”
“I’m coming,” she assured him. She glanced at Justin. “Are you bringing Punk?”
“Do I have a choice?” he muttered as the dog leaped on him and licked his face. “Down, you beast.”
The look of stunned amazement on his face when Punk dutifully sat was priceless. “Dani also mentioned he’s very obedient,” she said.
“You could have told me that sooner,” he grumbled as he headed for the door with the dog heeling on command.
“I wasn’t sure I believed her. I figured I’d let you put it to the test.”
Justin tightened his hold on the leash and both of them watched with bated breath as Billy marched up to Punk and petted him gently on the nose. “Nice dog.”
Punk responded by wagging his tail so hard he shook all over, but he did nothing at all to intimidate his pint-size admirer.
As they started down the block, they passed other families out for an evening stroll. Justin spoke to everyone, but to Patsy’s relief he didn’t pause to introduce her. Deceiving a handful of people was hard enough. She wasn’t ready to put herself to the test with everyone else in town just yet.
Being with Justin like this felt so normal, so ordinary, she couldn’t believe it. This was what she’d envisioned her marriage being, the kind of life she’d anticipated with Will. That it had turned out so very differently saddened her more than she could say.
“Hey,” Justin said softly. “You okay?”
“Just thinking.”
“About?”
“This and that,” she equivocated.
“Which made you so sad? This or that?” he inquired lightly.
“What makes you think either one made me sad?”
“There are tears in your eyes.”
And now they were spilling down her cheeks, she realized with embarrassment. She brushed them away and forced a smile. “Every now and then I get lost in what might have been.”
He regarded her with a troubled expression. “And what might have been makes you sad?”
“No sadder than what was,” she admitted and walked quickly on ahead.
“Patsy.”
His voice was soft, but something in it commanded her to stop. She hesitated, fought against a fresh batch of tears, then turned back.
“If something’s bothering you, you can talk to me. In my line of work, there’s not much I haven’t seen or heard.”
She looked into worried blue eyes and saw