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It certainly wouldn’t be the first time she’d seen a patient after her doors were closed.
She’d even gotten a couple of calls from frantic pet owners in the middle of the night. The last one had been less than a month ago, involving an encounter between a Great Dane and a pit bull that had accidentally gotten loose in the residential area. Jogging with her master, the Great Dane had been no match for the smaller, more powerful animal. If it hadn’t been for a cruising patrol car, Patience had no doubt that the Great Dane would have been killed. As it was, she’d spent the better part of three hours stitching up the poor victim.
Determined to get to the bottom of this, Patience slipped on a sweater and went downstairs to the front entrance of her house. The wind was picking up again. Two weeks into fall and the weather had decided to surrender to the season. Patience wrapped her arms around herself as she crossed the street. She missed summer already.
As she approached the vehicle, she saw the man in the driver’s seat look her way. Because of the location of the streetlamp, his face was bathed in shadow. She recognized the dog first. King. Which meant that the man in the car had to be Coltrane.
But why?
She leaned down until she was level with the window and his face. He looked none too happy to see her. “What are you doing here?”
He shrugged carelessly. “I was just making the rounds.”
The hell he was. She glanced at his vehicle, one that, even in this light, she could tell had been lovingly handled and restored. She’d had no idea that he was handy around cars. Only someone who was handy could drive an automobile like this. It required a great deal of attention. “In a ’78 Mustang?”
He looked mildly surprised that she could identify not just the make and model, but the year, as well. “You know cars?”
She laughed shortly. In this light, the car looked a deep blood-red. Not exactly the most inconspicuous color for a vehicle. “Most of my relatives are male. I’d have to be deaf not to have picked up something about cars over the years. And don’t change the subject. You’re off duty.” She ran her hand lightly over the dog’s head. “You both are, unless the police chief has suddenly decided to relax the uniform code. Besides, you’re part of the narcotics division.”
He’d never seen her outside of the clinic and without her lab coat. She wore a pair of faded jeans that adhered to her like a second skin, a white T-shirt that just barely covered her midriff and a cardigan that did nothing to hide her curves. For once her red hair was loose, falling in waves around her shoulders. She looked a great deal more feminine and fragile this way. Something protective stirred within him, growing larger.
“Haven’t you heard about crime in the suburbs?”
She fixed him with a look that said she saw right through him. “Is that anything like lying in the suburbs?” Before he could say anything, she began, “Look, if you’re here because of this morning—”
He looked at her with an attempt at innocence she found endearing. “This morning? What happened this morning?”
She made no effort to suppress her grin. Amusement shone in her eyes. “If being a policeman doesn’t work out for you, Coltrane, promise me you don’t try being an actor. There’s no future in it for you. Trust me, you’re awful at it.” And then her grin softened into a smile. “I’m touched.” She nodded toward the house. “Why don’t you come inside for a cup of coffee?”
He reached for the key in his ignition. “I was just on my way home.”
“Sure you were.” Before he could start the car, Patience opened the rear door. Instantly, King came bounding out. His tail wagged so hard, had he been a smaller dog he might have succeeded in levitating himself off the ground. Laughing, she ran her hand along the animal’s head. “Well, I’m happy to see you, too. Why don’t you come on in and say hi to Tacoma? I’ve got this great extra soup bone I don’t know what to do with.” She began to lead the way, but King turned to look at his master. His expression seemed to implore Brady to come along. “Don’t worry about him, King. I already asked him, but he doesn’t want to come in. He likes sitting in cars in the dark. Let’s go.”
Turning on her heel, she started to walk back to her house. After a moment’s hesitation King followed her willingly.
She probably had treats in her pocket, Brady thought darkly. Patience was forever doling them out to the dogs she treated. Disgusted at being abandoned, he leaned out the window and called, “That’s bribery.”
She looked at him over her shoulder. Even at this distance, her expression looked purely impish to him. “Yes, it is.”
With a sigh, Brady got out of his car and shut the door. He made no effort to catch up to the duo. Instead he followed behind the clearly smitten animal and the woman who had made him give up his evening routine.
Not that it was any great sacrifice on his part. Evenings for Brady meant heating up whatever he found in the refrigerator, then stretching out in front of the television set, tuned to some news channel so that he could stay informed.
Law enforcement had advanced a long way from making sure the town drunk was locked up for the night. It had even progressed beyond the thieves, the drug pushers, the murderers, kidnappers and rapists that were all a part of the modern world. Now there was an international threat to be on the alert for, as well.
It never seemed to stop.
However, tonight the world had gotten a great deal smaller again and his focus was concentrated on the woman walking into the house, adoringly followed by his four-footed partner.
Entering the house, he followed woman and beast into a kitchen that was both warm and cozy. Something out of a sitcom, he thought, because it certainly wasn’t out of anything he’d ever experienced firsthand. He remembered hearing somewhere that the kitchen was the heart of the house. In his house, the kitchen had been where his father liked to do his drinking when he wasn’t throwing back shots at the local bar.
Brady watched as King followed every move Patience made. He liked her hair down, he noted, instead of up and out of the way. He hadn’t realized it was so long. The tresses moved with her like a strawberry-blond cloud.
He straddled a chair. “You know, he’s not supposed to do that. Divide his loyalties that way.” He gave King a dark look. “He’s supposed to respond only to me.”
Patience tossed the dog a treat out of her pocket. King stretched, catching the bone-shaped snack in midair. “Don’t feel bad, I have this way with animals, I always have. That’s why I became a vet when everyone else around me was cleaving to the Aurora Police Department.” And then she smiled, which Brady found oddly unsettling. “I promise I won’t get between you two unless absolutely necessary.”
He gave her a penetrating look. “And this was necessary.”
“Absolutely.” Taking the coffeepot she always kept brewing, she poured Brady a cup, then filled her own. Just talking to Brady made her feel better. “I didn’t want your butt falling asleep because of me.”
“No part of me was going to fall asleep,” he informed her tersely. When she reached for the sugar, he shook his head. He took his coffee the way he took his view of life: black.
“It would if you sat out there long enough.” Reaching into the cupboard, she took down two small plates. “Just how long were you planning on staying there?”
He tried not to notice how tight her body was when she stretched. “Not long.”
She shook her head. Opening the drawer beneath the counter, she took out two forks and a long knife. “Like I said, you just don’t lie well. Look, Coltrane, I’m touched—”
“Most likely,” he said in a disparaging manner, which made her think that he meant the term in the old-fashioned sense, as in touched in the head, “but it’s my job to protect the citizens of Aurora and last time I looked, you were among