Twenty-Nine and a Half Reasons
Page 2

I glanced down at my skimpy pajamas. “And give Mildred, president of the Busybodies Club, something to talk about after she watches you kiss me goodbye? Yeah. I’ll walk you out.”
We stepped into a July sauna, Muffy bolting through the door in front of us.
“It’s gonna be another scorcher,” Joe said. “They say it’s the hottest, driest July on record.”
“Hmm.” I was too busy already missing him to care.
We waited for Muffy to do her business, stalling for more time together. Joe pointed to the house next door. He’d lived there while he was undercover, working as a mechanic and building evidence against Daniel Crocker so the state police could bust his statewide car parts ring. “Any news of who’s movin’ in?”
“Mildred says a family with five boys is moving in this week.”
“In that tiny house?”
“If Mildred says it’s true, it’s gospel.”
Joe shrugged. Even in the short time he’d lived there he knew nothing slipped by Mildred.
We finally reached his car, and he pulled me into a hug.
“You’re not doing undercover work this week, are you?” I looked up into his face to make sure he told the truth.
He smiled. He knew how much his job scared me. It had almost gotten him killed by the Henryetta crime ring. I had no idea if there had been any other near misses. He refused to tell me. “No, darlin’. Not this week.”
“You wouldn’t lie to me to make me feel better, would you?”
He kissed me lightly and murmured against my lips. “No, Rose. I swear I’ll never lie to you.”
“Good.” I gave his chest a light push. “Now go on before I drag you back into the house and lock you up.”
He lifted an eyebrow with a wicked look. “Are you going to tie me up?”
I titled my head. “Would you stay if I said yes?”
Laughing, Joe opened his car door. “My life was utterly boring before I met you, Rose Gardner.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing, Joe McAllister.” I shook my head. “I mean Simmons. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to your real last name. You’ll always be Joe McAllister to me.”
He sat in his front seat looking up at me, the beautiful brown of his eyes accented by scattered dark flecks. It still stung a little that Joe thought I might have been the extortionist and had kept up his cover for so long.
The sunlight caught his brown hair, enhancing his natural coppery highlights. I asked myself for the thousandth time why I wasn’t going with him. He was a good-looking man, all alone in the city. Any woman would kill to be with him. I was crazy. But I was also stubborn.
He grabbed my hand and rubbed the back of it with his thumb. “I don’t want to leave you like this with us rememberin’ the bad times.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t want you to go with us like this either.”
He scooted his seat back and pulled me in to sit on his lap.
“Joe!” I squealed.
“Let’s give Mildred something to talk about that will last all week.” He slipped his fingers into my hair and pulled my mouth to his, making me forget we’d been arguing. After a good half a minute he whispered against my lips, “We’d better stop before I take you back inside. I’m gonna be late as it is.”
I sucked his lip into my mouth and he groaned. I should have felt bad torturing him; instead, I took delight in the fact I had the power to do so.
“Maybe I’ll just rip your clothes off right here in the car.”
I grinned. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Darlin’, you keep kissing me like that and I make no guarantees.” His hand slid up under my shirt. I giggled as I tried to jump off his lap, but his arm around my waist kept me in place. He laughed, but the look in his eyes told me he wasn’t completely teasing.
I stared into his face, soaking in the memory, wanting it to last through the week. My breath sucked in with a familiar tingle in the back of my head—the warning a vision was coming on. My peripheral vision blacked out and then an image filled my sight. I was seeing through Joe’s eyes—my gift always showed me possible futures of whoever I was physically close to. This time, I was in an office, sitting at a desk, clenching my fist in anger. An older man stood in front of me. “It’s not personal, Joe. If you hadn’t broken the rules in Henryetta, the job would be yours.”
As the vision faded away, I said, “You’re not gonna get the job.” My head fully cleared and I groaned. I’d give anything if I could stop from blurting out whatever I saw in a vision. For some reason my second sight was connected directly to my big mouth, and that thoroughly annoying trait was what got me into most of my trouble.
The smile fell from his face.
“I didn’t know you were lookin’ for a new job, Joe.”
“It’s a transfer, Rose, and it’s not like it matters now.”
I wanted to ask where he wanted to be transferred to, but I knew it had to be closer to me. There’s no way he’d be looking for a job farther way. “You of all people know what I see doesn’t always come true. I saw myself dead. I saw you dead. We both lived. We changed it.”
He looked hopeful. “You really think I can change it?”
Why did I tell him that? “No. I’m sorry. The man said it was because you’d broke the rules in Henryetta.” Breaking the rules had been my fault. Joe had disobeyed orders and helped me escape from Daniel Crocker. He’d saved my life. “I’m sorry, Joe.”