Dieter laughed. “Intriguing, huh? Is that code for she didn’t fall for your charms right away?”
“Suck it, asshole. I’m working on it, okay?”
“Okay. Fine. Do I know her? What’s her last name?” Dieter continued.
“Duncan,” Cisco revealed, “and although that doesn’t ring a bell, there’s something about her that’s weirdly familiar.”
“I’d think with your tech-guru connections at the station and with your SWAT team, you could have someone do a deep dive on her; find out exactly who she is,” Dieter suggested.
“That doesn’t seem creepy to you?” Cisco wouldn’t tell him he’d already pondered it about a hundred times.
“Nope. After all, you’ll be working with her, and she works with kids. You want to make sure the camp’s not just a front for something like a foreign child kidnapping ring. Does she have an accent?”
Cisco snorted. “Idiot. She inherited the camp from her grandmother, and her parents are local. She’s one of us.”
“Then how come we don’t know her? How old is she?” Dieter probed.
“Our age.” Cisco sighed. “But she said she went to private school, which is why we never ran into her.”
“I don’t know,” Dieter shook his head. “It sounds kind of fishy to me.”
Cisco voiced his thoughts out loud. “I thought so, too, especially because there’s something extra-prickly about her. When you ask questions about her past or her family, she closes up tighter than a sealed vault. It’s not like I think she’s lying or anything. It’s more like she’s…avoiding.”
“If anyone can get to the bottom of things, it’s you. I have faith, young padawan. And now, it’s past my bedtime.” He turned to go, then pivoted back. “If you’re up for it, maybe tomorrow night I can bring over some lobsters?”
“I’d like that.” Cisco answered with a smile. He never got to see enough of his best friend, and he was looking forward to remedying that with his new schedule.
Dieter slapped him on the back, which made Cisco draw in a hiss.
“Oops. Sorry,” he excused himself, but with a grin. The dick knew exactly what he’d done.
“Sure you are, asshole,” Cisco snorted. “You’d better watch out Diets. The next time one of those red-critters you harvest tries to take off your finger, I’m going to shake your hand until you cry like a pussy.”
Dieter laughed, then pulled open the door. “Right. I won’t hold my breath on that one.” His face grew serious for a moment. “You know I’ve missed you, dick-head. I’m glad you didn’t get dead.” He regained his cockiness. “Now look into that woman.”
With that parting advice, Dieter saluted, then whistled his way back to his truck.
“Look into that woman,” Cisco repeated in a murmur.
Yup. It was sound advice.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Hilly loved move-in day, and things couldn’t have gone more smoothly, at least with her new influx of kids.
As she lay in bed after the welcome-bonfire had long since been doused, she saw, in her mind’s eye, all the smiling faces of the campers. Even the ones who’d hung back with their parents at first, tearful and nervous about cutting those familial-strings, had seemed happy and relaxed by the time they’d been steered to their cabins for lights-out by their boisterous counselors.
Thinking about tomorrow—Tuesday—the first full day of camp, Hilly would normally be going over the entire day’s schedule in her head, but she couldn’t get past the fact that Cisco would be showing up sometime in the early afternoon, and it would be the first time she’d seen him since that kiss…
That epic kiss.
At least that’s what it had been for her.
And what had she done? She’d shut him down.
Sort of.
Hilly restlessly shifted to her side, punching her pillow.
What the hell was wrong with her? The best lip-lock of her life, and she’d basically told Cisco to take a hike until the end of the season. Which had killed her. But how had it affected him? For a guy like Cisco, getting pretty-much rejected, had to be a first. With that cheerful grin he always kept plastered on his handsome face, Hilly was certain he attracted women like badgers to honey. But…
As much as she wanted him, she refused to be a badger.
So, she’d put him off; told him they couldn’t have anything going on over the summer. That he’d have to wait until the camp and her schedule cleared at the end of August. By that time, she figured, he would have found out who she was—who she’d been—and he’d either turn up his nose and run the other way, or he’d go the pity-route and offer up a few charity-dates before jettisoning her sorry ass.
Hilly didn’t like either of those options, but Cisco making fast tracks away from her—not dragging out his rejection—would really be preferable. Which brought her full circle to thinking she should just tell him who she really was, and let him skitter back into the woodwork; no harm, no foul.
Right. Not happening. Can anyone say starry-eyed and chicken-shit?
Hilly sighed, rolling to her back once again to stare at the shadows moving across her ceiling that were cast by the night’s nearly full moon. She let her anger take hold. Why had she been blindsided with this when she’d worked long and hard making a solitary, comfortable life for herself? Why couldn’t Chief Ildavorg have sent a complete stranger, or a female cop to run the self-defense courses? What kind of mean-assed fate had stepped in so that now, twice a week, she’d be face to face with a guy on whom she’d crushed nearly twenty-years earlier?
The sucky kind of fate, that’s what kind.
Hilly rolled her shoulders, then brought her arms out from between the sheets to smooth annoyingly at her quilted comforter, plucking at the stitching and tufts with agitated fingers.
Dammit. She needed to settle and get some shut-eye.
Enough of feeling sorry for herself.
