“I’ll stick around till they leave and then head out, if that’s okay.”

She met his eyes, nodded and then pulled the door open.

“Elsie. Thank goodness.” Seth Winters, one of the local police officers, had been in Wyatt’s graduating class. He was an overall good guy. Probably Wyatt’s favorite of the officers, so he was glad he was the one to respond. “When I got here earlier no one answered. I did a sweep of the area but wanted to check your house again.” He seemed to be visually scanning her for injuries. “You’re not hurt?”

“No, I’m okay. They got away, though, whoever broke in. Wyatt and I tried to chase them down, but...” She shrugged, as if to finish her sentence nonverbally.

Seth’s gaze swung to Wyatt, seeing him for the first time. His eyebrows rose. “What are you doing here?”

Suspicious because he was law enforcement and Wyatt had been first to the scene of a crime? Or was there something between him and Elsie? He couldn’t see the second working. Seth was a decent guy, nice, honest, honorable, the kind Elsie deserved. But somehow, Wyatt thought they would make a terrible couple.

“He heard on radio traffic and came to check on me.” She spoke up before he could, and while Wyatt didn’t feel like he wanted someone else fighting his battles for him, he appreciated the fact that Elsie was willing to stick up for him. And it helped to ease his mind a bit about her and Seth. If she was defending Wyatt, then chances were good she wasn’t falling for the other guy’s too-concerned demeanor.

“That so?”

“You accusing me of lying, Officer, or accusing Elsie?” He raised his eyebrows.

The other man didn’t justify Wyatt’s snark with a response, which he kind of appreciated. Instead he turned to Elsie.

“I’m going to send a team here to get fingerprints and see if any other material evidence was left behind.”

“No, you don’t have to do that,” Elsie said.

“Good idea,” Wyatt said over her. She turned to him and glared. He saw irritation and a warning to be quiet in her look.

“It’s procedure. After that, we can start a search for who it might have been and so on. It’s possible trace evidence was left that could help us identify—”

Elsie spoke up. “Do you have to investigate fingerprints and all of that if I don’t want you to?”

Wyatt looked at her in surprise, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Seth had done the same. Finally, something they could agree on.

“Why?” the officer asked.

Wyatt kept his mouth shut. Just watched Elsie. Waited. Kind of wanted to pray for her to make the right choice, but getting back onto speaking terms with God after all the ways he’d messed up his life in the years previous was harder than he’d thought it would be.

Would God even listen to him?

Help her, he finally tried, sending the plea heavenward as he waited for whatever she would say.

“Tonight was awful,” she started, looking away from both of them and reaching down to pet her dog, who had settled at her feet. “But I think it was an isolated incident. I don’t want more people in my house combing over it, analyzing things that may or may not help us find whoever was responsible. It was probably a crime of opportunity.”

Wyatt stared at her. That was the opposite of what she’d admitted to him earlier.

Seth apparently didn’t notice the tension in her jaw, the way she was avoiding both their eyes. He continued, trying to explain typical protocol. “Fingerprints and further investigation are what we always do.”

“Can I waive my right to those? Turn them down?”

The officer sighed and Wyatt felt it down to his soul. “Yes.”

“I’d like to do that.”

Elsie smiled at Seth. “Thank you so much for being ready to investigate.” She turned to Wyatt. “And thank you for risking your life for someone you’ve barely talked to in years. I appreciate it more than I can say.”

Her tone clearly communicated that she was ready for them both to leave. They were being politely dismissed. Seth Winters opened his mouth, then shook his head and started to the door, clearly sensing that this was a losing battle.

“Wyatt...” Elsie said. He had a feeling she was about to kick him out a little more directly. Probably because she didn’t want him to call her out for the inconsistency in her story.

Before she could say anything further, he asked, “I, uh, could I use your bathroom before I leave?”

“Sure. It’s that way.” She motioned down a small hallway off the living room. Wyatt walked that direction, despite the fact that he didn’t need it. What he needed was to kill a bit of time until the police officer left so he could talk to Elsie alone.

When he came back into the living room a minute later, she raised her eyebrows at him.

“Did you really just want to wait till he’d left?” The corners of her mouth were tugging into a smile.

Wyatt shrugged. “Maybe. Listen, let me help you, at least. I get it if you don’t want police involved. That would be intrusive. But you admitted earlier that this might not have been random, and the place the guy left his boat tells me the same. Let me help you.”

“And you wouldn’t be intrusive?”

“I’m the lesser of two evils.”

“Bet no one’s ever said that about you before.”

He jerked his head up, half-offended, and realized she was joking. Teasing.

Certainly not flirting?

He didn’t know how he’d begin to process that. Elsie was the last woman he’d expect to flirt with him, and despite the fact that she was gorgeous, he would never want just a fling with her. He wasn’t that guy anymore, the one who didn’t take anything seriously and knew what to say to get a woman interested for the short term.

Besides, he wanted her to know that he meant his offer of help.

Maybe, though, he had messed up too badly to ever change the way people thought about him.

THREE

If anyone would have appreciated a little intentional flirting to distract from a stressful night, Elsie would have thought it was Wyatt.

Instead he’d either ignored her lighthearted teasing or seemed almost offended, if the tightness in his jaw and around his eyes was any indication.

Huh. First coming here to help her, with no ulterior motive that she could discern. Now refusing to flirt back. She thought he flirted with every woman he met. Maybe she didn’t know Wyatt at all. At least, not this Wyatt. Maybe time had changed him, and why not? It was unfair to assume that he was the same person he’d been in high school.

“Hey,” she tried again, “I really appreciate your willingness to help. And like I said, I’m really thankful you came over, but...”

“Yeah, you don’t want to pursue it. And I’m probably the last person whose help you would want.”

No arguments there. But not because he’d been a player in high school. That had been years ago. It was that she didn’t know him, didn’t want him intruding in her life any more than she wanted a police officer prying. Keeping in mind how tense he’d seemed when she’d tried to flirt with him, she wanted to reassure him and explain herself. But Elsie didn’t lie, not even to spare people’s feelings, so she kept her mouth closed.

“I’m glad you’re safe.” Wyatt walked to the door, looked back at her once and stared at her with an intensity that burned and warmed her at the same time. “Please be careful. I’m worried about you, Elsie.”