At Close Range Read Online Free PDF Page B

breaking her easy smile, looped slender fingers over her friend’s wrist.
    Leeza ignored the message. “Mack, I’m sorry, aren’t you—”
    â€œLeeza,” Jeannie murmured in warning. Corrie tensed, waiting for Leeza to continue. Much as she, herself, might want to know about Mack, she didn’t want to put him on the spot.
    â€œI finished my plate, señoras. Can I have dessert now?” Juan Carlos interrupted.
    â€œLet’s see that plate,” Jeannie said, and with no more than a cursory glance, gave her opinion that dessert was in order. “But only after everyone helps clear these dishes.”
    Seven bodies bobbed up from the table and Leeza’s question faltered in the wake of so much clatter of dishes and silverware.
    Corrie hid a smile as little Analissa snatched Mack’s plate away mid-bite with a blithe “You’re done, right Señor Mack?” and a happy grin when he nodded, before she added confidentially, “I’ll be right back. You stay here, ’kay?”
    â€œOkay,” he said, wiping his mouth on one of the cotton napkins and nodding at the intent young face waiting for an answer from him.
    â€œRight here,” Analissa commanded.
    â€œJust for you, I’ll wait right in this very spot. Can I move while you’re gone?” A half smile playedaround his lips and Corrie could tell Analissa had melted the frost in his eyes.
    The little girl nodded solemnly. “But you can’t go away.”
    â€œI won’t,” he said.
    â€œPromise?”
    Corrie frowned when he hesitated. What possible harm could it do to promise the little girl he’d be there when she got back? It would only take a matter of minutes while the kids deposited the dishes and brought in Rita’s amazing anise-flavored biscochitos and homemade ice cream.
    â€œPromise?” Analissa demanded. “You have to promise. And cross your heart.”
    â€œIf you hurry back, I’ll be here,” he said, and reached his hand out as if he would stroke the little girl’s hair. His hand hung there for a moment, then dropped back to his lap as if the child’s aura had burned him.
    Corrie’s breath tangled in her throat, both at the look of withdrawal in Mack’s gaze and at the lack of promise to the little girl. He’d agreed, but it had been a half promise at best, not the whole she’d asked for. Luckily, Analissa didn’t notice. She only beamed brightly, her partially toothy grin brightening the dining room as it always did. Before the child reached the door to the kitchen, she managed to lose most of the silverware on the two plates she smashed together, and chip at least one of those plates against the doorjamb.
    Leeza leaned forward again, having retrieved the errant silverware and handing them to Jeannie’sadopted daughter, who was indulgently smiling at Analissa. “Mack, aren’t you the one who—”
    Chance’s wineglass toppled into Leeza’s lap and he swore as he stood up, napkin in hand, and mopped up the wine. He apologized to the table at large for being every kind of a clumsy fool, then before a shocked Leeza could even remonstrate, he leaned down to say something in her ear before turning to kiss his wife soundly.
    To Corrie’s surprise, Leeza flushed and shot Mack an apologetic look.
    Corrie knew Chance wasn’t clumsy; his every move was measured and slow, calm and deliberate. The marshal had spilled his wine on purpose, stopping Leeza’s questioning of Mack.
    Why? What didn’t he want brought out at the Rancho Milagro dinner table? What did he know about Mack? How he acquired his terrible scars, what accident befell him?
    Why was Chance avoiding her eyes? Why did Mack appear so tense and stiff beside her? And why did her journalistic instincts rise so readily to the surface when she wasn’t working in the field anymore and never, ever wanted to