Page 67 of Backtrack

He gave her a wan smile, brow up. “So, you’re thinking about your ex at this moment?”

“Not at all,” she said. “Honestly I was thinking about you.”

“And how I remind you of your ex-husband?”

“No!” She pushed a strand of windblown hair out of her face. “Except for the gunfighter hyperawareness stuff.”

“He’s in law enforcement?”

“Who?” She looked over her shoulder at Hoodie Guy. “Him?”

“Your ex.”

“Oh yeah,” she said. “He’s got the whole big-iron-on-his-hip ethos.”

“Like the Marty Robbins song about the Arizona Ranger?”

“Exactly like that,” she said.

“So … he’s in Arizona, this ex of yours?”

“Alaska,” she said.

“Ah.” Steve glanced over his shoulder, like he was expecting someone. “It all makes sense now. You’re going up to visit him …”

“Oh, hell no,” she said. “Not in a million years … I mean, Arliss Cutter is a good guy, but I haven’t seen him in … almost a decade.”

“Cutter,” Steve mused. “You kept his name.”

“A lot of women don’t change back to their maiden name,” she said. “It’s not worth the hassle.”

“But youaregoing to Alaska,” Steve said. “You have to be meeting up with him.”

“Nope,” she said. She was about to decide this guy wasn’t so perfect after all when he stopped walking.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m not very good at jokey banter. I told you, I’ve been out of the dating game for … well, forever.”

“It’s all good.” She laughed again, resigned. “From the outside looking in, I guess it does seem like I’ve still got a thing for him, but I swear, I’ve moved on and so has he. Anyway, he always had a thing for his brother’s wife.”

“I’m sure there’s a story behind that.”

“It was tragic, really,” she said. “Fact is, I’m pretty sure he married me because I look like her. Sounds weird when I say it out loud.”

A gust of wind hit them as they walked past the stairs leading up to an over-water slide, bringing with it the noxious odor of engine exhaust from the stacks. They picked up their pace.

“He wouldn’t like me,” Steve said ten steps later when they were breathing clear air again.

“Are you kidding me? You’re part of his tribe.”

They made the turn left under a covered portion of the deck that housed a hamburger joint that was only open during lunch, then popped out on the other side to turn aft, making their way down the port side of the ship.

Steve stopped at the rail and looked up at the stars. “I’m with my agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility, one of those Internal Affairs rats you hear about on TV. The cop who’s always jamming up other cops. You know, the one who has no loyalty to thethin blue line.”

“You don’t know Arliss,” Joellen said. “He would be fine with that. The man’s got this unbendable code. Won’t accept so much as a free cup of coffee.”

“Someone raised him well,” Steve said, his words ripped away by the wind.

He stopped walking. For a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her. Instead, he leaned against the railing and peered down at the ocean.