Page 122 of Help Wanted

“So what do we do now?” she asked.

“Do you want to get out of here?”

He kissed her again, in case there were any questions, and then she whispered in his ear, “I thought you’d never ask.”

They were officially in love. He’d told her and she’d said it back. They’d both survived the ordeal.

It didn’t matter how he’d gotten there. He was on the right track now.

* * *

Zane will be home tomorrow, Kenley told herself as she trudged in to work Wednesday morning.

After the reunion they’d gone back to his house, where they’d stayed the rest of the night and all day Sunday. But Monday he had to go out to Ohio to meet with a few clients. She was counting down the hours until he returned.

She was in this new relationship with all her heart. She wasn’t holding back anything from fear. There were no guarantees in life, but she was going to live hers to the fullest.

She was thinking of the reunion with Zane when Officer Porter walked in. A genuine smile lit up her face at the sight of him. Now that there was no pressure of romantic involvement, she found Scott to be a great friend.

He always seemed to drop in to visit at the end of her shifts when Zane was out of town. She might have been irritated, but she knew Zane had probably asked this of his friend out of concern for her safety. She couldn’t be angry at him for caring about her.

“Officer.”

“It’s Scott.”

“You’re still wearing your uniform. I can’t tell.”

“I’m definitely here in the capacity of a friend right now. And I hope you’ll still want to be my friend when I leave.” At his words she noticed how nervous he appeared.

“Is it bad news? Is Zane okay?”

“I’m sure he’s fine. It’s not that. And I don’t think it’s bad, or I would have just kept it to myself.”

He sat down on the guest chair across from her desk and took off his hat.

“I did a stupid thing.” He let out a sigh, but didn’t say anything else.

“I’m going to guess there’s more to the story. If you want me to help, you’re going to have to tell me the stupid thing you did.”

“Remember when we were on the date to nowhere and you told me about how you were adopted?”

“Yeah.” Unease twisted her stomach.

“I offered to run your DNA to see if it got any hits and you said you didn’t want to know.”

“Right.”

“Well, Kenley, I’m a cop who’s training to become a detective, and you were an unsolved case.”

“You didn’t.” She gasped.

“When I went through your house after the robbery, there was an empty soda can and well…” He winced. “I was supposed to pick a case from the files we were given, but I wanted to see if I could figure out yours.”

“And did you?”

He peeked up at her. “Do you want to know?”

“You said it wasn’t bad.”