Twice a Hero, Always Her Man Read online

  Had he offended her? Or maybe she felt that he was crowding her. Since she hadn’t called, he could only assume that it was one or the other, or possibly a combination of both.

  Then he opened his door and all his theories and suppositions were immediately placed on hold. It was as if she had materialized out of his thoughts and onto his doorstep. What really captivated his attention was what she appeared to be holding in her arms.

  At first it just looked like a mass of moving light tan fur mixed with shafts of white. But the very next moment it barked and the mystery of what she was holding was solved.

  Like an international call to attention, the bark also managed to instantly draw Heather to the door. The next moment, she was grinning from ear to ear.

  “Ellie, you’re here!” she exclaimed excitedly.

  “Bearing fur,” Colin observed wryly.

  “Actually,” Ellie said, doing her best to hold on to Pancakes, who was doing her very best not to be held on to, “I came to bring Heather a present.”

  Heather’s eyes suddenly widened to the point that they looked as if they were in danger of falling out. “That’s for me?” she cried, immediately assuming that her new best friend was referring to the dog that was just barely contained in her arms.

  Ellie turned toward Colin, who was still holding the door open like a conscientious sentry. “May I come in?” she asked him.

  “Sorry.” Realizing that he was standing there rigidly, Colin stepped back and opened his front door farther. “You took me by surprise,” he admitted by way of an excuse.

  “This was all very spur-of-the-moment,” Ellie said, indicating the puppy she’d brought over. “I was shooting a segment at the local pet shelter today and this puppy—”

  Heather cut in. “We just saw it!” She pointed toward the TV monitor as if it would bear her out. “The duck was funny.”

  “The duck has serious issues,” Ellie cracked.

  Heather’s eyes never left the puppy that was frantically searching for a way to jump down, twisting and turning like an escape artist in a straitjacket. Not standing on ceremony, Heather began to pet the puppy’s head and was rewarded with a tongue bath on her hand. Heather giggled.

  “Is this the puppy you were holding on the show?” she asked eagerly.

  “The puppy I was trying to hold on the show,” Ellie corrected.

  “Did they give him to you?” Heather asked.

  Ellie laughed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the smile that came to the detective’s lips. She wasn’t sure if he was laughing at her or at the situation. For now she left it unexplored.

  “It’s a her,” she corrected. “And it was more like she just refused to let me leave once we stopped rolling.”

  “I guess it looks like you have a puppy, then,” Colin concluded as he joined his niece in petting the hyper animal.

  “What’s her name?” Heather asked.

  “Pancakes,” Ellie told her. “Don’t look at me,” she told Colin. “I had nothing to do with it. That’s the name she came with.”

  “And she’s yours?” Heather asked, still stroking the puppy.

  “Well, I paid her fees,” Ellie said, transferring the puppy from her arms to Heather’s. “But she’s not exactly mine,” she continued. When both Heather and her uncle looked at her for an explanation, Ellie told them, “I’m not home long enough to give this dog the proper attention.” She kept her gaze on Heather, deliberately avoiding making eye contact with Colin for the time being. “I thought that maybe you’d like to have a pet.”

  Heather looked so happy that for a second she looked as if she was about to burst. “You’re giving Pancakes to me?” she cried, barely able to contain her joy.

  Ellie glanced toward the detective. She knew this was a roundabout and underhanded way of doing this, but she was rather desperate. “If it’s okay with your uncle,” she qualified.

  Heather instantly turned her expressive green eyes on her uncle. “Please, Uncle Colin?” the girl pleaded. “Please?”

  As if to reinforce her new would-be owner’s pleas, the puppy began to madly lick Colin’s face.

  Laughing, Colin held the dog at arm’s length before telling his niece, “You’re going to be the one responsible for this bundle of fur.”

  “Absolutely!” Heather vowed.

  Colin wasn’t finished. “You’ll have to walk her, feed her, make sure she stays off the furniture—and doesn’t chew the furniture,” he emphasized, pulling the puppy away from the corner of the sofa that Pancakes had begun to attack. The puppy was clearly teething.

  “Yes, yes, yes,” Heather answered each question with enthusiasm. She scooped the puppy back up into her arms, giggling as she felt her neck being licked. “So I can keep her?”

  “For now,” Colin warned. “But if you fall down on the job, if you start forgetting to feed her, to play with her, she’s going to have to go back.”

  “To the shelter?” Heather cried, obviously stunned that her uncle could be that strict, even though it was a known fact, one that Ellie had emphasized in her story, that the shelter had a no-kill policy no matter how crowded it became.

  “No, to the news reporter who brought her,” Colin told her, glancing at Ellie.

  Ellie put her arm around the girl’s shoulders, giving her a light squeeze. “I’m sure that she’ll do an excellent job, won’t you, Heather?” she asked, looking down at the preteen.

  “I will, oh, I will,” Heather promised keenly.

  “If you’re interested,” Ellie told both Colin and his niece, “Pancakes has had all her shots.” She opened her messenger bag and took out several sheets of paper documenting the puppy’s care and the shots she’d received. “Here’s her health history and her license. She’s all paid up for a year.”

  Colin took the papers from her and placed them on the counter. “And you’re not keeping her because—?”

  “I don’t have enough time to properly take care of her.” She looked at the bundle of love on four paws. “It’s a shame and I wish I did, but it just wouldn’t be fair to Pancakes to keep her locked up all day when I’m away, working.”

  Still holding the puppy in her arms, Heather was being rewarded with a bath of what she referred to as “doggy kisses.” She looked, Colin noted, as if she’d died and gone to heaven.

  “You can come visit her anytime you want,” she told Ellie.

  She appreciated the invitation, but there was something else to consider. “I think that might be up to your uncle, honey.”

  Both Heather and Ellie stared in his direction.

  On the spot, Colin saw no reason to put up any obstacles. When he came right down to it, he welcomed an excuse to see the sexy reporter more often. She was really beginning to intrigue him—and it was obvious that Heather idolized her. She’d managed to get to his niece the way he hadn’t been able to in six months.

  “Sure, why not?” he said.

  “Okay,” Ellie said, nodding, “I’ll take you up on that sometime.” About to leave, she suddenly remembered what had been behind this visit in the very first place. “Oh, by the way, I almost forgot. I loved the flowers.”

  “So you did get them. Good.”

  She felt she owed him an explanation as to why she’d been so remiss expressing her thanks. “They arrived just as I had to go do the animal-shelter story, so I didn’t have an opportunity to call you. You didn’t have to send them,” she added.

  “And you didn’t have to stay as long as you did Saturday, or prepare dinner,” he told her.

  Ellie nodded. “I guess then we’re even.”

  He glanced at the puppy that seemed to be all teeth and paws as she climbed up Heather’s arm. The puppy was like the very personification of trouble.

  “Oh, I don’t know about that,” Co
lin speculated, then laughed. “I think the balance might be just a little off in this case.”

  Ellie inclined her head, unaware that her smile had managed to captivate the detective. “Maybe you’re right. I’ll pay for any initial damages,” she offered.

  He nodded. “That would be a start.” And then he changed the subject. “Have you had dinner yet?”

  “No, I came straight here from the shoot with the dog.”

  “You have plans for dinner?” Colin asked.

  “Chewing it,” she responded. Heather giggled.

  “How about if you do that chewing here?” Colin nodded at the puppy. “You might be in good company for that.”

  “Are you inviting me to dinner?” Ellie asked him.

  His smile was slow and all the more sensual because it took its time. “Apparently.”

  “Then yes,” she said as if she actually had a choice rather than finding herself held in place by that smile on his lips, “I’ll stay.”

  The dog yipped even as Heather cried, “Yay!”

  Colin nodded. “I guess it’s unanimous, then,” he told Ellie as he turned to walk into the kitchen. “Hope you’re not starving,” he added. “This might take a while.”

  Chapter Nine

  “What are you making for dinner?” Ellie asked, following him into the kitchen. “Maybe I can help.”

  Colin removed a flyer he’d mounted on the refrigerator before turning round to face her.

  “No, I’ve got it covered,” he said, holding up the flyer. “Dialing the phone is pretty much a one-person activity.”

  “You’re calling for takeout?” she asked him in surprise.

  “Yes. Pizza,” he specified. “Why? What’d you think?”

  “Well, I thought you meant that you were going to cook it since you said it was going to take a while,” Ellie answered.

  “So does delivery after I make the call,” he pointed out.

  She debated just bowing out and letting him make his call. It was the simplest thing to do. But since he’d extended an invitation to her, she felt almost obligated to help out.

  “Is your heart set on pizza?” she asked.

  “Not particularly, but the wait time for pizza is the shortest and there’s a Pizza King’s less than a mile away,” he pointed out, indicating the flyer in his hand.

  Ellie moved past him and opened his refrigerator. She did a quick inventory of its contents—not exactly teeming, but not barren, either—then moved on to his rather limited pantry. That was relatively barren except for an unopened container of flavored bread crumbs and a few miscellaneous spices, origin unknown.

  “Give me a few minutes,” she told him. Then, looking up because she sensed he hadn’t moved an inch, she said, “Go play with the puppy.”

  “What are you going to do?” he asked. The way he saw it, there wasn’t very much to work with in either the refrigerator or the pantry. Just exactly what did she have in mind?

  Ellie merely smiled and answered, “Make magic. Now go. Magic doesn’t happen if you’re watching for it.”

  Colin shook his head. The woman didn’t look it at first, but she really was rather stubborn.

  “Whatever you say. You change your mind and want to bail, here’s the number of the pizza place,” Colin told her, returning the flyer to the refrigerator and securing it with a magnet one of the real estate brokers had left on his doorstep.

  “I won’t be needing it,” Ellie told him, pushing up her sleeves.

  He had to admit he was enjoying this. “You sound very sure of yourself.”

  She spared him one last look before she shooed him out of the kitchen. “I am. Now go watch your niece play with the puppy.”

  He had no recourse but to do as she said.

  * * *

  “This was in my refrigerator?” Colin questioned less than half an hour later as he sat at the table with his niece and Ellie.

  For the puppy’s part, Pancakes had assumed an alert position between him and Heather, waiting for something to fall on the floor by either accident or design. Gifted with a strong sense of smell, as all dogs were, the puppy was already salivating.

  “And your pantry,” Ellie added. “In rough form,” she allowed, “but it was definitely there.”

  “And what’s this we’re eating called again?” he asked.

  “She said it was a frittata,” Heather told him with the confidence of youth.

  He got a kick out of the knowing way she’d answered him. “Oh, and you know what that is.”

  “Sure.” She turned toward Ellie with a smile. “It’s what we’re eating, right, Ellie?”

  “You’re supposed to call her Ms. King,” Colin corrected his niece.

  Ellie had never been a stickler for formality and this whole evening was anything but formal. “I think we’ve come to the point where she can call me Ellie,” the reporter told him. “And for the record, you can make a frittata as long as you have a few eggs and bread crumbs. The rest of the ingredients are really dealer’s choice. You mix together a little meat, a few chopped-up vegetables, add in a little salt, a little cheese, maybe some mustard and you really can’t mess things up. The ingredients kind of take care of each other.”

  “This is really good,” Heather enthused. The girl looked hopefully at her new idol. “Can you teach me how to make it?”

  “Anytime,” Ellie told her.

  Colin had eaten his first portion with gusto. A second helping gave him more time to actually examine what it was he was putting into his mouth.

  “This is kind of like an omelet,” Colin said after a moment.

  “I’d prefer to think of it as an omelet’s second cousin once removed,” Ellie interjected. “It’s in the family and related, but really not the same thing,” she qualified.

  “Where’d you learn how to make that?” Heather asked.

  The answer came out before Ellie could stop the words or think to rechannel them into something less telling. Something that didn’t open up a door that was supposed to remain shut.

  “My husband taught me.”

  Colin and Heather both looked at her sharply, and Heather was the first to speak. “You’re married?” she asked, appearing to soak up information about her role model like a sponge.

  “I was,” Ellie answered quietly, her trademark sunniness temporarily missing.

  Colin continued staring at her, his attention caught by her subdued voice. Something distant stirred in his head and then the next moment, it faded into the background before he could snare it long enough to examine it.

  “What happened?” Heather asked.

  “Heather, that’s not any of our business,” Colin rebuked her.

  But it was yours, Ellie thought, eyeing the detective.

  Out loud she told Heather, “He died trying to defend some people.”

  There was an enormous amount of compassion and sympathy in the young face as Heather looked at her. “Was he a policeman like Uncle Colin?”

  “No, he was a Marine,” Ellie told her. “Anyone for seconds?” she asked, abruptly changing the subject and her tone of voice, going from somber to cheerful although she had to force the latter.

  Heather pushed her plate forward. “Yes, please.” And then she added in a lower voice, “I gave some of the frittata to Pancakes.”

  “I had a feeling,” Ellie told her with a knowing nod. “You?” she asked, turning toward Colin.

  “Sure, why not?” Colin responded gamely.

  While she’d had to mix together a potpourri of ingredients for the main course, there was no lack for dessert. Olga had brought over a cherry pie last night and over half of it was still in the pie tin, waiting on their pleasure.

  “Is Olga a relative?” Ellie asked, curious as to t
he dynamics that were involved since he’d already told her that the neighbor could be called upon to stay with Heather whenever he had to take off on a case. Apparently, the woman also seemed to be in the habit of dropping off baked goods and main courses, as well.

  “No,” Colin told her, getting three dessert plates. Ellie took out three forks and one large knife. “Just a good neighbor.”

  “Uh-huh.” She presented Colin with the knife, leaving the portion size up to him. “How old is this good neighbor?” Ellie asked.

  “Why?” After cutting what was left in half, he divided that up into thirds.

  Ellie shrugged. “Well, I wouldn’t want the woman thinking that I’m trying to muscle in on her territory,” she said.

  “Oh no, Olga doesn’t think like that,” Heather assured her before her uncle could say anything. “Besides, Olga’s really, really old.”

  Ellie laughed at the emphasis in Heather’s voice. She could distinctly remember being that young only a little while ago. “What’s old to you?” she asked, then took a guess. “Forty?”

  Heather shook her head, sending the ends of her hair whipping about her face as if they’d been caught up in the wind. “No, even more than that.”

  “Olga’s like the grandmother I never had,” Colin clarified as the puppy all but ran up his side. “Although she does tend to move around rather quickly,” he added. There was admiration in his voice. “I thought she was retired until she told me that she worked for a housecleaning service. She offered to clean my place for free.”

  “Why?” Ellie asked, gazing around. “Your place looks pretty clean to me.”

  “That’s because Uncle Colin and I cleaned it up right after she said that,” Heather volunteered.

  Cherry-pie dessert consumed, the little girl was the first one down on the floor, lying flat on her back as her new pet walked along her stomach before losing her footing and falling off in a light tan heap.

  Rather than remain seated at the table, Colin joined his niece. He grinned now, listening to Heather’s delighted laugh as she played with Pancakes.