Embrace the Highland Warrior by Anita Clenney Read Free Book Online Page B

didn’t go.”
    “Why not?”
    “You might feel fine now, but Leesburg is a two-hour drive. That’s four hours working the accelerator and brake on a sprained ankle. Not one of your better ideas.”
    “I’ll manage.”
    “No, you won’t.”
    “I’m going,” Shay said.
    He sighed. “Come on, then.”
    “I didn’t ask you to come.”
    “You don’t have a choice.”
    “You’re bossier than I remember.”
    “Too bad. Let’s get this over with.”
    “I’m going to shower first. Do I need your permission to do that?”
    “Not unless you need my help.”
    Shay shoved past him and tromped down the stairs. She stumbled only once, and he grabbed her before she could fall.
    “Stubborn,” he muttered.
    “Tyrant.”
    Shay showered and dressed in the same clothes. Cody pulled the truck around so she wouldn’t have to walk across to his house.
    “You look like you’re going to your execution,” Shay said.
    “If Renee sees me, it might be.”
    “You two used to get along.”
    “It’s a long story.”
    “Care to explain?”
    “No.”
    He didn’t explain about Renee, but they talked as they rode, catching up on things from the past nine years, avoiding the touchy topics like fake parents and lies and letters and other things that couldn’t be mentioned, which was like tiptoeing around the Grand Canyon. They grabbed a late lunch from a drive-through and arrived at the shop late afternoon.
    “Her car isn’t here,” Shay said. “This is odd. She was expecting me.” She pulled the key from her purse. “Are you coming in?”
    He grimaced and got out.
    Shay’s luggage was sitting outside the back door, where she had instructed the airline to leave it. “Let’s try the apartment first.”
    “She hasn’t been here for a few days,” Cody said, after they looked around the apartment.
    “How do you know, Sherlock?”
    Cody opened the refrigerator. “Observe, Watson. The milk’s almost full, but past its expiration date. We passed a neighbor pulling his trash can off the street. Trash must have been picked up yesterday.” He sniffed. “Hers hasn’t been put out. I noticed mail sticking out of the mailbox outside too.”
    “It looks like she just walked off. Why would she do that when she knew I was coming?”
    “Did she have business that could have called her away?”
    “She travels a lot, and she’s always meeting up with some new hot guy and taking off.”
    “How about you?” Cody asked quietly. “Do you ever run off with some new hot guy?”
    “No. That’s Renee’s thing, not mine.” Shay couldn’t even commit to a decent, honest, hot guy who wanted to marry her. What would she do with a new one? “She kept complaining about a new client who’s kept her busy. She didn’t like him.”
    Cody stopped to look at a coat hanging on a rack by the door. He frowned. “You got a phone number for him?”
    “No, the client database is separate for the shop in Scotland and this one.”
    “What about her parents? Where are they?”
    “Florida. They left right before I moved in with Renee. I’ll try them.”
    “Let’s check her workroom, and then we can check the store. I’d like to see her files.”
    “It isn’t locked,” Shay said as she opened the door.
    Cody looked at pieces lying haphazardly around Renee’s workroom, mostly chairs and cans of varnish, brushes, and paint. “Looks like the place was trashed.”
    “It always looks like this. The store’s neat, but this place is a mess. What are you doing?”
    Cody had bent and was touching something on the floor. “Nothing.”
    As she turned away, she saw him sniff his finger. What was he looking for? He moved about the room, padding lightly from spot to spot, stopping occasionally to examine something. His expression was intent, fully focused. There was something about the way he moved, a gracefulness that surrounded all those muscles, that left her in awe. He’d always had it, even when he was young. She’d tried to emulate