Her breath stuttered just a little bit, and when she pulled back from him, John saw it. Just a split second of fear and pain that she couldn’t hold back anymore.

She stepped back from John, one hand firmly on his shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she said in a clear, low voice.

“Ms. Trace,” the older detective said as he rose up from his seat at the table, his eyes bouncing back and forth between Mary and John. “I have everything I need from you right now. I’ll be in touch with you tomorrow.”

“Thank you so much for everything,” Mary said, stepping away from John and following the detective to her front door.

They exchanged words that John didn’t listen to. He was still fighting his way through a full-body buzz from where she’d tossed herself against him. Didn’t she know she was precious cargo? She shouldn’t go slamming herself into unexpected men, like a ship on the sea. He traced a hand down the line of his chin to his throat, where her hair had been pressed. That hair was a hell of a weapon. Nothing had ever felt better or more dangerous against him.

She appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, and his fog immediately receded, because those were tears in her eyes.

“Mary.”

“Oh, John,” she said with a shudder, crossing the room to him again. This time, he dropped his messenger bag aside and met her in the middle. His hand came to her hair as her nose pressed hard into his sternum. “It was so terrible.”

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

“Maybe later,” she whispered. She looked up at him then, and John’s heart stumbled. He’d been foolish to think that tears would dull Mary’s light. If anything, the high emotion on her face almost heightened it. It was like the sun catching droplets of rain from the side, each drop its own gorgeous prism.

He talked himself out of tracing away the teardrops with his thumbs. Too risky. “Are you all right?” He had to know.

“I’m okay. Just shaky. And exhausted. I barely slept last night anyway. And then as I was drifting off, I heard them—” She took a deep breath. “My bones feel like they weigh a hundred pounds.”

“You should take a nap. I could go out and bring back something for us to eat.” He was being presumptuous assuming he could stay with her for dinner, but she just nodded.

“Okay. Yeah.”

They separated from the hug and she took a few steps toward her bedroom. She paused and peered down the hallway. “Actually, I think I’ll come with you to get the food.”