He let his gaze wander over her, didn’t hide what he was thinking. He wanted this woman. And tonight he planned to have her.

“I’ll . . . umm . . . see you at seven,” Ellie said with a hitch in her voice that told him she’d received his message loud and clear.

Arousal heated Kade’s blood. If he had his way, he’d cancel their plans for the evening and haul her directly upstairs.

It wasn’t going to happen. He wanted Heather’s killer even more than he wanted hot, erotic sex with Ellie Bowman.

But not by much.

The Elkhorn was just getting wound up when they arrived. It was a country bar at the end of Main Street, a log building with pine ceilings, walls, and tables. Even the top of the long bar was made from a slab of ponderosa pine, varnished to a glossy sheen.

Kade escorted Ellie to one of the wooden bar stools, and she climbed up on the brown-leather seat. She’d hung her coat on the rack beside the door, and he had hung his sheepskin jacket beside it. Underneath, she wore a short denim skirt with her boots, showing off her pretty legs, and a white sweater cut low enough to reveal the soft mounds of her breasts and the deep cleavage in between.

Looking at her made his mouth water.

A buxom blonde sauntered toward them behind the bar. Maisie Gaines was a few years older than Kade, a good-looking woman he had known for years. He’d slept with her a few times the year after Heather had left, but the sparks just weren’t there. They decided they made better friends than lovers, and Kade considered Maisie as good a friend as he had in Coffee Springs.

“Well, look who the cat dragged in,” Maisie drawled in a voice that sounded like the smoker she had been when she was a kid. Her eyes slid over him in a more than friendly manner, but it was a game she played with all the men who came into the bar.

“Maisie, this is Ellie Bowman. She’s running our kitchen while Mabel is visiting family in Arizona. Ellie, this is Maisie Gaines. She owns the place.”

Maisie turned her shrewd gaze on Ellie. “Pleasure to meet you, Ellie.”

“You too, Maisie.” Ellie’s big green eyes were equally assessing. Kade had a hunch she was just as shrewd as Maisie. How a woman knew which particular lady a man had taken to bed he would never know, but clearly these two were reading each other perfectly.

“What are you drinking, darlin’?” Kade asked, hoping to move the situation in a different direction.

“Jack and Coke,” Ellie said.

Kade almost smiled. He’d bet it wasn’t her usual alcoholic beverage. But when in Rome . . .

“Make that two,” he said.