Page 26 of Made of Steele
Questions were fired back at her. Of course they were. Not only had she been gone most of the day, but she loved Christmas and was willingly foregoing one of her favorite tasks. Still, she couldn’t respond. Wouldn’t respond.
She took the stairs to her room two at a time, like she was being chased by them as they’d done in childhood games on the farm where they’d all grown up. It wasn’t hard to imagine their looks of confusion, followed by a quick discussion of the reason she ran past. Far better to let them wonder about her than to let them see her mood and start grilling her until she spilled information she was sworn to keep quiet.
She opened the door to her room and stepped in, locking it behind her.No. No.If they came to check on her, that would really make them wonder what was going on. She twisted the lock again and dropped her purse on the dresser. She dug for her new deputy shield to hide it under her socks. She couldn’t risk anyone finding it. Not that her family would go through her purse, but it wasn’t unheard of to look for someone’s keys to move a car in the way.
When morning came, how could she lie to her family and get away with it? She sure wouldn’t invite her dad or grandad over. They’d see right through her.
Voices sounded through the wall from Mackenzie’s room. She was probably recording her podcast on faith and the Christian life for millennials. She basically talked about her life and how she overcame daily obstacles with her faith. If only Teagan could live her faith as completely as Mackenzie, but Teagan often fell short.
Sighing, she sank into the comfy armchair in the corner and ran her hands over the worn floral fabric. She’d gotten the chair from her gran, and they’d recovered it together in a color to match the soft blue on the walls of her room. Usually, Teagan felt cozy in the chair. Warm. Safe. Not tonight. Not after the encounter with Flag Pole. She hadn’t let on to Drew, but she was very concerned.
“Stop dwelling on it,” she muttered and opened her laptop to do a Google image search. She uploaded the best photo she’d taken of Flag Pole and waited as the search engine churned, looking for a match. Sure, Nick was doing the same thing with much more computing power, but she was too wired to sleep and had to do something constructive.
The photo returned quite a few matches. She took her time running through them. Nope. None of them were of their guy. Moving on, she entered Northwest Geo Instruments into the search engine and located their website. She checked the about page. A bust. Zero information about the owners or the person who founded or managed the company.
A soft knock sounded on the door. Company? Just what Teagan didn’t want tonight. Maybe she shouldn’t answer. No, she had to. Whoever was in the hall would see her light slipping under the door.
She closed her laptop and took a deep cleansing breath. “Come in.”
The door opened, and Mackenzie poked her head in. “You’re not stringing popcorn with the others?”
Teagan tapped her computer. “Doing some work.”
Dressed in a fuzzy red pajama top and plaid flannel bottoms, Mackenzie stepped into the room and closed the door. She crossed to Teagan’s bed and kicked off unicorn slippers, then folded her legs up under her. “Okay. What gives? It’s not unusual for you to be working, but whatisunusual is that you gave up a chance to do Christmas decorating and were AWOL for most of the day. You’re usually glued to your desk. Where’d you disappear to today and tonight?”
“Working on a client thing.” Teagan detected the near lie in her tone so Mackenzie had to have heard it too.
Mackenzie tilted her head and her hair slid over her shoulder. “Which client?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yeah, because you’re never vague. You’re more than willing to share details, so you’re holding something back, and I want to know what it is.”
“This one is private for now.”
“Hmm.” Mackenzie tapped the tiny cleft in her chin. “This have something to do with last night?”
Teagan couldn’t trust her voice so she shrugged.
“Okay, so it does.” Mackenzie eyed Teagan. “You’re an awful liar. Like everyone in the family. We were taught too well to always tell the truth.”
Memories of getting caught lying as a child came back, and Teagan shook her head. “Not that we didn’t try it growing up. But the punishment was far too great to do it often.”
“Then why are you trying to lie to me?”
Bingo. Right there. The question Teagan was trying to avoid. “I’m not. The opposite. I don’t want to lie to you, but I have to keep this to myself.”
“And you can’t tell me where you were tonight?”
“Okay fine. I went on a date.”
Mackenzie shot up. “You what? With who?”
“His name is Dylan. He works with the Conti brothers. We met this morning. I went over to the Conti’s warehouse to decide what I wanted to do about last night.” Nearly the truth—not the right name—and she’d officially met Drew at Clackamas County.
“And you went out with him just like that?” Mackenzie slid closer to Teagan. “There must be something extra special about this guy when no one has convinced you to date in ages.”
“He’s great,” she said and left it at that.
