Page 29 of Dragon Charmed

Ben opened the door to the coffee shop, which was quickly becoming their de facto meeting place. Tessa had texted him last night. Said she had found some information on Mia’s foster mom, and they had agreed to meet for coffee the next morning. It was as good a place as any since he didn’t have an office, being a fictitious PI and all, and he wasn’t going to invite her back to his semi-run-down motel.

He stood next to the window waiting for her. Whenever he was near her, her energy surrounded him. Even her texts made him smile. She was a force of nature. He wasn’t sure why she felt the need to work with him behind John Baker’s back. Or rather to work with who she thought was John’s PI behind his back. What was her relationship to John? How much longer could Ben continue this charade with her? And what about the real PI? What was he or she doing right now to find Mia White?

Lost in thought, he’d missed Tessa walking across the parking lot. When she came into the shop, he froze in place instead of moving toward her. She glared at him, and her denim-blue eyes held something he didn’t like—wariness? Or more like suspicion. Shit. Maybe his charade was over already.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

“Who are you?” she blurted.

And there it was—the question he couldn’t answer. “I’m sorry?”

“You told me that you weren’t online, so I wasn’t surprised when I couldn’t find anything. But then I tried to find you on the Tennessee website for PI licenses, and you weren’t there.”

Okay. This he could work with. Thank the Fates Larry had prepared him. He held up his hands in front of him. “I can see why that would confuse you. I should have figured out you would look me up.” He smiled at her, but instead of reassuring her as he hoped, she glared at him some more. “I used to live in Mississippi, which is one of the few states that don’t require a PI license. I recently moved to Tennessee and am in the process of getting a license. You have to take an exam and complete several other things before you can be issued your license here.”

She crossed her arms. “So it’s not illegal to work here without a license?”

He shrugged, trying an aw-shucks expression even though his heart beat like a snare drum. “It’s a bit iffy, to be honest. But I’ll be legal in the state as soon as I can get everything righted around.”

She stared at him as if she was trying to read his mind, or possibly his sincerity? She pulled out her phone and typed on the screen. And the snare drum morphed into a bass drum that thumped in his chest. Could she hear it? After a few more awkward moments while she searched on something—he assumed Mississippi’s PI rules—she relaxed her serious expression and nodded.

Ben sucked in some air and nodded back since he was counting his damn lucky stars that she had bought what he had to say. Which made him happy. And guilty. He was lying to her, and at some point that would come back to bite him in the ass.

But until he knew who he was, he had to continue his search. They grabbed a table and sat in a corner booth. Tessa opened her shoulder bag and pulled out a couple of papers. “So I spoke to my friend last night and asked her if she knew who Evelyn was. She didn’t but she had the brilliant idea to check a book that Mia had written to see if she had mentioned her in the acknowledgments and she had. Evelyn Turner.” Tessa patted the papers. “Evelyn Turner was a foster mom for almost twenty years to numerous kids. Her address matches what Alisha told us about her. Evelyn doesn’t have a social media presence, so I don’t have any pictures of her.”

Ben set down his coffee and reached for the papers and scanned them. “How did you get this info so quickly?”

“I have a friend who is good with computers.” She tilted her head. “I didn’t step on your PI toes, did I?”

Considering he’d had to have a twelve-year-old school him at the library the other day regarding computers, he wasn’t going to complain. “Not at all. I’ll take help whenever I can. My PI ego can take it.”

She smiled at him, and he almost swallowed his tongue and his heart started malfunctioning again. She was heart-stopping-and-needing-CPR breathtaking.

“…freshing.”

She stopped talking as if waiting for a response. He’d missed most of what she’d said. What the hell did freshing mean? His ears hadn’t been working with his heart stopping and all that.

“Sorry, what?”

“I said it’s refreshing. That you don’t let ego get in the way, I mean.”

He shrugged. “Why would I? You’ve helped a lot so far. You could argue that I’m along for the ride.”

Hell, why had he said that? Tessa stared at him as if he was a puzzle she was trying to figure out. She might leave him behind if she didn’t feel he was contributing to this search, and where would that leave him? “I’m thinking we should pay a visit to Evelyn.”

Tessa set down her coffee cup. “Agreed. I think it’s better to ask her about Mia in person.”

“When can you go?” he blurted.

“It’s about a three-hour drive from here and it’s still early. Since it’s Saturday, I don’t have to work.”

And there went that smile of hers again. He didn’t have control over his heart anymore. Maybe he needed a pacemaker or one of those defibrillators to carry in his truck.

“I think it would make sense to pack a bag just in case.” He already had his duffel in the hidden compartment in his truck. He didn’t trust leaving his clothes, let alone the money, at the motel. Although carrying it around made him sweat.

“That makes sense. I assume you want to drive?”

The calculated look in her eyes made him wonder if this was a test. “You could drive, but honestly your car wouldn’t be too comfortable for me to fold into.”