“Six-four. I grew another inch just last year. My uncle Aaron claims that most men don’t stop growing until their mid-twenties.” He shrugged. “Boys are stupid if they make fun of girls because they grow faster than us.”
“Oh, like you never made fun of your sister or cousins?” She nudged him on the leg, causing him to smile.
“Oh, I made fun of them plenty of times, but never about their height. I guess I always figured I’d eventually be taller than them. After all, it runs in the family.”
She chuckled and shook her head. “It must have been wonderful growing up with so many kids in the family.”
“At times, yes.” He was more interested in watching her than remembering all the good times growing up. “What about you?”
“As I’ve mentioned, our cousins didn’t live too far from us, but they were… well, boys.” She rolled her eyes and held in a chuckle.
He smiled. “You know, that’s one thing the Jordan clan never had issues with. The whole boys versus girls issue. I suppose it was my aunt Lacey’s doing. She insisted on showing us that anything a boy could do, she and any of the girls could do as well.”
“Even become Mayor?” Kara added.
“Especially that,” he added with a laugh. “Do you know, she’s been the best thing for Pride. The budget has been balanced every year she’s been in office, and the growth of the town has been on a steady incline. We aren’t losing businesses like some other small towns.”
“Speaking of that.” Kara pushed her empty bowl away. “I meant to tell you that I can officially say it was Thomas Carson who bumped into me a few weeks ago and posed as a lawyer.”
He tensed. “It was? How do you know?”
“I pulled up a picture from the C&C Investment website.”
“Okay, so, what? Pose as a lawyer to…” He shook his head trying to run over the reasons. “I don’t get it.”
“Neither did we. Robin thinks he’s wanting to do a time-share scam in Pride. You know, build a bunch of condos and a resort and then sell them off to multiple people who only get to visit one week out of the year. Half the time the place sits empty because people don’t travel or decide to go somewhere else.”
“Time shares aren’t really scams. I mean, legally they’re allowed,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, I get that, but in Pride?” She shook her head. “I just can’t see it.”
“Okay, let’s set that aside for a moment. The real question that we should be asking is why he was snooping around your land, posing as a lawyer? Has he come back since then?”
“No.” She shook her head and tucked one of her legs underneath her as she sipped her wine. “You don’t think that was him in the truck, do you?”
He thought about it, about what Aiden had told him about the man and shook his head. “From what I’ve heard, Carson doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. Most likely, he’s hired someone. Which is why I’m surprised he was the one to stop by and talk to you himself. It just doesn’t add up. The last my uncle heard from the guy, he was sniffing around some land out by the state park.” He thought about it, then decided that he didn’t want the rest of his time with Kara to be spoiled. “What do you say we take the wine and brownies I bought over to the sofa and watch a movie, then neck a little,” he said with a grin.
She chuckled. “I like that idea.” Just as they got up to move over to the sofa, her cell phone rang.
“It’s Robin,” she said with a frown. “I… didn’t call her when I got here.” She answered it and stepped into the bedroom for some privacy. From what he could gather, her sister was upset at what had happened.
Since he had time, he called Aiden to get an update.
“Any updates?” he asked when Aiden answered.
“No,” Aiden answered with a sigh. “We’ve been all over Pride and short of a few tire marks in the snow, haven’t spotted anything. They could be on the other side of Edgeview by now. But we’ll keep looking.”
“Good. Hey…” He glanced towards the bedroom door. “Just another update. Kara told me that Carson paid her a visit two weeks ago. He posed as a lawyer with a client interested in purchasing their land.”
“Seriously?” Aiden said. “When was this?”
Conner thought about it and gave him the date. “Kara said it was during one of the events at the barn and that she’d run into him on the pathway between the cottage and the venue.” He walked over to look out over the snow-covered town and saw a patrol car drive slowly by. Everyone in town had pretty much called it a night at this point. Even Patty had left to go home, leaving the store beneath his feet dark. Only the streetlights and the patrol car showed life outside his window. The snow was too thick to see a few feet past the last streetlamp or beyond the buildings.
“Guess we need to find out why he’s interested in their place now too. I’ll talk to Todd in the morning,” Aiden added.
“How’s construction on your place going?” Conner asked, changing the subject.
“Slow, now that the weather has come in. But they’re getting most of it done. Might be in it by Christmas. I heard you’ll be building up in Hidden Cove?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I might be in by next Christmas.”
“Well, until then, the apartment is a great place. I have fond memories of living there,” Aiden added.
“Yeah, I’m enjoying it so far.” He heard Kara get off the phone with her sister. “I’ll let you go. Thanks for checking things out tonight.”
“No problem. Oh, and you may want to make sure Kara stays off the streets at night.”
“Will do,” he added before hanging up.
“Did he just say I needed to stay off the streets at night, like I’m some sort of…?” Kara surprised him by being directly behind him.
He jumped a little and winced slightly. “Yeah, um, he didn’t mean…”
“He makes it sound like I was…” She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Listen.” He touched her shoulders and pulled her closer. “Aiden didn’t mean it like that. Trust me. He’s not the smoothest guy I know. I have no idea what Suzie sees in him,” he said with a smile.
Kara’s eyes narrowed. “Then you must be blind. Outside of his rude comments, he’s one of the sexiest men in Pride.”
Conner’s eyebrows shot up as his eyes narrowed. “Oh?”
Kara smiled slightly. “Sure. I mean, if a woman likes the tall, dark, broody, sex-in-a-uniform type.” She shrugged slightly and tilted her head, as if she were thinking about something. “I mean, if he wasn’t a married man…”
“You’d what?” he asked, feeling his defenses go up.
She chuckled. “I’d probably bash his head in after the statement he just made. He made it seem like I was a…” She dropped off again and he waited.
“A what?” he teased.
She narrowed her eyes at him again. “You know what,” she almost hissed.
He laughed and pulled her into a hug.