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he entered the coffee shop, he looked around for Will Greenfield. But all he saw was Carrie Rand in a bright red suit, sitting in a booth. He frowned. He hadn’t planned on a breakfast alone with Carrie. The less time he spent with her the better everything would be.
    He considered returning to his room, but he’d agreed to breakfast. Reluctantly he walked over to the booth.
    Carrie glanced up and gasped. “Jim! You’re not wearing your uniform.”
    “No. I’m a civilian now,” he said.
    “But yesterday—” Carrie began.
    “Was my last day in the military. I was traveling and it was easier to do so in uniform. Where’s Will?”
    “Um, he had an emergency call he had to take. Please sit down, Jim. He should be back shortly.” Carrie signaled the waitress, who came to the table with a pot of coffee.
    “Here’s a hungry man,” Carrie said with a smile. “Please pour him some coffee and maybe he’ll be ready to order in a minute.”
    “I can order now, if you’re ready,” Jim said quietly.
    “We’ve already ordered. I asked our waitress to holdour order until you got here. Will said for us to go ahead and not wait for him.”
    “I’ll take two eggs over easy, bacon, wheat toast and a short stack of pancakes.”
    “You certainly seem to know your mind, Jim. Will likes that.”
    “It’s a habit the marines encourage,” Jim said with a nod.
    “I bet you were a fast learner, too,” Carrie said, hoping to see Jim smile. She was sure a smile would increase his handsome quotient tremendously. Which was pretty incredible since she’d thought his stern appearance would be hard to beat.
    Jim said, “Yeah.”
    He took a sip of his coffee. Then he noticed Carrie was drinking some kind of cola. “You don’t drink coffee?” he asked.
    “No. Diet Coke has caffeine, too. I drink it in the morning.”
    “I can see that in the summer, but in winter? Don’t you want something hot?”
    “If I feel cold, I drink hot tea,” Carrie admitted. “I’ve got all the stuff for hot tea at the office. Sometimes I drink it there.”
    Jim looked at Carrie, puzzling over her relationship with Will. If Will hadn’t shown how much he loved his wife and son, Jim might’ve thought they were having an affair. But Will seemed to act like a father to Carrie.
    “So you like working for Will?”
    “Yes, of course,” Carrie said at once.
    The waitress delivered their breakfasts and silencereigned as they ate. Then, with a second cup of coffee in front of him, Jim looked at Carrie. “I’m still not sure if Will really has a job open or he’s simply doing what Vivian wants him to do.”
    “Surely you don’t believe—”
    “Why else would he offer a job to a stranger?” Jim challenged her.
    “You’re not a stranger, Jim.” Carrie nodded as Jim’s gaze narrowed. “When Vivian first asked Will to find Vanessa’s siblings, he warned her that they might not be the kind of people she would want Vanessa to know.” She grinned. “Even he will admit he had low expectations of the rich. He figured Vivian thought Vanessa’s siblings would be wealthy, like her.”
    “And they weren’t?”
    “We found Rebecca first, in Arkansas. She was a single mother with no help from her adoptive parents. They wouldn’t even speak to her. She was providing for her son and continuing her college classes at night.”
    “So he invited her to Texas for a visit?” Jim asked.
    “Not on your life. He wouldn’t do that until he had figured out what was going on in her life. He went to Arkansas so he could interview her in person.”
    “That sounds safe.”
    “It was—until Vivian insisted on going with him. He told her she could go on the condition that she didn’t reveal her identity. He told Rebecca she was his assistant.”
    “And she bought that?”
    “She did until Vivian told her differently. Once Vivian met her, she insisted she come back to Dallas to meet her sister.” Carrie smiled. “You see, Vivian sees with herheart,