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at her, the memory of that almost-kiss flaring once more. The urge to tug her into his arms and brush his mouth against hers threatened to overwhelm him. Lord, he could feel the perfect fit of her curves against him, her softness fitting to the hard planes of his body. He shook himself back to reality. Those days were long gone. “Need me to pick up anything for you?”
    “You know, that would be…” The words trailed away. She shook her head and glanced at her watch again. “No, thanks. I’ve got to go.”
    Del watched her walk away, the loose capris caressing her thighs and hips with each step. A sharp twinge of arousal tugged at his lower abdomen before being swallowed in a wave of confusion. She couldn’t even let him do something as simple as pick up groceries she might need? She wanted to be that separate from him.
    Beside him, Blake shifted his backpack to his other arm. “Are we going?”
    “Yeah.” Del kept his gaze on Barbara until she disappeared around the corner. “We’re going.”

Chapter Three
    The pounding pulse of eighties rock music provided a background for a rousing chorus of ki-yahs . Del lounged on the metal bleachers inside the cheer gym and watched Anna’s karate class move through a series of kicks and punches. He grinned. She wore the same look of determined concentration he’d seen on her face when she’d begun to toddle and tried to conquer the stairs at his mother’s. He’d stood at the bottom of that staircase too many times to count, waiting to jump and catch her if she stumbled.
    On the other side of the large storefront gym, Lyssa and two other girls about her age practiced their routines on the balance beams. Her slender limbs moved with easy grace, muscles flexing in fluid motions. On top of her head, a glossy brown ponytail bobbed with each turn and jump.
    “Couple years and you’re gonna need a shotgun to keep the boys away from those two.”
    Startled, Del glanced at Tick, standing just inside the glass doors next to the bleachers. Damn, he moved quiet. Their father had moved the same way. His brother was in his investigator’s uniform of khakis and department polo shirt, and Del’s gaze skittered over the 10mm handgun at Tick’s waist. His stomach pitched, and he swallowed. “Yeah, I know.”
    Not that he would ever have a shotgun in the house with his children, or any gun, period. Too much could happen.
    Tick leaned an elbow on the top seat, his gaze on Anna, now kicking a pad held by her instructor. “Actually, Anna could probably fend them off on her own.”
    Del chuckled. “Looks awful fierce, doesn’t she?”
    “She is awful fierce. My understanding is that one of Beau Ingler’s boys told her karate was for sissies after church Wednesday night, and your little girl showed him different. Put his nose in the dirt and hurt his pride.” Tick glanced at the other end of the stands, where Blake sat working on his geometry homework, headphones covering his ears, head bobbing. “Have any more luck there?”
    “No. His stubborn streak is showing.” He’d tried talking to the boy, once on the drive between the high school and middle school and again while the girls changed for classes. Blake’s responses had been no more than terse grunts and monosyllables.
    “Gee. Wonder where he gets that from.” Wry humor lurked in Tick’s weary voice.
    “Runs in the family. What are you doing here, anyway?”
    “Just got off duty. Knew the girls would be here, thought I’d run across you.”
    “You found me.”
    Tick pulled his cigarettes from his pocket and tilted his head toward the door. “Want to step outside?”
    Del pushed to his feet and followed him. “I thought you quit.”
    “I did.” On the sidewalk, Tick tapped out a cigarette and lit it. “For about a week. Listen, I thought you’d want a heads-up. We had some incidents last night—a stolen mailbox, toilet paper in the youth minister’s yard, petroleum jelly on the pay phones downtown, that