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at him. “It’s an acquired taste.”
    “Not one I’ll be trying to acquire. Now beer’s an acquired taste too, but that one was worth the trouble.”
    Carly shuddered. “I tried to acquire a taste for beer when I was in college, but once I entered the outside world where I was allowed to have opinions separate from those of my peers, I immediately switched to wine.”
    “That’s one we agree on.”
    She grinned. “So I noticed last night.”
    He purposely raised his brows as high as possible. “Did I forget to return your wine bottle?”
    “I don’t know whether you forgot or not, but in either case, you didn’t return it.”
    “Sorry. I’ll fish it out of the trash and bring it over later.”
    Carly’s laugh was long and sincere, and he found himself joining her. He wasn’t sure but he thought this was the first time he’d really laughed out loud since the day Hank died.
    “Let’s adjourn to the breakfast nook,” she said, still smiling as she nodded toward the back of the house. “I’ll pour our coffee and you can handle the Danish.”
    Trooper wasn’t quite sure what she meant by “handling” the Danish so he just set the bag on the table. “Is there some place I can wash my hands?”
    “Sure.” Carly pointed to a door leading out into a hallway. “Through there, turn left, then second door on the left.”
    As Trooper had hoped, by the time he returned to the kitchen, Carly had removed the Danish from the bag and arranged them on a plate. Two placemats at the table, centered by smaller plates, clued him in as to where they’d sit.
    “Here’s your coffee.” Carly placed his cup to the right of one of the placemats.
    “Anything I can do?” He figured there wasn’t but also figured he should ask.
    “No thanks. Have a seat and help yourself to a Danish.”
    “Ladies first.” Trooper didn’t want to mess up his earlier planning by taking whichever Danish Carly might prefer.
    She smiled as though pleased by his sentiment and seated herself, then reached for the strawberry pastry. He sat and chose a cream cheese.
    Carly took a bite and chewed a minute, then asked, “How was your run?”
    Trooper sipped his coffee. It was good and strong, just the way he liked it. “A little shorter than I usually prefer, but the heat was already building and I was ready for some breakfast. You probably were too, considering how long you’ve been up.”
    “I was beginning to get hungry,” Carly admitted. “This Danish is good. Thanks for getting them.”
    “No problem. Besides, I’m already partial to Watson Bakery’s pastries.”
    “Partial to?” Carly asked with raised brows and a slight smile.
    Trooper felt his face warming. “Guess I’m slipping back into the Holly Grove lingo already. And I’ve only been back for a couple of days.”
    “So do you plan to stay for a while?” Carly asked the question, then glanced down at her plate as though she was afraid of what Trooper might read in her eyes. Strange. He tried to keep his tone merely curious rather than suspicious. “Why do you ask?”
    She looked up and met his gaze squarely. “Plain old nosiness. I’m aware of what happened in April. And I noticed this morning when you were stretching that you favored your left shoulder. Does the wound still bother you?”
    “Some.” Trooper could feel the muscles in his face tensing but he couldn’t force them to relax.
    Carly continued to look directly into his eyes. “We don’t have to talk about it. I just wanted you to know that I know.”
    “Why?”
    “So you won’t feel that you have to avoid mentioning the incident. On the other hand, we certainly don’t need to talk about it.”
    Trooper nodded. He was glad she’d brought it up and equally glad that she didn’t want to talk about it. The shrinks had said he probably should, but only when it felt right to him, and he was a long way from that point.
    In the meantime, there were some questions he wanted to ask his aunt’s new