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his mouth against hers, kissing the living daylights out of her. And he told himself he wasn’t completely selfish. If she had as much pent-up passion inside her as he thought, an explosion of it would chase the sadness from her eyes.
    It was always there, hovering, unless she was excited about something, like this project to pay it forward. Or when she was ticked off at him. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see if she was as responsive as he suspected in other ways? If kissing her wouldn’t complicate the hell out ofeverything, he’d do it and move on because concentrating on life after community service was hard when she looked so sad.
    â€œOkay,” she said, yawning. “You can stay. But I hope he comes soon.”
    That went double for him. When her shoulder brushed his arm, his skin caught fire and the blood drained from his head and pumped to points south of his belt.
    Haley squirmed around, trying to get comfortable. “If he doesn’t want to get caught, you’d think he’d pick somewhere else to break in.”
    â€œYou wanted this place to be somewhere the kids would feel welcome,” he reminded her. “Obviously this guy got the vibe.”
    And speaking of vibes, he needed to take his mind off the ones that urged him to pull her into his arms. “So what do you think about Bo Clifton running for mayor?”
    â€œI’m all for it. He’s my best friend’s cousin.”
    â€œI didn’t know you and Elise Clifton were friends,” he said and felt her shrug.
    â€œShe was a year older than me, but somehow we bonded. I think it had something to do with the fact that neither of us had a father.”
    Elise Clifton’s father had been murdered when she was twelve years old. Marlon didn’t know Haley’s story, but he heard the sadness in her voice. Though he couldn’t see her expression, he knew there would be sadness there, too. “What happened to your dad?”
    â€œBeats me. He just left. I don’t really remember him.”
    Marlon waited for her to say more, but she didn’t. “Do you want to talk about it?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œOkay, then.” He moved off of the sensitive subject.“What chance do you think Bo has in the election, now that he’s thrown his hat in the ring?”
    â€œIt’s hard to say. Arthur Swinton has been around for years. He’s experienced and everyone knows him. It’s hard to argue against a family values platform.”
    It would be especially important to someone like Haley who had stepped into a difficult situation to take care of family, he thought. “What do you think of Bo?”
    There was silence for a few moments before she said, “He’s young and has fresh ideas that could shake things up. That’s not a bad thing. Especially with the economy in such big trouble.”
    â€œYou got that right.”
    â€œHas your company been affected by the downturn?” she asked.
    â€œOh, yeah.” It was one of the things on his mind when he’d been pulled over for speeding. He’d been wondering whether to tough it out or sell out. The latter option would mean putting a lot of people out of work. That was something he didn’t take lightly.
    â€œWhat’s wrong, Marlon?”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œI could hear it in your voice. Something’s bothering you.”
    Apparently he wasn’t the only one whose other senses were heightened in the dark. “I just have some business things to work through.”
    â€œAnything I can—” A noise at the back door stopped her. “Did you hear that?” she whispered.
    â€œYeah. Stay here.” He put his hand on her arm and actually felt it when she was about to argue. “I mean it, Haley.”
    â€œBe careful, Marlon.”
    He nodded, then rolled to a standing position andsoundlessly moved to the doorway and peeked into the storeroom. A shape was