Lynn Bulock - To Trust a Friend

“You said before that you might know by Monday what ethnic makeup these kids were. How do you figure that out from bones?”

“The differences can be subtle,” Kyra admitted. “Different bone densities in some structures, the shape of an eye socket…”

“You can say orbit. I know that much. My mom was a nurse.” Something about that memory was painful for him, because now Josh was the one to have a brief look of sadness across his face. Kyra filed that away as something else to discuss later.

“Okay. I’m never sure with people whether or not I should keep things simple in case I’m talking way over their heads, or just talk to them the way I would to a colleague. It sounds like you’re closer to the colleague level.”

“I don’t know if I’d go that far, but coming from you that’s a compliment. So, colleague, how long are you going to stay and work on all of this tonight?”

Kyra shrugged. “As long as it takes. There’s nobody waiting at home except Ranger, and he’s pretty self-sufficient.”

Joshua’s forehead wrinkled. “I don’t remember you mentioning a live-in…friend before.”

Kyra stifled a giggle. “That’s because Ranger’s a cat. About fourteen pounds of black fur and attitude who keeps my place free of field mice and crickets, and still doesn’t understand after eight years why I won’t let him go outside and stalk them out there.”

“Oh.” Josh smiled faintly. “Well, if you’re not going to hurry home to him, would you like to grab dinner someplace? I’ve heard some of the other staff members talking about a Thai restaurant not too far from here.”

“I am hungry. And as long as this is just colleague-to-colleague,” Kyra said, giving Josh a pointed look.

“Definitely. I won’t even offer to buy your dinner.”

“Good. You get back to your computer and I’ll shut things down in the next room. I should be ready to go in fifteen minutes.”

Remember, just colleague-to-colleague, Kyra reminded herself as she put things to rights in the lab. It might take a lot of work, but she was determined that Josh Richards was never going to know that she thought of him in any other way.

The Thai restaurant was small, casual and smelled fantastic from the moment Josh walked in. The aroma of chilies, spices and lemongrass filled the air, and he discovered that he was hungry. How long had it been since he had felt truly hungry and interested in food? Then again, how long had it been since he’d had dinner with an attractive young woman, even if she was practically his boss?

He tried not to take it personally when Kyra insisted that they both drive to the restaurant. It wasn’t a matter of trust, she explained. “You’re going home afterward and I may come back here to work on one last thing.”

“I have a feeling there’s ‘one last thing’ a lot of the time,” Josh told her, watching her flush with color in an admission that didn’t need words to go with it. Kyra’s tenacity was what had made them a good team when he’d needed her help in cases for the bureau. So it didn’t surprise him that she gave that kind of focus to her work all the time.

“There is,” she admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I expect everybody in the lab to work like I do. As long as they give things their best effort, I’m fine with a reasonable work week.”

She double-checked to make sure he knew where the restaurant was, and headed toward her car. Josh wasn’t sure what he expected to see her get into, but the vintage Ford pickup truck gave him a surprise. When she showed up at the restaurant he intended to ask her about that.

He settled in to wait for her, taking the corner table a young man pointed out, and ordering an iced coffee while he waited. He watched the door of the restaurant, listening to the overhead bell jingle as people came in. Just about the time his drink came, Kyra walked through the door and he was struck by her appearance.

Why hadn’t he ever noticed that the woman was downright beautiful? She’d unfastened the clip that held her glossy auburn hair. She must have ridden over from the lab with the window rolled down in the truck. Her cheeks were pink and she looked slightly windblown, refreshed and healthy. Josh mentally contrasted what he must look like; pale skin that hardly ever saw the light of day, lines beginning to etch the corners of his eyes and his workday uniform of a white shirt, dark pants and an extremely sedate tie.

Kyra slid into the seat across from him, looking at his iced coffee. “I should have told you to order me one if you made it here first. I know I probably don’t need any more caffeine this late in the day, but I really like those things.”

“I’ll make a note of it for next time,” Josh said, wondering where the words came from as soon as they were out of his mouth. What made him think there was going to be a “next time” with Kyra? She’d made it clear this wasn’t a social engagement, just dinner with a workmate. Even an hour ago that wouldn’t have bothered him; why did it feel like it mattered now?

In any case, Kyra seemed to ignore his comment. “Cool. Do you like chicken satay? We could split an order while we waited for the rest of dinner.”

“Sure.” Josh let her order the appetizer and her iced coffee while he thought about ways to ask a few questions about her without seeming overly interested. But his new awareness of Kyra’s beauty and the constant reminder that she was basically his boss right now left him tongue-tied for a while.

They ordered their dinners and Kyra made a little small talk while Josh tried not to ask too many questions, even though at least a dozen were running through his mind. The satay came and they probably ate half of it before Kyra looked over at him and smiled.

“Hey, you’re mighty quiet,” she said. “Once you got me alone outside the labs I expected all kinds of questions.”

Josh told himself the flush he felt must be due to the amount of fiery Thai chilies in the peanut dipping sauce. “I don’t want to irritate you. You’re dealing with enough questions right now just focusing on this case. Do you work like this all the time?”

Kyra shrugged slightly. “When I need to. And I won’t work all weekend. I don’t work on Sundays unless it’s an emergency and I have no other choice.”

“I guess everybody needs some rest. But wouldn’t it make more sense just to work through and try to catch a break in the case?”

“Not for me. There are all kinds of reasons that I can get more accomplished in six days than I can in seven. My Sundays are precious to me.”

Josh felt his heart sink. “I’ll bet you spend them in church, don’t you?”

“Not always. But I do try to spend them in ways that bring honor to God, and there aren’t too many times that that means hanging out at the lab.”

“So where do you go if it’s not church?” Josh caught himself leaning forward to hear her answer.

Kyra stirred the straw around in her iced coffee. “All kinds of places. I go horseback riding sometimes, grab ice cream with some friends, maybe even just sit quietly alone or go to the movies with four or five teenage girls.”

How was any of this a way to honor God? Josh felt really confused about that. Kyra didn’t look confused at all. She appeared perfectly happy with her choices. This discussion was going to take a lot longer to finish than Josh had figured on.

Before he could ask more questions their entrées arrived along with a bowl of rice. “This all looks great,” Kyra said with enthusiasm, and she surprised Josh by reaching over and taking the serving spoon in his pad thai.

Maybe she was confused about what she’d ordered. “Hey, Kyra? I think the pad thai is mine,” Josh said.