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Although she tried to come up with a good answer, nothing came to mind. “I don’t know.”

“Come on, dream with me. Would we swim with dolphins in Bermuda or paraglide off the Great Wall of China?”

“You can do that?”

“A buddy of mine from Seattle did. Said it was the best money he ever spent.”

Katherine laughed. “Is this your way of telling me you’re an adrenaline junkie?”

“Not even close,” Matthew scoffed, his voice raspy from the need for sleep. “My job is a hell of a lot more daring. Adrenaline junkies choose the things they do. I don’t get to pick if I’m talking someone off a ledge or responding to an armed robbery. To me, there’s more risk in that than free-falling two hundred feet into a canyon attached to a bungee cord.”

“Well, don’t think you’ll ever catch me doing anything like that. I’d prefer my day off involve something much tamer.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, maybe a road trip to a theme park. Some place where we’re having too much fun to care about calories, and we ride rides all day and laugh until it hurts.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely. We don’t have to go somewhere exotic or do something crazy. We can just go someplace fun.”

“I’ll say it again, Katie Bennett, you are my kind of woman.”

As the bedside table behind Matthew vibrated, he flew up, ready to attack. “What the hell?!”

“Sorry!” Katherine scrambled out of bed, searched through a drawer, pulled out another alarm clock and shut it off with a shrug. “It’s just my get-out-of-bed insurance.”

“It’s a good thing I don’t have my gun,” Matthew said, reaching for Katherine and pulling her down next to him. “I wish you could stay a little longer.”

“So do I, but I shouldn’t be late two days in a row. Having a talk with my dad yesterday only added to how late I was.”

“So, hedidcome over here.”

“Why do you say it like that?”

“I had a feeling he was headed this way. After the whole debacle with Justin, he tried to assure me that everything would be alright and all you needed was some time to yourself. But then he insisted we drop Libby off with Callie and go pick up donuts for everyone at the department. When I asked if he was coming with us, he said he had to walk off some pie and think things over. And that he’d meet us back at the station.”

“Let me guess, he sent you on a twenty-minute drive to a tiny little hole-in-the-wall donut shop the next town over?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

“That’s a classic Jerome Bennett versus Justin Macomb move. Daddy knows how much of a sucker Justin is for a good donut. If you think about it, getting you guys out of the way so he could come talk to me alone was pretty clever.”

“And thewalking off piepart?”

“Daddy’s known for sneaking a slice of pie for breakfast. In yesterday’s case, it was more like a before-breakfast treat. And for that to happen, my mom has to be out of the house at one of her distractions.”

“Distractions?”

“That’s what Daddy calls them. Really, they could be anything—classes at the community center, volunteering, antiquing, or trips with her ladies’ group—basically, whatever gets her out of the house. Apparently, the latest distraction is water aerobics.”

“Interesting,” Matthew said. “Now, back to your dad. What did he have to say?”

“Oh, right...” Katherine turned to face Matthew, doing her best Jerome Bennett impression. “It looks to me like you love that man.”

“That’s it?”

“Yep.”