Part Nine
"Frankie!" Harm bolted out of his seat and was around the desk in no time. I barely got out of his way as he barreled past me to reach her side. "How are you this morning?"
"I'm just fine. Thank you, Harry." She gazed at him adoringly, and I was flooded with relief when I realized that she hadn't heard his last remark to me. From now on we would have to be more careful. This morning she was dressed in another shapeless gauzy dress-this one was black, and her long red hair was pulled up on top of her head. Loose tendrils floated around her face giving her a soft rosy aura.
My cheap red wig was suddenly giving me a headache, and I felt completely unnecessary as they cooed and billed at each other. I decided to make myself useful and started gathering the scattered papers from the file I'd thrown at him. They were all over the desk and the floor, and I was on my hands and knees behind the desk trying to reach a page that had floated underneath when I heard him say, "I don't think you have been formally introduced to my new assistant, have you?"
Before I could react he peered under the desk and said, "Come on out, Mac, and let me introduce you to our neighbor." Harm acted as if it was normal for me to be crawling around on the floor.
I backed out from under the desk and smiled winningly. "Hi," I said as I struggled to my feet. I pulled my skirt down to a respectable level, clutched the haphazardly gathered file to my chest, and walked around the desk to greet her.
"Hannah McIntire, you remember Frankie Mitchell. She's an attorney, and she has the office next door," Harm smiled at her as if that was special.
"How do you do?" I said in my best Grace Kelly voice. I held out my hand, dropping more papers when I did and added, "Please call me Mac."
She shook my hand reluctantly and said neutrally, "Nice to meet you, Ms McIntire."
Harm bent down and picked up a few of the wayward sheets, stuffed them back into my arms, and informed her conspiratorially, "She doesn't think much of my filing system."
She laughed as if the two of them were sharing a very funny joke at my expense.
"Excuse me," I said stiffly. "I have some work to do before your ten o'clock appointment gets here, Mr. Baldridge."
"Thank you, Mac." He dismissed me and ushered her into a chair before returning to his own.
I pulled the door shut most of the way but then I hovered outside so I could hear what they were saying, and I didn't feel the least bit guilty. It had absolutely nothing to do with jealousy either. After all, it was part of my undercover-- sworn to watch Harm's six--duty to listen.
"Harry, she threw a file at you!" she sounded outraged on his behalf.
He laughed and said, "She got a little carried away. She's just high spirited and very opinionated. I admire that."
She obviously didn't share his admiration, but her voice was as sweet as sugar when she asked, "Are you sure hiring her was such a good idea?"
"She has great references. The lawyers at her last firm hated to lose her."
"I bet. They were probably all men," she said sarcastically.
That was met by silence until he finally said, "Actually, her immediate supervisor was a woman, and I can assure you that she is well qualified for the job." He sounded impatient with her.
"I'm sorry, Harry," she said contritely. "It's really none of my business."
"Let's not talk about her anymore." I was startled when the door opened just enough for Harm to wink at me before he shut it the rest of the way. "Are we still on for lunch?" I heard him ask as he moved away from the door.
I walked back to my desk and sat down. I started to straighten out the jumbled file I was still clutching when I realized it was filled with blank sheets of paper. The irritating sound of her laughter drifted out from his closed office door, so I invented my own filing system and threw the crumpled pages into the trashcan with a satisfying thunk. I wasn't even going to pretend to be busy. He couldn't fire me, and she already thought I was a bimbo. I turned the volume up on the small radio that sat on my desk, crossed my legs and pulled out a fingernail file from my purse. I began furiously filing my nails while I hummed along loudly to some sad country song. Something about my lover's under the covers with another and this bed ain't big enough for the three of us--
**
I knocked on the door of Harm's apartment impatiently. I knew he was going out that night and I had learned a few things of interest during my lunch on the patio--things I hadn't wanted to discuss at the office. Gossip as an undercover tool was highly underrated. I knocked again this time harder. His car was still in the parking lot so I knew he was still home.
The door finally opened a crack and he peeked out at me. "What do you want, Mac?"
"I need to talk to you." I impatiently pushed on the door but it wouldn't budge. "Let me in, Harry. It's important."
Sighing he walked away, allowing me to follow him inside. He was walking towards his bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist. It took me a moment to process the picture he made. Long muscular legs, strong bare arms, a broad back with little water droplets still clinging to his smooth skin. I stopped and stared like a kid at her first carnival.
He turned around and caught me looking and smirked. "I'm getting ready to go out so if you want to talk you'll have to do it while I'm shaving."
"That's fine," I chirped in a voice that sounded like a chipmunk. I followed him into the steamy bathroom and sat down on the toilet seat. I watched as he slathered shaving cream over his face and neck. His hair was still wet from his shower and mussed from being dried with a towel. His chest was nice and hairy-just the right amount of hair. The way his biceps bulged as he moved the razor across his face was just right. The way the towel fit snugly across his rear end as he leaned forward across the sink to get closer to the mirror was just right. Everything about him was just right. Feeling like Goldilocks, I sat mesmerized, my gaze drifting down to his bare feet and up his long legs and his cute little knees and strong thighs that disappeared under that lucky towel--
"Well? What did you need to tell me?" His voice startled me and I jerked my eyes back to his face. His eyes were dancing with amusement so I tried for a nonchalant tone.
"I found out some things about Frankie at lunch today, and I already have Catherine checking into it, but I wanted to tell you about it before you went out with her tonight."
"Ok. Let's hear it." His eyes met mine in the mirror as he continued to shave.
"Well, I was talking to Gloria-the woman that runs the food bank-and apparently she has known Frankie forever. They grew up together and even went to the same college. Have you met Gloria? Everyone seems to love Gloria"
"I've met her, and yes, she seems very nice. Can we get back to what you found out?"
"Sorry. Gloria was pumping me for information about you. Everyone is buzzing about the new handsome lawyer in the building and especially about the interest you are showing in Frankie."
"So far this just sounds like normal gossip." He scooped some shaving cream off his face with his finger and dabbed it on the end of my nose.
"Quit interrupting," I protested as I wiped the suds away with the back of my hand. "Anyway-Gloria said that you are the first man Frankie has shown any interest in since she lost Ben, so naturally that has made everyone curious."
"Who's Ben?"
"She hasn't mentioned him to you?"
"No, but then we haven't discussed our past relationships yet."
"Apparently he was the love of her life, and he disappeared a few years ago. Gloria didn't say what happened but everyone assumes that he's dead."
"And?" He stopped shaving and turned to face me.
"Gloria didn't give me specifics and I didn't want to seem overly interested, so Catherine is going to try to find out the details. All I know is that he was from somewhere in the Middle East and he came here to attend college. They met because they were both active in some campus charitable organization and according to Gloria once they started seeing each other they were inseparable. It's not much, but this could be the connection we've been looking for Harm."
He seemed lost in thought as he wiped the remaining lather from his face. "You're right, Mac. This could be important. Tonight I'll see if she'll open up to me about her past. I'll tell her the sad story of my love life and maybe she will tell me hers."
He rinsed his face with water and then walked out of the bathroom, leaving me sitting there thinking about what he had to do next. This could blow a big hole in his belief that she was an innocent bystander in all of this, but he seemed to be taking it in stride. As with everything else we'd learned this new information didn't prove anything by itself and if I knew one thing about Harm it was that finding the truth was always the most important thing to him-wherever that might lead us.
I got up and followed him into the bedroom. He was rummaging around in the top drawer of his dresser-a nice heavy mission style dresser that didn't lean to one side the way the one in my apartment did. Everything about his bedroom was a far cry from mine. A king sized bed in the same mission style filled the space and it was covered in a bone and gray tapestry spread that was both elegant and masculine. Catherine probably picked it out personally. I flopped down on the big bed and watched him as he decided on just the right pair of boxer shorts to wear. Harm-on the few occasions when I had been lucky enough to see him in his underwear-wore plain white utilitarian boxers. Harry on the other hand owned a variety of styles and colors, and he finally settled on a blue and green plaid pair that would set off his eyes just perfectly.
Sighing I asked, "So what sad story are you going to tell her about your love life? The one where the video Princess leaves you to marry a mortician?"
He disappeared into the walk-in closet carrying his boxer shorts. A second later a wet towel flew out and hit me in the chest. Grinning he came out wearing the boxer shorts and sat down beside me on the bed. I had been right. They did set off his eyes perfectly. "I thought I would tell her the one about a certain female Marine officer that I chased after for seven years."
"That is a sad story. I guess you should have learned to run faster." I had been so good up until now. I hadn't touched him once since I'd entered his apartment, but he was so close and he was looking at me with those perfect eyes, and I couldn't help myself. I ran my hand across his bare chest enjoying the course texture of his hair against my fingers.
His breath hitched in his throat and the muscles in his stomach flexed as my hand automatically drifted lower. He caught it and said, "I better finish getting dressed." Even as he said it he grabbed me into a hug and my face was buried against his warm clean smelling skin.
"Wear something that makes you look short and dumpy-maybe a shirt with horizontal stripes," I mumbled against his chest.
He laughed and said, "I'll see what I can do."
"Oh it doesn't matter. You'll look gorgeous no matter what you wear." I pushed myself away from him and got off the bed. I needed to put some distance between us before I embarrassed myself by throwing him down and having my way with him. I headed toward the door but looked back to where he was still sitting on the bed and added, "Just make sure she doesn't see you like that."
I stopped suddenly when I heard a knock at the front door. His eyebrows went up and he shrugged as if to say he had no idea who it could be. He grabbed a pair of jeans off the chair by the bed and pulled them on in a hurry. I stayed in the bedroom while he went to look out the peep hole. He threw open the door, and Gunny walked inside.
"What's up, Gunny?"
"I just wanted to let you know that everything is going as planned. I followed Ms. Mitchell home this evening. And then I sat in front of her house and made sure she saw me when she got out of her car to go inside. She looked a little worried after seeing me at lunch today and then again this evening. I'll follow her again tomorrow."
I came out of the bedroom while he was filling Harm in on the situation. He glanced at me and then at Harm's state of undress and hesitated before continuing, "The threatening phone calls will start tomorrow too, so if we're lucky she will be asking for your help very soon."
"Good work, Gunny. She's cooking dinner for me tonight so I'll have a chance to see if her mood has changed since this afternoon." Harm looked at me and then back to Gunny. "There has been some new information, but I'll let Mac tell you all about it."
"We better get out of here so he can finish getting ready for his date," I said to Gunny. "What do you want to do about dinner?"
"Funny you should ask," he said as he threw a companionable arm around my shoulder. "I am cooking dinner for the two of us tonight. I don't think you've been taking care of yourself lately."
"Why Gunny, I didn't know you could cook!" I suddenly noticed that Harm was rooted in place and hadn't moved so I said, "I'll see you tomorrow, Harm. Good luck with Frankie tonight."
"Thanks," he said a little sarcastically as he continued to stare at the two of us.
"How does steak, baked potatoes, and Caesar salad sound? Nothing fancy, but you strike me as a meat eater." Gunny grinned at me and then he grinned quite deliberately at Harm, but Harm didn't smile back.
I opened the front door, moved out from under his arm and threw a half smile at Harm. "Sounds great, Gunny. What are we waiting for?"
"Let's go," Gunny agreed and added as he started closing the door behind us. "And then later I'll tuck you into bed and tell you another bedtime story like I did last night."
The words were barely out of his mouth when the door was jerked out of his grasp and Harm stood glowering in the doorway. "What is that supposed to mean?"
To be continued
"Frankie!" Harm bolted out of his seat and was around the desk in no time. I barely got out of his way as he barreled past me to reach her side. "How are you this morning?"
"I'm just fine. Thank you, Harry." She gazed at him adoringly, and I was flooded with relief when I realized that she hadn't heard his last remark to me. From now on we would have to be more careful. This morning she was dressed in another shapeless gauzy dress-this one was black, and her long red hair was pulled up on top of her head. Loose tendrils floated around her face giving her a soft rosy aura.
My cheap red wig was suddenly giving me a headache, and I felt completely unnecessary as they cooed and billed at each other. I decided to make myself useful and started gathering the scattered papers from the file I'd thrown at him. They were all over the desk and the floor, and I was on my hands and knees behind the desk trying to reach a page that had floated underneath when I heard him say, "I don't think you have been formally introduced to my new assistant, have you?"
Before I could react he peered under the desk and said, "Come on out, Mac, and let me introduce you to our neighbor." Harm acted as if it was normal for me to be crawling around on the floor.
I backed out from under the desk and smiled winningly. "Hi," I said as I struggled to my feet. I pulled my skirt down to a respectable level, clutched the haphazardly gathered file to my chest, and walked around the desk to greet her.
"Hannah McIntire, you remember Frankie Mitchell. She's an attorney, and she has the office next door," Harm smiled at her as if that was special.
"How do you do?" I said in my best Grace Kelly voice. I held out my hand, dropping more papers when I did and added, "Please call me Mac."
She shook my hand reluctantly and said neutrally, "Nice to meet you, Ms McIntire."
Harm bent down and picked up a few of the wayward sheets, stuffed them back into my arms, and informed her conspiratorially, "She doesn't think much of my filing system."
She laughed as if the two of them were sharing a very funny joke at my expense.
"Excuse me," I said stiffly. "I have some work to do before your ten o'clock appointment gets here, Mr. Baldridge."
"Thank you, Mac." He dismissed me and ushered her into a chair before returning to his own.
I pulled the door shut most of the way but then I hovered outside so I could hear what they were saying, and I didn't feel the least bit guilty. It had absolutely nothing to do with jealousy either. After all, it was part of my undercover-- sworn to watch Harm's six--duty to listen.
"Harry, she threw a file at you!" she sounded outraged on his behalf.
He laughed and said, "She got a little carried away. She's just high spirited and very opinionated. I admire that."
She obviously didn't share his admiration, but her voice was as sweet as sugar when she asked, "Are you sure hiring her was such a good idea?"
"She has great references. The lawyers at her last firm hated to lose her."
"I bet. They were probably all men," she said sarcastically.
That was met by silence until he finally said, "Actually, her immediate supervisor was a woman, and I can assure you that she is well qualified for the job." He sounded impatient with her.
"I'm sorry, Harry," she said contritely. "It's really none of my business."
"Let's not talk about her anymore." I was startled when the door opened just enough for Harm to wink at me before he shut it the rest of the way. "Are we still on for lunch?" I heard him ask as he moved away from the door.
I walked back to my desk and sat down. I started to straighten out the jumbled file I was still clutching when I realized it was filled with blank sheets of paper. The irritating sound of her laughter drifted out from his closed office door, so I invented my own filing system and threw the crumpled pages into the trashcan with a satisfying thunk. I wasn't even going to pretend to be busy. He couldn't fire me, and she already thought I was a bimbo. I turned the volume up on the small radio that sat on my desk, crossed my legs and pulled out a fingernail file from my purse. I began furiously filing my nails while I hummed along loudly to some sad country song. Something about my lover's under the covers with another and this bed ain't big enough for the three of us--
**
I knocked on the door of Harm's apartment impatiently. I knew he was going out that night and I had learned a few things of interest during my lunch on the patio--things I hadn't wanted to discuss at the office. Gossip as an undercover tool was highly underrated. I knocked again this time harder. His car was still in the parking lot so I knew he was still home.
The door finally opened a crack and he peeked out at me. "What do you want, Mac?"
"I need to talk to you." I impatiently pushed on the door but it wouldn't budge. "Let me in, Harry. It's important."
Sighing he walked away, allowing me to follow him inside. He was walking towards his bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist. It took me a moment to process the picture he made. Long muscular legs, strong bare arms, a broad back with little water droplets still clinging to his smooth skin. I stopped and stared like a kid at her first carnival.
He turned around and caught me looking and smirked. "I'm getting ready to go out so if you want to talk you'll have to do it while I'm shaving."
"That's fine," I chirped in a voice that sounded like a chipmunk. I followed him into the steamy bathroom and sat down on the toilet seat. I watched as he slathered shaving cream over his face and neck. His hair was still wet from his shower and mussed from being dried with a towel. His chest was nice and hairy-just the right amount of hair. The way his biceps bulged as he moved the razor across his face was just right. The way the towel fit snugly across his rear end as he leaned forward across the sink to get closer to the mirror was just right. Everything about him was just right. Feeling like Goldilocks, I sat mesmerized, my gaze drifting down to his bare feet and up his long legs and his cute little knees and strong thighs that disappeared under that lucky towel--
"Well? What did you need to tell me?" His voice startled me and I jerked my eyes back to his face. His eyes were dancing with amusement so I tried for a nonchalant tone.
"I found out some things about Frankie at lunch today, and I already have Catherine checking into it, but I wanted to tell you about it before you went out with her tonight."
"Ok. Let's hear it." His eyes met mine in the mirror as he continued to shave.
"Well, I was talking to Gloria-the woman that runs the food bank-and apparently she has known Frankie forever. They grew up together and even went to the same college. Have you met Gloria? Everyone seems to love Gloria"
"I've met her, and yes, she seems very nice. Can we get back to what you found out?"
"Sorry. Gloria was pumping me for information about you. Everyone is buzzing about the new handsome lawyer in the building and especially about the interest you are showing in Frankie."
"So far this just sounds like normal gossip." He scooped some shaving cream off his face with his finger and dabbed it on the end of my nose.
"Quit interrupting," I protested as I wiped the suds away with the back of my hand. "Anyway-Gloria said that you are the first man Frankie has shown any interest in since she lost Ben, so naturally that has made everyone curious."
"Who's Ben?"
"She hasn't mentioned him to you?"
"No, but then we haven't discussed our past relationships yet."
"Apparently he was the love of her life, and he disappeared a few years ago. Gloria didn't say what happened but everyone assumes that he's dead."
"And?" He stopped shaving and turned to face me.
"Gloria didn't give me specifics and I didn't want to seem overly interested, so Catherine is going to try to find out the details. All I know is that he was from somewhere in the Middle East and he came here to attend college. They met because they were both active in some campus charitable organization and according to Gloria once they started seeing each other they were inseparable. It's not much, but this could be the connection we've been looking for Harm."
He seemed lost in thought as he wiped the remaining lather from his face. "You're right, Mac. This could be important. Tonight I'll see if she'll open up to me about her past. I'll tell her the sad story of my love life and maybe she will tell me hers."
He rinsed his face with water and then walked out of the bathroom, leaving me sitting there thinking about what he had to do next. This could blow a big hole in his belief that she was an innocent bystander in all of this, but he seemed to be taking it in stride. As with everything else we'd learned this new information didn't prove anything by itself and if I knew one thing about Harm it was that finding the truth was always the most important thing to him-wherever that might lead us.
I got up and followed him into the bedroom. He was rummaging around in the top drawer of his dresser-a nice heavy mission style dresser that didn't lean to one side the way the one in my apartment did. Everything about his bedroom was a far cry from mine. A king sized bed in the same mission style filled the space and it was covered in a bone and gray tapestry spread that was both elegant and masculine. Catherine probably picked it out personally. I flopped down on the big bed and watched him as he decided on just the right pair of boxer shorts to wear. Harm-on the few occasions when I had been lucky enough to see him in his underwear-wore plain white utilitarian boxers. Harry on the other hand owned a variety of styles and colors, and he finally settled on a blue and green plaid pair that would set off his eyes just perfectly.
Sighing I asked, "So what sad story are you going to tell her about your love life? The one where the video Princess leaves you to marry a mortician?"
He disappeared into the walk-in closet carrying his boxer shorts. A second later a wet towel flew out and hit me in the chest. Grinning he came out wearing the boxer shorts and sat down beside me on the bed. I had been right. They did set off his eyes perfectly. "I thought I would tell her the one about a certain female Marine officer that I chased after for seven years."
"That is a sad story. I guess you should have learned to run faster." I had been so good up until now. I hadn't touched him once since I'd entered his apartment, but he was so close and he was looking at me with those perfect eyes, and I couldn't help myself. I ran my hand across his bare chest enjoying the course texture of his hair against my fingers.
His breath hitched in his throat and the muscles in his stomach flexed as my hand automatically drifted lower. He caught it and said, "I better finish getting dressed." Even as he said it he grabbed me into a hug and my face was buried against his warm clean smelling skin.
"Wear something that makes you look short and dumpy-maybe a shirt with horizontal stripes," I mumbled against his chest.
He laughed and said, "I'll see what I can do."
"Oh it doesn't matter. You'll look gorgeous no matter what you wear." I pushed myself away from him and got off the bed. I needed to put some distance between us before I embarrassed myself by throwing him down and having my way with him. I headed toward the door but looked back to where he was still sitting on the bed and added, "Just make sure she doesn't see you like that."
I stopped suddenly when I heard a knock at the front door. His eyebrows went up and he shrugged as if to say he had no idea who it could be. He grabbed a pair of jeans off the chair by the bed and pulled them on in a hurry. I stayed in the bedroom while he went to look out the peep hole. He threw open the door, and Gunny walked inside.
"What's up, Gunny?"
"I just wanted to let you know that everything is going as planned. I followed Ms. Mitchell home this evening. And then I sat in front of her house and made sure she saw me when she got out of her car to go inside. She looked a little worried after seeing me at lunch today and then again this evening. I'll follow her again tomorrow."
I came out of the bedroom while he was filling Harm in on the situation. He glanced at me and then at Harm's state of undress and hesitated before continuing, "The threatening phone calls will start tomorrow too, so if we're lucky she will be asking for your help very soon."
"Good work, Gunny. She's cooking dinner for me tonight so I'll have a chance to see if her mood has changed since this afternoon." Harm looked at me and then back to Gunny. "There has been some new information, but I'll let Mac tell you all about it."
"We better get out of here so he can finish getting ready for his date," I said to Gunny. "What do you want to do about dinner?"
"Funny you should ask," he said as he threw a companionable arm around my shoulder. "I am cooking dinner for the two of us tonight. I don't think you've been taking care of yourself lately."
"Why Gunny, I didn't know you could cook!" I suddenly noticed that Harm was rooted in place and hadn't moved so I said, "I'll see you tomorrow, Harm. Good luck with Frankie tonight."
"Thanks," he said a little sarcastically as he continued to stare at the two of us.
"How does steak, baked potatoes, and Caesar salad sound? Nothing fancy, but you strike me as a meat eater." Gunny grinned at me and then he grinned quite deliberately at Harm, but Harm didn't smile back.
I opened the front door, moved out from under his arm and threw a half smile at Harm. "Sounds great, Gunny. What are we waiting for?"
"Let's go," Gunny agreed and added as he started closing the door behind us. "And then later I'll tuck you into bed and tell you another bedtime story like I did last night."
The words were barely out of his mouth when the door was jerked out of his grasp and Harm stood glowering in the doorway. "What is that supposed to mean?"
To be continued