Read Online The Touch by Lisa Olsen - Free Book Online

either detecting or investiga ting.”
    “ I like detectiving better ,” she shrugged , undeterred .
    “Alright, detectiving then,” he replied equably.   “ I’ll let you know if we hear anything on Neil’s disappearance .”
    “ Thanks, I’ll tell Allison what a great help you were today .”  Lexi meant it; she never would have gotten in to Neil’s office without his help. 
    He paused by the front door as though he felt the need to say something else.  “ I have to say my initial impression stands.  You’re definitely not anything like the girls I usually run into .”
    “ Is that good or bad ?” Lexi leaned against the doorframe.
    The hesitation was longer this time and she got the impression that he honestly wasn’t sure, not just looking for a polite way to blow her off.  “It was nice to se e you again , Miss Morgan,” he replied finally.
    Message received.   “It was nice to see you too , Detective Ryan.”
    A maroon Dodge Stratus pulled into the driveway just as Gabriel was walking back to his car and the men nodded to each other faint ly in passing.  “Who was that? ” Paul asked as he came up the walk.  
    The detective was already pulling away at a fast clip, tires crunching on the uneven pavement that badly needed repair.  “Oh , just a cop,” Lexi replied, trying to keep her voice even.  It shouldn’t bother her that she’d been rejected by a man she hardly knew and likely wouldn’t ever see again, but it did. 
    “He was here about your brother in law’s case?”  Lexi nodded in response, and Paul stopped on the porch beside her to watch the vehicle pull out of sight.  “It seems like he was in a hurry, did he get a lead?”
    “No, I just told him about these babies , ” Lexi waggled her gloved fingers at him, offering a broken smile when she saw the look of recognition on his face. 
    “I’m sorry sweetie,” Paul wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.  “You want me to go find him and rough him up? Beat some sense into him?”
    Lexi couldn’t help but laugh at the image of Paul trying to chase Gabriel down to teach him a lesson.  Though Paul was taller than she was and well muscled for his frame, the detective still had a good couple of inches and at least ten pounds of muscle on him , besides some form of cop training that w as bound to give him an edge in a fight.  By contrast , Paul had never been in a fight in his life as far as she knew.  Friends since college, he’d always been more of the cerebral type, given to writing in his journal and talking about philosophy.  Lexi was pretty sure Gabriel would wipe the floor with him in a physical confrontation.  “No, but thanks for the offer though.  His loss, right?” s he tried to shake off the conversation.  “Did you come home for lunch?”
    “Yeah , are you hungry?  I thought I might whip us up a little pasta.”
    Paul was a fantastic cook and could throw together a meal in the time it usually took her to make a simple sandwich but her appetite wasn’t up for anything just then .  “No thanks, I’m not all that hungry, but you go ahead.”
    “Lexi…” he gave her a pointed look.
    “No I’m se rious, I’m not hungry right now; I had a big breakfast with Maddie before our big attempt at corporate espionage,” Lexi grinned.  “I’ll tell you all about it later though; right now I need to get back to work.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “Absolutely, but I’ll have some leftovers later, I promise.”
    “Alright,” Paul relented, loosening his tie as he stepped over the threshold, heading for the kitchen.  “You know where to find me if you change your mind.”
    “I do.  And you know where to find me if you need me.”  Her studio.  Thanks to a small annuity she got from Gran’s estate and the low rent Paul charged to share the house, Lexi was able to focus primarily on her art and photography as a main source of income, supplementing from time