Four Kisses by Bonnie Dee Page A

the high school reunions?” he asked. “What are your old friends up to?”
    “College then jobs. The usual. How about yours?”
    “Prison or dead. The usual. My cousins, the Tappers moved to Cleveland and set up an auto repair shop. Probably a chop shop too, but at least they’re enterprising.” He smiled and Jen did too.
    She rose. There was really nothing left for them to talk about and she needed to go present her offer to the DA. “I’ll let you know as soon as I find out something,” she told Drake then turned and walked toward the door.
    She paused with her hand on the knob, as hesitant to leave as she’d been to enter, and suddenly she found herself blurting, “I’ve gone back to see the swans. When I visit my parents, I go up to the lake and walk back into the woods. Sometimes the swans are there. Other times they’ve moved on to wherever it is they go in the winter. I don’t know if it’s the same pair or their offspring but they’re still nesting there. But whether I see them or not, I enjoy hiking there, even if I destroy my shoes in the swamp.” She laughed.
    Drake joined in with a quiet chuckle. “Whenever I get out, that’s the first thing I’m going to do, go see the swans.”
    “And the dancing fish,” Jen added, glancing back at him over her shoulder at him.
    “And the fish,” Drake agreed. “Thanks for taking my case. I know when you saw my name you could’ve handed it off to someone else.” He touched his fingers to his lips and blew her a kiss.
    “Well, let’s see what I can do for you first then you can decide if you want to thank me.” Jen let herself out of the room and closed the door behind her.
    She felt as if she’d run a race, heart pounding, body overheated all because some guy she hadn’t seen in eight years had blown her a kiss. Her lips tingled as if it had actually landed there. She touched her fingertips to her mouth and clutched the handle of her briefcase. Snap out of it. Do your job. Make the best plea you can then walk away from this case. If it goes to trial, hand it off to Karyn because clearly you’re too close to remain impartial.
    Jen dropped her hand from her mouth and walked down the corridor, but the imaginary pressure on her lips lingered and she couldn’t stop thinking of Drake Malinson, all grown up and putting her off-balance just as easily as ever.
     

Four
    The aquarium was the perfect place to be on a blustery fall day. Outside the wind was icy, a reminder of winter just around the corner, but the soothing darkness of the aquarium was warm and comfortable. The odor of fish and brine scented the air, which many people would classify as a stench, but Jen loved. Nothing calmed her more quickly than watching the colorful fish darting among the coral or the slow-moving, dangerous glide of the tiger sharks. She had her best Zen moments here in the dimly-lit underwater world.
    She sat on a bench, watching a bright clownfish nibbling at some nearly invisible plankton, and exhaled a long slow breath, releasing her tension. She enjoyed her new job better than the old one, but it was still high pressure and stressful. At least as a prosecutor she was more likely to be accomplishing justice rather than getting criminals off on technicalities. Just today she’d earned a satisfying guilty verdict on an alleged pedophile.
    What could be sweeter?
    The striped orange fish suddenly disappeared in a swirl of fins, startled by who knew what. Jen smiled and settled back on the bench, feeling more relaxed already.
    “Jen Adams?”
    She knew that voice although she couldn’t immediately place it. Jen looked up at the man walking toward her. She blinked as her eyes adjusted from the blue-green glow of the fish tank to the even dimmer light in the room. Tall. Dark hair. A sort of catlike walk full of easy grace. Why did she know that walk, that black hair, that husky voice?
    Then her eyes focused on his face and her pulse skittered like a dog’s toenails on a