“I’m impressed.”
“I hope to keep impressing you.”
“You already have,” she answered in a tremulous voice, before getting out of the car. “Wanan, Luckey.” When she locked the front door of the house behind her, she was out of breath.
“Ally?” Her mom appeared in the foyer. “What’s wrong?”
Nothing was wrong. Everything was wrong. She wanted this case to be over so they could be together on a normal man-and-woman level, with no other issues involved.
“Honey?” Beatrice prompted. “Where have you been?”
“I gave Luckey a lesson in Mandarin, and then he invited me to his home in Sunset Valley for dinner.”
“A lesson?”
“Yes. He says he wants to learn Chinese. It will help him when dealing with the Asian trafficking cases.”
Her mother raised her eyebrows. “Well, that’s a terrific excuse for spending time with you.”
“I like being with him,” Ally confessed, “but...”
“But what?”
“He’s been married before.”
“Does he have children?”
“No. He was divorced eight years ago. It’s the reason they divorced that has me worried.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to be a reminder of her.”
“How could you do that?”
“She didn’t want him to be in law enforcement, because it kept him away from her too much. She asked him to change his career, but he couldn’t do it.”
“Of course he couldn’t. The woman who falls in love with a Texas Ranger will never change him,” her mother said, with conviction based on experience. “But you don’t want to change him. So what’s wrong?”
“I’m crazy about him!” she cried, revealing her frustration. “I just don’t want him to know how much I care...in case he feels suffocated and backs away, like he did with her.”
“Who suggested the Chinese lessons?”
“He did.”
“Well, you must be doing something right or he wouldn’t be setting himself up for heartbreak a second time.”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe he’s got a deep-seated fear that you’ll retreat because of his job, so he’s taking lessons for insurance.”
Was that the real reason? Her mother had given her a lot to think about.
“Where’s Dad?”
“He’s gone up to bed.”
“That’s where I’m headed. I’ve got to be at the university by eight.” They climbed the stairs together. “Thanks for the talk.”