Shadow Play: An Eve Duncan Novel

It had taken Joe a lot longer than Eve to accept the possibility, but he had finally done it. Bo

Eve drew a deep breath and gave him a quick kiss. “Which makes me luckier than a lot of people. I refuse to feel sorry for myself. I have you. I sometimes have Bo

“Besides outrageously tempting the taste buds. Sounds good. Need help?”

“Nah, you know my culinary expertise is nonexistent. I’ll do frozen.”

“Eve.”

She glanced over her shoulder.

He had to make sure that was the only problem. He was frowning, and his gaze was narrowed. “It’s just Jane leaving? You’ve been pretty quiet the last couple weeks. Nothing else is wrong?”

He could see she was tempted to deny it and put him off but she couldn’t do it. They had been together for years, and their relationship was based not only on love but honesty. “Nothing that can’t be fixed.” She shrugged. “I guess I’m just going through some kind of emotional adjustment. I wanted everything to stay the same. I wanted to keep Jane close to me. Mine. Though I always knew she didn’t really belong to me. She was too independent and was ten going on thirty when we adopted her. And Bo

“Why should that change?”

“It shouldn’t change. That’s what I told Bo

His brows rose. He had hoped the problem wouldn’t have anything to do with Bo

“A couple weeks ago. She scared me. She said she didn’t know how long she’d be able to keep coming to me. She said everything was going to change.”

“How? Why?”

“She didn’t know. She just wanted to warn me.”

“Very frustrating.” He chuckled. Keep it light and off-hand. “If your daughter has to pay you visits, I’d just as soon she not upset you like this.”

“That’s what I told her.”

He got to his feet and took her in his arms. “And so you should. Send her to me and I’ll reinforce it.” He kissed her. “Though I doubt if that’s going to happen. She only appeared to me a couple times just to make sure I knew that you weren’t hallucinating.” He looked directly into her eyes. “I know you need Bo

He meant every word. Was he overreacting? There was a good chance. He usually tried to keep the way he felt about her low key and not let her see the true depths. It was a throwback from the time when he’d had to pretend that love didn’t exist. These days he tried to strike a balance and keep the intensity down to make sure it didn’t overwhelm her. She was strong, but her career was difficult, and so was the knowledge that she knew what he felt for her bordered on obsession. Sometimes he couldn’t pull it off. Casual and easy weren’t in his DNA.

It was okay. She was gazing up into his face and he could see no pressure or stress, nothing but warmth and love in her expression. “Hey, I’m just having a few twinges, nothing major. It just seemed when Jane got on that plane that the changes were starting. A sort of harbinger of things to come.” She pushed him away and turned back to the freezer. “But change can be good, too, can’t it? After all, Bo

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

IRIS JOHANSEN is the New York Times bestselling author of Your Next Breath, The Perfect Witness, Live to See Tomorrow, Silencing Eve, Hunting Eve, Taking Eve, Sleep No More, What Doesn’t Kill You, Bo