Everyone around her treated Tinsley like she was some kind of fragile flower. She was the smallest and the youngest of all the Faulkners and her family tended to think of her as a child still. Then a couple of years ago, she’d been attacked when she was trying to protect her best friend, Edie Greene Wecker, from the man who had killed Edie’s husband and was trying to kill her brother.
Yes, Tinsley had been injured. Yes, she’d been scared. That didn’t mean she was broken, though. She’d fought back. She’d been taking self-defense lessons not only in Charleston, but also at the church in Shadows Landing. Only when she felt fully capable of handling a weapon safely herself did she go out and buy Tina, a paint-splattered handgun she kept for safety at her house. Tinsley’s gallery was in downtown Shadows Landing, but her house was out in the country. She felt better knowing she had Tina when she went home alone at night.
Tinsley looked at the painting and smiled. Paxton might be pushy and refused to admit he didn’t know the difference between Monet and Manet, but he didn’t treat her as if she’d break if he looked at her cross-eyed. Instead, he treated her like an equal. He constantly pushed her intellectually, and she was finding herself looking forward to their next debate. Maybe looking forward too much if her painting told her anything.
“Tinsley.”
Tinsley spun with her paintbrush out like a dagger as a deep voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Are you going to paint me to death?”
Tinsley rolled her eyes at the object of her fascination. “Agent Kendry, what are you doing here and why didn’t you knock?”
Paxton’s lips turned up into a slow smile and Tinsley bit the inside of her lower lip to prevent herself from staring. “I did knock, but you were lost in thought. I’m sorry to interrupt your work.”
Paxton moved to look at the painting and Tinsley jumped in front of it. Would he notice she’d painted them kissing?
Paxton looked down at her and chuckled. His eyes were alive as he kept his smile in place. “You’re cute when you’re self-conscious about your work, but it doesn’t do much good to try to hide it when I’m taller than you by a foot.”
“Then you should respect my obvious wishes for no one to see it and look away,” Tinsley said, putting her hands on her hips and glaring up at him. Unfortunately, her eyes never made it past his lips until his smile widened after he noticed where she was staring.
“I’d be happy to oblige your curiosity.” Paxton’s voice dipped lower as he leaned toward her. “If you’re not afraid of the big bad wolf.”
Tinsley rolled her eyes. “Oh please. You don’t scare me. You’re all bark and no bite.”
“You’re the only person to ever say that to me. And for the record, I do bite, and you’d love it.” Tinsley tried to act nonchalant but failed miserably when she couldn’t form a comeback. “Nice painting.”
Paxton stepped around her to get a closer look, and Tinsley hurried forward to try to block him, but failed when he shot his arm out to the side to barricade her from getting by him. “This is different from your other paintings. Romance isn’t really my thing, but this may be my favorite of yours so far. Your landscapes are excellent, but you hardly ever put people in them.”
Tinsley was filled with warmth at the compliment. The negative comments from the tourists were forgotten. She knew Paxton well enough to know he wouldn’t hold back with his opinions. So the fact that he liked it meant a lot to her. Now, she just had to stop him from realizing it was the two of them kissing in the painting.
“I’m not very good at people. What did you need or did you realize you hadn’t met your quota for torturing people for the day and decided to visit me?”
Tinsley moved to wash her brush, forcing Paxton to turn his back to the painting.
“There are all kinds of torture, you know. The kinds that are painful and designed to hurt, and then there are the kinds that leave you begging for more,” Paxton said, his voice growing rougher as he spoke.
Holy smokes! Tinsley’s body was on fire because she knew exactly what kind of torture he was talking about and looking at his eyes staring at her left her with no doubt he’d be very, very good at it.
What was happening here? Did he feel the same as she did? That these little skirmishes were just foreplay before the main event?
“So, what did you need?” Tinsley asked, proud that her voice didn’t crack or that she hadn’t stripped naked and jumped him.
“I have a case that I need your opinion on,” Paxton told her. Then to her horror, her stomach rumbled. He smirked at her again and all sexy thoughts flew out the window at her embarrassment. “How about we discuss the case over dinner?”
Her stomach liked that idea, but she didn’t. “If we go out, we won’t get any work done. Everyone will stop by the table to chat. It’s what I normally love about my small town, but if I need to look at files and examine paintings, I need to be able to focus.”
Paxton looked around and nodded. “Okay. You clean up and I’ll grab something from the Pink Pig. What do you want from there?”
The Pink Pig was one of two barbecue joints in town and the one closest to her. There was a friendly but intense rivalry between the Pink Pig and Lowcountry Smokehouse. It was a rivalry where there were no losers because both places were so good. Just thinking about them had her stomach rumbling again.
Tinsley gave him the order and watched as he walked out of the backroom. Oh boy. What was she getting herself into and could she get herself out of it if need be? She couldn’t wait for Paxton to get back, but even she knew he wasn’t the staying type.
3
Paxton thanked the waitress and grabbed the large brown paper bag filled with food. The entire time he was waiting for his order, his mind was on the painting at Tinsley’s. It had been them. She may say she wasn’t good at painting people, but she was wrong. It had felt as if Paxton had Tinsley bent back in his arms and was kissing her the second he had seen the painting.
Paxton smiled to himself as he walked by the Shadows Landing Historical Society. He wasn’t the only one thinking of them together. He picked up his pace, excited to get back to Tinsley and it wasn’t just because of the painting. Paxton had to be tough when dealing with dangerous gangs, but Tinsley would just roll her eyes and his tough act dissolved in a heartbeat. The question was, did he want to see what would happen if he pushed her in another way?
Yes, he wanted to see that very badly. But, even though he acted otherwise, he did have a heart and he wouldn’t hurt Tinsley for anything. That meant even protecting her from him. He couldn’t risk them starting something only to have him leave on assignment. That would be cruel and he’d never do that to Tinsley.
“Hello, young man.”
Paxton smiled at the polar-opposite pair of old ladies walking toward him. One looked like a plucked chicken, all pale, thin, and wrinkly. The other was darker-skinned and perfectly rounded. Yet, they both had the same curious look in their eyes as they took him in.
“Good evening, ladies.” Paxton smiled at them as he continued walking. He might be a tough as nails federal agent, but he wasn’t stupid. There wasn’t anything scarier than a granny gang. They would trip you with their sweetness, then cajole you into spilling your guts for a casserole. There was one such granny gang in Atlanta who had served as his confidential informants. And he wasn’t fooling himself to think only he got information from them. No, they strangled every last bit of information from him with the pretty scarf they’d knitted for him.