Gray's face warmed. He looked out of the corner of his eye at Adrian. She was still smiling, but there was a touch of color to her cheeks.
He drew a hand along his mouth. He turned fully to Adrian. "We haven't talked about these things."
"Looks like we are now," she said.
He cleared his throat. "I don't like being brazen and forward, and I know—"
"Be brave, Owen," she said, widening her grin. "Show me some of the stuff you showed the Russian."
He asked quickly, "Will you stay, Adrian? For a while."
"Yes. For a while." Then she added, "At least."
The girls whooped and leaped and ran toward Chief Durant and Detective Coates to tell them Adrian wouldn't be going with them to the airport.
As the twins ran past their brother, Carolyn yelled at him, "Adrian is staying. She and Dad are together now."
John didn't look up from his Game Boy. "Cool."
Adrian reached for Gray. They sat there holding hands and leaning toward each other while the twins danced and pointed back at them and happily speculated with the police chief and Pete Coates about the Gray family's future.
Also by James Thayer:
House of Eight Orchids
The Gold Swan
Terminal Event
Force 12
Five Past Midnight
Man of the Century
S-Day: A Memoir of the Invasion of England
Ringer
Pursuit
The Earhart Betrayal
The Stettin Secret
The Hess Cross
About the Author:
James Thayer is the author of thirteen critically acclaimed novels. Clive Cussler has called him a “master story-teller,” and his novels are “highly original and absolutely riveting” (Irish Independent), “heart-thumping” (Boston Globe), and “electrifying.” Detroit Free Press. The New York Times Book Review has said that his "writing is smooth and clear.… It wastes no words, and it has a rhythm that only confident stylists achieve.” He is also the author of The Essential Guide for Writing a Novel, a leading manual for novelists.
Thayer is a graduate of Washington State University and the University of Chicago Law School. He teaches novel writing at the University of Washington extension school where he has received the Excellence in Teaching Award in the Arts, Writing and Humanities. He is a member of the Washington State Bar Association and the International Thriller Writers. Thayer and his family live in Seattle. His web site is JamesThayer.com.