Sam stood on Zoe’s porch and rubbed his hands together in an attempt to keep the cold at bay. What was taking her so long? The desert was a great place to live during the winter months, but once the sun disappeared, the temperature plummeted. Sam rang the doorbell twice, then rapped on the door. “Are you punishing me for something?” he called.The door swung open, but Zoe didn’t look even close to being ready. Unless she was planning on attending the luminarias in her pajama bottoms, a tank top, and wet hair.Sam checked his watch. It was already a quarter after seven. “Why aren’t you ready? It’s not going to look good when I’m late. I have to give the spiel that officially opens the event.”

Sam stared at the document sitting in front of him. The words swam on the page, mocking him. If he’d thought getting work done before Saturday night had been difficult, it had now become impossible. Ever since that kiss that had sent him higher than the moon, and then brought back lower and harder than he’d ever fallen before. How could he have allowed this to happen?And because Sam hadn’t seen Katie since that night, his imagination had been allowed to roam free. He’d dreamed of her, imagined kissing her again, remembered how hungry, yet soft, her lips had been. If he could just see her again, he’d realize that fantasy was always better than reality. He’d realize that the real Katie couldn’t possibly live up to his expectations, and then Sam would be able to move on and refocus on the job at hand.

Katie stood on the seat of the car, watching the sun set, until the road became too bumpy and she was thrown into the side of the sun roof. “Ow,” she said, dropping back into her seat.“You okay?” Sam asked, then pointedly tugged his seatbelt.“Yeah, yeah. I know. Safety first.” Katie put her seatbelt on, but still craned to see the brilliant hues that stretched across the sky. “I just can’t get over it. This place is so amazing.”“I’ve lived here my whole life, and I’m still not used to it,” Sam said. “I hope I never am.”“Where did you say we’re goi

“How did it go?” Bev asked, handing Katie a sugar cookie. They sat on a couple of tree stumps outside Bev’s tent. “Mayor Freedman dropped these off this morning, so I’m guessing it didn’t go too badly.”“It didn’t go well either,” Katie said, taking a bite. “I didn’t tell him.”“I thought so.” Bev shook her head. “You can’t go on pretending, you know. A life that you want to last can’t be built on lies, and you have built up plenty of them since you got here.”“I haven’t lied about anything except my name,” Katie protested.

“I need an update,” Sam said into his phone. “We still don’t see them.” He listened, nodding. “Great. Thank you, Detective. Keep us posted.” He hung up and turned to Daniel in the passenger seat. “New Mexico State troopers have set up a roadblock about thirty miles north.”Daniel gave a grim smile. “What if they didn’t go north?”“We have a witness who saw a patrol car heading in that direction. Besides, border patrol is to the south and Bev said she and Melinda haven’t seen any patrol cars on the east route.”“Did the witness see if the car was from Colorado?”