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“No, I’m serious, Tessa. Stay away from Luke Asher. He’s bad news.”
Utterly confused, Tessa leaned to the side to look past Jamie to the hallway beyond. “Am I being Punk’d? I thought that show was canceled a long time ago.”
“Damn it!” he shouted. Tessa jumped an inch out of her chair when his fist thumped her desk.
“Sheesh. Calm down.”
“I won’t calm down. He’s not someone you should be hanging out with, much less dating.”
“Oh, really? Who is? A priest? Luke’s a friend of yours. If he’s good enough for you to hang around with, why not me?”
“Because I’m not a woman.”
Tessa rolled her eyes. Her brothers didn’t like her hanging out with any male over twelve and under eighty. “We just went out for dinner. We didn’t participate in a Roman orgy, I swear.”
Jamie’s face flamed red immediately. “Tessa!”
Sometimes she felt she was living in the middle of a Jane Austen novel. “I like him, all right? Just leave it alone.”
He crossed his arms. “I like him, too. He’s a great guy. How else would he have gotten so much action in college?”
“Oh, really? As much as you?”
He raised an eyebrow in silent acknowledgment.
Tessa cleared her throat. “That was in college.”
“Sure it was. And his current nickname is Magnet.”
“Magnet?”
“Yes,” he bit out. “As in Babe Magnet. I heard one of the other cops call him that when he wasn’t listening.”
Tessa tried not to smile. She could understand the reputation. The man had a lethal attraction.
“And,” Jamie continued, pointing his finger at her, “have you not noticed the fact that his partner is currently pregnant up to her damned ears?”
“So?”
“So, the kid is his, Tessa. Jesus. Pay attention.”
She felt all the air leave her body in a whoosh, and it took all of her little-sister outrage with it. “What?”
“He knocked up his partner, and now he’s letting her swing in the breeze.”
“How do you know that?”
Jamie spread his arms out in her small office. “I’m a bartender, Tessa. I hear things.”
“So …” Tessa’s mind flailed. That was why he’d been so awkward when he’d talked about his partner. “So maybe she’s the one who wants him to keep his distance.”
“I don’t give a damn what the reason is. His life is all fucked-up, and you don’t need any part of that.”
“Like my life is so un-fucked-up right now?”
“Watch your language,” he muttered.
Tessa closed her eyes and tried to call up the patience of a nineteenth-century noblewoman.
“And,” Jamie continued in a lower tone, “it’s my life that’s messed up, not yours. By the way, what the hell did you post on Twitter last night?”
“Nothing. It’s not important. Just …” She made a frantic gesture for him to close the door. Jamie shook his head, so she slapped his arm as hard as she could. He glared at her, but closed the door.
“Give me Monica’s number,” she hissed.
“No.”
“Are you going to call her back?”
“I don’t know.”
“Come on! I can’t get in touch with her dad and we need to find out if he knows!”
“He looked right at me, Tessa. He knows. We need to stop screwing around and tell Eric before he finds out from Kendall.”
“No! We can’t! Just let me … I’ll go down to Kendall’s office right now, okay?”
“No, I’m going to tell Eric. This is one disaster you can’t cover up. I don’t even want you to.”
As he turned toward the door, Tessa leaped up and grabbed his shirt.
“Hey!”
“Please don’t. Please!”
Jamie seemed alarmed to find her sprawled over her desk. Her pack of paper clips slipped to the floor with a crash. “Tessa, calm down.”
“Tell me you won’t tell him and I’ll calm down.”
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“I’m not.” She felt tears spring to her eyes, and she hadn’t even summoned them to soften him up. Jamie’s shoulders fell, and when she knew he wasn’t going to dart for the door, she let go of his shirt and climbed off her desk. “He’s going to be so mad, Jamie.”
“I know that.”
“He’ll never let you take on more of the business.”
“Maybe I don’t deserve to take on more.”
She knew that wasn’t true. He didn’t have any responsibility, so he didn’t act responsibly. But Eric didn’t see the logic in that reasoning. He wanted Jamie to prove himself first, and every year the tension grew between the two men. Something had to give. And Tessa was afraid her family would be the thing to break.
“You said you’d give me a chance,” she pleaded.
“I didn’t say that. I just stopped arguing with you.”
“Please, Jamie.” His jaw tightened in stubbornness. She grabbed his hand and wrapped both of hers around it. “Pleeease?”
She knew the moment she had him. She always did. And not a second too soon. Her office door snapped open again, and Eric stuck his head in.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing!” she answered.
Jamie held her gaze, and for a moment, the serious line of his mouth worried her. She gave her head one tiny shake and squeezed his hand one last time before letting him go.
Eric clearly didn’t buy that they were just having a cozy brother/sister talk. “Guys,” he said flatly.
Jamie took a deep breath and Tessa closed her eyes. Please.
“The person Tessa was with last night? It was Luke.”
Oh, great. She opened her eyes and narrowed them at Jamie. Surely he could’ve thought of a save that didn’t throw her under the bus.
“Luke Asher?” Eric’s voice sang like a blade drawn from a scabbard. “I hope you’re kidding.”
Tessa was done with this. If Luke really had gotten his partner pregnant, then Tessa wasn’t going to see him again. And if he hadn’t … then it was still none of their business. “Forget it, both of you. It was one meal, and it’s over, okay?”
“Promise?” Jamie asked.
Tessa scowled at him. “I’m not a kid anymore.” But she crossed her fingers just in case that still counted. Both her brothers glared at her. They looked nothing alike, aside from their height. Eric was dark-haired and pale-eyed. Jamie looked like a golden-haired mess next to him. But they both wore identical expressions of stern disapproval, and she could picture the exact same frown on her father’s face. They loved her. They wanted what was best for her. Just as she wanted the best for them.
She snatched up her purse. “Okay, boys. I’ve got to go. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
Their expressions turned even darker. “Why?” Eric asked.
“Because I have a doctor’s appointment.”
“What’s wrong?” he demanded.
“Um, it’s a girlie thing. You know …” She leaned forward and cupped her hand over her mouth. “The gynecologist.”
“Oh.” Eric stepped back so quickly that his shoulder hit the doorjamb. His face turned red. “It’s just a checkup, though, right? You’re not, um, engaged in anything that …”
“No,” she answered with mock seriousness. “I’m not ‘engaged in anything.’”
Sometimes she wondered who had raised whom in this family.
Now that she had both her brothers backing out of her office in horror, Tessa was free to go. She bit back a self-satisfied smile as she kissed Eric on the cheek. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
But once she hit the door, she raced to her car. She was wearing jeans and a brewery T-shirt, and she didn’t want to see Roland Kendall that way, so she had to stop at home before she drove to Denver. No matter what it took, she was going to get an answer from that man today.
SHE’D DONE IT again.
Instead of telling Luke face-to-face, Simone had left a message on his voice mail that she had a doctor’s appointment. His office voice mail. She hadn’t called his cell phone, because she knew for a fact that Luke wanted to go with her. He wasn’t the father of her baby, but he was her best friend, or had been at one time.
So why didn’t she want him there? Was it possible that someone else was going to the appointments with her?
The message had said she’d be in at twelve, which probably meant her appointment was around eleven. He glanced at the clock. He could drive by in a half hour or so, see if her car was in the doctor’s parking lot. If only he knew who her doctor was …
Luke stretched and faked a yawn, taking the opportunity to glance around the office. Most of the detectives were on the phone. The rest were gathered near the coffee machine, gabbing about something. His sergeant was nowhere to be seen.
Rising to circle around to Simone’s desk, Luke told himself not to look guilty. There was nothing weird about him sorting through her stuff. They worked the same cases. They shared the same space. Still, he felt a flush climb up the back of his neck as he tugged open the top drawer and pushed some papers around. It didn’t take much. The corner of a business card appeared. He pulled it free of the pile and immediately spied a stylized logo of a woman holding a baby. Bingo.
Luke tucked the card into his pocket and circled back to his desk just as his cell phone rang. “Asher.”
“Hey, it’s Jamie Donovan. Do you have a minute to swing by the brewery?”
Perfect. Now he had an excuse to leave. “I’ll be there in a few.”
He slipped on his coat and grabbed his keys to head out. The doctor’s office was on the way to the brewery, so he drove by just in case. Simone’s car wasn’t there, but it was early yet. Luke had the sinking feeling that he was stepping over a line here, and he was still trying to shake off the guilt when he walked into the brewery. The front room was empty, but before he could head to the back, Jamie came through the swinging doors.
“Hey, Jamie. What’s up?”
“Stay the hell away from my sister, Luke.”
Amazingly, Luke had been so caught up in the drama with Simone that he’d forgotten about the problem of Tessa Donovan. He just stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face.
“You promised to leave her alone.”
“She asked me to dinner.”
“So you should’ve said no.”
“I did. But …” He cleared his throat. “Then I said yes.”
“Whatever. It doesn’t matter. She’s no longer interested. I told her about your partner.”
Any guilt Luke had been feeling snapped into cold fury. “What about my partner? You don’t know a damn thing about it.”
“I know she’s pregnant. And you’re the father. And I know you’re trying to date my sister. That’s all I need to know.”
“You’re wrong,” he managed to push past clenched teeth.
“About what?” Jamie snapped.
He refused to say more. It wasn’t right to talk about Simone this way. She never said a word about it to anyone. She’d always been a private person, and he couldn’t disrespect her that way.
Jamie shrugged. “Whether you’re the father or not, it’s hardly the only issue.”
“Oh, yeah? What else puts her out of my league?”
Jamie shifted, running a hand through his hair and looking everywhere but at Luke.
“What?” Luke snapped, expecting to hear more about the divorce.
Jamie finally met his gaze. “Tessa is a virgin.”
“Uh … What?”
“You heard me.”
Luke wondered if the stress of the past few years had finally broken him. “You’re not serious.”
Jamie’s frown turned to a scowl. “You’re damn right I’m serious.”
“But … that’s … How do you know?”
“She’s told me as much herself.”
“She told you?” Luke asked weakly. Something that felt suspiciously like horror was rolling through him in waves. Tessa was a virgin? Good God. She hadn’t said a word. Except that part about being a good girl. Had that been a hint? “Wow,” he breathed.
“So when I say you’re not good enough for her, I mean you’re not fucking good enough for her, all right?”
Luke rolled his shoulders. “Look. I don’t like to talk about Simone, but what you’ve heard isn’t true. I’m not that guy. And I’m not looking to jump your sister’s bones. It was just dinner. We had a good time.”
“Well, make it the last time, all right?”
“What if I don’t want to?”
Jamie crossed his arms and dropped his eyes to the floor. “This is my sister.”
“Fair enough. But—”
“There is nothing about you that’s good enough for her. You’re damaged. Your job is dangerous. Your partner is pregnant. And even aside from your reputation, there are the stone-cold facts of your divorce. You can’t argue those away.”
Luke’s heart paused.
“She had cancer, man. How could you have walked out like that?”
Luke’s vision went dark at the edges, and he considered warning Jamie that he shouldn’t say that sort of thing to a man with a gun strapped to his body. Because in that moment, Luke wanted to kill someone. He really, really did.
“We’re friends, Luke, but—”
Luke cut him off with a hard laugh. “That friendship was a long time ago, obviously.”
“I’m sorry. It’s none of my business, and I wouldn’t make it my business, but I don’t want you anywhere near Tessa, got it?”
“Fuck off,” Luke said. He slammed through the front door of the brewery, blood rushing so hard in his ears he almost walked right into a car that pulled up. Two business types got out of the car, each of them eyeing him warily. Luke just stalked around them and got into his own car. Even two states away, he couldn’t get away from it. Luke had been married and divorced in California, which was one of the reasons he’d moved back here. Yeah, word got around the department, but he hadn’t expected it to get back to everyone. He should have known better. Eve wasn’t from Boulder, but she’d gone to school here. People talked. They always did. Hell, the police wouldn’t solve any cases if people weren’t so inclined to spread rumors.
God, what a disaster.
His rage leveled off to frustration, a constant, scalding burn beneath his skin. Everything about his divorce was frustrating. Not that that shocked him. His marriage had been frustrating, too, but he’d loved her like crazy.
“Shit,” he spat out. At least the anger had smoked out his guilt about spying on Simone. He didn’t feel even a twinge as he started the car and headed back toward the doctor’s office. But he was still reeling under a healthy dose of Holy crap, Tessa Donovan is an untouched innocent as he wove his car through streets filled with packs of hunched-over bikers. Frankly, the various emotions careering through his body left him feeling vaguely ill.
When he arrived at the doctor’s office, there was Simone’s car, right up by the door in one of the spaces marked with a stork. Maybe she was alone, then. Luke rolled down his window and settled in to wait.
The cool spring sunshine did nothing to temper his mood. He stared unmoved at the pale green leaves of the aspen grove at the edge of the parking lot. A wall of gray clouds gathered at the horizon, and Luke chose to focus on those instead. By two o’clock, the town would be beset by thunder and lightning, a fairly common occurrence on spring days. What a relief that would be. The sun and chirping birds and flip-flops were just too much to take.
So he watched the clouds gather beyond the building and let his eyes slide to the entry each time the door opened. A half hour later, the door swung out to reveal Simone, alone. She juggled a stack of pamphlets while digging for keys in her purse.
Luke slid out of his car, and when his door shut, she looked up. For a moment, Simone only looked concerned. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing. I was just … worried about you.”
Her eyes jumped to his car, then back to him, and her face stiffened. “Are you following me?”
“No.”
“Really?” she snapped. “Because I don’t remember giving you the name and address of my doctor.”
“I didn’t follow you. I … detected my way here.”
“I’m not in the mood for jokes. This is outrageous.”
He knew she was pissed. Hell, she was way past pissed if her flaring nostrils and reddening face were any indication. So Luke tried to tamp down his own feelings. “I’m sorry. I don’t want you going through this alone.”
She pushed past him and hit the unlock key, then threw everything into the passenger seat before rounding on him again. “How did you know I was alone? Or …” She gestured toward his car. “Was that the point of this? To find out who might be here with me?”
“No. No! It’s not about who the father is. I—”
“Really? Because you ask me every damn day. I’m sorry people think it’s you. I tell everyone who asks that it’s not. You’re the one who stopped denying it!”
“I’m trying to protect you.”
She threw her hands high. “I don’t need your protection!”
“Why not?” he yelled. Before the words had even left his mouth, he scrubbed his eyes with one hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell, I just … You’ve totally shut me out.”
Simone’s hand touched his arm, and when he looked down, he realized she hadn’t touched him in months. Not that she’d ever been overtly affectionate, but she’d never avoided him before.
“I’m sorry, Luke,” she said. “I’m sorry for what people are saying. And I’m sorry I can’t talk to you. I am.” Her fingers curled around his elbow, digging in. “I’m sorry about it all.”
Oh, Jesus. He started to reach for her, but she jerked away and dropped into the driver’s seat of her car.
“Just leave it alone, all right? I’m fine.” She slammed the door, nearly catching Luke’s elbow in the process, and he jumped back just as the engine roared to life. Simone roared out of there like a pregnant NASCAR driver, and she left Luke more frustrated than ever.
The door of the office opened behind him, and Luke looked back to be sure it wasn’t a big hulking bastard wearing a sign that said I Knocked Up Simone Parker. But it was just a petite blonde woman in pink scrubs. No such luck.
Thunder cracked in the distance, and Luke looked at his watch, hoping that he’d been standing there for hours and the day was almost done. But no, it wasn’t even noon. The whole day stretched before him, and most of it would be spent sitting next to his stubborn-ass partner. And now he didn’t even have the small hope that Tessa Donovan might call again.
Shit. The nausea in his stomach had focused itself into one spot, and Luke could already feel the ulcer starting. Yet another one to add to his collection.
CHAPTER SIX
BITCH, TESSA THOUGHT to herself, squeezing her fists tighter. Her knuckles shone white beneath the skin, and her nails bit into her palms, but she squeezed harder. She wanted to get up and pace, but she wouldn’t give Roland Kendall’s snotty receptionist the pleasure. The woman was already nasty enough, and she’d clearly relished the past four hours of watching Tessa squirm.
Two hours into it, she’d been forced to call in sick to work. She’d explained to Eric that her doctor wanted to run routine blood tests but she needed to go to a lab in Denver. To temper the lie, she said she’d take a vacation day and do some shopping, too.
He’d seemed distracted, and when she’d asked why, Eric said he was having trouble getting in touch with Roland Kendall. Tessa had felt as if she’d been flashed into another dimension at that moment. A world made of ice and anxiety.
But she’d talked herself down. Eric always had trouble getting in touch with Kendall because Kendall made a point of being hard to reach.
Nothing had changed except that now he was keeping two Donovans waiting.
Tessa glared at the receptionist’s bent head, focusing hard in the hopes that frustration would act as a magnifying glass and burn a hole into the woman’s scalp. But she didn’t even twitch. Not until Kendall’s office door opened and the man himself came into view.
Tessa sprang to her feet as Kendall walked out with his arm thrown around the shoulders of a man Tessa recognized from the newspaper. The Denver mayor, maybe? No, someone more important. A congressman.
Though she was standing three feet away, Kendall ignored her entirely as he walked his friend out.
For a moment, she considered following them out, then decided that kind of determination might get you arrested when a U.S. congressman was involved. So she held her ground, and a few minutes later, Kendall returned. He spared her a hard look.
“Mr. Kendall,” Tessa said brightly as she stepped into his path. “I’m Tessa Donovan.”
“I know who you are.”
Uh-oh. His voice dripped frost and disdain. He knew. There was no other explanation.
“I hoped we might be able to speak in private for a few minutes.”
“Is there really any point to that?”
Oh, God. This was bad. “I hope so, yes.”
“I’ll save you the time. I—”
“Please?” she asked softly. “Just one minute?” The man finally relented, whatever good that would do her.
He stalked into his office with Tessa on his heels. She closed the door behind her.
“Sit,” he said gruffly, waving toward a chair. She sat, but when he only stood above her, looming and stern, she stood again.
“My brother—” she started.
“Yes,” he spat, “your brother.”
Tessa cleared her throat and tried to think of some tack that might work. Unfortunately, the path to “please forgive my brother for doing your daughter” was narrow if nonexistent. “His behavior was … unwise.”
“Unwise!” Kendall said. “This is a multimillion-dollar business and he couldn’t keep his pants on for the time it takes to strike a deal.”
“Ah …” Tessa’s mouth wanted to say something about Kendall’s daughter not being able to keep her pants on, either, but she took a deep breath instead of slapping him in the face with that. “As a young businessperson myself, I’ve seen how work and social lives can so often intersect—”
“Unwise,” he repeated as if Tessa hadn’t spoken. “What kind of idiot risks a business deal over sex?”
Your daughter? her mind screamed. But she smothered her anger with a solemn nod. “Mr. Kendall, I’m sorry. It’s—”
“Your brother should be the one apologizing.”
“Oh, of course. He wants to. That’s why I’ve been calling. Absolutely. To schedule a meeting between you two.”
He seemed to buy that hook, line and sinker, probably because he assumed Tessa took care of phone duties around the office. The man was archaic.
“Screw it,” he growled. “It doesn’t matter. The deal is off.”
“No,” Tessa breathed. “No. This is business, Mr. Kendall, just like you said. Jamie and Monica are adults who let things get out of hand while they were discussing business—”
“He put his hands on my daughter!” Kendall shouted. “Do you really think I’m going to do business with the man now?”
“You won’t have to! Eric and I will take care of everything. If you never want to see Jamie again, I understand. I’ll keep him away from your daughter, too. I promise.” Okay, she had no idea how she’d keep that promise, but panic bubbled through her like she was a shaken soda can. Every single criticism Eric had ever thrown in Jamie’s face was about to turn into solid stone. A giant boulder of scorn and anger and frustration between the two of them. And where would that leave her? Her brothers were all she had.
Kendall paced away from her to stare out the window that overlooked the whole front range from Pike’s Peak to Long’s Peak. He glared at the mountains as if he could crumble them with his eyes.
Tessa crossed her fingers until she lost all sensation in her hands. Please, please, please.
“No,” he finally said.
“Mr. Kendall, don’t make a final decision now. You’re angry. Of course you are. So just give it a couple of days. We’re a family business like the Kendall Group is. It gives us our strength, but it makes things complicated, too, doesn’t it?”
His eye twitched. Just his left eye, and she took that as a good sign.
“My father started Donovan Brothers twenty-five years ago, and he named it in honor of the brother he lost in Vietnam. Both our parents died when Eric was only twenty-four. Just a kid. He could’ve sold the brewery. Anyone else would have. But he took over and built it up to what it is today. It’s a strong company, but it’s strong because of family, just like your companies are. Please. Take a few days. Look at the numbers Eric gave you. This deal would be good for both our families, I promise.”