- -
- 100%
- +
“Sam?”
“Mrs. Baker’s nephew. I saw you from the back and you’re about the same height and he has brown hair like yours. Although I would have been surprised to see Sam in a suit. Still… Sam’s been working in the backyard for weeks, helping to get the B&B ready. I was just going to say hi to him before I went inside to see Mrs. Baker.”
She smiled again, stood there with the full light of the sun glinting off her blond curls, her legs bare, her arms, all that golden sun-kissed skin. Not as much as she’d shown off in the yellow bikini, but more than enough to give a man all sorts of ideas.
He’d kept thinking on the ship, as she’d sunned herself, of how warm her skin must be after she laid in the sunshine for so long. How hot she’d be to the touch.
Nick made a face, then tried not to. He’d already nearly scared her away. He just had to stop thinking about her and her skin and touching her. He just needed to spy on her without thinking of her.
How the hell was he supposed to do that?
Into his head came that old Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones song.
You make a grown man cryyyyy-eeyyyyyyee. Do-do-do-do. You make a grown man cryyyy-eeyyyyyee.
She could definitely make a man cry.
“So…” she said, still looking way too friendly despite his Dr.-Jekyll-and-Mr.-Hyde act. “Did Mrs. Baker open up the B&B while I was gone?”
“She didn’t plan on it, but I convinced her to take me in early.” He tried to gather up enough scattered brain cells to put together another sentence. Come on, Nick. She’s just a woman, one who’s likely in love with a crook at that. “I’m Nick. Nick Cavanaugh.”
He had no choice but to offer his hand and, despite his every wish or maybe because of things he wouldn’t even let himself admit he wanted, she took it. He didn’t think he was standing there with his mouth hanging open, thinking way too much about having her hand in his, but he couldn’t be sure. And yes, even her hand was hot to the touch. Had she been sunning herself and he’d missed it?
“Down, boy,” Harry said.
Sweet hell.
This assignment was going to kill him.
“I’m Kim Cassidy. I have an apartment next door. Welcome to Magnolia Falls.”
“Thank you.”
“Are you staying long?”
“I’m not sure yet. Depends on how long my business takes, and then… Well, they owe me some time off. Seems like a nice, quiet place.” He shrugged. Damn, his shoulder hurt. He was falling apart. Whereas she seemed perfectly put together.
“It is a nice place. And friendly,” she said.
Friendly? Was she going to be friendly? And just what did she think being friendly entailed?
“I might stay awhile,” he said.
Please, please don’t let this take a while. Please don’t let her get all that friendly. He couldn’t take it.
Let her crook of a boyfriend show up tomorrow. Let him get this over with and get out of here and forget all about her and the way he feared she’d look once he was done here.
“Well, I hope you like it. Let me know if you need anything.”
“I will,” he said, then couldn’t let it go at that. He did have a job to do. He couldn’t stand to fumble around gawking over her, not if he was going to get the job done. “Actually, I need lunch. A place to have lunch. What’s good here in town?”
“That’s easy. The Corner Diner on Main. Just go that way.” She pointed off to the left. “It’s about eight blocks down. You can’t miss it. I’m meeting my sisters there in a few minutes, trying to beat the lunch crowd.”
“There’s a crowd?”
She nodded. “Just about the only one you’ll ever see in town. If you want lunch without having to wait, you should go now. I’m going inside to say hello to Mrs. Baker before I head that way myself.”
“Okay. I’ll give it a try.”
“Then I guess I’ll see you there,” she said, heading up the steps and inside, calling out Mrs. Baker’s name and knocking only as she went through the doorway.
So, he was going to lunch and she was going to be there. Hopefully telling her sisters all about her little trip and the guy she’d met.
Nick sighed.
Maybe this would be easy.
Maybe it would be easy and he could finish it up and go home.
“Not bad,” Harry said. “Not as smooth as I’ve seen you, but still…not bad.”
“Where the hell are you?” he barked.
Harry just laughed.
Nick headed off to lunch.
To spy on her.
Chapter Three
Nick was happily eating his lunch—meat loaf and mashed potatoes smothered in heart-clogging gravy—when people started screaming.
At least, at first he thought they were screaming.
He nearly pulled out his gun before he realized it wasn’t really screaming.
It was more like…squealing.
Happy squealing?
Sounds he wasn’t sure he’d ever heard come out of a woman’s mouth before in public, maybe not even in the privacy of his own bedroom, and here he was thinking that he could make women make some really interesting, happy sounds.
But there he was, in the Corner Diner in Magnolia Falls, and his prime lead in the case of the pirate ring had just entered the establishment in a rush, thrown open her pretty suntanned arms, embracing three different women at the same time, and all four of them were doing something that could only be described as squealing for joy.
“Good God,” Nick muttered, just loud enough for Harry to hear, apparently.
Because the next thing he heard was Harry in his ear saying, “It’s a Southern thing. Southern women do that.”
“Do they do it in bed?” Nick asked, unable to help himself.
Harry laughed. “If you do it right, Southern women can make all sorts of little sounds like that in bed.’ Course the way you’re limping along right now and with that bad back of yours—”
“I don’t have a bad back. A shoulder. Just a shoulder—”
“Okay. Shoulder. I don’t think you should attempt a move like that, Nickie. I don’t want you to hurt yourself, you know?”
“In bed?” he muttered. “The day I can’t take a woman to bed without hurting myself is the day I—”
Nick looked up into the half-disapproving, half-amused face of the woman who’d seated him at the diner, the owner herself, Darlene Hodges.
“Sorry,” he told her. “I was just…” He gestured feebly at the headset he wore and shrugged.
“No problem, honey. I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself, either.” She nodded understandingly. “But just in case, you should know, a man gets to a certain age and all sorts of things just start to go. Women understand these things. At least, some women do. Not that I think you really need to worry all that much.”
Harry was howling.
Nick gulped. He had no idea what to say.
“You want some more coffee?” Darlene asked, smiling in that understanding way of hers.
“Sure,” Nick said, so that maybe she’d go away and not come back again anytime soon, so that he wouldn’t have to decide whether she was flirting with him or making fun of him and his feebleness. He really wasn’t sure. He really didn’t want to know.
His head hurt. His shoulder and his back hurt. His knee hurt. And he just wanted to go to sleep but was afraid he’d dream about Kim and things a man ten years younger than him might be able to do to her to make her make that sound Nick had never heard before from a woman in bed.
Darlene poured his coffee and walked away.
“That was the funniest damned thing I’ve heard all week,” Harry proclaimed. “Maybe so far this year—”
“Shut up, Harry,” Nick said. Then, in disgust over having Harry and his smart-ass comments in his ear, Nick hit a button and cut off the connection. It wasn’t like Harry was helping.
Nick sat there, pretending to eat, watching as Kim continued to greet the two women—who had to be her sisters from the resemblance between the three of them—and a petite brunette. Most of the squealing had stopped, but the hugging hadn’t and the women were chattering like mad, all at the same time. He couldn’t make out anything, really, and he was only two tables away.
He’d spotted her sisters the minute he’d walked into the diner. It was frightening to think there were two other women in the world who looked nearly as good as her. Really scary. Same shade of blond hair, same young, happy, girl-next-door sexy looks. They must have driven the men in this town nuts for years. He was scared to be in the same room with the three of them, but he had to. So Nick planted himself at a table nearby and expected to be able to hear everything. He had very good hearing. Unlike his knee, his hearing wasn’t going, yet.
And he was sure there was good stuff to hear. He just couldn’t keep up, because he could swear every one of the four women was talking at once. He stared, thinking that looking at them as they talked might make it easier to follow the conversation.
It swirled around him in a practically indistinguishable blob of chatter.
“Really in love—?”
“Knew the minute you saw him—?”
“Just like that—?”
“Scared—?”
“Hear all about the attack—”
“So brave—”
“Protect you—?”
“Ever get home—?”
“Worse than that time in Vienna—?”
Vienna?
What had she done in Vienna?
The pirate ring might have been in Vienna recently. They weren’t sure. They were still checking.
Vienna?
Nick had lost at least a dozen lines of dialogue just thinking of it. Vienna?
“Can’t wait to meet him—”
“Coming here—?”
Wait a minute. What was that?
Had she said he was coming here?
Her pirate/terrorist/lover boy?
Did he make her squeal?
“Ahhhh!” Nick closed his eyes and groaned, disgusted to even think his thoughts had gone in that direction—her and the pirate wannabe in bed, her making those sounds, him with too bad a back or shoulder or knee to even think of doing things like that with her or anyone else.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw Darlene and one of the waitresses huddled in the corner looking at him strangely. Like they might be a little bit afraid of him.
Couldn’t have that.
Nick smiled his best I’m-just-an-ordinary-boring-old-guy smile, his harmless-as-can-be look.
Darlene and the waitress didn’t appear to be buying it.
Which meant Nick had to be more careful.
Which meant keeping his mind on his own business was a good idea.
Which shouldn’t be that hard.
She was just a woman, after all.
Nick hadn’t met a woman yet that he couldn’t handle.
Kim sat there with her sisters, Kate and Kathie, as well as Jax’s wife, Gwen, who was very much a sister now, feeling happy as could be, as if absolutely all was right with the world. She was home. She was surrounded by her family and she was in love.
“So…tell us everything!” Kate commanded.
“Well, it was like all of a sudden he was all I could see, you know?”
The three of them nodded in unison, happy, girl-talk looks on their faces.
She was the only one of the three who was still single, the only one who’d never been in love. She’d been afraid it might never happen to her and now that it had, it was like it filled her entire body, like she was overflowing with this silly, giddy, bubbly, happy feeling. Like she couldn’t even contain it.
She was babbling, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t even want to help it. She wanted the whole world to know! Especially her sisters.
“Everything on the ship just got a little crazy and then there he was, right in front of me. He didn’t look scared at all. He didn’t even look surprised. He just looked like whatever happened, he could handle it, you know?”
They all sighed appreciatively.
“Self-confidence is just soooo sexy in a man,” Gwen said.
Kathie nodded. “There’s just something about a man who can handle anything. One you know you can count on.”
“Yes,” Kim said.
More sighs all around.
They were a bunch of happy women. Syrupy, gooey, mushy happy. It was that bad. And that good.
“So what did he do? The pirates attacked and then what?” Kate asked.
“He pushed me down on the deck, out of the way, because they had guns and were firing at the ship! Can you believe it?”
“No,” they all said.
“No one could believe it,” Kim said. “I thought it was fireworks at first or maybe a kid’s game. The crew had some great games for the kids. I kept expecting an army of five-year-olds with toy guns to come running at any minute, explaining the noise and the commotion. And then we heard the bullets bouncing off the metal of the ship and people started screaming. It was crazy.”
“Were you really scared?” Gwen asked.
“I don’t know. I guess so… I mean, I don’t know if I even had time to be scared. I’d just started to believe that maybe I should be scared and then…there he was.” She grinned widely. It was like her face should hurt already, from grinning so much. She was just so ridiculously happy. “He pushed me down onto the deck and told me to stay down, then he put his own body between me and the pirates, like no matter what, he wasn’t going to let them hurt me. We were on the lowest deck, not far at all from the surface of the water, right out in the open. It was the main sun deck, so it was full of space for lounge chairs and things. There was just nowhere to go for cover and he wouldn’t let me move anyway.”
Heavy, heavy sighs.
“Wow,” Kathie said. “I’m so glad he was there to take care of you.”
“Me, too,” Kim said.
What would she have done without him? Maybe gotten herself shot, that’s what.
“He stayed with me the whole time, until the entire thing was over and told me to stay calm, that everything would be all right, that he’d take care of me. He was wonderful!”
Nick heard that and thought he was going to puke.
Wonderful!
Near as they could tell, her Mr. Wonderful was on board to help the pirates board the ship, if the attack had gone just a little better. If Nick and his crew hadn’t been waiting for them. Then Mr. Wonderful would have used pretty Kim Cassidy as cover while he helped his friends board the ship.
Nick could just see her with a gun at her head, Mr. Wonderful’s arms wrapped around her, not to shield her but to keep her from getting away while the coward used her body to protect him and the thugs he worked with.
She’d really have thought he was something then.
Let her try to tell herself she was in love with the jerk then!
Of course, she didn’t know that, poor, silly, naive woman that she was.
Why were the gorgeous ones always so…senseless when it came to men?
He’d wanted to say stupid. He’d normally say stupid. How could women be so stupid?
But he thought she was a nice woman, and not just because she had a great body, so he couldn’t bring himself to call her stupid. He was already worrying about how she was going to take it when her lover boy turned out to be a crook.
He hoped he wouldn’t have to be the one to tell her, but since it was his case, he’d probably have to do the deed.
She’d probably slap him. She’d cry. She might squeal, a really unhappy, awful squeal that wouldn’t make him think of anything like taking her to bed with him. Not that she’d be getting anywhere near him once she knew what he was doing here.
Still, he didn’t want her to cry.
He just wanted her to be smart and not get involved with jerks or pirates or international terrorists.
Was that too much to ask?
Nick watched, waited and listened as best he could as Kim chattered on.
He couldn’t be sure, but he thought she’d said her new boyfriend was coming here…soon? Somebody had squealed again at that point in the conversation, so he just wasn’t sure.
Maybe she’d call someone tonight and they’d have the phone tap in place and no one would squeal. Did women squeal on the phone, too? He hoped not. It was starting to make his head hurt.
Nick had finished his meal and the lunch rush was in full force. He ordered dessert to have an excuse to stay. It seemed half the town was there and that all of them knew Kim Cassidy and wanted to know about her adventure with the pirates. They all stopped at her table. She hugged quite a few of them, grinned broadly at others and gave them all a condensed version of the story.
Nick became aware that everyone in the place seemed to be talking about her.
He kept catching bits and pieces, none of which made sense.
“Engaged—” That from the guy in mechanic’s overalls, heading to the cash register to pay his ticket.
Were they engaged? Surely not. Surely she wasn’t that stupid.
Nick fought the urge to close his eyes and swear.
“From Colorado—”
So, the guy was from Colorado? That was something they could check. Nick made a mental note to tell Harry. Check Colorado.
“Cleveland—”
The guy in the dark blue suit said Cleveland?
Okay, check Colorado and Cleveland.
“Pittsburgh—”
What the hell? How could three different people in the same diner at the same time as her all think the guy was from three different places?
“Next week maybe—”
This from one of the waitresses who’d just been at Kim’s table.
That was promising.
“Next month—”
No, no. Not next month. He would not make it until next month. Not here. Not with her.
“Huge party for them—”
“Soon as he gets here—”
“Falls Park—”
“Hold the crowd—”
“Award—”
Someone wanted to give the damned guy an award? For saving Kim?
Nick groaned.
“Great idea—”
“Talk to the mayor—”
“Talk to her sisters—”
“Award and engagement party, all at once—”
Nick hoped his head didn’t explode and that he didn’t blurt out something outrageous, like the truth of the matter, to everyone present at the Corner Diner that day.
Couldn’t any of them get their stories straight?
Wasn’t there one, solid, reliable piece of information in the whole place?
Other than the possibility that she might be engaged to the criminal?
Surely not.
Surely she wasn’t that stupid.
He was thinking it now. Maybe the woman was just stupid. Nice but not very smart. From his experience, a frighteningly large number of women fit into that category. Maybe it wasn’t their fault. Maybe they couldn’t help it. Maybe men like Eric Weyzinski had some strange power over them and they just couldn’t tell a jerk from a nice guy.
God knows Nick fooled enough of them into thinking everything he said was genuine, when hardly anything that came out of his mouth was.
Which, he realized, meant he had a lot in common with the crook who was about to break her heart.
“I don’t know what to make of it,” he told Harry once he got back to the B&B.
Kim had walked.
Nick had followed her very, very slowly.
Watched her stroll along like a woman without a care in the world, smiling, stopping to talk to a dozen people along the way, staring up at the blue sky, stopping to smell the flowers.
It was like something out of one of those sickening long-distance commercials.
They were all so happy.
Nick didn’t know what to make of it.
“What’s the problem?” Harry said agreeably.
He said everything in that same I’m-your-buddy tone and it wasn’t natural to be that happy. Nick tended to be suspicious of happy people. Harry and Kim and most people in this town were way too happy.
“I have no idea what’s going on. That’s the problem,” Nick said, deciding to ignore the too-much-happiness thing for the moment. He had other more pressing concerns.
“You didn’t hear anything at the diner?” Harry asked.
“No, I heard everything at the diner. That she might be engaged. That the guy was coming here, either the next day, the next week or the next month. Take your pick. That he’s from Colorado or Cleveland or maybe Pittsburgh. What the hell?”
Harry laughed.
It was starting to annoy Nick every time Harry made that sound and Harry made it quite often.
“It’s a small town,” Harry said.
“So?”
“So people talk. All of them talk. All the time. But only about twenty percent of it’s true, and that’s just a guess. It might be less than twenty percent. I don’t know. I don’t think anybody knows.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were trying to confuse me,” Nick said. “That all of them are in on it and they’re deliberately trying to confuse me.”
“No, they’re just talking. They gossip. All about each other. Trust me, this is normal.”
“Then how the hell am I supposed to figure out what’s going on?”
“You follow her, Nickie. You stay really close to her. So close you can smell her pretty perfume. And you don’t trust anything except what comes out of her sweet, little mouth and maybe not even that. Meanwhile, I’ll look for your guy in Colorado, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky, and the guy’ll show up tomorrow.”
“Or maybe we won’t.”
“Yeah. Maybe.” Harry chuckled. “Hey, I got the blueprint from the conversion they did on her house, when they cut it up into apartments. Am I crazy or is your view even more spectacular than we thought it might be?”
Nick said nothing.
“I mean, I don’t have the same vantage point as you. But looking at it from street level, I’d have to say the angle is highly favorable. You could look into her living room and, off to the right, see through the doorway into her bedroom—”
“Shut up, Harry.”
“You know you don’t deserve perks like this, right? No man could be that lucky—”
Nick cut him off again.
He had hours before it got dark. Before she turned on the lights in her apartment and closed the blinds a little more tightly.
Would she do that? Or would she think she was far enough off the ground that no one could see in?
Maybe she wouldn’t bother. After all, glancing around, he thought his was the only window with the perfect vantage point to be spying on her this way and if the B&B had been empty for some time while it was being renovated… Well, she might not have worried about anyone looking in on her.
Please let her close the blinds, he thought.
And please don’t let her be in love with a crook who was going to break her heart.
Chapter Four
She made a few phone calls while sitting on the floor of her apartment doing some stretching moves that looked like yoga. Nick knew because he watched her every move. He sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, looking down into her apartment from what was, as Harry guessed, a perfect vantage point and watched nothing but her for hours.
She had the light on, as light was fading outside, and he kept his light off, his window blinds angled downward, his own private pipeline to her living room and tiny kitchen and, off to the right—yes, indeed—was the open door to her bedroom and bathroom. Not a great view into those rooms, but a view.
Nick listened in on the calls as she made them.
Two friends from high school, another from college. Fellow teachers at the elementary school where classes had ended only two weeks before. All wanting to know the same thing—what had happened on her trip?
Was he mistaken or did she sound less excited with each recitation of events? Did she sound a little sad? Maybe a little worried?
He thought she did.
And he had a name the guy had given her.
Eric Daniels.
An occupation. Something vague having to do with investments.
Yeah, right.
The place? Apparently, the guy moved around a lot because she did indeed mention the guy being in Colorado and Cleveland. No Pittsburgh. And apparently, his home base was California. She didn’t mention a city. So half of what Nick had heard at the diner had some basis in reality? How was he supposed to function in this town?