Someone Like Her (A K2 Team Novel)

by Owens, Sandra

  “Sure.” She flipped it closed and hopped off the chaise. “Go home and take a shower. I’ll pick you up in an hour.”

  “Because?”

  “Because we have somewhere to go. See you in an hour.” The way his eyes devoured her as his gaze traveled from her bare legs to her breasts made her toes curl. If he didn’t stop looking at her like that, she’d melt into a messy puddle at his feet. She left before she decided they should get it on in broad daylight on the back deck of her brother’s house.

  Maria pulled Sally into a parking space at the boys’ club. Jake hadn’t said much since getting in the car, had just mostly stared out the window as she drove. As she’d suspected, his brief show of happiness back at Logan’s house had been mostly an act.

  He scowled at the building. “Why are we here?”

  Finally, curiosity . . . of a sort. She twisted in her seat and took one of his hands, entwining their fingers. “I need you to keep an open mind and listen. Did you know Rick volunteered here during his free time?”

  The barest of interest sparked in his eyes, and he glanced out the window. “No, but what’s that got to do with me?”

  “I’m hoping you’ll take his place.” When he swiveled his head back with a look on his face that said she’d lost her mind, she rushed on before he could flat-out refuse. Please, God, let her say the right words.

  “It’s the best way there is to honor Rick’s memory. He loved these boys and made an amazing difference in their lives. To know that you picked up where he left off . . . well, it would have meant everything to him. But it’s not just that, although that’s a biggie. You need to do this for yourself. I don’t agree, but you hold yourself responsible for Rick’s death and, for you, this would be an act of atonement.” She caressed the skin between his thumb and index finger. “Who knows, you might even find you like it.”

  “I wouldn’t have a clue what to do with a gaggle of boys.”

  “They mostly play sports. You’ve played pickup games with Logan and the guys. You were on the baseball team a few summers ago. If there’s a football game on TV, you’re right there, glued to the screen, so I know you can play that sport.” A tiny—so slight she almost missed it—twitch of his lips said she had his attention.

  “How do you know so much about me, Chiquita?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You think I haven’t been paying attention to you all these years? I studied on you as hard as I studied on any of my law classes. Will you consider it if for no other reason than to honor Rick’s memory?”

  Sadness clouded his eyes. “I’d be an ass to say no when you put it that way, wouldn’t I?”

  “Totally.” She leaned into him and planted a kiss on his lips. Let him think he was doing this for Rick. “Come on, let’s go in.”

  “Now?”

  “Yes, now. I called, told them we were coming so they’re expecting us.” If she had to, she’d drag him inside, kicking and screaming. If stepping into Rick’s shoes and working with the kids didn’t help him, she didn’t know what would. This had to work, it just had to.

  Jake didn’t want to walk inside that door. He turned to Maria, about to refuse, but the hope in her eyes stopped him. For her, he would agree to this one visit, but nothing would come of it. Those boys belonged to Tennessee. What right did he have to them? None.

  A kid raced past the car, and Jake followed his progress until he disappeared inside the building. “Let’s get this over with.” He opened the door, exited the car, and strode up the sidewalk, leaving her to catch up.

  Hell, he was acting like an ass. Stamping down his irritation, he stopped and waited for her. “Do you know what we’re supposed to do when we get in there?” He wasn’t in much of a mood to stand around watching a bunch of boys staring at him.

  “The director, Larry Palmer, he’s expecting us. He’ll show us around, answer any of your questions.”

  This shouldn’t take long then; he didn’t have any questions. He opened the door and let Maria pass before following her inside. A man about his age came hurrying over, hand outstretched. Jake slid his gaze to the group of kids too busy picking sides to be paying any attention to him. He held out his hand to the man he assumed was Mr. Palmer.

  “You must be Mr. Buchanan.” He gave Jake’s hand a hearty shake.

  “Jake will do.”

  “Larry Palmer.”

  The fond smile he turned on Maria just added to Jake’s irritation. Slipping his hands into his back pockets, Jake turned his attention to the boys and tried to ignore the friendly conversation going on between Maria and the director. The kids had finished choosing their teams and were starting their game. It didn’t take long to realize a few of them were talented athletes.

  The boy with the ball dribbled it to the sideline near where they were standing. “Yo, Mr. Palmer, you gonna play or ya just gonna hang there, jabber’n all day?”

  “I am going to play, Rudy. I thank you for asking.” Palmer enunciated clearly, making a point—Jake was certain—about Rudy’s street talk. “I’m just taking a minute to recruit another player.”

  “Oh, no. Not me. You go on ahead. I won’t take up any more of your time. Nice meeting you.” This wasn’t for him. He had no clue how to talk to a teen, no desire to learn. As for being some kind of role model to these kids, that was a joke. What Maria had tried to do for him, he understood, but there was no way a bunch of gangly, pimply faced boys could help him fight his demons. He was outta here.

  Which was why, two hours later—after a game of pickup basketball, a tour of the facilities, and answering a dozen questions from the kids—he was surprised to find himself agreeing to return. It was the despair in Maria’s eyes when he’d tried to leave that had done him in.

  It was the light in the kids’ eyes when they found out he was Mr. Bayne’s friend that had made it impossible to say no when they’d asked if he’d come play with them again. Later, as he listened while they’d shared their memories of Tennessee, the strangest thing happened. His. Damn. Heart. Didn’t hurt as much as it had before he’d followed Maria inside. These adolescents—naive in their belief he was a hero just like their friend had been—needed him.

  Shit.

  They’d held a ceremony for Mr. Bayne after they were told he had died. They had showed Jake the tree they’d planted in Tennessee’s memory. Jake had lost it then. Embarrassed, he’d tried to leave. Again.

  Rudy scrambled after him. “Mr. Buchanan, none of us has much. We come here ’cause we got no reason to stay home.”

  Jake stilled, not wanting to listen but unable not to. He turned and faced the kid. “And?”

  “And . . . these kids,” the boy shifted his gaze to take in the group huddled together, watching them. “Well, coming here keeps them off the street. If they weren’t here, they would be standing on some street corner selling drugs.”

  The little conniver was speaking perfect English now. Amused in spite of himself, Jake raised a brow. “Your point is?”

  The boy lifted his chin in a gesture of pride, one of the best Jake had ever witnessed. “My point is, sir, I know where I’m going. Most of them don’t. Mr. Bayne was helping them, but he’s gone now. What are you going to do about that?”

  Buying time to answer, he said, “Satisfy my curiosity, Rudy. Exactly where are you going?”

  “I’m going to be a SEAL, just like Mr. Bayne. You have a problem with that, sir?”

  Jake searched for the right thing to say. This kid didn’t have a clue what it took to be a SEAL, but who was he to steal a dream? “Can’t say I have a problem with it. Just not sure what you want from me.”

  The boy stared at his shuffling feet. “Thing is, sir, I don’t know how to swim. Mr. Bayne was going to teach me, but now he can’t. Will you?”

  Double shit. “What’re you doing Saturday after next, kid?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SE
VEN

  It’s like deja vu all over again,” Maria grumbled.

  Logan smirked. “I think Yogi Berra beat you to that one, brat.”

  “Whatever. Where is he?”

  “Who, Yogi Berra?”

  She glared at her brother. “Don’t be stupid, Logan.” The question was getting old. Jake had disappeared, again, without a word. Not one word, note, text, or call. Should she be worried? When she’d dropped him off after going to the boys’ club, he hadn’t invited her in, claiming he needed to make some calls. Thinking he just wanted some time alone, she hadn’t pushed him. Logan smirked in a way that said he knew things she didn’t. Gah, she just hated that.

  “I already told you, he’s doing something for me.”

  “What? I know you wouldn’t send him on an operation without telling me.” She narrowed her eyes. “Would you?”

  Leaning against the doorway to her office, his arms crossed over his chest, he gave her a loud, manly sigh. “No, and he wouldn’t take off on one without telling you.”

  Well, she knew that, or was pretty sure she did. “So why all the secrecy?”

  “Give it a rest, Maria. He’ll be here in time for your date Saturday night. Insisted he had to be back by then.”

  That was encouraging, but it still didn’t give her a clue where he’d gone. “Go away. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

  When he laughed and turned to walk away, she threw a pen at his back. She’d settled into a routine of work during the day and helping with baby Evan and Regan at night, trying to give her brother and sister-in-law some alone time.

  Work was turning out to be as satisfying as she’d hoped. One thing she’d worried about was Logan being willing to turn over the business side of the company when she came on board full-time as they’d discussed when she’d first entered law school. Turned out, he was more than happy to dump all the accounting, payroll, supply ordering, and other miscellaneous responsibilities in her lap. As she worked on setting up the accounting records to her satisfaction, she decided it was a good thing she’d minored in economics.

  Their long-term plan for K2 was to branch out into international law as soon as she passed the bar, advising and consulting with companies wanting to expand their overseas business. Once she had the financial side of the business set up the way she wanted, she’d hire a manager to oversee it and then turn her attention to what she loved best—the law.

  She would be the happiest girl in the world if someone would just tell her where Jake was. As for the little tug of regret she felt in her heart that she hadn’t found her father after all, she did her best to ignore it. Some things just weren’t meant to be.

  Her stomach rumbled as she leaned back in her chair and stretched her aching shoulders. “No wonder I’m hungry,” she muttered when she glanced at the clock to see it was coming up on one.

  Jamie walked by her office door. He’d do. “Jamie.”

  He backed up and stuck his head inside. “Yeah?”

  “Let’s go get some lunch.” Actually, a good idea. Maybe she could get some answers from him.

  “I already ate.”

  She grabbed her purse and stood. “Then you can watch me eat.”

  “Would it do any good if I said I’m busy right now?”

  “Nope.” Ignoring his sigh, she walked past him. Men really loved sighing. Why was that? “C’mon, I’ll let you drive Sally.” He loved driving her souped-up Mustang, so it was a good bribe.

  Over a smothered burrito, Maria grilled Jamie. “I didn’t get a chance to ask Jake where he was off to before he left. Where’d he go?”

  “Don’t know,” he said between bites of the small appetizer of nachos he’d ordered.

  “I’m not buying that. Jake wouldn’t just take off without telling you where he was going, considering you’re second in command until he returns.”

  Leaning back, he stretched his arms over the back of the booth. “If the boss or Jake wanted you to know, they’d have told you.” He rolled his eyes. “You can give me that pouty look all day, Maria, but it won’t work.”

  “I really hate not knowing something, which has been happening a lot recently.” She stuffed a forkful of burrito into her mouth. These ex-SEALs were tight-lipped when it came to their secrets, and even if she tortured him—right now, an appealing thought—she’d get nothing from him.

  “Listen,” he said and leaned toward her. “What you want to know, it’s not my place to tell you, but everything will be all right, I promise.”

  He did know something. She pushed her empty plate to the side. “You don’t have to tell me what he’s doing, just where he is.”

  “No can do. You done? I need to get back.”

  “Okay, but I’m driving.” She had a little detour in mind.

  When there was no answer to her knock on Jake’s door, she turned to Jamie. “It was worth a try.”

  “If you’d asked, I coulda told you he wasn’t here.”

  “No, you would’ve just said, ‘I know nothing and that’s the story I’m sticking to.’ Am I wrong?” His answer was a shrug.

  The door of the next condo opened. “Well, hey. You looking for Jake?”

  “Hi, Sugar. Yeah, seen him lately?”

  “A day or two ago.” Her gaze slid past Maria and her eyes lit up. “Well, hello handsome. Are you a SEAL like Jake? I mean, with all those sexy muscles, you must be.”

  “Ex-SEAL,” Jamie said, an edge to his voice.

  Well, that was interesting. Maria would’ve thought Sugar was the kind of woman a man would trip over his feet to get to know better.

  “I’m Sugar Darling. Pleased to meet you.”

  Her gaze was locked on Jamie and when he didn’t offer his name, Maria decided to be helpful. “This is Jamie Turner. Saint, to his friends.”

  “Really?” Sugar eyed him from head to toe and back up. “Please tell me it’s one of those opposite things. You know, they call him Saint ’cause he’s anything but.”

  “Sorry, he really is a saint.”

  “Now that’s just too damn bad.”

  Jamie snorted. “If her name’s really Sugar Darling, I’ll eat my combat boots.”

  Whoa, what was with him? Jamie was usually a role model for how a man should treat a woman. Always polite, considerate, and seemingly interested in whatever they had to say, although that didn’t seem to be the case with Sugar.

  Sugar grinned, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “Guess you’re gonna have to eat those boots, lover boy. Name really is Sugar. Says so right on my birth certificate. Wanna see it?”

  “Don’t call me ‘lover boy,’ and no, I don’t want to see your birth certificate. Let’s go, Maria.”

  “I think he likes me,” Sugar said after Jamie walked away.

  Maria thought he did, too, but also that he’d let someone pull his fingernails out with pliers before he’d admit it.

  The girl sighed. “Does he have a girlfriend?”

  “Not at the moment.” Maria groped in her purse for her cell phone, pulled it out, and clicked on contacts. “What’s your number? Maybe I’ll try to arrange something.”

  “I hope so. I’d really like to see him again.”

  “You owe me big time,” Jamie said when she slid into the driver’s seat.

  “Crapola.” She reached over and squeezed the muscled arm Sugar had drooled over. “Admit it, you were intrigued.”

  Jamie snorted. “Not even.”

  “Liar.”

  As she backed the car out of the parking space, she glanced at Jake’s door. Where are you, Jake?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Jake tugged at his collar for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last hour as he watched Maria eat her dessert. And for the same number of times, he thanked his lucky stars he had a job where he didn’t have to wear a tie. He
was nervous as hell for a lot of reasons.

  Planning dates wasn’t his forte, and special ones? Never done it. There was so much riding on this night and how Maria would react, but that part was for later. He’d chosen an upscale Italian restaurant, a place where they could dress up, and she would like the food.

  At the moment, she was licking the last of the chocolate gelato off her spoon, and if she didn’t stop moaning and put that pink tongue back in her mouth, he was going to take her on top of the table, audience be damned.

  He subtly readjusted himself, then tugged on his shirt collar again. The two dozen roses he’d held out when she’d answered the door had delighted her. The lasagna had disappeared from her plate, and the gelato had been devoured to sounds that had him hard and aching. A success so far, but there was still a big surprise to come and he wasn’t sure what her reaction would be.

  She set her spoon down. “That was delicious.”

  “You’re delicious. And beautiful.” Her almost-black hair hung down her back and over her shoulders, looking soft and glossy. The red silk dress hugged her curves, and he’d already glared at two men who’d eyed her in appreciation.

  “Thank you,” she said with a smile that was both sweet and sexy. “You’re not so bad yourself, Tiger. You wear a suit very well.”

  “You don’t think I’m handsome in jeans and a T-shirt?” he asked, teasing her.

  “I think you’re hot no matter what you’re wearing . . . or not wearing.”

  That did it. “Check,” he called when the waiter passed. If he didn’t get them out of the place, he really would do something to embarrass her.

  “So where were you?”

  He grinned. “You’re persistent, I’ll give you that. What did I say the last ten times you asked?”

  “That you’d tell me when it’s time.”

  Her lips formed an adorable little pout, drawing his attention to them. “I need to kiss you.”

  “Will that get me a bigger tip?”