by Brenda Novak
“No problem. But the answer’s still no.”
“You don’t even know what I was going to ask.”
“Yes, I do. I’m not switching sides.”
He steered around a clump of trees as he followed her down a dirt road that branched off the gravel one. “Why?”
“It doesn’t seem ethical.”
“How can it be unethical if you believe I’m innocent?” He managed to stay even with her despite several deep ruts.
“I don’t know that you’re innocent.”
The road began to narrow. He had to maneuver the car among various obstacles, but she didn’t alter her course. “You think I raped Kalyna?” he called out to her.
She stared straight ahead. “All I’m saying is that I wasn’t there. I can’t be one hundred percent certain either way.”
“You saw what she’s like.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
A large pothole forced him to slow down but he accelerated the second he got around it. “It should!”
“The charity’s funds are reserved for cases of dire need.”
He snapped off the radio. “My need feels pretty dire to me.”
“I’m talking life and death.” She paused to remove a small rock from her sandal, which drew his attention to her feet. They were slender, just like the rest of her—but unlike her unvarnished, neatly trimmed fingernails her toenails were painted bright pink and there was a line of tiny diamonds sparkling across each big toe.
Somehow that made him wonder if Ava wasn’t quite as she appeared to be. Was she wearing frilly, sexy or practical panties beneath that dress?
Why he’d even ask himself such a question, he had no idea. Except that he was a man. “You just said you thought Kalyna might be dangerous. You told me to watch my back,” he reminded her.
The road was about to end. If she passed through the wooden gate, onto a walking path, their conversation would end with it because he couldn’t drive down there, and he wasn’t about to get out of his car to follow her.
“She hasn’t made any threats, has she?” she asked.
“She said I’d come crawling to her on my hands and knees before this was over. Does that count?”
Stopping again, Ava bent to adjust the strap on her sandal. She held her dress off the ground as she did so, and Luke caught himself hoping she’d raise it a little higher. She had nice legs—lean but shapely. “Robbing you of your pride isn’t fatal,” she said.
“For someone as conceited as I am, it could be.”
She shot him an amused look. “I think you’re more resilient than you realize.”
“What if I pay you?”
“McCreedy will cost you enough as it is.”
“Don’t you ever work for hire?”
“I haven’t yet, but my partners sometimes do. If we need the money badly enough.”
“Could be time for you to follow their lead.”
“No, thanks.”
Maybe he needed to sweeten the pot. Inching forward the last few feet, he yelled out to her as she opened the gate. “Okay, what if I donated a large sum of money instead?” It was essentially the same thing, but if her switching sides made as big an impact as he thought it could, she’d net a lot more.
The latch of the gate clanged as it swung shut before she passed through. “How large?” she asked, turning to face him.
He scrambled for a figure. “Ten thousand?” Could he even afford that much? His parents had offered to help, but he didn’t really want to go to them, and his defense could cost him as much as seventy or eighty thousand. Definitely more than the fifty thousand dollars he had in savings. But at least this ten thousand would be tax deductible—unlike the money he’d given McCreedy. That made it more attractive than hiring her.
“A significant amount,” she breathed.
So significant he’d probably have to sell his car, but he didn’t complain. Saving his ass came before saving his car. “Can we discuss it over dinner?”
She didn’t respond right away, but she was obviously thinking about it.
“Ava?” he prompted.
“What?” Her answer was sullen enough to tell him he’d won.
“I’m starving.” He reached across the seat and opened the passenger door. “Get in.”
17
“Where are you from originally?” Luke asked.
Ava set down her wineglass. She hadn’t officially agreed to work with him yet, but she knew she would before the evening was over and so did he. No way could she could pass up a ten-thousand-dollar donation. Skye and Sheridan would kill her if she did. It was a constant struggle to raise the money they needed to keep their doors open. “I was born and raised in Sacramento,” she said. Like everything else about her, that wasn’t very exciting.
“Do you have any siblings?”
“No. Well, a half brother, thanks to my father. My parents’ marriage didn’t last long enough to create baby number two.” They’d already placed their order, but the food seemed to be taking forever. Although a lengthy wait was typical in a steak place, Ava wasn’t too thrilled about being sequestered in a booth at the back of the restaurant with this man. Sitting there, she had nothing better to do than admire all the details that came together to make him so handsome.
He swallowed some wine. “What does your father do?”
Great. They were going to continue talking about her background. This wasn’t a topic Ava generally enjoyed, but it seemed prudent to keep her mind occupied. Otherwise, she might be tempted to let her gaze wander over Luke’s lips, the muscles in his arms, his eyes, which were the nicest color she’d ever seen. And then there were the long lashes that framed those eyes….
It had definitely been too long since she’d been with a man. She could hardly remember what it felt like. But her imagination was more than ready to step into the gap. And the wine didn’t help. She’d eaten her salad and a sourdough roll, but the alcohol still seemed to be going straight to her head. “He’s a high-school football coach,” she said.
“So he remarried after the divorce?”
“Three times so far.”
“Four marriages in total? You’re kidding.”
“Women can’t resist him.” She figured Luke could probably relate. Kalyna was a case in point. “The first time, he married the substitute teacher with whom he’d been cheating on my mother, and they had one kid, Neal, who’s now a card dealer living in Las Vegas.”
Luke added more olive oil and balsamic vinegar to the plate they’d used to dip their bread and pushed the basket of rolls toward her. “Do you have any contact with Neal?”
“No. He wants nothing to do with my father or anyone connected to him.” She glanced toward the kitchen, hoping to see the waitress carrying out their plates so they could eat and head home, but…no luck. “He and his mother are pretty bitter about the way that marriage ended.”
“Your dad cheated on her, too?”
“This time with the mother of one of his students.”
Luke made a face. “Nice. Any kids with wife number three?”
“No. They were married very briefly, but only because they were still seeing each other after the divorce and she turned out to be pregnant. When a paternity test proved the baby was her ex-husband’s, they split.”
“Messy. How’d he get to wife number four?”
She helped herself to another roll and dipped part of it in the oil. She didn’t want any more, but she was feeling so jittery…“That’s even worse. Are you sure you want to hear the rest?” she said with a laugh, glancing toward the kitchen again. Please, bring the damn food. She was about to say she needed to use the ladies’ room so she could escape for a few minutes, but he said he could handle anything, which left her in the middle of their conversation.
With a shrug, she ate the bread. “I guess we’ve got time. They’re really slow in the kitchen tonight, don’t you think?”
He acted surprised. “Not really. We just ordered ten minutes ago
.”
Somehow it seemed longer. “Oh. Well, after wife number three, my father got involved with a former female student. Or maybe he was having an affair with her before the split. With his track record, who knows?”
“How long did that one last?”
“He’s still with her. It’s been five years.”
“Any more children?”
“No. Fortunately, somewhere in between wife three and wife four, he got himself fixed.” Or she could’ve had a whole horde of half siblings. One who wouldn’t speak to her was bad enough.
“Probably a good thing,” he said.
“Absolutely a good thing.” Although, the last she’d heard, her father’s latest wife was coaxing him to have his vasectomy reversed….
Luke shifted in his seat. “How much longer do you give it?”
“Give what?” The shape of the dog tags that hung beneath his T-shirt, between his pectoral muscles, had distracted her.
“This latest marriage.”
She dragged her eyes away from the appealing contours of his chest. “Hard to say. I know he’s not cheating this time, so that should help.”
Long, tapered fingers with wide, blunt-cut nails cradled his wineglass. “How do you know he’s finally broken the pattern?”
“Because he doesn’t have any choice. Carly—that’s her name—watches him like a hawk. And he’s too afraid of losing her to try anything. He won’t even see me because it upsets her to have to share him.”
Why she’d added that, Ava didn’t know. She hadn’t meant to get so personal. Maybe it was the wine, or the way she was scraping for conversation….
Fortunately, Luke didn’t pounce on it, and for that she was grateful. “How old is she?”
“Twenty-six.”
He blinked several times. “Did you say forty-six?”
Ava frowned. “No.”
“That’s two years younger than me!” he said with obvious distaste.
And Luke was three years younger than her. “They look ridiculous together,” she admitted. “Especially now that Carly’s having him dye his hair blond and is making him go to the tanning salon.”
“You must hate watching your father turn into a caricature.”
“I do. No one wants to see her father lose his dignity, but…I’m not sure mine ever really had any.”
“It can’t be easy to keep the attention of a twenty-six-year-old when you’re…what? Fiftysomething?”
That was a practical consideration she figured a woman would be more prone to recognize than a man. “Fifty-nine. He’s on the desperate side, and it’s beginning to show.”
Luke gave a low whistle. “He must’ve been something in his prime.”
He was. Something like Luke. Ava’s mother had once told her there’d never been another man who’d made her heart flutter the way Chuck did with just a smile. And this was years after their divorce, after Zelinda had remarried the loser who’d become Ava’s stepfather. “Some men have a way with women, I guess. And some women are too stupid to avoid them.”
Luke studied her for a moment. “Not you, though. You’d never let that happen.”
“Never,” she said.
He offered her more bread, but she refused. “Is Carly attractive?” he asked.
Ava tried to be objective with her answer. “She’s not bad.”
“So you like her.”
“No. I tried, at first. But it’s impossible. She hates the fact that I even exist. I’m not welcome at their place and can’t join them for holidays. My dad has hell to pay if he so much as calls me.” More personal stuff she hadn’t meant to divulge. Somehow it kept seeping out, as if she were some kind of leaky container. But Luke was as easy to talk to as he was to look at. She hadn’t expected that.
He shook his head. “That’s not fair.”
She’d thought the same thing many times. But she couldn’t figure out how to change it. “There’s nothing I can do if my father won’t take a stand.” Uncomfortable with the pain that statement inadvertently revealed, she deflected Luke’s sympathy before he could extend it. “But I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end.”
He took another piece of bread. “Now I get it.”
“Get what?”
“You.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not interested in your psychoanalysis, but thanks, anyway.”
Fortunately, the waitress interrupted with their food just then, and he didn’t bring it up again. Once they were alone, he said, “What about your mother?”
There was no way Ava was going to talk about her mother. She could make fun of her father’s stupid choices and complain about her nemesis—the dreaded stepmother who was younger than she was. Zelinda was a different story entirely. Ava had always known better than to count on her father. But what her mother had done had come as a complete surprise—and been a leveling blow.
She waved away the curl of steam ascending from her plate. “Looks good.”
“Was that a dodge?”
“Just my way of saying, ‘Enough about me—it’s your turn.’”
He was cutting his steak. “What do you want to know?”
“Where do you come from?”
“I was born in San Antonio. Although he’s retired now, my father was in the military, so I went to more than ten different schools in a number of states.”
She took a bite of her sweet potato and had to admit he’d been right to recommend it. “Never overseas?”
“Never overseas.”
“Have you ever been to war?”
“Not yet, but it’s always a possibility.”
“You wouldn’t mind?”
“I knew what I was signing up for when I joined.” He motioned to her plate with his fork. “How do you like it?”
“With butter, brown sugar and pecans on top, I can’t imagine it’s very healthy, but—”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Let go for one night, Ava.”
“Let go?” she echoed.
“Just enjoy yourself.”
She opened her mouth to tell him she was perfectly relaxed, but why bother? He knew she was too serious, too driven. Most people recognized that shortly after meeting her. She was too much of a lot of things. But she was pretty sure she couldn’t be too cautious around him. “I’ll try.”
“That’s the idea.”
“How’d you handle all the moving?” she asked.
“It wasn’t that bad. But I think it’s easier on boys. The second you join a sports team, you’re part of a group and you have instant friends.”
“You’re lucky you were always good enough to make the team.”
“I suppose.”
“Is that desire to belong to a team the reason you joined the air force?”
“Trying a little psychoanalysis yourself?”
“Perhaps. How’d I do?”
“Not too well. I joined the air force because I’ve always wanted to fly.”
Somehow she’d already finished her entire sweet potato—giant slab of butter and all. She switched to her meat, a filet that nearly melted in her mouth. “Are you glad you did it?”
“Definitely.”
“I’d love to see what it’s like up there, in a jetfighter,” she said.
“It’s the most incredible experience in the world.”
“Is it frightening, too?”
“It can be. It’s definitely an adrenaline rush. You feel like you’re traveling at the speed of light. Flying requires absolute trust in yourself, your plane, your commanding officer and flight crew. It’s more of an act of faith than anything I’ve ever done.”
She wanted him to go on, but he didn’t. He smiled and lowered his voice. “You’ve got really pretty eyes.”
Ava hadn’t expected the compliment. Straightening, she swallowed. “Thank you.”
“How’s your steak?” he asked.
“Perfect.”
“Would you like another glass of wine?”
She shouldn’t. She w
as beginning to relax, to feel warm and comfortable and even a little sleepy, but she said yes, anyway. “Sure.”
“I’ll flag down the waitress when she comes by.”
“What about siblings?” she asked. “Are you an only child or…”
“I have one younger sister. She’ll be a senior in high school.”
“Are you close?”
“As close as we can be, considering the age difference.”
“Has all the moving been more difficult on her than it was on you?”
“Yeah, she’s had a few problems with it. Fortunately, my folks have been settled in one spot for a while now.”
The waitress came to check on them, and Luke ordered her another glass of wine. “Aren’t you going to have one?” she asked.
“No, I’m okay.”
When she heard that, she almost canceled her own, but the waitress had already left, and she didn’t want to have to hunt her down. Besides, she didn’t have to drive, and he did. It made sense. “Was your baby sister a surprise?”
“More like a much-wanted blessing,” he said. “My parents had been trying to get pregnant for years, but couldn’t manage to conceive. Then, the month after they stopped taking fertility drugs—wham.”
“So a surprise and a blessing.”
“Definitely.”
Ava took a swallow of water. “Where’s your family now?”
“In San Diego.”
“Do they know about…what you’ve been going through?”
He was nearly finished with his own steak. “Yeah, I told them.”
The waitress arrived with her wine, and Ava thanked her. “How did they respond?” she asked when the woman was gone.
“They’re supportive. I have great parents.”
“You’re lucky,” she said, and she meant it. But she would’ve expected nothing less. This man had it all.
“How did you come to be living on a houseboat?” he asked.
She tasted her steamed vegetables and found them bland after all the other flavors. “It belongs to my father. Carly doesn’t like to fish, and since she won’t let him go anywhere without her, he doesn’t have much use for it right now. I suggested he sell it, but I think he realizes this marriage might not make it, either, and then he’ll want it back.”
