by Cathie Linz
“It’s a change for the better,” she said.
“Absolutely,” her father agreed.
Her uncle didn’t look as sure.
“Is there a reason Faith West took an earlier flight than you did?” Vince demanded when Caine showed up in his office straight from the airport.
“She was trying to aggravate me.”
“From the look on your face, it seems she succeeded. You want to know how she spent her day today?”
“Not really.”
“The mild-mannered children’s librarian just quit her day job and has gone to work for our mutual enemy, her father. I told you not to underestimate her.”
Caine couldn’t get over how much she’d messed up his mind. And in such a short time. Here he’d been feeling guilty for having slept with Faith in Italy when she was still vulnerable after being jilted by her ass of a fiancé. Caine hadn’t intended to take advantage of her. His attraction to her had taken him by surprise and continued to do so.
And there Faith was, sneaking out on him in Positano, evading his surveillance, making him feel and look like a total idiot.
Caine was not a man accustomed to making mistakes. Hell, he even owned the T-shirt—To Err Is Human. To Forgive Is Divine. Neither Is Marine Corps Policy.
Had Faith been leading him on the entire time? Did she have some kind of hidden agenda of her own?
It had been a long time since he’d been played the fool. She’d totally taken him in.
“Now you look aggravated and surprised,” Vince noted.
Caine immediately schooled his expression, putting his war face on.
“Better,” Vince said approvingly.
Caine had never been one to wear his emotions on his sleeve, and the fact that he’d shown them made him doubly angry. But he had his feelings under control now. And he’d keep them that way. Because he wasn’t about to be distracted by a sexy blonde with deception up her sleeve. She might have won their previous skirmish, but the war wasn’t over by any means. He was just getting started.
Faith kept walking along Michigan Avenue as she checked her incoming call. It was her mother.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Your father just told me you quit your job at the library!”
“That’s right.”
“Why didn’t you speak to me before doing something so drastic?”
“Because I knew you’d try to talk me out of it.”
“Of course I’d talk you out of it. Why would you do a dumb thing like that?”
“Gee, Mom, tell me what you really think.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just that you loved your job.”
“I loved Alan too, and that didn’t work out so well either.”
“Did something happen at work? Did you have a disagreement with a coworker?”
“No.”
“With your boss?”
“No.”
“Jane Austen would never quit her job at the library.”
Faith had forgotten that her What would Jane Austen do? philosophy had originally come from her mom. “Probably not. But I did.”
“I don’t understand why.”
“It was time.” Faith entered the Crate and Barrel store.
“Time for what?”
“Time for a change. You know . . .” Faith looked around. “The beds look different in person.”
“Where are you?”
“Crate and Barrel. I’m buying a new bed.”
“What’s wrong with the old one?”
“Alan slept in it.”
“Oh.”
“Is that your daughter on the phone?” Aunt Lorraine bellowed in the background. “You tell her how selfish it was to leave you to handle the mess after her wedding. And then she didn’t even call you from Italy.”
“I’m sorry,” Faith’s mom murmured.
“Tell Aunt Lorraine she’s right,” Faith said. “It was selfish of me to dump everything in your lap that way.”
“I didn’t mind.”
“And I should have called you from Italy.”
“Megan explained about that. And you did e-mail me. But, honey, I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t be.”
“This leaving your job thing. It’s not like you.”
“Yeah, I’m different.” Faith held the phone away from her face and took a photo before e-mailing it to her mom. “What do you think?”
“Who’s the photo of?”
“Me, Mom.”
“The light must be funny in that store.” Her mother sounded confused. “You look blonde in this picture.”
“I am blonde now.”
“Why are there beds behind her?” Aunt Lorraine shouted in the background. “I told you I wondered what kind of work she was really doing in Las Vegas. Prostitution is legal there. Tell her it’s not legal here in Chicago. Make sure she knows that.”
“Assure Aunt Lorraine that I do know that. Why is she there?”
“Her condo is being painted, and she had to come stay with us for a few days.”
“Thanks for warning me. I won’t be stopping by. How are you holding up?”
“I’m managing.” Her mother’s voice sounded strained, but then Aunt Lorraine did that to a person.
“Come visit me and see my new bed.” Faith indicated which one she wanted to the salesclerk with her free hand. “They should deliver it tomorrow.” She’d already checked that out online ahead of time.
“Won’t you be working tomorrow?”
“Right. That’s not a problem for the delivery. The doorman is great.”
“Yes, he was most helpful when we were there.”
“Again, I’m really sorry I dumped everything on you that way. I’ll make it up to you.”
“I may hold you to that.”
“I’m not going back to my library job,” Faith said.
“We’ll see,” her mother said.
Faith had her condo door open as Megan stepped off the elevator with a Giordano’s pizza with extra mushrooms in her hands. “I met the delivery guy in the lobby.”
Faith hugged her before grabbing the cardboard box from her. “I know Italy is the birthplace of pizza, but there’s nothing like a Chicago-style deep dish.”
“My dad told me you quit your job. Is that true?”
“Yes.” Faith opened the box and grabbed an extralong knife from the kitchen’s dark brown granite countertop. A regular pizza cutter couldn’t handle the job of this big-boy pizza. She also grabbed a pair of wineglasses from her cherry wood kitchen cabinet.
“Why?” Megan asked. “Why would you quit?”
“Because I wanted to.”
“Is this because of Caine? Or because of Alan?”
“It’s because of me. I’m tired of getting kicked in the teeth. I’m fighting back. Turning over a new leaf. Out with the old blah and boring me, in with the new mad, bad and blonde me.”
“You were never blah and boring,” Megan hotly defended her.
“Alan sure thought so. That’s why he left.”
“He left because he’s a bastard!”
“Why didn’t I see that something was wrong?”
“Love is blind. But don’t let Alan’s actions make you quit your job.”
“That’s not why I left the library. I need a new start.” After opening the bottle of 3 Blind Moose Merlot she’d chosen, Faith filled Megan in about how Caine had tailed her that last morning in Positano and how she’d evaded him. “It felt good flexing my investigative skills again. Vince actually told my father that he’d sent Caine there to ‘sweep me off my feet’ were his exact words.”
Megan’s eyes widened. “Vince and your dad spoke? I thought they hadn’t talked to each other in over a decade.”
“My father initiated the call and warned Vince that he’d crossed the line.”
“Does your dad know that you went to bed with Caine?”
“No.”
“Does Vince know?”
“Caine claimed he would
n’t tell him.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I don’t know. I do know that Caine was my first and last dumb blonde moment.”
“I meant to tell you it looks good on you.”
“What does? Being a dumb blonde? Gee, thanks.”
“You know what I mean. The new hair color. It looks really good.”
“Thanks.” Faith ran her hand through her shorter do. “I’m still not totally used to it, but I do love it.”
“What’s this?” Megan asked, pointing to a beautifully wrapped small jeweler’s box on the table.
“I brought you something back from Italy. Open it.”
Megan looked down at the delicately carved cameo pendant. “I love it! Help me put it on.”
Faith did and received a hug before she and Megan once again focused on their meals.
Once most of the pizza and bottle of Merlot were gone, the talk became more emotional.
“What kind of cheap slut am I to be in love with Alan and about to marry him one week and then have sex with Caine the next? What does that say about me?”
“That you were badly hurt by Alan and were taken advantage of by Caine.”
“But if I really truly loved Alan, then Caine shouldn’t have been able to tempt me, no matter what.”
“Are you saying you weren’t in love with Alan?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t face sleeping in the same bed I shared with Alan, so I donated it to charity and bought a new one. That’s how I spent my afternoon. They deliver it tomorrow, so I’m sleeping on the couch tonight.” Faith paused for a moment. “Hey, get up and help me move the dining room table.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“What about the plates?”
She whisked them off the table as well as their glasses and the wine bottle. “There. Now, take hold of the other end, and we’ll rotate it so that it’s going the other way.”
“Why?”
“To get a new perspective.”
“We have to move the chairs out of the way first.”
“Right.” Faith released her hold on the edge of the table and headed for the nearest dining room chair, setting it aside. “Okay, that’s done. Now, let’s move the table.”
Megan said, “Watch the—”
Faith swore as she hit her head.
“—hanging lamp.”
Faith set down the table and rubbed the back of her head. “Maybe we should leave it like this.”
“At an angle?”
“The decorating magazines all say not to keep things all straight and commonplace.” She returned her plate and their glasses to the table before tugging a chair closer and sitting down.
“Is the view different enough?”
“It was perspective not view.” She automatically looked out the immense floor-to-ceiling window, where she could see Lake Michigan and the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier. Several sailboats dotted the blue water, while the greenery of a nearby park’s trees provided a welcome splash of color. “I love the view here. I don’t want to change that.”
“I should hope not. That view is worth a mint.”
Talking about views reminded her of the view from her hotel room in Positano and Caine. She blocked him from her mind and returned her attention to her final slice of pizza. It was bad enough that her ex-fiancé was haunting her, now she had a mad Marine doing the same thing.
“We packed up all Alan’s stuff and sent it to his address as you requested when I talked to you in Italy,” Megan said. “His condo is still on the market.”
“He was going to move in here with me because I have more room.”
“And because your condo is a lot better than his. Better view, better neighborhood, better everything.”
“Yet he dumped me. The former me. He wouldn’t have a chance with the new me.”
“Good to hear. After hurting you so badly, Alan doesn’t deserve another chance.”
“Neither does Caine. I feel like such an idiot. A week ago I was eating pizza with Caine in Italy.” Faith left her last half-eaten pizza slice on her plate. She’d suddenly lost her appetite. She should have lost it sooner, but she was too damn tempted by the deep-dish specialty. Giving in to temptation was turning out to be a big problem with her lately. And not just with food but with men too. One man in particular.
“Did you fall in love with Caine at first sight?” Megan asked. “I mean, it’s just . . . well, you don’t usually give your body without giving your heart.”
“I know. What’s wrong with me?” Faith sniffed back the sudden threat of tears. “How could I have messed up this badly?”
“It wasn’t easy. You must have really been working hard to mess up this much.”
Astonished by her cousin’s reply, Faith blinked before cracking up.
“I mean it’s bad enough being a jilted bride,” Megan continued. “But how many women can claim to be a jilted bride and then have a fling go bad in Italy? Not many.”
“I know.”
“And it’s Italy. I mean come on. The home of David. Well, the statue of David. The birthplace of hunks like . . . help me out here.”
“Uh. . . . Michelangelo?”
“Come on. Hardly a hunk. Think of someone else.”
“I can’t.”
“You’re a librarian. If you don’t know the answers, you know where to find them. Where’s your BlackBerry?”
“Why?
“Because we’re gonna Google hunky Italian men.”
“No, we are not. You do that, and I’ll be getting e-mails for penis enlargements by the thousands.”
“Really? How do you figure that? Have you done this before?”
“No. That’s one mistake I’m not going to make.” Faith had already made enough mistakes to last her a lifetime.
The next morning, Faith woke up and rolled off the living room couch, only to clutch her head and wonder why her dining room table was at a weird angle that way. Too much wine. Headache. Elbow ache. She’d hit it on the hardwood floor when she’d fallen, and now her funny bone was making her entire arm tingle.
Faith felt better after she’d taken a shower and drank her first cup of coffee. She wore one of her new Italian outfits for her first day of work. Most of the boutiques in Positano specialized in summer resort and swimwear, but she’d managed to find a few things she liked. The bold red wraparound jacket and black embroidered skirt weren’t so avant-garde that they would make her look like a runway model. Okay, so it would take more than an outfit to make her look like a runway model. It would also take more than a change in hair color and style. But she didn’t want to look like a runway model so that was fine. She wanted to look more like Jennifer Garner in Alias and less like Jane Austen.
Faith practiced the stiletto catwalk she’d seen a woman demonstrate on the Today Show once. Her four-inch heels were not at all practical for walking the distance to West Investigations’ office. But damn, they made her feel powerful.
She packed them in her bag and reluctantly put on more comfortable shoes. Her black Keds weren’t librarian shoes. They were comfortable and sensible.
She went back and forth, switching between her Keds and her stilettos until she caught sight of the clock and realized she was in danger of being late her first day on the new job. She hurried out, still wearing the stilettos. They went better with her outfit.
Oh yeah, she felt like one confident woman. Until she stepped outside her building and saw Caine waiting for her.
He eyed her approvingly, his head-to-toe look up and down her body incredibly intimate. “Nice move, sunshine,” he drawled.
Chapter Five
Faith gave Caine a dismissive look before taking out her iPod, inserting the white earbuds and playing Carbon Leaf’s “A Life Less Ordinary.”
“You can ignore me, but I’m not going away,” Caine said.
“You are going away if I sic Yuri on you.”
“Who’s that? Your bodyguard?”
“I heard you’ve gone to work for your father,” Caine said.
She paused her music. “Why do you care?”
“I don’t.”
“Then why are you here bothering me?”
Instead of answering, Caine said, “Was that your plan all along? Was your sob story as a jilted bride just a cover for your real reason for visiting Italy? To steal one of King Investigations’ clients?”
She stared at him in amazement. And not the complimentary kind of amazement. “You are as delusional as your boss.”
“Did you tell your father about us?”
“There is no us.”
“There was. In Positano that night.”
“Why are you so nervous about my father finding out? Are you afraid he’ll beat you up?”
“Your father is the one who should be afraid.”
“How dare you threaten him!”
“How dare your father mess up the investigation so badly that he killed my father.”
“My father assures me that the investigation was very thorough and no mistakes were made.”
“Did he offer to show you the case file? No? I didn’t think so.”
“He would if I asked him to.”
“Dream on.”
“You’re just trying to make trouble. Stop following me around.”
“I’m not following you.”
“So you just happened to be standing here outside my condo building?”
“No, I wanted to find out why you lied in Italy.”
“Me? You’re the one who lied.”
“You said you were a children’s librarian.”
“I was. I’m not anymore.”
“Why?”
She almost blurted out a litany of reasons. Because she wanted to teach Caine a lesson. Because she wanted to prove that her father had done nothing wrong. Because she wanted to be tougher and meaner so that no other man would ever take advantage of her again.
There were tons of reasons.
“Why?” he repeated.
That, sir, is no business of yours. That’s what Jane Austen would say. But Faith wasn’t Jane Austen, and she needed a tougher author mentor now. Unfortunately, she couldn’t think of one right at the moment, but she would soon. Her ability to channel Jennifer Garner from Alias seemed to have disappeared.
