by Liz Lee
Now it was his turn to laugh softly. “You knew it was only a matter of time when you signed on for this duty.”
“Oh crap.”
He laughed again then turned over, grabbed his pillow and let himself think about naked Lil.
Chapter Six
Lil tried not to be nervous.
David’s family was everything she dreamed of. An adoring mother. Siblings who looked up to David like he was a hero, even though they didn’t even know how true that was.
David parked the truck, blew out a long breath that told her he was a little nervous too.
“Mom’s probably going to make a big deal about us being back together.”
She laughed softly as if it didn’t matter. “It’s just dinner, David. I think I can handle it.”
“Yeah. Well, you know my mom.”
He didn’t have to say more because she did know his mother. Knew her and loved her. In fact, losing David’s family had hurt almost worse than losing David after the break-up.
Before they had time to knock Mrs. Martinez threw open the door and grabbed her in a huge hug then stood on tiptoe to kiss her son’s cheeks.
“Lil, David. Welcome.” And then she was ushering them into her home as if they’d come from a different country instead of from across town.
The minute they stepped inside they were accosted by Isabel, the smallest of the Martinez family. Now ten she still launched herself into her brother’s arms. “David, David.”
Anna was close behind.
Lil watched it all with a strange sadness. She’d wanted this and yet she couldn’t blend, couldn’t embrace the idea of family, not family like his.
“Your hair is beautiful, Lil. You should wear it up more often.”
Lil smiled, said thanks to Mrs. Martinez’s compliment.
If she’d shown up at her mother’s house with her hair in a simple pony tail, in faded blue jeans and a Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon t-shirt, her mother would be insisting she see Marcus or Charles or whoever her latest cosmetician happened to be.
Here she was accepted as is. Completely.
“Leave your brother alone, Isabel.” Mrs. Martinez shooed the young girl out of the room then poured both her and David a glass of sweet tea as she untied her apron and slid it over her head.
They sat in the living room of well-worn furniture, surrounded by family portraits and knick-knacks. A room centered on the family and love. The opposite of the high-priced designer styled rooms of her past. Her heart ached at the thought that this would never be hers. She didn’t belong here.
As if sensing her sudden discomfort, David squeezed her hand. He winked when Isabel sat next to her and handed her a colored photo of Belle and the Beast.
“I made it for you.”
Lil took the photo and smiled as she said thanks, then sipped her wine slowly, wishing she didn’t feel so out of place.
Across the room David’s mother leaned in toward her oldest son.
“That horrible thing with the poor girl and her father. It was in the paper today. You’re not involved in investigating that are you, David?”
David smiled when Lil nearly dropped her tea glass. “I’m not that kind of investigator Mamà.”
“He’s the kind who figures out who’s cheating on whom, Mamà.” David’s younger brother Joseph walked in the room, kissed the top of his mother’s head, shook David’s hand and said hello to Lil then popped the top on a beer before sitting across from them.
Their mother simply accepted Joseph’s words then leaned toward Lil.
“Solidad was your student?”
“Yes ma’am. It’s all very sad.” She didn’t know what she was supposed to say. How to respond.
“And Anna says her brother Miguel is missing too?”
“Yes ma’am. It looks that way.” She couldn’t tell them about Rafe.
Mrs. Martinez turned to David. “Did you hear about Joseph’s friend Nick? He was killed this morning. So sad what this town’s coming to.”
Joseph looked out the window as he took a long drink of his beer. “We weren’t really friends anymore. But it’s still sad.”
Lil could see the death had affected David’s brother. When death came to young people it was always sad.
“The police will be at the school again Monday.“ David said to Anna.
His sister shrugged. “I didn’t really know Solidad. She had her own group.”
That was the truth. Lil thought about Anna and her friends. The popular girls. The ones everyone looked up to. So different from the Solidad’s of the school. The girls who disappeared.
Anna leaned forward. “I was talking to my friend Jamie and we were wondering, what if, like, it’s all tied together? Nick getting killed. Solidad. Her dad. All of it.”
Lil nearly dropped her tea again and Isabel giggled. Fortunately no one else saw the slip. David leaned toward his sister.
“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. It doesn’t matter. But you don’t need to be walking home at night. Definitely not alone. It’s not safe.”
Anna rolled her eyes. “Please. Like anything’s going to happen.”
“You don’t know.”
Anna laughed him off. “This isn’t Juarez or even Laredo. I’m safe.”
David’s mother had heard enough. “What’s this about walking home? Listen to your brother.”
Isabel grabbed Lil’s hand. “Anna thinks she knows everything. I’m glad you’re back, Lil.” And then she wrapped her arms around Lil’s shoulders in a giant hug, the kind meant as a welcome. Instead it left her feeling empty and wanting.
She met David’s eyes across the room and knew he was feeling as bad as she was.
They were slugs for doing this to his family.
But they didn’t have a choice.
David opened the front door and kissed his mother’s cheek goodbye.
Once they made it to the truck he took his first deep breath in hours.
“I’m sorry, Lil.”
She looked out the window and he wondered what she was thinking. “It can’t be helped.”
She hated lying. He knew that. “You did good.”
She laughed. “I almost died when your mother asked about Solidad. And then when Anna said….”
“Not good when the high school kids are putting it together. Degas has screwed this up big time.”
“Your brother seemed quiet.”
He nodded. Joseph was taking his old friend’s death harder than he let on. But Joseph was his own man. He didn’t need his brother’s worry.
“You’re a good brother, a good son.” Lil’s voice soothed his concern.
“Years of experience.”
She smiled. “Tell me again about your mother.”
Lil loved hearing this story. He’d told her hundreds of times about the young girl showing up in San Mario alone with her baby boy. About going to work in the only restaurant in town. About how the owner, Pete Martinez fell in love with the young girl almost immediately and set out to win her heart.
Pete had treated him as a son. He was the only father David had known. His death three years earlier had broken David’s heart along with his mother’s.
They pulled into the apartment parking lot as he finished the story and Lil grabbed his hand. “You’re a pretty amazing man, David.”
He smiled down at her and wished he didn’t care so much what she thought. “I had a good teacher.”
They climbed the stairs of his apartment and he reached for his keys but Lil’s gasp stopped him cold.
“David.”
He turned to her at the same time Scamp scurried up the stairs whimpering.
His heart drilled double-time as he looked up and down the street. Nothing seemed out of place.
He handed her his cell phone. “Go to the truck.”
When she didn’t move right away, he said it again. “Go now. Call the police.”
And then he pushed the door open.
It took the police ten minutes to show up.
By then Lil knew what David knew. Someone had broken into the apartment.
She followed the police inside and listened as David listed what he could see missing.
The TV was there, but his computer and game system were missing. The cookies were gone. The stereo. Her bag from work.
She frowned when she realized her school bag was the only thing of hers missing.
The policeman questioning her must’ve caught the frown. “Anything in the papers important?”
She shook her head. “No. No. They’re just English papers.”
By then a detective, one of the men who’d been at the school arrived.
Detective Ortiz.
“You’re the Hernandez kids’ teacher,” he said.
She nodded. Of course he knew that. He’d already questioned her.
“Their papers are in the missing bag?”
She closed her eyes, saw herself giving the papers to Ryan. “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably.”
Ortiz nodded. “Just to be on the safe side I’m going to have you talk to one of the federal agents in town working that case.”
She watched him walk away, place a call.
Federal agents? Was she supposed to lie to them too? Wouldn’t they already know about her?
David stepped to her side, pulled her in a hug and she started to relax into him when he whispered in her ear. “No contact with Ryan unless it’s an emergency.”
The hug was work. She tensed in his arms. Nodded so he’d know she understood as Detective Ortiz walked over, told her the federal agents would talk to her at school Monday.
She answered the rest of his questions, said thank you and goodbye then collapsed on the couch once the police left.
“Can we talk?”
David nodded. “It’s safe. We’re clean.”
“Why did they send Detective Ortiz, David? Do the police know?”
David shrugged. “No. They just want to be safe. You’re a connection.”
“If it was Degas or his people who broke in, he’ll know. Miguel and Solidad’s papers are gone.”
David took her hand in his. “The detective called the feds, Lil. He’s not working with Degas and neither are federal agents.”
She nodded then, letting his words comfort her. But Oh God. “What about the sleeping bag?”
He smiled. “The one in my closet?”
She relaxed then. But still…”I feel so, I don’t know. Invaded.”
He pulled her to his chest again. And this time the hug was real. Not work.
She leaned into him. Whispered. “It all just got a little more dangerous, didn’t it?”
“No,” he said. “Just more real. You sure you don’t want to go home?”
She almost laughed at the word. Home. Like it even existed. Today with his family had just cemented how little she knew of the word.
She let the hug continue because she didn’t want him to see her eyes. To see how much the lack of home hurt. “I’m sure. I just…I don’t know.“
Now she pulled away, started looking around the house. It wasn’t trashed. Someone had come in here. Were they looking for a quick crash and carry? Or was it something far more sinister? “We need to look around. Make sure we didn’t miss anything.”
He grabbed her hand. “It’s okay, Lil.”
She pulled her hand away. “You can’t sleep on the floor anymore, David. We have to make it look real.”
He grabbed her hand again. “Stop Lil. Stop and listen to me.”
She didn’t want to stop. And she didn’t want to listen to him. She just wanted to make sure nothing else was gone.
But he wasn’t taking no for an answer. “This is going to make me sound like a real jerk, but I’ve got to say it.”
She wanted to tell him no he didn’t. He didn’t have to say anything. She knew she’d overreacted last night. Knew she was the one with the attraction problem. But he continued before she could tell him to stop.
“When I’m on the floor, I have these vivid fantasies of you naked and me making you that way. I can’t sleep in bed with you. Sorry.”
Oh whoa. What was she supposed to say to that anyway? She fought to catch her breath. “We’re adults David.”
“Exactly,” he laughed. “Adults extremely attracted to one another.”
“I’m not…”
“Don’t lie.”
She blew out a breath. “Okay, so I am. But I’ll wear my flannels. You wear yours. You’ve got a big bed. Huge. We could practically be in different zip codes in that thing.”
He laughed again. “Babe, once upon a time you and I christened every square inch of that great big, huge, giant, separate zip codes bed on a regular basis. Remember?”
Oh yeah. Definitely.
She fought to catch her breath and blushed when he laughed at her. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
“So sleeping together isn’t such a great idea.”
She nodded. “Because I’d hate myself in the morning.”
He tilted his head sideways, ran his index finger down her cheek then stepped back. “There is that.”
“So sleeping bag it is.”
“Unless you want to take that chance. I mean you’re already way out on the edge now. What’s a little more danger.”
He was teasing her. And she was liking it. “Shut up, David.”
“You know you want me.”
God yes she did. “You’re so romantic.”
“I see that look in your eyes.”
“You see me ready to roll my eyes.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I seem to remember making you do that more than once on that bed. It was….”
“A long time ago. Point made. You’re right. No sleeping together.”
He dragged out the sleeping bag, grabbed his pillow off the bed. “It would be good.”
She shrugged. “Good sex is not enough.”
Wrong thing. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
She felt the difference in the room immediately. She’d ruined their good time. They’d been having fun. Flirting. Teasing. And she’d blown it.
“You’re right,” he said, this time completely serious. “You deserve more than good sex. I can do good sex. I can’t do what you deserve, Lil.”
She laughed and tried not to take it personally. “We’re both perfect products of our upbringing.”
He tossed the pillow on the floor. “Families can really suck.”
“You say that because you’ve had the real deal,” she said. “I want the real deal. I want to sit at a table surrounded by my kids. I want to tease and nag and discipline as needed. I want to love that much and be loved back. No nannies. No trust funds. No country clubs or debutant balls.”
Her words should be freaking him out. Instead they were turning him on. Damn. David focused on the pillow, on the UT throw Scamp was dragging out of the room.
He stepped on the throw and Scamp curled up on his sleeping bag.
“Anna would kill for the chance to go to a debutant ball,” he said as he looked across the room. “It’s not all positives. It hurts sometimes.” He thought about Pete’s funeral. About his mother’s tears. “It hurts a lot.”
“So does being alone.” She whispered the words and he felt like the world’s biggest jerk. She was so sad over there by that big bed. Sad and sexy as hell and what he wanted to do was slip that rock show t-shirt over her head, those well-worn jeans off her legs and slide inside her again and again until she came apart in his arms.
But that would be a bad idea on a colossal level.
So instead he tried to go back to teasing. “Hey cariña. Quit being so serious. I bet I can find Scrabble. You up for a game?”
She laughed and, thank you Jesus, the moment was broken. “I’m not playing naked Scrabble with you.”
“And here I thought you were living life on the edge,” he said. “Fine. You can keep your clothes on. But it’s not my fault you lose.”
“You cheat,” she said but he could tell she didn�
��t really believe it.
“Like you can cheat at Scrabble. Come on. We’ll play with our clothes on.”
The next day, Lil walked into her boring little house and tried not to be offended when Joseph whistled through his teeth and asked, “Where’s the pictures?”
“I don’t have pictures. And don’t be mean. I didn’t actually invite you.”
Joseph laughed and walked back to her kitchen. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember. I’m here as your baby sitter.”
She was going to kill David. Kill him. “No you’re here to help.”
“That’s me. I’m all about helping,” Joseph said before popping the top on one of the beers that had been in her fridge for God only knew how long.
“Go ahead and make yourself at home,” she teased and he laughed.
“For what it’s worth, I’m glad you and David hooked up again. He needs you. You’re the only one who gets him, you know?”
This was killing her.
She tried to smile, said thanks and then ducked into her bedroom.
She should probably say something about it being a little early for beer. But that would be butting into business she didn’t belong anywhere near.
Joseph had been her student three years earlier when his father had died. She liked him a lot. Enough that it bothered her to lie to him about her relationship with his brother. But today he was a grown man. He didn’t need her mothering him. Like she would have a clue how anyway.
She grabbed a few clothes and tossed them in the suitcase because she had to make this look real.
The truth was she’d needed to get away. Last night had been too much…everything.
She needed to get out of David’s space and remember the truth about who she was and who they weren’t.
Only David had insisted she bring Joseph along. So getting away wasn’t an option.
“You bringing the magnetic poetry over to David’s?” Joseph asked, and she laughed.
“Why? Are you going to compose odes to your brother?”
He laughed back. “Nah. But he’d get a kick out of it.”
That was the truth wasn’t it? David got a kick out of just about everything.
Last night’s game of Scrabble had lasted hours. She’d never laughed so much in her life.
It would be so much easier if she just lusted after David instead of liking him.
