He recalled what had happened the last time he’d pulled that on her. “I’ll tell you what. Forget the office. Meet me on the dock at seven. We’ll go out on the boat. I have crab pots to check.”
She looked skeptical. “Seven o’clock in the morning? Isn’t that a little early for a man who reportedly is not a morning person? Then there’s the idea of you and me alone on a boat. Are you sure you don’t intend to toss me overboard?”
He grinned for the first time since she’d walked into the kitchen. “Only if you try my patience.”
She nodded, her expression solemn. “Then I’ll definitely work hard not to do that.”
Jenna hadn’t been gone twenty minutes and Bobby’s pulse was still in overdrive, when Tucker wandered into the kitchen.
“What the heck are you doing in here? It’s not open house night in my kitchen,” Bobby snapped.
Tucker grinned. “Feeling a little sexually frustrated, I take it? I heard about Jenna and the dress.”
“This is not about Jenna and whatever she was or was not wearing,” Bobby retorted, regretting more than he could say that he hadn’t killed everyone who’d been witness to their encounter. “I have a business to run.”
Tucker snagged a crab leg from a plate Bobby had been about to send into the dining room. “Don’t let me stop you. I can wait.”
Bobby sighed and set that plate in front of his brother, then fixed another one for the actual paying customer in the other room. As soon as the meals were out the door, he turned back to Tucker.
“Other than tormenting me, do you have a reason for being here?”
“Yep. I got word today that our missing security guard is back in Richmond. I’m off tomorrow, so I was thinking of taking a ride down there. Want to come along? And in case you require an added incentive, it seems that the mayor’s pal Mitch Cummings knows this guy.”
“This could be the link we need between the mayor and the theft, then,” Bobby concluded, his excitement stirring. He thought of the boating trip he was supposed to take with Jenna. It probably wouldn’t hurt to let things cool down a little more before they took it.
“I’ll have to cancel a meeting,” he told Tucker. “But I’ll go. What time do you want to leave?”
“Seven-thirty,” Tucker told him with a grin. “I figured since you were planning to be up at that hour to meet Jenna, it won’t kill you to do it for me.”
“How did you know my meeting was with Jenna? Is she still out there? Did she tell you?”
Tucker chuckled. “Man, you are pitiful. No, she is not still out there, but Maggie is. Your secretary is a reliable source of information, especially when it comes to your love life. I’d be careful if I were you. I don’t think she’s above bugging the place.”
“I have no love life,” Bobby insisted. “At least not with Jenna Kennedy.”
“Yeah, whatever,” his brother said, clearly not believing a word of the denial. “I’ll swing by and pick you up at seven.”
“You said seven-thirty.”
“I said we’d leave at seven-thirty. I’m not going anywhere until I’ve had my coffee. Your house is on the way to Earlene’s. I’m not back-tracking to get you.”
“Fine.”
“Don’t look so grouchy. Maybe if you explain what you’re doing to Jenna when you cancel on her, she’ll come along with us.”
“Not a chance,” Bobby said grimly. He was not going to spend an entire day in close quarters with a woman who could turn him on with a glance. An hour on a boat would have been torment enough. And in his boat, there was no chance of things getting out of hand. In the back seat of Tucker’s car, who knew what insane forces of temptation might kick in? There was something about the back seat of a convertible that just begged people to indulge in mischief. “And drive the SUV, just in case I can’t talk her out of going.”
“Up to you,” Tucker said, a knowing grin spreading across his face. He snagged another crab on his way out the door. “These could use a little more spice, by the way.”
“As if I’d ever take culinary advice from a man who thinks a peanut butter and mayo sandwich is fine dining.”
Tucker winked. “You ought to put it on the menu. You’d bring in a whole new clientele.”
“No question about that,” Bobby said. “And you’d spend all your time up here arresting them for drunk and disorderly conduct.”
As soon as Tucker had gone, Bobby walked over to the phone. If he had to cancel on Jenna, he might as well get it over with. She was going to blast him from here to Sunday. Then he could get indignant and hang up. That would be for the best all the way around, he concluded as he dialed.
When she answered in a sleepy voice, an image of her out of that dress and naked in bed shot his body temperature into the stratosphere and pretty much reduced his resolve to cinders.
“Jenna, I’m sorry if I woke you. It’s Bobby.” Before she could say anything else in that husky tone, he rushed on. “Something’s come up. I have to cancel out on tomorrow. Can we make it the next day?”
“You’re canceling on me?” Indignation stripped away the slightest hint of sexiness from her voice.
“Postponing,” he corrected. “For one day. It’s no big deal.”
“It is to me.”
And he knew why, he thought, forcing aside the guilt that swamped him. “One day,” he told her. “I swear it.”
“You’re giving me your word that we will meet day after tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, then,” she said, sounding mollified. “Is everything all right?”
“All right?” he asked, mystified by the question.
“Whatever came up. Is it a problem?”
“No, no, it’s nothing like that. Tucker and I just have to run down to Richmond.”
There was dead silence on the line, then finally she said, “Richmond? I don’t suppose this has anything to do with my case?”
Bobby cursed himself for the slip. He could lie to her, but then he’d feel even worse than he did already. “Yes,” he told her reluctantly. “The guard’s back.”
“And you weren’t going to tell me that, were you?”
“I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”
“You didn’t want me going along,” she corrected. “Too bad, because I have a right to be there.”
“It’s official police business,” he said, mouthing a phrase that Tucker tossed around whenever an amateur was annoying him.
“You’re going, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but—”
“Being the sheriff’s brother doesn’t qualify you for deputy, unless you’ve been holding out on me. Do you have a badge?”
“No, but—”
“I’m going. What time are we leaving?”
He didn’t answer.
“Bobby Spencer, if you don’t tell me right this second, I’m going to come over and spend the night outside your front door.”
That was probably more temptation than any mere mortal could resist. Bobby told her to meet them at Earlene’s at seven.
“You’d better be there,” she warned, “or I’ll make you regret it.”
“Ever since you hit town, I’ve been living with regrets,” he tossed back. “I’m getting used to it.”
“Yeah, well, this kind will be painful,” she retorted.
Bobby laughed. “Believe me, sugar, so are the ones I’ve been suffering so far. I’ll see you in the morning.”
He hung up before she could say anything more. He realized then that his lips were curved in a smile. Apparently he wasn’t nearly as distraught by the prospect of being with Jenna all day long as anyone with good sense ought to be.
17
The meeting with the security guard was a total bust from Jenna’s perspective. Not only had she had to postpone her best chance yet to discuss the boardwalk contract with Bobby, but the guard swore that he didn’t have a clue who might have taken the carousel horse. He also swore that he’d been planning this
vacation for months, that there was nothing unexpected about it.
None of her questions or Tucker’s had been able to wear him down. They were going over the same territory for a second time, but he maintained that a man he couldn’t describe had shown up with a truck and a letter purporting to be from Jenna telling him to release the horse.
“I didn’t write a letter,” Jenna said with mounting frustration.
“But I got one, ma’am,” the guard said apologetically. “What was I supposed to think? And my pay was in the envelope with it.”
“In cash, I suppose,” Tucker said, not even trying to hide his exasperation.
The man nodded, clearly tired of the repetition.
“Any extra?” Bobby asked, throwing a new twist at him.
Toby Finch regarded him with indignation. “Absolutely not. If there had been, it would have made me suspicious, no question about it. The pay was the exact amount, so it seemed legit to me.”
“Do the people usually pay you on the job or do they pay the company?” Tucker asked.
“Depends on the arrangement the boss makes,” he insisted once again. “Usually he gives me a heads-up before I go on a job, but this was a last-minute assignment for me. I had to fill in for a fellow who got sick.”
Tucker looked at Jenna.
“I hadn’t agreed to pay in cash,” she said. “I was supposed to be billed. Call the office. Someone there ought to be able to confirm that.”
“I’ll do that later,” Tucker said, turning his attention back to the guard. “Toby, how long have you been in the security business?”
“Ten years, ever since I retired from the police department down here,” he said with evident pride.
“So with all that experience, you should have a good eye for details, right?” Tucker asked.
“I’d say so,” Toby said, regarding him warily. “What’s your point?”
“I’m wondering why you can’t recall one single detail about the man or the truck that came that day.”
The comment didn’t rattle Toby in the slightest. “It was just before daybreak. I couldn’t see all that clearly. My eyes aren’t what they used to be. That’s one of the reasons I retired from the force.”
“Then how did you see to read the letter?” Bobby asked.
“Took out my flashlight and put on my reading glasses,” Toby responded without hesitation.
“What did you do with the letter?” Tucker asked him.
“Gave it back to the man.”
“Shouldn’t you have kept it, just in case there was any question later about the change in plans?”
“In retrospect, I can see that that would have been the smart thing to do, given what’s happened, but at the time, I couldn’t see any reason to hang on to it.”
Bobby studied him with a frustrated expression. “Toby, what’s your connection to a man named Mitch Cummings?”
“Who’s Mitch Cummings?” Jenna asked, bewildered by the new name.
“A friend of the mayor’s,” Bobby said tersely before turning his attention back to Toby. “Do you know him?”
“Sure I do. Mitch and me were on the force together,” he said readily. “What’s he got to do with this? He’s a P.I. now. I haven’t seen him in a couple of years.”
“Or talked to him?” Tucker asked, as if the distinction might make a difference in his reply.
“No, sir. I haven’t talked to him either. As far as I know, he’s got no connection to any of this.”
Tucker and Jenna sighed in unison. Bobby’s hard gaze never left the older man’s face.
“Toby, are you lying?” he asked harshly. “If so, now’s the time to come clean. Unless you were in on the theft, you’ve got nothing to lose by telling the truth and helping us to catch the person responsible. Ms. Kennedy stands to lose a lot of money unless we can find that antique horse.”
Toby’s gaze flew to Jenna. “I’m real sorry, ma’am. I imagine the company insurance will make it good, if a court holds us liable. Like I said, though, it all seemed on the up and up to me or that man would never have been able to put that horse into that truck without going through me.”
“I’m sure that’s true,” Jenna consoled him. “It’s not your fault. A thief is a thief and this one was obviously very good.”
“Thanks for your time,” Tucker told him, then handed him a business card with the sheriff’s department phone number. He’d jotted his home number on the back. “You think of anything else, give me a call.”
“Will do,” the man promised.
Outside of his small house in a middle-class subdivision, Jenna looked at Tucker and Bobby. “Now what?”
“Now we have some lunch and discuss our options,” Tucker said.
“It’s not even eleven o’clock,” Bobby pointed out.
“Then we’ll have brunch,” Tucker said. “Interrogations always make me work up an appetite.”
“I’m glad they’re good for something, because that one didn’t get us one single piece of information we can use,” Jenna said.
“Sure, it did,” Tucker disagreed.
“What?” she asked, mystified.
“We know whoever took that horse knew that you were the one who sent it,” he said.
“We do?” Bobby said.
“I’ll explain it to you over food,” Tucker said, heading for the car. “Until then, you two talk about the weather or something. I need to think.”
“In that case, since you deliberately defied me and brought the convertible, Jenna and I will ride in the back,” Bobby said, dragging Jenna toward the back seat.
“Just try not to get carried away back there,” Tucker warned. “I’m not chauffeuring a couple of naked people around Richmond. Word’s bound to get back to Trinity Harbor.”
Jenna shot a startled look at Bobby. “Naked people?”
“An interesting idea, but I think I’ll have to pass,” he said, eyes twinkling. “I have the Spencer reputation to think of. Of course, once we get on the highway heading home, there’s nothing stopping us.”
She stared at him. “Are you crazy?”
“Only lately.” He draped an arm over her shoulders and drew her close.
“I thought you weren’t going to touch me ever again,” she said, even as she snuggled into his side. Talk about mixed messages. It was a wonder their heads weren’t spinning.
“That was last night. This is today. Things change,” he said, apparently happy enough with the inconsistency of his plans. “Now hush. I want to see if what they say is true.”
“About what?”
“Whether there really is smoke coming out of Tucker’s ears when he tries thinking too hard.”
“I heard that,” his brother said.
Bobby laughed. “I knew you weren’t concentrating that hard.”
Jenna sighed with contentment and leaned back into the curve of Bobby’s arm. She listened to the two brothers bicker all the way to the interstate, despite Tucker’s earlier plea for silence. There was so much love behind the teasing. It didn’t have the same edge to it that it did when Dennis and Daniel started in on each other or on her. For what seemed like the zillionth time, she wondered why she’d had to grow up in a family that was so blasted dysfunctional. Could anything have changed that?
Maybe if her father had been a different sort of person, she concluded. Someone like King Spencer, for instance. King had lost his wife when his kids were still young, but he hadn’t let his family fall apart. He hadn’t shipped Daisy off to boarding school because she was more of a bother than her brothers. He’d kept them all under one roof and seen to it that they never once questioned the love of the parent who remained for them.
She glanced up and saw Bobby studying her intently.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” he asked.
“Thinking about how different my life would have been if my dad had been anything at all like yours.”
Bobby hooted. “You don’t even want to go there.�
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“Come on. It’s plain to everyone how much he cares about the three of you.”
Bobby’s expression turned thoughtful. “I can’t deny that. I suppose Daddy’s biggest fault is his tendency to get carried away in trying to do what he thinks is best for us.”
“See?” Jenna said. “That’s precisely what I mean.”
Bobby kept his gaze level with hers. “Don’t you think your father did what he thought was best, too?” he asked quietly. “Even if you think he was flat-out wrong, can’t you admit that his intentions were good? In that way, our fathers are pretty much alike. They might be misguided, but their hearts are in the right place.”
Jenna considered what Bobby was saying. If being sent away hadn’t been so painful, maybe she could have admitted that her father had truly thought she would be better off away from home. But that wasn’t the worst of it. It was everything that had happened since, the constant reminders that she wasn’t good enough or smart enough to do anything at all meaningful at Pennington and Sons, that she was as much of an outsider as if there hadn’t been any Pennington blood running through her veins.
“Sorry,” she said with a shake of her head. “I don’t think I can look at it so generously. Spend a little time with my father and me sometime. You’ll see what I mean.”
“Then invite him down,” Bobby said. “Set up a meeting. If Pennington and Sons is going to be in the running for this contract, then I probably should meet the head of the company.”
“No,” Jenna said flatly, a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. Was Bobby going to snatch this opportunity away from her, after all she’d told him about how important this job was to her?
“Why not?”
“I don’t want him here. Not till this is a done deal. I mean it, Bobby. This is my deal or we forget about it.”
For an instant he seemed taken aback, but then he nodded. “Yeah, I can see why you’d want it that way. We’ll put that topic on the table for our meeting tomorrow.”
“Fair enough,” she said, just as Tucker parked the car in front of a truck stop that boasted three different fast-food restaurants under one roof. All that cholesterol, plus ice cream for dessert, she thought. It was heavenly, especially since she didn’t have to try to explain to Darcy why a high-fat lunch was a really, really bad dietary habit to get into.
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