Good Girls Don't

by Victoria Dahl

  “Oh, Jamie. Thank God. Why didn’t you call me back? If you want me to talk to Monica, then—”

  “Did you go out with Luke Asher last night?” Jamie demanded.

  “Um… What?”

  “Eric said you were out with someone last night and you wouldn’t say who. Was it Luke?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “It was him, wasn’t it? I saw how you two were looking at each other.”

  “Jamie, seriously. I’m twenty-seven. Cut it out.”

  “No, I’m serious, Tessa. Stay away from Luke Asher. He’s bad news.”

  Utterly confused, Tessa leaned to the side to look past Jamie to the hallway beyond. “Am I being Punk’d? I thought that show was canceled a long time ago.”

  “Damn it!” he shouted. Tessa jumped an inch out of her chair when his fist thumped her desk.

  “Sheesh. Calm down.”

  “I won’t calm down. He’s not someone you should be hanging out with, much less dating.”

  “Oh, really? Who is? A priest? Luke’s a friend of yours. If he’s good enough for you to hang around with, why not me?”

  “Because I’m not a woman.”

  Tessa rolled her eyes. Her brothers didn’t like her hanging out with any male over twelve and under eighty. “We just went out for dinner. We didn’t participate in a Roman orgy, I swear.”

  Jamie’s face flamed red immediately. “Tessa!”

  Sometimes she felt she was living in the middle of a Jane Austen novel. “I like him, all right? Just leave it alone.”

  He crossed his arms. “I like him, too. He’s a great guy. How else would he have gotten so much action in college?”

  “Oh, really? As much as you?”

  He raised an eyebrow in silent acknowledgment.

  Tessa cleared her throat. “That was in college.”

  “Sure it was. And his current nickname is Magnet.”

  “Magnet?”

  “Yes,” he bit out. “As in Babe Magnet. I heard one of the other cops call him that when he wasn’t listening.”

  Tessa tried not to smile. She could understand the reputation. The man had a lethal attraction.

  “And,” Jamie continued, pointing his finger at her, “have you not noticed the fact that his partner is currently pregnant up to her damned ears?”

  “So?”

  “So, the kid is his, Tessa. Jesus. Pay attention.”

  She felt all the air leave her body in a whoosh, and it took all of her little-sister outrage with it. “What?”

  “He knocked up his partner, and now he’s letting her swing in the breeze.”

  “How do you know that?”

  Jamie spread his arms out in her small office. “I’m a bartender, Tessa. I hear things.”

  “So…” Tessa’s mind flailed. That was why he’d been so awkward when he’d talked about his partner. “So maybe she’s the one who wants him to keep his distance.”

  “I don’t give a damn what the reason is. His life is all fucked-up, and you don’t need any part of that.”

  “Like my life is so un-fucked-up right now?”

  “Watch your language,” he muttered.

  Tessa closed her eyes and tried to call up the patience of a nineteenth-century noblewoman.

  “And,” Jamie continued in a lower tone, “it’s my life that’s messed up, not yours. By the way, what the hell did you post on Twitter last night?”

  “Nothing. It’s not important. Just…” She made a frantic gesture for him to close the door. Jamie shook his head, so she slapped his arm as hard as she could. He glared at her, but closed the door.

  “Give me Monica’s number,” she hissed.

  “No.”

  “Are you going to call her back?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Come on! I can’t get in touch with her dad and we need to find out if he knows!”

  “He looked right at me, Tessa. He knows. We need to stop screwing around and tell Eric before he finds out from Kendall.”

  “No! We can’t! Just let me… I’ll go down to Kendall’s office right now, okay?”

  “No, I’m going to tell Eric. This is one disaster you can’t cover up. I don’t even want you to.”

  As he turned toward the door, Tessa leaped up and grabbed his shirt.

  “Hey!”

  “Please don’t. Please!”

  Jamie seemed alarmed to find her sprawled over her desk. Her pack of paper clips slipped to the floor with a crash. “Tessa, calm down.”

  “Tell me you won’t tell him and I’ll calm down.”

  “You’re being ridiculous.”

  “I’m not.” She felt tears spring to her eyes, and she hadn’t even summoned them to soften him up. Jamie’s shoulders fell, and when she knew he wasn’t going to dart for the door, she let go of his shirt and climbed off her desk. “He’s going to be so mad, Jamie.”

  “I know that.”

  “He’ll never let you take on more of the business.”

  “Maybe I don’t deserve to take on more.”

  She knew that wasn’t true. He didn’t have any responsibility, so he didn’t act responsibly. But Eric didn’t see the logic in that reasoning. He wanted Jamie to prove himself first, and every year the tension grew between the two men. Something had to give. And Tessa was afraid her family would be the thing to break.

  “You said you’d give me a chance,” she pleaded.

  “I didn’t say that. I just stopped arguing with you.”

  “Please, Jamie.” His jaw tightened in stubbornness. She grabbed his hand and wrapped both of hers around it. “Pleeease?”

  She knew the moment she had him. She always did. And not a second too soon. Her office door snapped open again, and Eric stuck his head in.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing!” she answered.

  Jamie held her gaze, and for a moment, the serious line of his mouth worried her. She gave her head one tiny shake and squeezed his hand one last time before letting him go.

  Eric clearly didn’t buy that they were just having a cozy brother/sister talk. “Guys,” he said flatly.

  Jamie took a deep breath and Tessa closed her eyes. Please.

  “The person Tessa was with last night? It was Luke.”

  Oh, great. She opened her eyes and narrowed them at Jamie. Surely he could’ve thought of a save that didn’t throw her under the bus.

  “Luke Asher?” Eric’s voice sang like a blade drawn from a scabbard. “I hope you’re kidding.”

  Tessa was done with this. If Luke really had gotten his partner pregnant, then Tessa wasn’t going to see him again. And if he hadn’t…then it was still none of their business. “Forget it, both of you. It was one meal, and it’s over, okay?”

  “Promise?” Jamie asked.

  Tessa scowled at him. “I’m not a kid anymore.” But she crossed her fingers just in case that still counted. Both her brothers glared at her. They looked nothing alike, aside from their height. Eric was dark-haired and pale-eyed. Jamie looked like a golden-haired mess next to him. But they both wore identical expressions of stern disapproval, and she could picture the exact same frown on her father’s face. They loved her. They wanted what was best for her. Just as she wanted the best for them.

  She snatched up her purse. “Okay, boys. I’ve got to go. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

  Their expressions turned even darker. “Why?” Eric asked.

  “Because I have a doctor’s appointment.”

  “What’s wrong?” he demanded.

  “Um, it’s a girlie thing. You know…” She leaned forward and cupped her hand over her mouth. “The gynecologist.”

  “Oh.” Eric stepped back so quickly that his shoulder hit the doorjamb. His face turned red. “It’s just a checkup, though, right? You’re not, um, engaged in anything that…”

  “No,” she answered with mock seriousness. “I’m not ‘engaged in anything.’”

  Sometimes s
he wondered who had raised whom in this family.

  Now that she had both her brothers backing out of her office in horror, Tessa was free to go. She bit back a self-satisfied smile as she kissed Eric on the cheek. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

  But once she hit the door, she raced to her car. She was wearing jeans and a brewery T-shirt, and she didn’t want to see Roland Kendall that way, so she had to stop at home before she drove to Denver. No matter what it took, she was going to get an answer from that man today.

  SHE’D DONE IT again.

  Instead of telling Luke face-to-face, Simone had left a message on his voice mail that she had a doctor’s appointment. His office voice mail. She hadn’t called his cell phone, because she knew for a fact that Luke wanted to go with her. He wasn’t the father of her baby, but he was her best friend, or had been at one time.

  So why didn’t she want him there? Was it possible that someone else was going to the appointments with her?

  The message had said she’d be in at twelve, which probably meant her appointment was around eleven. He glanced at the clock. He could drive by in a half hour or so, see if her car was in the doctor’s parking lot. If only he knew who her doctor was…

  Luke stretched and faked a yawn, taking the opportunity to glance around the office. Most of the detectives were on the phone. The rest were gathered near the coffee machine, gabbing about something. His sergeant was nowhere to be seen.

  Rising to circle around to Simone’s desk, Luke told himself not to look guilty. There was nothing weird about him sorting through her stuff. They worked the same cases. They shared the same space. Still, he felt a flush climb up the back of his neck as he tugged open the top drawer and pushed some papers around. It didn’t take much. The corner of a business card appeared. He pulled it free of the pile and immediately spied a stylized logo of a woman holding a baby. Bingo.

  Luke tucked the card into his pocket and circled back to his desk just as his cell phone rang. “Asher.”

  “Hey, it’s Jamie Donovan. Do you have a minute to swing by the brewery?”

  Perfect. Now he had an excuse to leave. “I’ll be there in a few.”

  He slipped on his coat and grabbed his keys to head out. The doctor’s office was on the way to the brewery, so he drove by just in case. Simone’s car wasn’t there, but it was early yet. Luke had the sinking feeling that he was stepping over a line here, and he was still trying to shake off the guilt when he walked into the brewery. The front room was empty, but before he could head to the back, Jamie came through the swinging doors.

  “Hey, Jamie. What’s up?”

  “Stay the hell away from my sister, Luke.”

  Amazingly, Luke had been so caught up in the drama with Simone that he’d forgotten about the problem of Tessa Donovan. He just stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face.

  “You promised to leave her alone.”

  “She asked me to dinner.”

  “So you should’ve said no.”

  “I did. But…” He cleared his throat. “Then I said yes.”

  “Whatever. It doesn’t matter. She’s no longer interested. I told her about your partner.”

  Any guilt Luke had been feeling snapped into cold fury. “What about my partner? You don’t know a damn thing about it.”

  “I know she’s pregnant. And you’re the father. And I know you’re trying to date my sister. That’s all I need to know.”

  “You’re wrong,” he managed to push past clenched teeth.

  “About what?” Jamie snapped.

  He refused to say more. It wasn’t right to talk about Simone this way. She never said a word about it to anyone. She’d always been a private person, and he couldn’t disrespect her that way.

  Jamie shrugged. “Whether you’re the father or not, it’s hardly the only issue.”

  “Oh, yeah? What else puts her out of my league?”

  Jamie shifted, running a hand through his hair and looking everywhere but at Luke.

  “What?” Luke snapped, expecting to hear more about the divorce.

  Jamie finally met his gaze. “Tessa is a virgin.”

  “Uh… What?”

  “You heard me.”

  Luke wondered if the stress of the past few years had finally broken him. “You’re not serious.”

  Jamie’s frown turned to a scowl. “You’re damn right I’m serious.”

  “But…that’s… How do you know?”

  “She’s told me as much herself.”

  “She told you?” Luke asked weakly. Something that felt suspiciously like horror was rolling through him in waves. Tessa was a virgin? Good God. She hadn’t said a word. Except that part about being a good girl. Had that been a hint? “Wow,” he breathed.

  “So when I say you’re not good enough for her, I mean you’re not fucking good enough for her, all right?”

  Luke rolled his shoulders. “Look. I don’t like to talk about Simone, but what you’ve heard isn’t true. I’m not that guy. And I’m not looking to jump your sister’s bones. It was just dinner. We had a good time.”

  “Well, make it the last time, all right?”

  “What if I don’t want to?”

  Jamie crossed his arms and dropped his eyes to the floor. “This is my sister.”

  “Fair enough. But—”

  “There is nothing about you that’s good enough for her. You’re damaged. Your job is dangerous. Your partner is pregnant. And even aside from your reputation, there are the stone-cold facts of your divorce. You can’t argue those away.”

  Luke’s heart paused.

  “She had cancer, man. How could you have walked out like that?”

  Luke’s vision went dark at the edges, and he considered warning Jamie that he shouldn’t say that sort of thing to a man with a gun strapped to his body. Because in that moment, Luke wanted to kill someone. He really, really did.

  “We’re friends, Luke, but—”

  Luke cut him off with a hard laugh. “That friendship was a long time ago, obviously.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business, and I wouldn’t make it my business, but I don’t want you anywhere near Tessa, got it?”

  “Fuck off,” Luke said. He slammed through the front door of the brewery, blood rushing so hard in his ears he almost walked right into a car that pulled up. Two business types got out of the car, each of them eyeing him warily. Luke just stalked around them and got into his own car. Even two states away, he couldn’t get away from it. Luke had been married and divorced in California, which was one of the reasons he’d moved back here. Yeah, word got around the department, but he hadn’t expected it to get back to everyone. He should have known better. Eve wasn’t from Boulder, but she’d gone to school here. People talked. They always did. Hell, the police wouldn’t solve any cases if people weren’t so inclined to spread rumors.

  God, what a disaster.

  His rage leveled off to frustration, a constant, scalding burn beneath his skin. Everything about his divorce was frustrating. Not that that shocked him. His marriage had been frustrating, too, but he’d loved her like crazy.

  “Shit,” he spat out. At least the anger had smoked out his guilt about spying on Simone. He didn’t feel even a twinge as he started the car and headed back toward the doctor’s office. But he was still reeling under a healthy dose of Holy crap, Tessa Donovan is an untouched innocent as he wove his car through streets filled with packs of hunched-over bikers. Frankly, the various emotions careering through his body left him feeling vaguely ill.

  When he arrived at the doctor’s office, there was Simone’s car, right up by the door in one of the spaces marked with a stork. Maybe she was alone, then. Luke rolled down his window and settled in to wait.

  The cool spring sunshine did nothing to temper his mood. He stared unmoved at the pale green leaves of the aspen grove at the edge of the parking lot. A wall of gray clouds gathered at the horizon, and Luke chose to focus on those instead. By two o’clock, the town
would be beset by thunder and lightning, a fairly common occurrence on spring days. What a relief that would be. The sun and chirping birds and flip-flops were just too much to take.

  So he watched the clouds gather beyond the building and let his eyes slide to the entry each time the door opened. A half hour later, the door swung out to reveal Simone, alone. She juggled a stack of pamphlets while digging for keys in her purse.

  Luke slid out of his car, and when his door shut, she looked up. For a moment, Simone only looked concerned. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Nothing. I was just…worried about you.”

  Her eyes jumped to his car, then back to him, and her face stiffened. “Are you following me?”

  “No.”

  “Really?” she snapped. “Because I don’t remember giving you the name and address of my doctor.”

  “I didn’t follow you. I…detected my way here.”

  “I’m not in the mood for jokes. This is outrageous.”

  He knew she was pissed. Hell, she was way past pissed if her flaring nostrils and reddening face were any indication. So Luke tried to tamp down his own feelings. “I’m sorry. I don’t want you going through this alone.”

  She pushed past him and hit the unlock key, then threw everything into the passenger seat before rounding on him again. “How did you know I was alone? Or…” She gestured toward his car. “Was that the point of this? To find out who might be here with me?”

  “No. No! It’s not about who the father is. I—”

  “Really? Because you ask me every damn day. I’m sorry people think it’s you. I tell everyone who asks that it’s not. You’re the one who stopped denying it!”

  “I’m trying to protect you.”

  She threw her hands high. “I don’t need your protection!”

  “Why not?” he yelled. Before the words had even left his mouth, he scrubbed his eyes with one hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell, I just… You’ve totally shut me out.”

  Simone’s hand touched his arm, and when he looked down, he realized she hadn’t touched him in months. Not that she’d ever been overtly affectionate, but she’d never avoided him before.