The doorbell rang a moment later.
“Oh, my God,” she breathed, holding a hand over her stomach. She was so nervous, she felt like throwing up.
What if her swimsuit was too skanky? What if Jenny did something embarrassing?
She took a deep breath, pushing aside her fears as she walked toward the front door. If Noah didn’t like her bikini, he needed to get his testosterone checked, and if bratty kids scared him off, it wasn’t meant to be.
Her heart skipped a beat when she saw him. In a tan T-shirt and navy shorts, he appeared relaxed, casual, and achingly handsome. She could feel his gaze, even through the lenses of his sunglasses, skimming down her dress.
And—he brought flowers.
“You look beautiful,” he said, smiling. After a quick kiss on the cheek, he handed her the bouquet of Gerber daisies.
She tried not to goggle at them. “Thank you.”
“They’re for you and Jenny,” he explained.
It took her a second to realize that Jenny was standing beside her. “Come in,” she said. “I’ll put these in water.”
“Where’s your sister?” Jenny asked.
“She couldn’t come. I hope that’s okay.”
“Of course,” April said, grabbing a vase from under the sink. Actually, she was relieved. Navigating the course between Noah and Jenny would be difficult enough without throwing another personality into the mix.
“I told her about you,” he continued, taking a piece of paper out of his pocket for Jenny. “And she wrote you a note.”
Jenny accepted it shyly. “What does it say?”
“Open it and see.”
April arranged the flowers in the vase, watching as Jenny unfolded the note. “It says my name!”
Noah laughed at her enthusiasm. “Yes.”
Jenny brought the note to April. “What else does it say, Mommy?”
Noah’s sister had drawn a stick figure of a little girl on a surfboard, catching a wave. April read the message. “It says, Have fun at Wave City! Love, Meghan.”
“Is Meghan your sister’s name?” Jenny asked.
He nodded.
“How old is she?”
“Nineteen.”
“What grade is that, Mom?”
“That’s college, pepita.”
She ran off, excited. “I’m going to put it in my room, with Daddy’s letters!”
April dried her hands on a dish towel, realizing that she shouldn’t have worried about Jenny misbehaving in front of Noah. The bigger concern, by far, was that her daughter would get instantly attached.
She stared at the daisies, feeling her throat close up. Like the note, they were more thoughtful than grand.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
“No,” she said, swallowing. “They’re lovely.”
“You’re lovely.”
“Stop.”
He stuck his hands in his pockets, perusing her living room. When Jenny rejoined them, April picked up her tote bag, trying to stay calm. It was just a date. He wasn’t perfect. There was no reason to freak out. “Ready?”
April wondered if he thought he was driving. “We have to take my car.”
“Why?”
“Jenny’s car seat is in there.”
“My truck has an extra cab. I’m sure it will fit.”
April hesitated. She’d never allowed Jenny to ride with a stranger before. On the other hand, his truck looked brand-new, and it probably had a working air conditioner. “Okay,” she said, heading into the garage. He watched her remove the seat, and then he carried it outside for her, his biceps flexing.
She secured it in his backseat, and Jenny hopped in, smiling at the novelty. “I like your truck. It’s clean!”
“Thanks,” Noah said.
April flushed, climbing into the passenger side. She couldn’t remember the last time a man had driven her around. This was a big deal for her. It was kind of silly how infrequently she relinquished control.
He drove out of her neighborhood, merging onto the freeway a few minutes later. His truck was nice. Nothing fancy or oversize, but it was relatively new and smelled like interior polish. He didn’t turn on the radio.
Although he seemed at ease behind the wheel, April felt uncomfortable. The silence stretched between them.
“My sister said you might like Dora the Explorer,” Noah ventured, glancing at Jenny in his rearview mirror.
Shy again, Jenny didn’t answer.
“That’s her favorite,” April murmured.
“I’m a SpongeBob man myself.”
Jenny shifted in her seat. “Mom thinks that show is dumb.”
“Well, we know better, don’t we?”
She giggled, delighted to have a partner in bad-television crime. April gave him a chiding glance, but she couldn’t fault his strategy. Winning over Jenny would always be the way to April’s heart.
He paid for parking at Wave City, and they walked toward the front entrance. When Jenny saw the tops of the waterslides, she squeezed April’s hand, excited. “Can we go on all the rides, Mommy?”
“I don’t know if you’re tall enough for the big ones, pepa.”
“Have you been here before?” Noah asked.
“No,” April said. For the same price, she could take Jenny on a dozen other outings. By necessity, she was a budget mom. As they approached the line to pay, she reached for her purse, noting the exorbitant entrance fee.
“I bought our tickets online,” he explained.
She stopped digging around in her bag. “Why?”
“Why not?”
“I’ll reimburse you.”
“Don’t even think about it,” he warned.
“I’m not some charity case.”
He lowered his voice. “No, you’re my date. This is a date, and I pay on dates. I pay for admission, and lunch, and ice cream, and whatever else I feel like buying.”
April had never seen him annoyed before. He also looked a little tired, as if he’d been working late. She felt a pang of sympathy for him.
“Ice cream?” Jenny said, hopeful.
He stared at April, demanding her compliance.
She knew she was being prickly, even unreasonable. Paying her way kept a safe distance between them, and he wanted her to let go of her inhibitions. “All right,” she said, holding up her empty hands.
It felt kind of good to … surrender.
He gave the tickets to a park attendant, and they proceeded inside. The day was already warm, getting hotter by the minute. Jenny’s hand felt sticky in hers, and a bead of sweat trickled between her breasts.
“I guess we need a locker,” he said, buying a key on a spiral wristband. After he opened the locker, he gave the key to Jenny.
“Cool,” she said, admiring it on her wrist.
He took off his shirt and tossed it inside the locker. April tried not to gape at his muscles. His board shorts rode low on his hips, and his flat belly was dusted with golden-brown hair. Although he was lean and well toned, he didn’t have the waxed-and-sculpted look that was popular with young men these days.
He put the pretty gym boys to shame.
“Are you going to wear that all day?”
She blinked out of her stupor. Jenny had already added her outfit to the pile of clothes in the locker. Blushing, April pulled the dress over her head and folded it neatly. Noah inspected her bikini in detail, his mouth going slack. Maybe he felt that complimenting her in front of Jenny would be inappropriate, because he didn’t say anything.
She thought about covering up with a towel.
“Can I go, Mommy?”
April glanced toward a large play area for younger children. Jenny definitely fit the height requirement, and it seemed a logical place to start. She shot Noah a questioning look.
“Whatever you want,” he said, clearing his throat.
They put their towels on a couple of lounge chairs near the kid zone, and Jenny ran off, squealing with joy. It was ideal, reall
y. April could talk to Noah while Jenny romped in the shallow water, splashing around with about a dozen other preschoolers.
April sat down in the chair, holding herself stiffly. Her bikini seemed to shrink under his appreciative gaze. Without Jenny there to chaperone, the air between them felt heated, sizzling with sexual tension.
“I like your suit,” he said.
“Um … I like your shorts.”
As soon as she said it, she wanted to cover her face with her hands and groan. The level of awkwardness was off the charts. Noah was charming and obviously polite. But she could guess that he was better at relating to women at a club or over dinner. He probably hadn’t gone on a first date with a mother and child before.
“We should talk about something cold,” he decided. “Have you ever been to Antarctica?”
She laughed. “I’ve never even seen snow.”
He took off his sunglasses. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“Not even at Mount Laguna or Palomar?”
“No.”
“It snows in Cedar Glen, where I’m from. Sometimes it melts as soon as it hits the ground, but every once in a while it snows a couple of inches. When it’s really cold, this silvery crust forms on the top. It sparkles in the moonlight.”
“Sounds pretty,” she said wistfully, watching Jenny frolic.
“It is.”
She glanced at Noah. “Why’d you leave?”
“Well, there isn’t much crime there. And I like it here, too. I like the energy, the heat.” His blue eyes met hers. “How about you?”
“I like it most of the time.” Chula Vista had a lot of culture and vibrancy. Someday she would move into one of the less volatile neighborhoods and be able to appreciate the city’s finer qualities. “The crime isn’t a plus for me, though.”
“I’m working on that.”
She smiled. “It does create a social need, and that will help me get a job when I graduate, so I shouldn’t complain.”
He leaned back in his chair. “Why are you interested in social work?”
“Someone helped me once, when I was pregnant with Jenny. She really made a difference in my life.”
Contemplative, he looked from April to Jenny. “Is her dad around at all?”
“He’s in prison.”
His brows rose at her blunt admission. “Does she know?”
“Yes.”
“And … when he gets out?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to see him, if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t want her to see him, either. Thankfully, he’s never taken much interest. I’ve tried not to say bad things about him in front of her, but … he’s a bad man.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry, too.” Not a day went by that she didn’t regret her involvement with Raul and its repercussions for Jenny. But she couldn’t change the past, and she was doing her best to make a better future.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-three.”
“You were just a kid when you had her.”
“I grew up fast.”
“How’s your mom, by the way?”
“I haven’t heard from her.” She was distracted for a moment, because Jenny had slipped on the stairs of the pirate ship. When she got up, unhurt, April relaxed. “What about you? Are you involved with the latest murder investigation?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t suppose you can talk about it.”
“No. But I do have to work tonight.” She searched his face, concerned. “You should’ve told me.”
“It’s no big deal. We have plenty of time.”
“Do you want to reschedule?”
“No way. Even the lead investigators aren’t allowed to work around the clock. Everyone puts in extra hours during a high-profile case, but we’re also encouraged to take breaks. De-stressing, they call it.”
“You wouldn’t rather be home, resting?”
His gaze skimmed down her body. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”
They were silent for a few minutes, but the mood was comfortable rather than awkward or sexually charged. When an older boy squirted Jenny with one of the pirate ship’s water guns, Noah rose from his lounge chair.
“That kid is going down,” he said, stepping onto the course.
April watched, laughing, while he pelted the offending child with staccato blasts from the water gun. Then he went ahead and attacked Jenny for good measure. She screamed in delight and retaliated. April, of course, had to join the battle.
They all ended up soaked.
The next few hours passed in a pleasant, dreamlike idyll. They drifted down the lazy river on clear plastic inner tubes, drinking in the sun. Jenny wasn’t tall enough for the big waterslides, and April wouldn’t dare try them, but Noah talked them into a log ride. Later, they braved the raging rapids and visited the wave pool.
As promised, Noah paid for lunch—and ice cream.
And, as April had feared, Jenny loved him. It wasn’t the ice cream, or the trip, or anything he’d paid out of pocket. It was just him. He gave her his complete attention, and he actually listened to what she said but didn’t cater to her every whim. His easygoing attitude suited Jenny’s energetic personality quite well.
He was great with her. That was it.
In the early afternoon, he offered to give Jenny a swimming lesson. She’d never had one before, and she was a little uncertain in the deep water. “I was a lifeguard at the lake every summer in Cedar Glen,” he boasted.
April imagined that he’d been popular. “I’ll bet there were a few girls who pretended to drown to get your attention.”
He grinned at her. “Actually, no. The only mouth-to-mouth I performed was on an eighty-year-old man.”
Jenny giggled, picturing the scene.
“He recovered fully, I’ll have you know. So, how about it?”
“Fine with me,” April said. “I’d love for her to learn the basics. But I think you both need some sunscreen first.”
Jenny rarely burned, but she wasn’t usually out in the sun this long. April sprayed her with SPF 15, carefully rubbing it over her face. “There you go, pepa.” She turned to Noah, whose shoulders already looked ruddy. Admiring his sleek muscles and golden tan, she applied the spray sunscreen to his back.
He had the kind of physique that attracted attention. She’d noticed female eyes following him all day. There were some beautiful women here, in bikinis even smaller than hers, but she hadn’t caught him returning any stares.
“What about you?” he asked.
Although she probably didn’t need it, she lifted her hair, letting him spray the lotion over her back.
“Stupid invention,” he said in a low voice, annoyed that no touching was required.
Laughing, she stretched out on a nearby lounge chair, watching the lesson rather than participating. Jenny kicked and blew bubbles and tried to float. Soon she was jumping off the side of the pool into Noah’s arms.
April couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so … languid. In the shade, the temperature was perfect, warm and breezy. There was nothing pressing to do, no one demanding her attention. It was positively decadent.
She closed her eyes and sighed, savoring the feeling. A moment later, she was asleep.
13
Noah should have taken them to the zoo.
They were having a great time at Wave City, but April’s bikini was driving him crazy. Dry, it was sexy. Wet, it was spectacular.
Although the fabric wasn’t see-through—thank God—it was clingy. The suit molded to the curves of her body, leaving very little to the imagination. With Jenny right there, it wasn’t appropriate for Noah to check out April’s luscious ass, or her perfect breasts, or the sweet triangle between her legs. So he tried not to stare.
It was too easy to picture her naked.
He was mildly ashamed of himself but not surprised. It wasn’t unusual for his senses to be heightened when he
was working on a tough case. Close calls and dangerous situations brought out the physical side of many men. Dealing with death made Noah want to reaffirm life in the basest, most basic way.
He’d never been so tempted by a woman.
Thankfully, Jenny provided a convenient distraction. For sanity’s sake, he focused most of his attention on her. She was a cute kid, easy to get along with. She also had her mother’s quick intelligence. After twenty minutes of swimming lessons, she’d learned how to glide, kick, and float.
“I have to go potty,” she said suddenly.
Noah glanced at April. She’d fallen asleep on the lounge chair, and she looked adorable. “Okay,” he said, boosting Jenny out of the pool. “I’ll take you.”
The bathrooms were close by, so Noah didn’t bother to wake up April. After delivering Jenny to the ladies’ room, he ducked into the men’s. When he came out, Jenny was standing there, shifting back and forth on her bare feet.
“Did you go?” he asked.
“I can’t get out of my swimsuit.”
Noah eyed the crossover straps, frowning. This was not his area of expertise. He looked around for female assistance, and a pretty brunette caught his eye.
She assessed the situation in an instant, offering Jenny a warm smile. “Need some help, honey? I’ll take you.”
Jenny nodded, accepting her hand. “Thanks,” Noah said.
The brunette winked at him. “No problem.”
About two minutes later, Jenny walked out of the ladies’ room with her helper. The brunette flashed Noah a flirtatious smile. “She’s a cutie,” the woman said, looking back and forth between them.
Noah read the question in her eyes. With her dark coloring, Jenny was obviously not his. “Thanks. She’s my girlfriend’s daughter.”
“Ah. Too bad.”
He watched her saunter away, more as a male reflex than with any genuine interest. She had a nice figure, he noted absently.
“My mommy is your girlfriend?” Jenny asked.
“No,” he said. “I was just—”
“Jenny!”
Noah turned to see April rushing toward them. She looked frantic. And … pissed off. When she put her arm around Jenny’s shoulders and glanced in the direction of the saucy brunette, he knew he was in trouble.
The Edge of Night Page 15
