Bending the Rules

by Margaret Watson

  “I’d like to talk to you,” he said in a rush. “Can you meet me for lunch?”

  “Not today. I have several appointments this afternoon. I can’t drive all the way to your restaurant.”

  “I wasn’t asking you to meet me here. Pick a place that’s convenient for you.”

  She hesitated a moment too long. “I’ll be on the north side this afternoon,” she finally said. “We could meet at Oscar’s in Lakeview.” She gave him the address. “Would that work for you?”

  “That’s fine.” They arranged a time, and ended the conversation. Nathan hadn’t planned on asking her to meet him—the words had spilled out before he could stop them. He couldn’t tell Emma about the investigation or why he’d been so stunned at her question. So what the hell was he going to say to her?

  He had an hour to figure it out.

  As he was walking out the back door, he spotted Jerry Fullerton, the health inspector who came by a few times a year to make sure the restaurant was up to code.

  “Hey, Jerry,” Nathan said, holding the door open for him. “I wasn’t expecting you today.”

  “I was working in this area and figured I’d save a little time.” He winked at Nathan. “More efficient this way.”

  Nathan glanced at his watch. “I wish I could stick around, but I have an appointment. Wouldn’t have made it today if I’d known you were coming.”

  “Not a problem,” Jerry said breezily, flipping open his metal clipboard and pulling out a sheet. “Haven’t gotten your envelope yet, but I know you’re good for it.” He raised his eyebrows. “Right?”

  “Uh, yeah,” Nathan said, his mind scrambling. “Same place as always?”

  The inspector’s forehead wrinkled, as if he was puzzled. “Mail slot in my door. What happened? You hit your head when that car smashed into you?”

  “Too much on my mind,” Nathan said, his skin prickling. He clapped Jerry on the shoulder. “You know how crazy it can get sometimes.”

  “You’re telling me.” Jerry relaxed into a smile and he held his fist out for a bump. “I know I can count on you.”

  “You can, Jerry.” He needed more information. “There isn’t a late fee, is there?”

  “Nah,” Jerry said with a grin. “You still get the old-timer’s rate. Three hundred bucks.”

  “Hey, I’m not that old,” Nathan said.

  “Old-timers as in long-term contributor.” Jerry’s smile faded. “You telling me something here, Nate?”

  “Course not,” Nathan said. He managed a smile. “Like I said, lot of stuff on my mind lately.”

  “Know what you mean.” Jerry winked again. “Go ahead to your meeting. If there’s anything needs to be taken care of, I’ll talk to Marco.”

  “Great. Thanks.” Nathan watched the inspector run through his checklist for a moment, then let the door close behind him. As soon as he was in his car, he dialed Patrick.

  “Devereux.” Patrick sounded impatient.

  “It’s Nathan. You got a minute?”

  “Yeah. Hold on.” Nathan heard the sound of a door closing. “What’s up?”

  “The health inspector is here. Jerry Fullerton. Same guy who’s been doing it for years. Someone’s paying him off, Paddy. Or has been, up until now.”

  “You sure?”

  “He said he hadn’t gotten his envelope yet, but he knew I was good for it. Three hundred bucks. Hard to misinterpret that.”

  “You sure Marco isn’t paying him?”

  “Marco doesn’t pay any attention to the day-to-day stuff. I’m not sure if he even knows Jerry’s name. All he thinks about is the food.” Nathan started his car, and the vent streamed cold air on him. He slapped it off.

  “Tell me the guy’s name again. I’ll try to get a warrant to check his bank account.”

  “Jerry Fullerton. Should I tell Danny Kopecki, too?”

  “Can’t hurt. The more information everyone has, the better.”

  “Thanks, Paddy.”

  “Yeah. Got to go.”

  By the time Nathan got to Oscar’s, he’d called Danny Kopecki and told him about the inspector and the bribes. Now it was time to concentrate on the other issue in his life.

  In the ten minutes before Emma walked through the door, he’d read all the Oscar Wilde quotes on the pub’s dark-paneled walls and practically memorized the menu. But he still wasn’t sure how to explain his reaction to her question about what had happened at the restaurant.

  He stood as she reached the booth, bracing himself with a hand on the table. He’d had to park two blocks away, and his leg ached. Thank God he’d brought the damn cane. “Hi, Emma. Thanks for coming.”

  She tucked her long skirt beneath her as she slid into the opposite bench. Her hair was piled on top of her head today, and instead of her usual dramatic earrings, she wore simple gold hoops in her ears. But he noticed the flash of red on her feet as she sat down.

  “We needed to talk,” she said. She smiled at the waitress approaching the booth and said, “Hey, Abby. I’ll have iced tea, please.”

  “We have the blackberry sage you like. That okay?” the woman asked.

  “Sounds great. Thanks.”

  Nathan raised his eyebrows as the waitress hurried away. “You’re a regular here?”

  “I was, until a few weeks ago.” She lined up the fork and spoon with the edge of the table, then straightened her menu.

  Until her friend died and Harley came to live with her.

  His life wasn’t the only one that had been disrupted by Sonya Michaels’s death.

  He knew nothing about Emma, he realized, other than she was a social worker and now Harley’s guardian. What did she do for fun? Did she have any hobbies?

  A boyfriend?

  He pushed his silverware to the side and leaned forward. “Emma, I was an ass yesterday. I’m sorry. There’s no excuse for the way I acted. It was a bad day, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

  A stray curl had fallen from the mass on her head, and she tucked it behind her ear. “You’ve already apologized and I’ve accepted. Neither of us was at our best.”

  “Why would David Sanders even tell you something like that? And why was he asking his contacts about me?”

  Color spread from her neck to her face. “I’m not sure, but from the way he talked, I think he was...he is...I think he’s, ah, interested in me.”

  “Really.” Nathan clenched his fists together in his lap. “And are you interested in him?”

  Her color deepened, but she lifted her chin. “Why do you ask?”

  Because he was an idiot who couldn’t stop thinking about her. “You’re a smart woman, Emma. Why do you think?”

  She held his gaze for a moment, and the pulse at the base of her neck fluttered. Her lips parted and she swallowed. “I have no idea.” Her voice was breathy. Soft.

  “I bet you can figure it out.”

  She swallowed again. “You’re a dangerous man, Nathan.”

  Her eyes had dilated. Her chest rose and fell a little faster. He wanted to taste her mouth. He suspected that, beneath the sweetness, she’d be a little tart.

  Not the time. Or the place. “Dangerous? Me?” he managed to say. “What do you think I’m going to do? Trip you with my cane?”

  Her gaze moved to the handle of the damn cane, propped against the side of the booth, before returning to his mouth. “I don’t think your cane has anything to do with it.”

  Oh, Go
d. Time to dial it down. If they didn’t, he’d lose the last scraps of his self-control. He’d be across the table and kissing her before she drew her next breath. “I’m looking forward to discussing exactly how I’m dangerous to you. In detail.” He curled his fingers around the edge of the vinyl bench seat. “But I asked you to meet me to talk about Harley. Not...other things.”

  “Right.” She blinked. Drew a deep breath, then another. Tucked the stray curl behind her ear again with a trembling hand. Shrugged out of her jacket and dropped it on the seat next to her. “Harley. What do you want to know?”

  Tearing his gaze away from Emma’s sweater, he said, “I want to know who she is. What does she like to do? Where does she go to school? Is she a good student? Before her mother died, was she a happy kid?”

  Emma nodded. “Happy. Yeah, she was. She and Sonya were close. Harley has a mouth on her—which you probably figured out the other night. Sometimes I want to laugh at the stuff she says, but I know I shouldn’t.

  “She loves to cook. And she’s good at it. She plays indoor soccer once a week. She has a lot of friends—she’s texting constantly. And she’s a good student—A’s and B’s on papers and tests.”

  “How well did you know her mother?”

  “Sonya and I were close.” She slid her hands, palms down, onto the table. He wanted to cover them with his. Feel the softness of her skin, the beat of her pulse in her wrist.

  But she wasn’t looking at him now. Her gaze was miles away. “I met her because her downstairs neighbor called in a complaint to DCFS—the woman thought Harley spent too much time alone. Turned out there wasn’t really a problem—Harley was alone after she got home from school and had been playing music too loud.” She smiled. “Dancing, too, and the thumping drove the woman crazy. It was one of my easier cases.”

  Emma’s smile faded. “I liked Sonya a lot. Harley, too. We got to be close, and I spent a lot of time with them. I...I’m surprised she never told you about Harley. But I guess I shouldn’t be. She never told me about her aneurysm. That it could kill her. Apparently she was good at keeping secrets.”

  “Too good. She should have told me about Harley.”

  “Yes, she should have.” Emma drummed her fingers on the table. “But you know now, and all three of us have to deal with it. We need to figure out what to do.” The sexy, flirty woman of a few minutes ago had disappeared completely.

  Businesslike Emma was back.

  He could discuss this calmly, too. “This stuff going on at the restaurant—I’d rather not get into it right now. But it’s one of the reasons I wasn’t thrilled when you told me about Harley.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t have time for your daughter?”

  “That’s part of it,” he said bluntly. “There are criminals involved. I don’t think it’s dangerous, but do you want to take that chance? I don’t. It’s the time part that’s the problem. This is something I need to focus on. To deal with. And it’s taking all my spare energy.”

  “That sounds mysterious. Convenient, too.”

  “It’s not convenient at all,” he said evenly. She was irritated. That was okay. He was, too. “But I can’t ignore it, or wish it away.”

  She leaned forward, and that stray curl slipped over her shoulder. “You have something else to deal with now,” she said. “A daughter. And you can’t ignore her, or wish her away, either.”

  “But I could have put off dealing with it, if you hadn’t left that DVD where she could find it.”

  She sucked in a breath. “So it’s my fault that you’re inconvenienced?”

  “Of course not.” He sighed. “God, Emma. I’m not blaming you for anything. You’re trying to do your best for Harley. I get that. I want the best for her, too. And right now, I’m not sure it’s me.”

  “And you can’t even sign away your parental rights, can you?” she murmured. “Not now that Harley knows about you.”

  “That was never an option. Which I told you the first time we talked.”

  “Maybe it would be better for Harley if you did.”

  “Really? That’s what you think? That I should just forget that I have a daughter? Let her think I don’t care about her? That I don’t want her?”

  “Isn’t that the truth?”

  “No, it’s not. Just because the timing is bad doesn’t mean I don’t want her. And even if I didn’t, do you think I’d hurt her like that?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Just so it’s all on the table, I’m planning a trip. I might be gone for a while.”

  “And where does that leave Harley?”

  “That’s one of the things we have to figure out.” That made him sound cold and heartless. As though a vacation was more important than his child. But he needed to get away, damn it. Needed to clear his head.

  The waitress slid Emma’s iced tea on the table and poured him more coffee. “Are you ready to order?” she asked brightly.

  “Give us a few more minutes, Abby,” Emma said. “Okay?”

  “Sure.”

  Emma stared at the menu for a long moment. Nathan shoved his away. He’d lost all interest in eating.

  Finally she lifted her head. “I know I’m not being fair to you. It’s just...” She adjusted the silverware on the table, lining everything up again even though nothing had moved. “Harley is so sad. So scared about what’s going to happen.” She hesitated. “And so am I. I love her. I want to adopt her. And now I’m going to lose her.”

  “You’re not going to lose her,” he said. He started to reach across the table to her, then curled his fingers into his palm. “Whatever happens, you’ll be part of her life.” Which would keep Emma in his life, as well. It was selfish of him to consider that, but he couldn’t help it.

  “It won’t be the same.” She tucked her curl behind her ear again, and her hand shook. “Yeah, I’ll visit her. We’ll talk on the phone, have a sleepover now and then. But she’ll settle into a routine with you and your family and we’ll drift apart. It’s inevitable.”

  “It doesn’t have to be.”

  She shrugged. “I’ve spent a lot of time with children in the system. I know how quickly things change with the kids. How quickly they can adapt and move on.”

  “We’ll have to make sure it doesn’t happen with Harley,” Nathan said. “Can we agree about that?”

  “Sure.” But the expression on her face said she didn’t believe it.

  “Good.” He cleared his throat. “Which brings me to the other thing we need to talk about. First of all, how is Harley doing after that disaster the other night?”

  “She feels betrayed by everyone—me, her mother. You. She doesn’t want anything to do with us.”

  “So how do we fix this?” he asked.

  “I think she has to get to know you.” She kept her gaze steady on him. “Even though it’s inconvenient. The two of you need to meet again under better circumstances.”

  He tried to ignore Emma’s snarky reference to his earlier words. They had to work together on this. “I agree. Any ideas?”

  “Maybe the three of us could go out to dinner. Low-key, to start out.”

  “Monday is the only night that would work for me. Mama’s is open every other night.”

  She frowned. “You don’t have anyone to cover for you?”

  “You sound like my brother,” he muttered. “And no, I don’t. I was gone for too long while I was injured, and I need to spend time at the restaurant to get back u
p to speed. I’m hiring a manager, but she hasn’t started yet.”

  “Mondays don’t work for us. Harley has soccer. Any other ideas?”

  “Why don’t you bring her to Mama’s for dinner? If you come early, on a Tuesday, maybe, it won’t be too busy and I can spend some time with you.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea after what happened there.”

  “Mama’s is part of her heritage. She’s going to be seeing a lot of the place as she gets to know the family. Might as well get used to it.”

  “I’m not sure how Harley will feel about that,” Emma said.

  “You’re her guardian right now. You’re the one who makes those decisions. If it’s her choice, she’ll probably never want to see me again.”

  At thirty-two, Emma had been a social worker, concentrating on kids, for almost ten years. And Nathan was telling her how to be a parent?

  Before she stopped to think, Emma said, “I’ve known her for two years and I’ve been living with her for over a month. You met her once, under less than ideal conditions. And you’re the expert on parenting?”

  A muscle in Nathan’s jaw twitched as they stared at each other. The connection that had rippled between them just a few moments ago was gone.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact,” he said. “I have a lot more parenting experience than you do.”

  “Really? A single guy knows all about teenagers?”

  His hands clenched the edge of the table before he pressed them flat. “My parents died when I was twenty-two. It was in May, just before I came home from college for the summer. I was a semester short of graduating, but I dropped out of school. I took over running the restaurant and took responsibility for my siblings.”

  Emma sucked in a breath, appalled at herself. She’d dredged this up with her snarky remarks.

  She opened her mouth to speak, but he continued, “Patrick was seventeen. He was driving the car when a drunk ran a red light and hit them. Frankie was almost thirteen. Marco was eleven.”

  His eyes clouded. “Marco was the easiest. He missed them, but the rest of us tried really hard with him. Patrick blamed himself for killing our parents. And Frankie...” He stared at the table. “She kept her grief hidden, and I assumed she was okay. Then she started acting out, getting in trouble, running wild. Until she ran away when she was fifteen. And you know what happened to her then.”