Drawing Hearts

by J. M. Jeffries

  “Have you always been interested in fashion?” he asked.

  “Helping women find that perfect outfit that makes them feel like a million bucks. I enjoy watching their faces when they realize how good they look.”

  “I visited New York once. I never wanted to go back. It’s so busy.”

  Kenzie nodded. “Reno is so calm and quiet. Being with my family is so wonderful. I love having breakfast with my grandmother and hanging with Maya. I have time for the little things I didn’t have time for before. I read four books last month. Those four books have been on my to-be-read pile for five years. I thought I was happy living the ‘dream’ in Manhattan. I had interesting friends, but missed being with my family. Nina and I haven’t been in the same room together in years before I came here.”

  She didn’t know when she’d started to be unhappy with her career. The vaguest feelings of disquiet would appear from time to time, but she’d always bury them and get on with the next step because she was leading a glamorous life. Kenzie hadn’t realized she’d become so dissatisfied. She’d grown tired of the egotistical, neurotic designers who had tantrums every hour on the hour for no reason, and impatient with cranky, underfed models. She even started to dread getting on an airplane rushing to the next fashion week.

  This man was scary. He made her think about things. Things she didn’t want to examine too closely. He’d done things that were changing the world, but the world had changed her into something she wasn’t certain she liked.

  They finished their game. Kenzie turned in her rental shoes and put her ball on the racks along the back wall of the bowling alley.

  “Where are we going for dinner?” she asked as he opened the passenger door of his Lexus.

  “What do you feel like eating?”

  “After beer and nachos, I need some vegetables.”

  “I think steak and potatoes would be appropriate.”

  Reed did make her be bad. “Let’s live.” She buckled her seatbelt. “There’s a country-western bar and grill a couple blocks from here. My brother Scott says it has real man food.”

  “Real man food!”

  “You said steak and potatoes. I’m fulfilling your stated desires.”

  A knowing little smile spread across his lips. “If you insist.”

  She liked the way the corners of his lips crinkled up and how his eyes twinkled. His sense of adventure delighted her. Sam’s sense of adventure had been confined to what happened inside the city limits of New York.

  The country-western bar was already hopping. Line dancers covered the dance floor, swaying and dipping to the twangy sounds of Tim McGraw. Peanut shells crackled under their feet. A waitress in a miniskirt, low-cut blouse and leather wrist cuffs dangling with fringe led them to a booth and slapped menus down on the planked table.

  He opened his menu and glanced through the offerings. Kenzie couldn’t stop watching him. Until he sat down and started to peruse the menu, Kenzie just couldn’t picture him in a country-western bar. It was so out of his element. She could imagine him bending over a long line of computers with a microscope set up on a table. In her imagination he wore a lab coat and a shirt with a catchy saying.

  Every man she’d dated since college had been as much as a clotheshorse as she was. Reed was so different. He wore expensive clothes more for function rather than fashion. She couldn’t believe she was attracted to him.

  “You’re staring at me.”

  “Just pondering the mysteries of the universe.”

  His eyebrows rose. “What? Like string theory?”

  “Nothing that complicated. Who are you wearing?”

  He gazed at her, a confused look in his blue eyes. “I don’t understand.”

  “Exactly,” she stated calmly. “In the last seven years, I’ve never gone out with a man under either business or romantic circumstances who wasn’t as into fashion as I am.”

  “And that’s important...why?”

  “In the grand scheme of things, it isn’t important. I was testing myself.”

  “I’m not sure how to answer that.”

  “You don’t have to.” She leaned her elbows on the plank table and smiled at him.

  The waitress took their beer order. Reed went back to studying the menu.

  “You’re still staring at me.”

  “I know. I’m trying to reconcile my past with my present.”

  “I thought we were living in the moment. Are you saying that if we hadn’t been brought together by circumstances, you would never consider going out with me?”

  “It’s not you, but me. I’ve changed somehow, and I can’t figure out how. Being away from New York and with my family has made me different. I love being back with my family. I’m like I used to be before I got all New York jaded.”

  “Is that bad or good?”

  “I like myself more.”

  He nodded as though he understood, but she could still see the confusion in his eyes. She didn’t quite understand how to tell him that the change in her had made room for new things in her life. And he was one of those new things.

  The waitress returned with their beers and took their order. He chose the house special, steak medium rare and baked potato with everything on it. Kenzie, still full of nachos, decided on an Angus burger, medium-well with onion rings. Maybe not so healthy after all; she’d worry about calories tomorrow. And she would have to worry, because Nina had already decided her maid of honor would wear a form-fitting slip dress that wouldn’t allow for an extra pound anywhere on her.

  “Want to dance while we’re waiting for our food?”

  “You line-dance?”

  “I’ve been watching. I’ve got the steps memorized.”

  “Then let’s dance.”

  They danced until their food came and they settled back into the booth. Reed attacked his steak as though he hadn’t already filled up on nachos. Kenzie discovered she wasn’t particularly hungry and picked at her food.

  “Why did you help my grandmother with the entry fee for the poker tournament? Until she called me with the news she’d won the Mariposa, I didn’t even know she wanted to own a casino.”

  “A lot of reasons,” Reed said.

  “Give me one.”

  “I wanted to learn how to play poker. Miss E. was teaching a class at this little out-of-the-way casino in Las Vegas. The moment I met her, I just knew she had something special, some spark of something special that attracted me. Everyone else I know her age was retired, eating dinner at five o’clock in the afternoon and going to bed at eight. She was just...different.”

  “That she is,” Kenzie said with a laugh.

  “I see the same enthusiasm in her that I used to see in hungry young interns every summer. I used to pride myself on finding the hungriest interns to work for me. I never looked for the best or the brightest, but the ones who were most persistent. Your grandmother has that hunger in her still. She might be eighty-five, but she’s still living. And I wanted to be around her because the only thing left for me in life was to make more money. In my gut, I knew your grandmother would teach me more in a week than I’d ever learn in a year somewhere else.”

  “Does Miss E. know this about you?” Kenzie asked. She saw her grandmother as more manipulative than energetic, but not in a bad way. Though she did have a zest for life. “You got sucked right on in. That’s what my brothers and I called Miss E.’s Doppler Effect.”

  “She made me want to be better,” Reed said.

  “She does that to a lot of people. But not everyone pays attention.” Kenzie had had a school friend who Miss E. had warned her to be careful with because her life was spiraling out in a weird direction and Kenzie was being pulled along. Kenzie’s friend had decided Miss E. was old and tired and went on her own merry way. But Kenzie had listened to her gr
andmother. That had been Kenzie’s first experience in a friendship that hadn’t ended well. Miss E. never quite interfered with the friendship, but Kenzie finally realized her friend had been on a self-directed path to destruction and Kenzie didn’t want to get sucked into it. “Miss E. started out as a blackjack dealer. She wanted to be a showgirl, but was too tiny. So she dealt blackjack at the Tropicana. And then she was a pit boss. Even though she was a black woman in a male-dominated town, she got ahead because people always underestimated her. She has this incredible talent for making you want to be the best you can be. And she used that mercilessly.”

  “Basically, you’re saying your grandmother saw me coming.”

  Kenzie tilted her index finger at him. “Exactly.”

  He seemed to ponder her comment for a moment. “I’m okay with that. I benefited.”

  She patted his hand. “Most people usually do.”

  By the time Reed saw Kenzie back to her suite, she had to fight herself to keep from inviting him in. She so wanted to keep the evening alive. For a second, he looked hopeful, but she simply bade him good night and closed the door.

  Chapter 4

  Reed studied the computer monitor, trying to concentrate. His thoughts kept reliving his bowling date with Kenzie. He couldn’t get her out of his mind. She’d shown herself to be a terrible bowler, but she’d laughed at herself and went right on trying to get the ball down the lane. He’d loved that she’d been able to laugh and keep on going. She’d enjoyed every moment and he’d started to understand what she meant about living in the moment.

  He continued scrolling through the code hoping he’d just spot something that would clue him into why the debit cards were always 5 percent off. He’d experimented, loading cards of different amounts, and they consistently showed 5 percent less than what had been purchased.

  A knock sounded at his door and he yelled enter.

  Scott Russell walked in. Scott, as head of security, had an interest in the missing money, too.

  “Can you tell me anything yet about the missing money?” Scott sat down.

  “First of all...”

  Scott held up his hand. “I need you to tell me in words I understand.”

  “You’re a smart man,” Reed said with a half smile. “You’ll figure it out.”

  Scott shook his head. “I can drive a Ferrari. You can drive a Ferrari at a high rate of speed, avoiding other drivers on a racetrack, leading the pack and winning. That’s the difference in our skill levels.”

  “Right now, I’m not making any huge leaps yet. I have to unravel all the code and track where this discrepancy is coming from. I’m in the long, boring, complicated part of the investigation.” That could take him minutes or days. He had a lot of code to go through.

  “I understood every word you said. You made it too easy. I’m going to need a beer after this.”

  Reed glanced at his watch. “Well, its five o’clock somewhere in the world and we can pretend to be mentally exhausted and go get that beer.” He wanted to get to know the Russell family. He found all of them intriguing. Despite having flourishing careers in other fields, each one had happily given up what they were doing to help Miss E. get the casino back on its feet. That impressed Reed, and the fact that Miss E. generated such strong loyalty with her grandchildren made him want to be a part of it.

  He didn’t have this kind of relationship with his own father. His father had spent thirty years in the navy and many of those years away from his family. Even though his father said he was proud of Reed, Reed knew he would never be the rough-and-tumble, sportscentric son his father had really wanted.

  The Russell family was so close-knit Reed felt a sense of envy. No matter how diverse their interests, they all came together to support their grandmother.

  The bar was partially full when they entered. Reed and Scott found a booth at the back and ordered their beers. The waitress reappeared with their beers and a large bowl of pretzels.

  “So,” Scott said, opening the conversation, “I heard you and Kenzie had quite the adventure a couple days ago.”

  Reed tensed. “Is this an interrogation?”

  Scott’s grin widened. “Do I need to get out my tools of torture?”

  Reed had a mental image of being duct-taped in a dirty cell, fighting rats over a scrap of moldy bread. He tried not to shudder. He already knew Kenzie’s brothers were very protective of her.

  “We went bowling and had dinner at a country-western bar and grill Kenzie said you and your brothers liked. That’s all.” He was glad he hadn’t given in to the impulse to kiss her at the end of the evening when she’d stood in front of the door to her suite looking so hot his whole body vibrated with the need to touch her.

  “Did you kiss her?”

  Shocked, Reed blurted, “Is that any of your business?”

  “You’re leaps and bounds better than her old boyfriend. Nobody liked him.” Scott took a long sip of his beer and then popped a couple pretzels in his mouth. “Sam was more interested in having someone who looked good on his arm at a cocktail party. And you have to admit, Kenzie’s a good-looking woman.”

  Reed was afraid to admit to her brother that he agreed. Kenzie was a fine-looking woman and he liked the way she looked on his arm, too. But he also liked that she was smart and charming. She knew she was good-looking, but she also knew that her looks were just a tool. A tool she used to get ahead professionally the same way she used a pen or her laptop.

  “Lydia. Nina. Hendrix.” Reed shrugged. “I think all men want a good-looking woman on their arms, and you’re no different.” He worried he might have gone too far.

  Scott just grinned. “Yes. My future wife is gorgeous on the outside and just as gorgeous on the inside. You’re right. We all want something beautiful in our arms. But we all have a different opinion of what’s beautiful. I can tell you that Donovan, Hunter and I are with our ladies for more than their good looks. Sam was always suspect. He didn’t seem to appreciate Kenzie’s brains. Every idea she ever had always seemed to end up being his.”

  “And Kenzie didn’t object?” Reed couldn’t imagine taking someone else’s idea and putting his name on it.

  “Kenzie thought she was in love and let a lot of things slide.”

  “But something happened, or she wouldn’t be here.”

  Scott frowned. “You’re right. I don’t know what happened but I do know that he issued her an ultimatum—him or her family. She chose family.”

  “Miss E. inspires incredible loyalty.” She inspired it in him.

  “And she inspires a healthy dose of fear.” Scott raised a hand for a second beer. The waitress nodded and headed toward the bar.

  Reed chuckled. “I felt that fear, too. So is the interrogation over?”

  “If I’d been really interrogating you, I’d have brought Hunter and Donovan along. That would have been fun for us.”

  Reed tried not to react. The idea of the three of them ganging up on him made him swallow nervously. Knowing they could gang up on him made him feel connected and happy in some odd way. He’d always tried to make his employees feel that they were a part of something bigger than themselves, but he’d never felt that way. Being with Scott and the Russells did. They made him feel as though he was as much a part of the big picture as they were.

  * * *

  Kenzie stood next to the tall, rounded woman who gazed at herself critically in the mirror.

  “I don’t think yellow is a good color for me,” the woman said.

  “This yellow is the perfect color for you,” Kenzie said honestly. The soft, creamy yellow perfectly accented the woman’s beautiful mocha skin and hazel eyes. “And you don’t want it to be looser, but more fitted to your body. Flaunt your curves.”

  The woman frowned at herself. “I don’t know.”

 
“You are a beautiful woman, here in Reno to have fun. Start with that. You have the best asset.”

  “What asset?”

  “Cleavage. Boys love ta tas,” Kenzie stated firmly. “I have just the right statement necklace and earrings to add a bit of color. With the right purse and shoes, you’ll knock ’em all dead. Now stand up straight. You own the world.”

  The woman gazed at Kenzie with disbelief.

  “And start believing in yourself,” Kenzie added as she rushed off to find the shoes and purse she’d already decided the woman needed.

  Nina walked into the store as Kenzie was finishing the sale. She perched on a stool. “What do you want for lunch?”

  Kenzie thought for a moment. “Anyplace but here.”

  “Why? Hendrix just brought in a new batch of double chocolate fudge brownies.”

  “We can take brownies with us. I need to get away.”

  Nina studied Kenzie for a second. “Okay, how about that new Mexican restaurant down the street? They have terrific empanadas. And the advantage is we can walk.”

  “Sounds good.” Kenzie waited until her assistant returned from lunch and checked in, then grabbed a sweater. The day was cooler than normal, a hint that winter was on its way.

  The walk was pleasant. Kenzie listened to Nina talk about her upcoming wedding. By the time they slid into a booth in the restaurant and the waitress handed them menus, Nina was talked out.

  “So what’s wrong?” Nina asked.

  Kenzie sighed. “What isn’t wrong?”

  “This doesn’t sound good. I think we need a round of margaritas.”

  “It’s only two in the afternoon.”

  Nina shook her head. “Pretend we’re in Paris. It’s dinnertime there.”

  Kenzie signaled the waitress to put in their order. “I had a great time with Reed. He took me bowling.”