by Brenda Novak
“Because a man your age ought to be able to afford his own place, that’s why.”
“I like it here,” Caleb said carelessly.
“Where’s Madison?”
“I’m assuming she’s at work.”
He made a show of checking his Rolex watch. “I pick up Brianna every other Friday at this time. She’s supposed to be here.”
“Did you try Madison’s cell?”
“She’s not answering.”
“She must have caller ID,” Caleb said.
Because he’d spoken with a smile, it took Danny a moment to realize he’d been insulted. When he caught on, a muscle jumped in his cheek. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s a wise ass.”
Caleb crouched down, so they’d be nearly at eye level, and rested his arms on the door. “That’s interesting,” he said, keeping his voice congenial, “because the one thing I hate is a man who bullies a woman.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do.”
Danny’s eyes narrowed. “What happens between Madison and me is none of your business.”
“You’re right,” Caleb said. “And if you want to keep it that way, I suggest you start treating her with some respect.”
“You know nothing about our relationship.”
“I know she’s the mother of your child. That’s enough to tell me you should be treating her better than you do.”
“She won’t have Brianna much longer,” Danny said, but before Caleb could respond, Madison pulled into the drive—in her father’s truck.
She did it, Caleb thought, standing. She got the truck.
And now he had to take it to Gibbons….
His gaze automatically shifted toward the tires. He’d seen the plaster mold Gibbons had made of the track left near Susan’s body, but he couldn’t tell anything from this distance, especially in the rain. Comparing tire treads was usually a very difficult, laborious process. Only the fact that the mold revealed unique damage created by something sharp gave him any hope that Gibbons might be able to make a determination simply by looking.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said, hurrying to help Brianna out of the cab. “The ferry was backed up when I came across earlier, and that threw off my schedule for the whole afternoon.”
“What are you doing with your father’s truck?” Danny demanded, getting out of his car.
At the irritation in his voice, Brianna glanced uncertainly from her father to her mother. “Hi, Caleb,” she said, sidling closer to him.
Caleb laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“Caleb needs to borrow it,” Madison said.
“For what?” Danny asked.
“He has a friend who’s moving.”
“I guess he’s never heard of U-Haul.”
“There’s no need to rent a truck when I’ve got one available,” she argued.
“Caleb gave me a magic rock,” Brianna piped up.
Danny looked her way, and his face reddened when he saw her standing so close to Caleb. “Get your things, Brianna,” he said curtly. “Leslie’s waiting for us.”
Madison’s little girl hesitated briefly before running off.
“Please try to have her home earlier this Sunday,” Madison said as her ex-husband slid into the Jag’s soft-looking leather interior. “You’ve been bringing her back too late, which makes it hard for her to get up for school.”
“I’ll do as I damn well please,” he snapped.
Madison leaned down to see through his open window. “The visitation papers say five o’clock, Danny.”
He opened his mouth to make some sort of retort, but Brianna came charging out of the house at that moment. He glanced at his daughter, then at Caleb, and barely waited for Brianna to climb in before he threw the car into Reverse. Narrowly missing Caleb’s Mustang and Madison’s father’s truck, he whipped out of the drive, leaving Caleb and Madison staring after him.
“THAT WENT WELL, don’t you think?” Madison said sarcastically, wondering what was going to happen next.
“I don’t think Brianna should spend any time with that guy,” Caleb replied, his eyebrows lowered.
Madison chuckled as she watched Danny’s car disappear. “He’s normally not that bad. He’s just bugged that I let you move in. When I do things he doesn’t approve of, it reminds him that he no longer has control over me, which means he no longer has complete control of Brianna. That’s why he’s always coaxing Brianna to come and live with him. His new wife is pregnant, and Danny keeps trying to use the baby as a draw. ‘Don’t you want to live with your little sister? She’s going to miss you when you’re gone.’”
“In that photo album, he didn’t even seem excited about her birth,” Caleb said.
“He wasn’t ready for children when we had her. He never got up with Brianna once during the night. Never baby-sat her on his own.”
“So what’s changed?”
“I guess he’s grown up. He seems to be a much better father now.”
“You can’t tell he’s grown up from the way he treats you.”
“Like I said, he usually isn’t quite that bad. I think he was showing off for your benefit.”
“I’m not impressed.”
“That’s just how he is. Don’t let him bother you. All I can do is save my dollars and cents for when he takes me back to court.”
“Which might be sooner than you think,” Caleb said. “He mentioned you might not have Brianna much longer.”
“He always says that. But I’ll fight him until my dying day, if that’s what it takes, and he knows it.” She shifted her briefcase to her other hand, feeling eager to get out of her nylons. She couldn’t let herself obsess over Brianna going with Danny. He’d brought Brianna home safely every time. She had to trust that he’d do so again.
Still, she said a silent prayer for her daughter’s well-being and promised herself she’d call later and check up. “In any case, I’m free for the weekend,” she said. “And the break couldn’t have come at a better time. What do you want me to make us for dinner?”
“I was thinking steak and lobster.”
“I don’t have any lobster.”
He slung an arm around her shoulders. “That’s why I’m taking you out.”
MADISON STARED AT HERSELF in the mirror, wondering if she was really daring enough to wear the tight little black dress. She’d bought it two years ago. She’d hoped it would help her and Danny’s love life, their marriage in general, if she transformed herself from “tired mom” to “tempting siren.” But Danny hadn’t given her much of a chance to try before dropping his “I’m in love with someone else” bomb. Then the years of struggling to please him, to keep the family together, were over.
It really wasn’t a “Danny” sort of dress, anyway. Formfitting and rather short, with spaghetti straps, it said “sleek and sophisticated,” not “hard-core and raunchy,” which was much more in line with Danny’s sexual tastes.
Caleb, on the other hand, seemed like a man who’d appreciate a dress like this—and that made wearing it a little risky. But in some ways Madison didn’t care. She was feeling better than she’d felt in ages, probably because she was opening herself up to new friendships. She’d won a small battle with the past when she’d taken her father’s truck today. And she was actually able to laugh at Danny this evening instead of letting him upset her. Certainly that was progress, and it deserved some reward. What more appropriate reward was there than to feel five years younger and momentarily free from all the emotional baggage she’d been carrying?
She applied some glossy pink lipstick, stood back to assess the effect, and decided it was exactly the look she was going for. Then she began digging around in her makeup drawer for a matching shade of nail polish. Tonight she was going to paint her fingers and her toes, go barelegged and dab perfume right between her breasts.
“I’m getting hungry. Are you ready yet?” Caleb called from the living room. “You looked
good before you went back there. What could be taking so long?”
What could be taking so long? Madison smiled at herself. It was just about time to show him.
CALEB KNEW HE WAS in trouble the second Madison emerged from the back of the house. She was all feminine curves, creamy skin and warm smiles, with a little shiny lipstick thrown in for good measure. And he’d been susceptible to her beauty before she’d gone and dressed like some kind of sex goddess.
He allowed himself to indulge in a brief fantasy—where he peeled down one of those skinny straps and let his lips skim her bare shoulder. But then he told himself to get a grip, and shoved his hands in his pockets to hide the fact that she’d had a very immediate effect on him.
“All set?” he said.
“I think so. I just need to find my house keys so I can lock up.”
She crossed in front of him on her way to the kitchen, and he breathed deeply as he caught a whiff of her perfume.
“You don’t think I’m too dressed up, do you?” she asked, returning to the living room after she’d found her house keys.
He let his eyes climb her legs to the clingy black dress, her creamy shoulders, pouty lips and wide eyes, and began to say she might want to put on something that wouldn’t interfere with his thinking. But that wasn’t what came out. “You look perfect,” he said.
“Good.” Her smile seemed to have a direct link to his groin.
Just don’t do anything your mother wouldn’t approve of, he told himself. Fair-minded and conservative as Justine was, he knew that adhering to her standards would keep him well on this side of ethical. But he’d never been very good at listening to other people, even his mother.
Clearing his throat, he opened the door for Madison. “Let’s go.”
THE CANDLELIGHT at the restaurant cast everything in a golden glow that added to the surreal quality of the night. Madison reveled in the romantic lighting, the expensive wine Caleb had selected and the intimacy of their little table in the outer reaches of Rudy’s Lobster Bay, an excellent seafood restaurant in downtown Seattle. Waiters and waitresses bustled past in tuxedos, yet she and Caleb seemed almost alone.
“Tell me about your childhood,” Madison said, taking a bite of filet mignon smothered with mushrooms. “You told me you grew up on Fidalgo Island, but you haven’t mentioned much about your family. Do you have siblings?”
“Just an older sister, Tamara. And believe me, with Tamara one sibling is more than enough.”
“Why?”
“I never liked her much.” He smiled ruefully.
Madison sipped her wine. “Seriously?”
“Maybe not completely, but she was a pain. She was one of those kids who had to tattle at every opportunity. No matter what I did, she ran to tell our parents.”
“What did you do that made her want to tell on you?”
“Nothing big,” he said, separating the meat of his lobster tail from the shell. “I once kicked a hole in the wall with my cowboy boots and tried to say I didn’t know how it got there, but she didn’t hesitate to set my parents straight.”
“Why’d you kick the wall?”
“She was trying to make me dress up as a girl for Halloween and I wanted to be a cowboy,” he said with a laugh. “I had the boots and everything, obviously.”
“How old were you?”
“Five.”
Madison enjoyed envisioning the rough-and-tumble little boy Caleb had probably been. A cowboy was definitely the better choice for his personality. “I see. Then you were perfectly justified.”
He nodded as he began cutting his lobster. “My point exactly.”
“Did you get in trouble for it?” she asked.
“Not as much trouble as I got in for other things.”
“Like…”
“Like the time my sister was baby-sitting and told me I couldn’t have any frogs in the house.”
Madison held her glass while the waitress came around with more water. “I take it you didn’t listen,” she said to Caleb.
“I snuck several into my room because I couldn’t see how a few frogs would hurt anything.”
“And?”
He dipped some lobster meat in butter and offered it to her. She wasn’t typically fond of seafood, which was why she’d ordered a steak. But he made lobster look downright tasty. Leaning over, she ate from his hand, enjoying the fact that he’d thought to share with her, more than the sweet tenderness of the meat.
His eyes lingered on her mouth, and it took him a moment to get back to his story. “And then the frogs got loose and when my mother came home, she stepped on one in the laundry room.”
“Ick,” Madison said with a shudder. “But I don’t see how Tamara had anything to do with that.”
“Oh, she was right there, saying, ‘I told him not to do it, Mother, I told him you wouldn’t like it.’”
Madison chuckled at his imitation of his tattletale sister and tried her steamed vegetables. They were as delicious as the rest of the food. “You must have been a little hellion.”
“I don’t think I was a hellion. Trouble just followed me around.”
“What about your father?” she asked, taking a bite of her garlic mashed potatoes. “Didn’t he ever stick up for you?”
“My mother’s pretty formidable. He generally doesn’t go against her, even for me.”
“So she wears the pants in the family?”
“Not really. The power play between my parents isn’t too out of whack. My mother’s just so…organized and sure of herself, everyone naturally falls in line behind her. Sometimes I call her the Oracle.”
“Because she’s the font of all wisdom?”
“Exactly. She’s always right, no matter what.”
Madison couldn’t help wishing her own mother was more “organized,” more confident, so she wouldn’t have to worry about her as much. But then, Caleb’s mom hadn’t been forced to deal with what Annette had.
“What do you think about that woman they found?” she asked, suddenly changing the subject.
“What woman?”
“The strangled woman.”
He stopped eating for a moment. “What do you mean?”
“Have you been following the story?”
“A little.”
“Do you think it’s a copycat?”
He offered her another bite of lobster, but she waved it away. “I guess anything’s possible,” he said.
She nodded, thinking about the box waiting for her at her mother’s house. She had to do something about it tonight. Tomorrow was Saturday morning—a likely time to have Toby start work.
But for now she was going to forget that her father had ever been involved in a murder investigation, and continue to enjoy herself.
“You’re slowing down,” Caleb said, nodding toward her plate. “Don’t tell me you’re full.”
“I can’t fit anything else inside this dress.”
His eyes flicked over her. “It’s worth it.”
Madison felt a liquid warmth swirl through her. “I’m glad I finally had the chance to wear it. I bought it two years ago, but it’s been buried at the back of my closet ever since.”
“Sort of like carrying a concealed weapon, huh?”
“What?”
“Never mind,” he said, chuckling. He paused for a minute, then tipped his wineglass toward her. “You’re sending me mixed signals. You know that, don’t you?”
She leaned back, crossed her legs and took another sip of wine. “Mixed signals?” she repeated, as though she didn’t already know perfectly well what he meant.
“You tell me you don’t want a relationship, but you wear something that’s—” he hesitated, then whistled softly “—guaranteed to stop me dead in my tracks.”
“I didn’t know this dress came with guarantees like that,” she teased.
“It should have. Are you going to tell me what’s up?”
She drank the last of her wine. “Okay, I admit to wanting to turn
your head,” she said. “I like the way you make me feel when you look at me, as though…”
“As though what?”
His voice was a little deeper, rougher than usual, and Madison had to work hard not to think about that kiss he’d given her at her door.
“Just ‘as though,’” she said, slightly embarrassed. “But a little flirting is harmless, right? I mean, you’re not interested in a relationship any more than I am. You’re moving to San Francisco at the end of your lease. This is just a temporary…friendship.”
He ate the last bite of his lobster. “I should probably tell you that this isn’t feeling very much like friends to me.”
“I’m not sure what it’s feeling like to me,” she said. “I was more or less robbed of the past twelve years. Maybe I’m trying to recapture some of the carefree fun I missed, some of the fun other people generally enjoy in their early twenties.”
He held her gaze. “I guess I can understand that.”
“Great.” She smiled, eager to talk about something else. She didn’t want to categorize their relationship or commit herself to any one mode of behavior. She liked looking at the night as an empty canvas, and refused to let the prudence that governed all her actions intercede at this juncture. “Then you won’t mind taking me dancing.”
He considered her for a few seconds. “Dancing.”
“I want to have a night on the town, take a walk on the wild side for a change.”
His eyebrows lifted. “How wild are you talking?”
Madison felt a sudden heady rush of excitement. “How wild are you willing to get?”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SHE WANTED TO GET WILD?
Caleb sat at the table he’d been lucky enough to snag as a small group left the crowded bar, which was pulsing with music and movement, and watched Madison walk away from him toward the ladies’ room. He admired her legs for probably the millionth time, noticed a few other guys doing it, too, and knew there wasn’t any way he’d be able to live up to his mother’s standard of decency tonight. Ever since he’d seen Madison in that dress, he’d been interested in only one thing.
The waitress came by, but he waved her away because he was going to end the evening right now. If he allowed himself to show Madison Lieberman the meaning of wild as he saw it, he’d be taking misrepresentation to a whole new level. And when she eventually found out who he was, she wouldn’t thank him. To say the least…