by JB Lynn
Just seeing the boxing equipment eased some of the tightness in her chest. She knew hitting them could make most of it go away.
She pushed on the heavy bag, testing its weight and give. She smiled as it swung back at her. This would do.
She delivered an easy roundhouse kick, reveling at the sensation of contact that zinged up her leg.
Bobbing and weaving, she executed a combination of jabs and hooks, followed by another kick. The safety of Mrs. M. and Mr. Burberry faded to the background as she lost herself in the rhythm of blows.
When she paused to catch her breath, a voice asked, “Attacking anyone in particular?”
Wiping the sweat from her brow with the back of her arm, she glanced at Pete, who leaned against the wall, watching her. “No one in particular.”
“Good. You had me worried there.”
“Because you thought I was imagining you?” she asked flippantly.
“Actually I worried you were pissed with Juana.” He stepped nearer so she could hear him when he lowered his voice and said, “Somehow I think when you imagine me, you don’t think about hitting.”
Her mouth went dry and warmth flared in her core. A need for self-preservation made her step back. She managed to choke out, “Don’t flatter yourself.”
He grinned impishly. “You’re right. I shouldn’t speak for you. I should only speak for myself. When I imagine you, it’s certainly not hitting I’m thinking of.”
Heat prickled her cheeks.
“You’re doing it again,” he murmured softly, moving closer, negating the distance she’d tried to put between them.
She frowned, taking another step back. “Doing what?”
“Blushing. Don’t you remember how I told you how charming I thought it was at the wedding?”
Instead of responding, she pivoted back toward the bag, hitting it with a hard right hook that reverberated up to her shoulder. She didn’t want to remember it. They’d shared one dance. She’d only agreed to one dance to be polite. He was Jane’s brother-in-law, after all. But there was something about Pete that had started a fire inside her. An inferno that had made her cheeks warm that day, and the rest of her body burn every night since.
She delivered a left hook to the bag, hoping he’d take the hint and leave.
Instead of being rebuffed by her aggression, he asked, “Have dinner with me?”
“No.” She sped up her combination of punches.
“No to tonight? Or no to ever?”
If she’d had an ounce of sense she would have replied, “ever.” Instead, she said, “I’m working.”
“You don’t eat while you’re working?”
“No. I don’t have time.”
“And yet you’re here.”
She stopped punching the bag to glare at him. “And you think I came here looking for you.”
He raised his hands defensively. “My ego isn’t that huge. All I meant was that you had the time to work out. But if you came here looking for me…” He trailed off, letting the flirtatious laughter in his tone fill in the blanks for her.
Before she could respond, Mauricio ran up to them, waving a cordless phone. “You need to take this. Brady’s calling from Ireland for you.”
Chapter 3
Both Alyssa and Pete moved in Mauricio’s direction. “Pete,” he clarified. “He says he needs to talk to Pete.”
Pete snatched the phone and pressed it to his ear. “Brady?” Covering his other ear with his free hand, he moved away from them.
“Did he say whether it was about Mrs. Michelman?” Alyssa asked softly, not taking her eyes off Pete. Her chest tightened a little as she watched him tense. Something was definitely wrong.
“No,” Mauricio replied. “He just said he needed Pete’s help.”
“How’s he supposed to help half a world away?”
Mauricio shrugged. “I guess that’s why it’s called the worldwide web.”
Alyssa cocked her head to the side, not understanding what he meant.
“I take it Pete hasn’t told you what he does,” Mauricio deduced.
She shook her head, wondering if he would have during the dinner date she’d refused.
“He’s some sort of hotshot cyber sleuth.”
“Like his brother, Tom?”
“Tom does his thing out in the real world. Pete works his magic with a computer.”
“Sounds like a cushy job,” Alyssa sniffed dismissively.
Mauricio looked as though he was about to argue with her, but before he got the chance, his mother interrupted.
“There you are, mijo.” She beamed at Alyssa. “I see you two are getting to know each other better.”
“Stop, Mama. Just stop,” Mauricio growled, stalking away.
Juana shrugged helplessly at Alyssa. “He doesn’t appreciate my efforts. He says I’m interfering.”
“So why not stop?” Alyssa suggested. “Your son is a good-looking guy and he owns a business. Somehow I can’t imagine him not being able to get his own dates.”
Juana shook her head sadly. “He doesn’t want to date anyone. He is in mourning.”
“Maybe he just needs time. His wife dying so young could not have been easy.”
A strange expression crossed Juana’s face, intriguing Alyssa, but the older woman bit her lower lip, as though to prevent herself from voicing whatever thought she had. Then she shook her head, clearing her expression. “What about you, are you looking? Mauricio has some wonderful friends.”
Alyssa thought of Pete, her gaze darting in his direction.
Deeply engaged in his phone conversation, he didn’t notice her attention, but Juana did.
“Ahhh,” she murmured. “I see.”
Alyssa shook her head, denying what the other woman witnessed. “I’m not interested in dating. I don’t have time.”
Juana’s gaze twinkled. “Love can be like that. Popping up when you least expect it. Inconvenient.”
“What’s inconvenient?” Pete asked, walking up to them, the phone at his side.
Alyssa froze, holding her breath.
“Interfering mothers,” Juana lied smoothly. “How are you, handsome?”
Alyssa exhaled a sigh of relief, flashing the other woman a grateful grin.
“Better now that I’ve seen you, beautiful.” He pressed a quick kiss to her wrinkled cheek. “Are you here to hassle your son?”
“Of course.” Juana winked at him. “Isn’t that what mothers do?”
Pete’s answering smile seemed strained to Alyssa. “Did you get Alyssa to agree to go out with him?”
Juana’s gaze slid over to Alyssa, who once again found herself holding her breath.
“I don’t think they’d make a good pair, do you?”
“No,” Pete answered quickly. “Definitely not.”
Juana chuckled. “Well I’ve got to go before my son kicks me out.”
“You know he’d never do that,” Pete chided.
Waving, Juana walked out.
Pete watched her go. “I love her dearly, but she’s a professional buttinsky. You know?”
“I know,” Alyssa agreed, thinking of how crazy Mrs. M. made her. “Everything okay with Brady?”
“Dunno.”
“You just talked to him.”
“Yeah, and until I find out the information he asked me for, I won’t know if he’s okay.”
“So I guess you have to go,” Alyssa said pointedly, not wanting to return to the conversation they’d been having before Mauricio’s interruption.
Pete threw back his head and laughed. “Subtle, Montgomery. Very subtle. Are you sure you don’t want to take me up on the dinner invite?”
Even though she wasn’t sure, she shook her head. “I told you, I’m working.”
“On what?” he asked curiously.
“None of your friends and family have told you yet?” she mocked coolly.
He held up a single finger. “Hang on a sec.” Raising the phone, he dialed a number.
“Hey. It’s me,” Pete said into the phone. “Remember the hot, icy blonde from Tommy’s wedding?”
Alyssa shot him a dirty look. She hated when people mistook her self-control for emotional distance.
Pete stared back, unscathed by her look. “She’s working for Brady, right?” A beat, and then, “Any idea what she’s doing?”
The corner of his mouth lifted as he listened to the person on the other end of the call.
Alyssa returned her focus to the bag. Jab. Jab. Hook.
“That explains her mood,” Pete said. “Thanks, buddy.”
She knew he’d ended the call, but she refused to look in his direction. Right cross. Duck. Left hook. Weave.
“So you’re protecting the wife of one of the partners of the firm Brady just left?” Pete asked mildly.
Knowing she’d lost this round, Alyssa sighed and turned to face him. “Something Mrs. M. harps on. Every. Single. Day.”
“It’s not your fault he quit.”
“You misunderstood. She’s thrilled he quit. Insists that chasing after Amy is the best thing he’s ever done.”
“Have you met her? Amy?”
Alyssa nodded, remembering the other woman’s scream as someone had tried to kill her in Mrs. M.’s garage.
“Like her?”
Alyssa shrugged. “Only met her once.”
“Jackson really liked her,” Pete offered. “Said he’d never seen Brady like that before.”
“And who’s Jackson?”
“One of our friends and family. He was at the wedding. You’d remember him if you saw him. So what do you say, dinner?”
She had to admire the guy’s persistence. Somehow he managed to keep asking without coming across as creepy. “You think the third time asking will be the charm?”
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
Her cellphone vibrated in her pocket. It was her turn to hold up one finger to him as she answered it. “Hello?”
“He’s gone,” a panicked male voice blurted out.
“Roscoe?”
“The cat’s gone.”
Frustrated, she shot a back kick at the heavy bag. “Mr. Burberry? Does she know yet?”
“Not yet. She’s on the phone with some charity, telling them what to do.”
“That damn thing is going to be the death of me,” she complained.
“I swear,” Roscoe told her. “I haven’t opened a single door or window.”
Alyssa frowned. She’d said the same thing the first time Mr. Burberry had disappeared, the night Amy Winn had almost been killed in the garage. “I believe you. Do me a favor and go sit with her, in the actual room she’s in until I get there.”
“What should I tell her?’
“With any luck, she won’t shut up long enough for you to tell her anything. I’ll be back as quick as I can.”
“Something wrong?” Pete asked as she disconnected the call.
“Just a missing cat.” Alyssa rushed past him toward the locker room.
He fell into step beside her. “Sounds serious.”
She knew he was making fun of her reaction. “You don’t understand how nuts this woman is about her cat. Most parents worry less about their kids. I’ve got to go.” She burst into the locker room, leaving him standing outside.
She changed back into what she considered to be her uniform, gathered her stuff, and rushed out the door.
He was still standing there. “Want some help?”
“Finding a cat?”
He shrugged. “If that’s what you need.”
She shook her head and headed for the exit.
He followed closely behind. “It’s part of the whole friends-and-family thing. We help each other out.”
“Like I told you,” she told him gruffly, remembering how others had let her down, “we’re not friends.” She pushed through the door, out into the parking lot.
He stayed with her. “Is it chipped?”
She pinpointed her car’s location and made a beeline toward it. “Is what chipped?”
“The cat. If it’s microchipped and someone finds it, they could take it to a vet and get it scanned and voila, through the wonders of technology, you’d know where it was.”
“Really?” She opened her trunk and threw the bag in.
“Really. Here, take this.” He held out a scrap of paper. “It’s got my cell number. If you decide you could use my help… or dinner, give me a call.”
She reached for the paper.
He caught her hand and raised it, examining her knuckles, slightly bruised and swollen from their match with the boxing bag.
She had the crazy thought he was going to kiss the back of her hand and her insides did a little swirly dance.
Instead, he looked her in the eye. “You’re an unusual woman, Alyssa Kiersten Montgomery. Call me.”
With that, he released her and walked back toward the gym.
“How do you know my middle name?” she called after him.
He glanced over his shoulder. “I’m good at my job.”
She frowned, wanting more information, but needing to get back to Mrs. Michelman. Her sense of responsibility won out over her worries about what he knew of her. She got in the car, gunned the motor, and took off to search for a cat and protect an old woman.
Chapter 4
Pete watched Alyssa peel out of the parking lot, leaving a cloud of exhaust in her wake, with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.
He now had no doubt that, despite her refusal to have dinner with him, she felt the same attraction between them. What he’d experienced at the wedding, holding her in his arms, hadn’t been a result of too many drinks and the party atmosphere. He truly was hopelessly attracted to her, and she felt something in return. Something other than the icy revulsion she’d shown when he’d tried to compliment her about her blush.
That knowledge should have made him ecstatic. Instead, his gut churned. He’d overplayed his hand, letting on that he knew her middle name.
A woman as smart she was would know he’d researched her online. A woman as guarded as she was wouldn’t appreciate the invasion of her privacy.
He frowned. He hadn’t looked any deeper into her history than the average Joe could with a basic search engine inquiry. He’d just wanted to know more about her.
Now that he’d gotten to spend a little more time with her, he wanted to know everything about her.
But she wouldn’t want that, so he decided to figure out how to help her instead. He’d find the cat.
Mauricio was waiting for him when he re-entered the gym.
His old friend studied him for a long moment before saying, “I have the distinct impression, I should be shouting, ‘Iceberg ahead’ at you.”
Although he kept his tone light, Pete saw the concern on his friend’s face. “She’s not that bad.”
Mauricio shook his head. “Not that bad?”
“Stay out of it,” Juana interrupted, marching between them.
“I thought you’d left,” her son griped.
“He,” Juana said, pointing at Pete, “is not you. He’ll make his own mistakes, not yours.”
“A ha!” Mauricio cried, like a detective in a third-rate movie. “So you agree that it’s a mistake.”
Pete was about to tell them both to mind their own business when Juana shook her head.
“Did you see the way she looked at him?” Juana asked.
Mauricio shook his head.
“How did she look at me?” Hope and curiosity warred in his voice.
Juana smiled kindly at him. “The same way you looked at her.”
Some of the trepidation coiled in his gut loosened. “I have to find a cat,” he announced, like it was the most important thing in the world.
Mother and son stared at him like he’d lost his mind.
/> “Does anyone know how to catch a cat?” he shouted, so that everyone in the gym could hear.
Most people ignored him. A few shook their heads.
“I might know someone who does,” a female voice said from behind him.
He whirled around to find Armani Vasquez, the matchmaker who’d set up Tom and Jane, and by doing so, inadvertently brought Alyssa into his life, watching him. “Armani!”
She blinked surprised. “Have we met?”
“At the wedding. I’m Pete.”
Her gaze flicked from him to Mauricio. “Sexy there, I remember,” she said, jutting her chin in Mauricio’s direction. “You? Not so much. But don’t take it personally. I had so many people there trying to get in on my whole matchmaking biz, that if you weren’t bothering me, I wouldn’t remember you.”
“I didn’t bother you,” Mauricio interjected, incensed by the suggestion.
“No, sexy. You didn’t.” She grinned at him naughtily.
Pete watched with fascination as a muscle jumped in Mauricio’s clenched jaw. Other people found Armani oddly charming, but it was clear Mauricio wasn’t one of them.
“You’re a matchmaker?” Juana inquired, not bothering to hide her curiosity.
“A psychic matchmaker.” Armani tossed back her hair proudly. “And I have the successful track record to prove it.”
Juana’s disbelief was evident.
For a long moment, the two women stared at one another, each sizing the other up.
Finally, Mauricio cleared his throat. “You said you know someone who can catch this cat Pete’s after?”
Armani nodded enthusiastically. “That’s why I’m here. To deliver her name.”
Pete got a sick feeling in his stomach. “Please don’t tell me you’re trying to set me up with her.”
“Oh no,” Armani assured him. “She’s another one of my success stories. She married my boss.” She rolled her eyes skyward and shrugged her shoulders. “I guess you could say it was my friend Maggie who put it together, but I gave her all the clues. Teamwork. It was definitely a joint effort.”
“You work for another psychic matchmaker?” Mauricio asked, disbelief making his voice crack like a teenage boy’s.