“Can she fax it?” Katie blew her serious tone by bursting into laughter right after. She waved her hands in front of her face. “Kidding. I’ll trust you on this one.”
Relief flooded through him at her sudden change in mood. He had come to apologize and get a sense of whether she planned to use their time at the wedding as an opportunity to nail his reputation. He sure hadn’t expected a second round or how good it would feel.
“I’ll help you clean up around here before I head out.” He pulled up his pants first because washing dishes in his underwear didn’t sound like much fun.
She shrugged. “No need.”
He ignored her and walked over to the sink. Once his belt was back in place, he reached for the faucet. “Wash or dry?”
“You are a constant surprise, counselor.”
He threw a dry towel at her, impressed when she snagged it out of midair without even looking at it. “I was thinking the same thing about you.”
Chapter 4
Cara balanced Ashleigh on one hip as she walked around the kitchen of the two-bedroom apartment in her ratty bathrobe the next morning. “About time you got up.”
Katie glanced at the wall clock. “It’s not even seven o’clock.”
“Your cell phone has been ringing all morning.”
“It has?”
“Nonstop.”
She glanced at the number and immediately decided not to answer. “Is that why you’re so grumpy?”
“Ash was up three times last night. I’ve slept a total of six minutes, and I have to give a presentation for a prospective wedding today.”
“And if you keep walking in circles, Ash is going to throw up.” Katie stepped in front of Cara and held out her hands, wiggling her fingers until Ashleigh bubbled with laughter. “Give the pretty girl to me.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to handle this day.” Cara brushed her bangs from her eyes.
“You will. You always do.” Katie wrapped her arm around her niece and made faces until Ashleigh let out a stream of giggles that made even her grumpy mother smile. “But first you’re going to shower because you look like hell.”
With a skill refined by mothers throughout time, Cara joined in the face-making, keeping all of her attention centered on her baby while she held onto the thread of the adult conversation. “Thanks for the confidence boost.”
“I’m here for ya. Ash is going to watch me while I eat and read the paper.” Katie gave Ashleigh a kiss but it was only a pretext so she could inhale her baby powder little girl smell. “That sounds like fun, doesn’t it, baby girl?”
Cara lit up at the sound of her daughter’s laughter. “You’re good with her.”
“Because she looks like me.”
Cara snorted. “No, she doesn’t.”
She didn’t. Not one bit, but Katie covered Ashleigh’s ears in mock horror anyway. “How dare you?”
The shine behind Cara’s smile faded a bit. “I wish she did.”
Bill. Damn him. Katie could tell Cara was thinking about her no-good, run-for-the-hills ex. The guy had cut out before Ashleigh was even born. Abandoned his wife and child without a thought. The anger-fueled memories flashed through Katie’s mind. Cara alone in the hospital. Cara alone as she applied for benefits to make sure Ashleigh had somewhere to live. Cara alone as she walked into that attorney’s office and dumped the dumb bastard.
More than once Katie wanted to hunt the weasel down, drag him back home, and beat him with a frying pan. It wouldn’t do Cara or Ashleigh any good, but the revenge would be sweet. Making him face his past, rubbing his nose in his failure by forcing him to witness the awesome woman Cara had become, appealed to Katie. Letting Bill see that his idiocy had changed all of them, including her.
Katie often wondered where she would be if Bill had stuck around. It was Cara’s begging call for help when she was six months pregnant that had scared Katie straight. She knew that, but refused to give Bill any credit for the transformation. All her gratitude went to Cara and Ashleigh.
“Don’t do that. Don’t think of him unless you’re fantasizing about castrating him with a melon baller,” Katie said.
Cara waved off the sisterly concern. “I don’t regret it.”
That’s not exactly where Katie wanted Cara’s thinking to go. “Oh, don’t get me wrong. You should definitely regret Bill. Just don’t kick yourself too hard. He seemed like a catch at first. Who knew he’d lose his job and fall in love with beer and the women who served it so soon after you got married?”
“I’ve learned.”
“We all have.” But had she? Katie thought about the kitchen sex with Eric the night before and wondered how far she’d really come.
Then her phone buzzed again with another text. As if she needed an additional reminder of Eric and why they’d met. Obviously, her job contact wanted attention.
She kept telling herself the stalking of Eric was over. She’d followed him around the wedding, watched him, and reported back on what he did. Well, most of what he did. The rest was off the books. As far as she could tell, the guy was clean and avoided any secret meetings with his ex. At least Katie sure hoped that was true.
The phone went silent, but it started again two seconds later. Same number. Same text message—Call Me.
Jimmy Blau was not going to leave her alone.
Eric hoped the third time would work. The first two meetings had gone very well in the sex department. He needed this one to go well in the conversation department. He’d settle for mediocre so long as he got the right words out and managed to leave again without her strangling him.
Sure, he could have used the time doing dishes the night before as a way to talk with Katie about his political image and the impact questions about his morality might have on it. But when he was with her, his mind strayed to other topics. He didn’t want to think about obligations and his office. He wanted to laugh and have sex and keep everything light. The rest of his life centered on crime and fund-raisers. Fun was just not one of those things he got enough of lately, and he didn’t want to spoil the moment when it came along.
But he was a big boy and adults had to do shitty things sometimes. He glanced down at the two takeout coffee cups in his hands. Maybe caffeine would soften the blow, make him seem like less of a dick as they handled this touchy subject.
Balancing one cup in the crook of his elbow, he knocked on the security screen to the catering kitchen. The main door was open and he could see movement inside, which meant she had to be there. Thursday at four might not be the best time for this sort of thing, but he doubted there would ever be a perfect time.
Before he could call out a greeting, a face appeared on the other side of the mesh. “Can I help you?”
He had no idea who this lady was or how she fit in with the business. “I’m here to see Katie.”
“Katie Long?”
Hell, he could see the woman’s scowl through the screen. “Yeah, Katie.”
The woman didn’t say anything.
“Is this a bad time?” Eric asked, thinking it couldn’t possibly be a good time. Nothing good came out of a facial expression like that.
“Come in.” She went from comatose to rushing to get the door open and motion him inside.
This was not exactly the neighborhood where women should welcome strange men inside, daytime or not. To prevent any confusion or being hit with a baseball bat, he held out his free hand and switched to charm mode. “I’m Eric Kimura.”
“I know.” And she didn’t sound too happy about that fact, either.
He would never get used to that part of his job. “You recognize me from the newspapers?”
She dropped his hand and started wringing her towel between her fingers with enough force to turn the tips blue. “Of course. You’re in them all the time.”
“Not by choice, I assure you.”
It was an unfortunate side effect of his work. He’d prefer to keep to his office and the courtroom, but a string of high-
profile cases had him out in front of the cameras all too often. Then when the current prosecuting attorney and Eric’s boss, Frank Yashita, announced his intention to leave for a position with the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., the race to replace him was on. As the obvious successor and interim boss, Eric had not had two seconds of peace since.
She glanced down at the drinks in his hand. “I don’t understand why you’re here.”
Not the warmest welcome he’d ever gotten from a woman, but he’d had worse. “I’m here to see Katie.”
“What did she do?”
His mouth curved down before he could stop it. “Excuse me?”
“She promised me this was over.”
Hands on hips, nostrils flaring—yeah, this woman was pissed. Eric had no idea how introducing himself had caused that reaction. Instead of running the risk of further ticking her off, he went ahead nice and slow. “Okay.”
The woman waved her hand in the air. “No more police.”
“I’m not the police.” But he sure as hell was intrigued. A little concerned, too. When he talked with Katie about everything else, he’d ask about that.
“She’s been working so hard. She takes such good care of Ashleigh.”
Damn, did Katie have a kid? “Who is Ashleigh?”
“My daughter.”
His stomach stopped dropping. “And you are?”
“Her sister.” She shook her head. “Sorry. I’m Cara Long.”
He saw it now. Darker hair but the same shocking blue to her eyes. A little older with a bit less of a wild child look about her, but definitely related.
“You need to just tell me,” Cara said and then held onto the counter behind her as if it were the only thing keeping her up.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Eric?”
Finally. “Katie?”
He spun around and watched her walk through the unlocked door behind him. She balanced two bags of groceries in her arms and looked about as thrilled to see him as she would have been to be told she had the plague.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
So far he was zero-for-two in the ladies department. “I came to see you.”
Katie glanced at her sister and then right back to him. “Did you run the whole way?”
It was official. He couldn’t follow either of the Long women’s conversations. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You seem mighty thirsty.”
“What?” Great, now she had him repeating the stupid word every time he opened his mouth.
She nodded in the general direction of his hands. “The drinks?”
“Oh.” Once again, she stepped in front of him and his brain hiccupped. To keep from dousing his shirt with scalding hot coffee or worse, he set the cups down and took the bags out of her hands. “Where do these go?”
“Counter.” Katie followed him and dropped her keys beside his hand. “Shouldn’t you be at work?”
Cara kept right on staring, looking both stunned and annoyed. “You two know each other?”
“Yes.” Katie picked up the cup then hid her mouth behind it, but Eric saw her smile.
Cara didn’t let it go. She stood in front of her sister, her attention never wavering. “Professionally?”
Katie sighed. “Of course not.”
“For the record, I don’t know what that means,” Eric said, now dreading his future conversation with Katie.
“Stop being so dramatic, Cara.” Katie took a long sip of coffee. “And negative. We met at Deana and Josh’s wedding.”
If anything, Cara’s frown deepened. “I see.”
Eric waited for the pinprick of pain that always followed the mention of Deana’s name, but the stab didn’t come. This time it was more of a dull ache. His current high level of confusion somehow must have blocked the majority of the blow. And since the sisters were engaged in some sort of showdown he didn’t understand, he stayed quiet.
Katie shot her sister a this-conversation-is-over glare before turning back to him. “No crime today?”
He shook his head and played along. “None.”
“Good job. Maybe I will vote for you.”
He treated her to a formal bow. “My campaign manager will be thrilled to hear that.”
Katie smiled. “Do you bring all potential voters coffee?”
“I don’t make enough money for that.”
“Then why are you here?” Cara asked for what felt like the fifteenth time.
“Cara!”
“To see your sister.” His answer hadn’t changed but he was starting to wonder if it should.
“And you knew where to find her?”
Since the game of Twenty Annoying Questions hadn’t ended, Eric decided to help it along. “Should I step out for a few minutes while you two settle whatever it is you need to discuss?”
Cara nodded. “Yes.”
“No.” Katie didn’t look at him, but she held up her hand to get him to stop. Never mind the fact he hadn’t moved. “Don’t you have to pick up Ashleigh from the babysitter?”
The reminder had Cara glancing at the clock on the wall. “Damn.”
“I’ll explain everything later.” When Cara didn’t move, Katie put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s fine. I promise.”
After a beat of silence, Cara stripped off her apron and grabbed her purse. “It was nice meeting you.”
He knew she didn’t mean that but played along. “You, too.”
“You—” Cara pointed at Katie—“I’ll see at home.”
Chapter 5
Eric locked the door behind Cara and then turned around. “Do you really plan to tell her everything about us?”
The poor guy sounded a little nervous. He hadn’t reached the throw-up-on-the-floor level yet, but Katie could tell by the grim line of his mouth that he was getting close. “I do believe you’re sweating.”
His eyes bulged. “That’s a yes?”
It was time to take pity on the guy. He had left work to bring her coffee, after all. Not that she believed for one second that he didn’t have an ulterior motive. She’d been dealing with men long enough to know there was a mad rush of purpose behind every move. Sex, food, laundry, whatever they wanted, they made a calculated play to get it.
She set her cup down and walked over to Eric. The back of her hand brushed against his cheek. When he leaned in and kissed her knuckles, a shot of desire whipped through her. “Don’t worry. I won’t share even an abbreviated version of the good stuff.”
He blew out a deep breath. “That’s probably a good idea.”
She wondered if he knew how transparent he was. He might be able to control a courtroom, but he needed some work on his private persona. She had seen the desperation in him at Deana’s wedding, like his skin didn’t fit right, causing him to shift around. She saw it again now.
“You here for more sex, counselor?”
His hands found her upper arms and his fingers snuck under the short sleeves of her shirt to caress her skin. “You always so blunt?”
“I’ve learned that most people talk around what they want when it’s easier just to get to the point.” To prove her theory, she reached for his tie, thinking to loosen it a bit.
“No sex.”
Her hands stopped in mid-tug. “Really?”
“Didn’t even bring a condom. In fact, specifically didn’t bring one so as to avoid temptation.” His mouth said no, but his hands had skimmed down her back and pulled her tighter against his body.
“You do know there are other ways to have sex, right?”
His eyebrows dipped down in what she guessed was his fake serious look. “I’ve read about those, yes.”
“Did any of those include pictures of what I could do with my mouth?”
He dropped his forehead on top of hers. “Lord, woman. I’m trying to be noble here.”
“I never asked you to.”
“So, you’re trying to kill me, or at least my good int
entions?”
She gave him a quick kiss on the lips but pulled back when he tried to take it deeper. “I just like seeing you squirm in that fancy suit of yours.”
“I was doing more than that ten seconds ago.”
“Cara?” Talk about a buzzkill. Katie let her fingers wander over the lines of his chest as she spoke. “Yeah, well, she has that overprotective big sister thing down. She should—she’s been practicing it since she was about eight.”
“Is it just the two of you?”
“And Ashleigh. My parents died in a car crash on the Like-like Highway when I was eighteen.”
“Damn, Katie. I’m sorry.”
“Me, too.” She refused to think about it. No matter how many years had passed, losing them without warning stung and it always would. “Cara’s husband left. That’s a good thing, in case you’re wondering. He was a complete loser jackass. So, it’s just the three of us girls.”
“That explains Cara’s tendency to mother.”
“If you say so.” As far as Katie was concerned, it was time Cara focused all that energy on Ashleigh. “What about you?”
“You mean family?” When Katie nodded, he continued. “Just me. My parents live over in Kailua.”
“Pretty area.” It was a thirty-minute drive through the Ko’olau Mountains from Honolulu, on the Winward or rainy side of the island, but a world away in many respects. Low crime. Expensive houses. Water views. Few tourists and a more leisurely pace. The scenic area boasted one of the best beaches in the world. Cute shops and restaurants lined Kailua Road, the main street through the business section of town.
Katie loved the area and dreamed of relocating Cara and Ashleigh there one day. She hoped a business degree would eventually make that possible. Cara could focus on the food and Katie would handle all the other stuff.
“They’ve been there for years,” Eric added.
She guessed he was trying to downplay their laidback beachfront neighborhood to avoid any obvious comparisons to the one they were in now.
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