Guarded, page 13
part #2 of Tidewater Series
“I don’t mind.” And he didn’t. He’d actually grown fond of Bach back in college. “You got me hooked on it when you tutored me. It’s very relaxing,” he said on a yawn.
“Well, we can’t have you too relaxed.” She shut off the radio.
Only the tires rushing over the road cut through the sudden silence. He would have liked to have filled the space with something other than the gentle shushing of rubber on the road, but had no idea what to say.
“How’s your mother doing?” Her question surprised him. The two women had only met once.
“She’s good.” He took the exit off the interstate and frowned at the sudden traffic at the end of the very short ramp. This could tack on another thirty minutes to the drive.
“She’s a nurse, right?” She sipped her now cold coffee and grimaced. “Wasn’t she working toward a degree?”
“Good memory. Yeah, she’s a nurse at Tidewater General,” he said, sliding onto the highway between two tractor trailers. Once in the flow of traffic, he added, “She earned her master’s last year and is a nurse-practitioner now. She’s talking about leaving the hospital to run the community clinic my great-grandmother started. Hours aren’t great, but it’s a chance to help folks who really need it.”
Shelley reached up and pulled the band out of her hair. She’d put it up into a messy knot just before they stopped for coffee. It fell down around her shoulders in curly waves. The scent of vanilla and sugar hit his senses and arrowed straight to his groin. He’d found that fragrance erotic only on her.
* * *
“HEY, DEV?” SHE paused as if unsure, running a hand across his dashboard. “What happened to your dad’s car? Don’t get me wrong; the Lexus is amazing. But in college you said you’d drive it forever. And since you worked on it yourself, I figure it should have outlasted my Blue Bomber.”
“Your car is sitting in the parking lot at the zoo,” Dev reminded her with a grin.
She glanced at her phone and held up the text for him to see. “Yep, it’s still there. Kenny, the mechanic, left a message two hours ago that his sons were still out of town. He hopes to get to the car by tonight. And don’t think I didn’t miss that you changed the subject. Don’t tell me if you don’t want to. I’m just trying to find something to talk about to keep my mind off yesterday and . . . what’s coming today.”
Shelley shifted in her seat so she could look out the passenger window.
He was an ass. Smooth. Way to put her at ease. “No, it’s fine. I’d still be driving my dad’s old Charger except some drunk plowed into it the night I made detective.”
She straightened in her seat. “Oh, my gosh! You were hit by a drunk driver?”
“Nah. The car was sitting empty in a restaurant parking lot while my family and I celebrated my promotion. Seems some repeat offender from the bar across the street piled into her car, shifted into reverse instead of drive, and slammed into the Charger. She was damned lucky she didn’t kill herself or anyone else that night.”
“Repeat offender?”
“Yeah, drunk driving. Her third strike.” Dev shook his head to dispel the images of his entire extended family pouring into the parking lot to examine what was left of his father’s prize possession. “Anyway, because of the damage, I needed a new car. I have a cousin who owns a Lexus dealership. She convinced me to buy this while I rebuild my dad’s car.”
“Whoa, I knew you had a huge family, but exactly how many cousins do you have?” She smiled and placed a gentle hand on his arm. The sensation of her touch burned him through his sleeve.
“Oh, uh, eleven on my mom’s side, but that doesn’t count their kids, who are my first cousins once removed. Or are they my second cousins?”
“Beats me. I never had any cousins.” She withdrew her touch and straightened in her seat.
“Right, sorry.” Dev could kick himself for not considering Shelley might be a bit uneasy talking about all of his family relations.
“What about your dad’s side?” Shelley asked, surprising him. A quick glance at her inquisitive face and he relaxed.
“My dad was an only child. He might have cousins back in Haiti, but I have no way of knowing. His parents changed his name fifty years ago when they adopted him.”
Her eyes sparked with interest. “I didn’t know your father was adopted.”
Now it was Dev’s turn to tense. Why had he brought up his dad? He never talked about him to anyone except his family. It wasn’t that he was ashamed of his father. Quite the opposite. After losing his father at fifteen, he’d never managed to get over the death.
Shelley shifted in her seat, facing forward, hands folded in her lap. “It’s okay, you don’t have to talk about it. I know not everyone is comfortable with adoption.”
“No, it’s fine. My dad’s parents were missionaries. Story goes they helped at an orphanage where they found my dad when he was two years old. My grandparents were in their sixties when they adopted him. Pops died before I was born, but I remember when Memaw died. I was eleven. My dad pulled out the baseball Pops had given him for his eighteenth birthday. It was from the first home run my dad hit in Little League. Dad also showed me the baptism gown Memaw had crocheted for him. He told me he’d pass both to me when I turned eighteen.” Dev’s chest grew uncomfortably tight. “Damn, Shells, I haven’t thought of that day in years.”
“Painful memory?” Apology was written all over her beautiful face.
“No, a nice one. Thank you for that.” Dev cast a quick smile that she mirrored.
The traffic thinned and they turned off the highway onto the main strip of Tidewater. Twenty minutes to his place or thirty to Jules and Seth’s apartment. Maybe he should drive to Seth’s apartment, but one glance at the time and he changed his mind. Seth and Jules should be leaving for work in a few minutes.
The plan was for Dev to reunite the women at the flower shop, but Jules wouldn’t be there yet.
“Shells, we made much better time than I thought we would. We’ve got time to drop off your stuff at the cottage. Sound good? We’ll grab a bite to eat and head over to see Jules after.” He left off the part about running into the station for a few hours while she and Jules got reacquainted. Better to gauge the reunion as a good time for him to leave. Not that he had much time to spare. His captain’s dentist appointment that morning was the only reason the morning meeting was delayed until eleven. Dev had to be at the station by then at the latest. “Sounds great,” she said, a note of relief in her voice. “It’ll give me a chance to freshen up before I see her. We can even go tonight or tomorrow, if it’s easier. You know, work on the zoo case today.”
“Now that the sheriff’s office is involved, we may not have much to do.” A quick glance at the narrowing of her eyes and he amended, “I’m willing to go over the files with you and see what I can find. Just know, now that the sheriff is involved, my help may not be wanted.”
“I want it,” she replied, quickly.
“And I’ll give it. How about we talk over breakfast?” he said, unsurprised by her quick acceptance of delay. “After, I’ll take you to Jules. I know she is more than ready to see you again. Sound good?”
Shelley nodded silently.
Dev wanted to give her time to talk about her feelings and hoped she’d take the opening. She didn’t. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, hoping for inspiration to help her open up when she asked, “So one of your many cousins convinced you to buy a Lexus. Where’s your dad’s car?”
“The Charger’s in my garage.” Okay, he’d let her change the subject. “Another cousin, Ryan, is helping me restore it.”
He slowed to a stop at a light on Seventeenth Street. They were now in the heart of the business district. Several storefront owners, dressed in shorts and polo shirts, were on ladders hanging Christmas lights, taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather. The blue sky reflected in the glass fronts gave an odd mural look to the shops that offered everything from puka-shell necklaces to boogie boards.
“You know, my dad’s folks gave him that car the day he graduated high school? Even after he married my mom during their freshman year of college, he hung on to it. Mom likes to say that when I came along, Dad had to choose between the car and the groceries. He joined the army instead.”
“So he got both.” She gave a light laugh. “Smart man.”
“Yeah.” Dev nodded and slowed for another light. “Mom says she doesn’t know who cried harder the day Dad announced he was going to help with Operation Enduring Freedom, her or my pa.”
Damn, for a man who never talked about his dad, he couldn’t seem to shut himself up.
“Sounds like your mom’s parents really loved your dad too.” Shelley’s lips curled into a smile.
“Yeah, Gram and Pa did love him. When Dad got called back up to Iraq after September 11, he sat me down and told me I would be the man of the house while he was away. Made me promise . . .” He paused. “He made me promise lots of things, including that I’d earn my college degree. He said if anything happened to him, I had to promise to take care of my mom. He said she’d need me.”
Dev ignored the sting of tears behind his eyes. In a weird way, he needed to finish telling her what he’d never told anyone, not even his beloved Pa. Shelley might be the only person who could understand.
“He died three months later when his helicopter crashed just outside of Baghdad. I was fourteen. I . . . I always wondered if he knew he wouldn’t come back. I mean, my pa told me Dad made out a will, set up a bank account for me, even set up a fund for my mom. Not much in there to start with. He came from poor missionaries, and she was a McKinnon at birth. But it was hers alone, and something truly from him.” He paused, then asked what he’d always wondered, “Do you think people sometimes just know they’re not coming back?”
She didn’t respond for two traffic lights. And coward that he was, he couldn’t bring himself to look at her.
Finally, she exhaled a long, slow breath. “I think . . . I think sometimes people do. Animals do. Wait, that didn’t come out right.” She waved her hand in the air. “I don’t know from people, but I know humans are more animal than mineral, so hear me out. At the clinic, there was this cat, Walter. His owner kept bringing him in because he was sick. Walter would bolt every time anyone opened his cage. He’d always head for the same spot, underneath his owner’s porch steps. Finally, she stopped bringing him in. She told me later that that was where she had found him after he passed. Underneath those porch steps. He looked like he’d just gone to sleep.”
Dev did glance at her then. Because what did a cat have to do with anything?
As if she’d read his mind, she said, “I think some of us, human, canine, feline or other, know when our time is coming. My first mother did, but she fought it every step of the way. My second mom and dad had no idea. Just one wrong skid on the ice, and they were gone. No chance to wonder or worry.”
A car horn blared. Dev glanced up to see the light switch from yellow to red. He’d been so caught up in Shelley’s words that he’d sat right through a green light.
Shelley used the opportunity to make a joke. “So tell me, Officer, would you issue a ticket for something like this?”
The light turned green again and Dev joked, “My jurisdiction, but not my department.”
* * *
SHELLEY WAS GAWKING. There was simply no other way to describe her behavior. Her jaw was slack and her eyes were so wide they watered. Still, she couldn’t help herself.
She sat in the car staring up at the palatial house Dev had dubbed the cottage. The house had to be four thousand square feet. It sat right on the beach in the highly prized section of Tidewater named Ocean Front.
The house’s white siding seemed to glow against the cerulean sky behind it. The grass was vivid green and perfectly trimmed. Not even a dandelion dared to impugn the front lawn. Purple, red, pink, white, and yellow pansies lined the cement walkway like hundreds of little guardians with their faces pointed to the sky. The neat rows of flowers led all the way to the sedate gray front door. It stood solid, flanked by matching arched picture windows. There were no curtains on them, yet she couldn’t see inside.
“This is a cottage?” Shelley asked when Dev opened her car door.
Dev rubbed a thumb along the corner of his lip, then shrugged. “It’s the name the house came with when I bought it from old man Mansbach last year.”
He’d started to open the door to the back seat but paused. “I did say I had a cottage. I assumed you’d use one of my guest rooms. If you’d rather stay at a hotel, I can rent you a room at the Cavalier—”
“No, I don’t mind staying with you,” she cut him off, then flushed at her own words. “I-I mean, the guest room would be great. But you said rooms, how many guest rooms do you have?”
“Three.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “My cousins Ryan and Ian stayed here for a while to save money when they first opened their business. But now they’ve got a place across town. Be grateful, Ian’s a slob.”
Dev grinned, reaching to grab her suitcase from the floor, at which point Lucy’s cage shook. He hopped back as if the cage might launch at him, or she might chew through the bars or do something equally terrifying, like bursting into song with a top hat and cane like the frog from the old cartoons.
“Sorry, let me get Lucy.” Shelley sidled past him and caught a whiff of his Irish Spring soap scent. Her skin tingled at the near contact. She tried to cover her hormonal reaction by saying, “She’s really very loving.”
“Loving? Her?” His eyebrows rose and he glanced nervously into the back seat. “Tell you what, Shells, I’ll carry your suitcase inside. You carry the man-eater.”
“She’s not a man-eater.” Shelley laughed, collecting Lucy’s cage.
“My crotchless jeans beg to differ. She tried to bite off a part of my anatomy I’m rather fond of.”
She couldn’t help it. She knew she shouldn’t have done it, but . . .
Shelley’s gaze zeroed in on Dev’s groin, which definitely wasn’t crotchless. Dang it.
“You know if I did that to your breasts, you’d slap me.”
Don’t be so sure.
Clutching Lucy’s cage tighter to her body, Shelley hoped her flaming cheeks were sexy rather than silly and said in her best femme fatale voice, “It’s not like you can see anything through this cage, anyway. So look at the girls all you want.”
Dev’s eyes widened and sure enough, his gaze dropped below her chin then zipped back up again. His cheeks darkened.
Score one for me.
Emboldened, Shelley headed to the front door, calling out, “Come on, Dev. I want the grand tour.”
* * *
DEV’S HEART AND cock were going to explode before the day ended. Sweet Shelley Morgan was openly flirting with him. And, oh holy God, he hoped she was serious. Because it was too cruel to consider the alternative.
He unlocked the door and led her inside. She sucked in a breath and swept her gaze through his house. The slate foyer opened to a long hallway that ended in sliding glass doors overlooking the Atlantic. He hadn’t changed it much since he bought the place. The house was still decorated in East Coast shoreline decor with chair-rail-high beadboard walls painted Nantucket white butting up to the blue walls. He couldn’t even claim the Stickley furnishings. They’d been left by the former owner.
The one thing Dev had changed was the kitchen. All the appliances were high-end, matching brushed steel. The linoleum countertops had been replaced with dark blue granite. The cottage fit him. It was a man’s house. While there was no leather furniture, everything was sturdy but classy. Definitely not filled with the lacy curtains and shabby-chic stuff his mother used in her home.
“Oh my,” Shelley said, taking two tentative steps down the hall. She stopped next to the cherrywood staircase leading up to the second floor. Her eyes sparkled. The morning sunlight filtering down the hallway caught the red in her hair, giving her an ethereal glow. Like a goddess come to earth. “This place is absolutely incredible.”
No, she was the incredible one. It was a house. But he couldn’t quite stifle the pride filling his chest at her approval. “Come on, I’ll show you around upstairs. Wait till you see the view from your room.” The next to his with the adjoining balcony.
Shelley’s eyes lit up and she nodded. “Lead the way.”
At the top of the stairs was another picture window. Shelley oohed when she glanced through it. “I see a pod of porpoises swimming offshore.”
The sunlight glinting on the water was occasionally dulled by small, blunt dorsal fins cutting through the surface. Then the heads of the porpoises would pop up for air before diving down again, continuing their morning swim. “Yeah, I usually see them playing early in the morning when I go for my run on the beach. This place is so private, we can see them all year long, even during high tourist season.”
Shelley hefted Lucy’s cage higher, either to show the animal the view or because the plastic traveler was getting too heavy to hold. Figuring it was the latter, Dev opened the door to his right and set her suitcase just inside.
“This is your room. Why don’t you bring Lucy in here?” Dev frowned into the darkened room. “Sorry, the maid closed the curtains for some reason.” Dev hurried to draw back the heavy black-out curtains.
“You have a maid?” Shelley asked, then gasped as sunlight poured into the room, highlighting the peach-painted and white beadboard walls. Her mouth gaping, she glanced around. The guest room was laid out similar to his, all Mission-style furniture like downstairs. A queen-size bed faced the wall opposite the door; a dresser and mirror were placed on the opposite wall from the window. And there was a door leading to a walk-in closet between the bed and that wall. But this room had his mother’s feminine touch. She’d told him when she came to visit, she wanted a room that didn’t feel like an antique version of a bachelor pad. Dried roses, lattice, and baby’s breath filled a carnival-glass vase on the dresser. The duvet on the bed had been tatted by his great-great-grandmother.
