The last thing she wanted them to realize was that she was hella suspicious and thinking seriously about pulling David out of here.
But there was also a piece of her that wondered if she wasn’t the one she was trying to rescue because she wasn’t sure her walls would hold up against the professor.
It was exactly why she shouldn’t have come on this job. She wasn’t sure she trusted her instincts when it came to him. She might be more invested in protecting herself than him. At least on an emotional level.
If she was a phone, where would she be?
She’d walked around this floor yesterday, and it was all guest bedrooms. Luis had the room across the hall, and two others in this wing were unoccupied. She stopped in front of a big display case. There were pictures of Ricardo Montez with different world leaders. Those were displayed in ornate frames, but there were other pictures, too. Ones of Ricardo with Eddie. A few of them were of Eddie as a child, holding a fishing pole and showing off a gap-toothed grin.
She stopped on the picture of Eddie standing with a younger David Hawthorne. They were both wearing the caps and gowns from their graduation ceremony. Eddie was giving the camera a thumbs-up, but David’s expression was tight, like he was smiling for the camera but something was missing.
His dad, probably.
“We were twenty-four when that was taken,” a deep voice said. “Though I will admit David has always seemed older to me.”
Eddie stood behind her. He was dressed for the heat in cargo shorts and a loose button-down. He was an attractive man, almost a mirror of his father, though all the pictures of Ricardo showed gray at his temples and Eddie’s hair was still pure black.
“He doesn’t look happy in this picture,” she commented. Of all the people she wanted to underestimate her, this man was number one. She wanted him to see her as nothing more than David Hawthorne’s girlfriend, someone who held his hand and enjoyed the ride.
Someone who could handle his quirks. Who didn’t mind that he got lost in work because she was cool with reading a book while he studied or wrote.
She kind of wanted to meet his cat.
“This was shortly after his brother was in a car accident.” Eddie picked up the frame, looking down at it. “I think someone died and his brother felt…like it was his fault. Kyle was being self-destructive at the time, and David felt that strongly.”
“Because he’d lost his dad years before and couldn’t stand the thought of losing his brother, too.” She’d heard rumors that Kyle had gone into the Navy because he’d had some focus problems. She also knew he didn’t have a car. Kyle was notorious for hitching rides with anyone who was going close to where he lived, and she’d heard him talk David into picking him up more than once. He kept saying it was because he hadn’t gotten around to buying a car, but now she wondered about her fellow employee. Kyle seemed so serious. He held himself apart, but he’d also recently hired on, so she understood that. What if it was something more?
David had a lot going on in his life and yet he was so focused on her. Was she being selfish? She didn’t ask him to talk about himself because she knew damn well he would only drag her in deeper. Knowing about his family and his life…just made him feel closer to what she wanted for her own.
She wasn’t ready for this and yet she couldn’t pull away.
“Yes, I suspect that was true,” Eddie agreed. “He felt the loss of his father quite deeply. When my own died, I called David. He helped me through that rough first year. He’s a good man. There is no one I would rather have write my father’s biography.”
“He’s kind of obsessed with your dad. That didn’t make you uncomfortable?” She was curious about their relationship. They seemed like such opposites.
Eddie shook his head. “David never took advantage of our friendship. Not once. My father didn’t give interviews. He was a reclusive man when it came to the press. He didn’t like to leave the island in his later years. David never asked to come out here. He only met my father once. He was polite, and when my father didn’t want to talk about his personal history, they discussed baseball. It’s only been recently that David started talking about writing the book, and he promised I could read it before it was published. I know he’ll have to talk about some of my father’s darker moments. My father wasn’t a perfect man. He had some problems with drugs and alcohol. He didn’t pay much attention to me until I was twelve. He was here on the island, and my mother preferred to live in the city. They never married, so it wasn’t until I called him and told him my stepfather was abusing me that he stepped up.”
“I am so sorry to hear that.”
“It’s a pain from long ago, and honestly, my father coming to protect me…that helped me heal. He stayed in the city for several years because he wanted me to get a good education, but we would come out here for breaks and on the weekends.” He picked up a picture of a dark-haired woman holding an infant. “It’s funny how we always seem to repeat the mistakes of our parents.”
“Is that you as a child?” The woman in the picture had her hair pulled back, holding a tiny infant wrapped in a blue blanket. It had obviously been taken at a hospital as she was sitting up in a hospital bed, a tray to the side that held a small bouquet of flowers and some other objects.
He put the picture back on the shelf. “I was a handsome boy.” His bravado was back, along with his devil-may-care smile. “I was going up to my room to grab a book for David. He thinks he’s found something with one of the maps my father left behind for this treasure hunt of his. I noticed you wandering. Is there anything I can do for you? There’s a pool if you want to swim. I can also schedule some activities for you, if you like.”
Ah, so they wanted to make sure they knew where she was. Or he could simply be a good host, but she wasn’t sure about that. Unlike David, Eddie seemed like a man who didn’t hyper focus and worry about the details. “I’m fine. I might go swimming later. I was just walking around looking. I find this place fascinating.”
“I was surprised David brought a woman with him. He’s usually very focused,” Eddie remarked. “He’s had a handful of girlfriends over the years, but I’ve never actually met one of them. You’re a first.”
She was surprised by that because David was so sweet that she couldn’t imagine he didn’t have a woman in his life most of the time. He was sweet right up until he decided to be dirty, and then he was even sweeter. “He didn’t date while the two of you were in college?”
One shoulder shrugged. “Casually. He didn’t go out with anyone more than a few times, though he did have a woman he slept with. They were more friends than anything else. Well, he was friends with her. I think she was using him. He ended up writing most of her dissertation. He’s not good at telling when a woman is seeing him for the wrong reasons. He can be naïve about relationships. I worry it’s gotten worse since his stepfather became such a famous man. You know who he is, right?”
Here it was. Yes, she remembered this feeling quite well. Maybe she’d lied a little to her professor. In the moment it had felt like the truth to tell him she didn’t want to fail at a relationship again, but the way Eddie was looking at her brought up an entirely familiar feeling. One she hated. “Of course. I met David at his restaurant.”