“She wants to see you.”
Still I say nothing.
“What happened between the two of you, Kelly?”
Still I say nothing.
He adds his other hand, massaging my palm and my wrist. “I didn’t get a good feeling from her. Not at all. But you may be interested to know that she has a lot of money now.”
“I know that.”
He lifts his eyebrows. “Oh?”
“Yeah. I found out about it once we were rescued. Some spinster aunt of hers left her some kind of sizable estate. She’s not going to give any of it to me.”
“She says that’s why she wants to see you. So she can take care of you.”
“She’s lying.”
I expect him to deny my accusation. Tell me how wonderful and caring she seemed, and that she truly wants to see me and take care of me, her only daughter.
But he doesn’t.
Instead—
“I believe you, Kelly. I believe she’s lying.”
I turn to him, regard his handsome face. “You… You believe me?”
He lets go of my hand, cups both my cheeks. “I do.”
“No one’s ever believed me before. I mean, not without knowing…”
“We learn how to read people during our SEAL training. It’s very important because we have to rely a lot on instinct and intuition. And what I read in your mother was that her words didn’t match up with her actions. Her facial expressions, her emotions.”
“Just how much time did you spend with her?”
“I met her at her hotel, and we had dinner. After that, I went to Buck’s apartment and we were up all night doing research on her.”
“So you didn’t…”
He laughs again. “My God, no, Kelly. How could you think that?”
“My mother’s an attractive woman.”
“She’s…pretty, but not attractive.”
I scoff. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means she has pretty features. But her personality keeps her from being attractive.”
“Doesn’t that mean the same thing?”
“No. Objectively, I can observe her features, and I can say she’s pretty, although her features aren’t as fine as yours. You happen to be beautiful.”
Warmth surges to my cheeks.
“Attractiveness, on the other hand, requires attraction. And I felt no attraction to her. So to me, she’s not attractive.”
My cheeks are burning from his touch. “No one’s ever explained it to me like that before.”
“That’s how I see it anyway. You’re a beautiful woman, Kelly, and you came from your mother. So of course she’s quite pretty in an objective sense. But attractive? Not at all. Beautiful? Not even the same galaxy as you.”
He uses one hand to tilt my chin and then brushes his lips over mine. “Now, can I make that coffee?”
I nod.
He rises and pulls me into a stand next to him. I want to melt into him, let him embrace me, but I don’t.
Not yet.
Maybe over coffee, I’ll tell him about my mother.
That’s what I was going to do anyway.
Will he run away screaming?
I can’t blame him if he does. I come with a hell of a lot of baggage. But I’m feeling something for this man. A warm and cozy feeling like I’m wrapped in a cashmere shawl and protected from the world.
And I think…
Maybe I am.
35
LEIF
“How was your first night at work?” I ask as I fill the coffee maker with water.
“It was good, actually,” Kelly says.
“Are you working again tonight?”
“Actually, I’m not. The restaurant starts the new servers working every other night, to get us used to the hours and being on our feet for so long.”
“That’s good, since you probably didn’t sleep very well in the hallway.”
“I don’t know. I was in some kind of deep sleep when you shook me.”
I look down at my shin. “No kidding. I’m going to have a nice bruise.”
“I’m sorry about that.”
I’m amazed at how quickly and easily the words I’m sorry come out of her mouth, but I choose not to mention it.
“It’s all right. You didn’t mean to, but no more sleeping in the hallway, Kelly. I mean it.”
“You didn’t answer your door,” she says.
“Have you heard of a little thing called a telephone?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard of it. But I didn’t want to talk on the phone, Leif. I wanted to talk to you in person.”
“If you had called me, I could’ve come home.”
“Would you?”
“Of course I would’ve. You’re my job.”
Her lips turn into a frown. “Right. I’m your job.”
I sigh. “You’re more than just a job to me. That’s not what I meant.”
“It’s what you said.”
I smile then. “You will be the death of me, Kelly Taylor.”
“I don’t want to be.”
“Then let’s make a pact. Here and now. We’re going to be nice to each other. We’re not going to make assumptions about each other. If we have questions, we will ask. If we don’t like the answers we receive, we won’t lash out.”
“I can’t promise I won’t lash out.”
“Yes you can. You can, and you can mean it.”
“All right.”
“Good. Now we have an understanding between us. No more lashing out, by either of us. That includes me.”
“When have you lashed out?”
“Hundreds of times.” I smirk. “All in my head, of course.”
She smiles. “I’m a real pain in your butt, aren’t I?”
“Yes, you are. But I don’t mind you so much.” I grab two mugs out of the cupboard. “Tell me about your first night at work.”
She rattles on then, talking animatedly—more animatedly than I’ve ever seen her. “Over a thousand dollars in tips. I can’t believe it. And the restaurant pays us the tips in cash. Of course, they also made me fill out a tax form, so it’s not like I can keep all of it.”
“No, but you can keep about seventy percent of it. That’s pretty good for a night’s work.”
“Yeah, absolutely. Especially since I don’t have any expenses. At least not yet.”
“The Wolfes will let you stay here as long as you need to.”
“I know that, but I hate taking other people’s money. I hate taking help. I’ve been on my own since the day I turned eighteen, and I—”
“Since the day you turned eighteen?”
I know her story. Her mother kicked her out of the house when she turned eighteen before she was finished with high school. But I want to see if she’ll tell me. Confide in me.
“Well, yeah. Aren’t most people on their own at eighteen?”
“It’s the age you become an adult. But I get the feeling there’s more to your story.”
“When you were researching my mother… Just how much did you find out?”