Careful What You Kiss For (23 page)

“Go on then.” She fluttered her fingers, eyes still intent on the skirt. “I have to post on my blog. Today it’s all about twenty things you can do with rhinestones.”

He hesitated. Being with Rhonda felt like opening a window part way only to have it slam shut on your fingers without warning. Part of him felt obligated to keep trying to open it again, while the other part yelled that only an idiot got his fingers broken more than once.

He made for the door. “Have fun.”

“Wait.” A squeak of panic in her voice. “Max?”

He stopped and turned. “Yeah?”

“Still friends, right?” Her eyes were too bright, shiny.

As if he had a choice. He flexed his fingers. “Sure.”

Relief crossed her face. “So then, go. Quit hanging around me so much.” She adjusted her huge tits, shooting him a mischievous look. “You might be getting in the way of wedding number four.”

“Oh God, Rhonda,” he groaned. “You’re not getting married again.” He’d heard Carl hurling verbal bullets yesterday, so it couldn’t be to him.

“Don’t worry, baby.” She flashed a grin and cooed, “There’s time. You’ve still got a chance.”

He couldn’t get out of the shop fast enough. Avril only managed the first syllable of goodbye before he shot through the front door.

Rhonda. Of all the ex-wives, in all the towns, in all the world, she had to be his.

• • •

This time, when Tensley called Kate’s office, she didn’t have to make up an ill pet to talk with the vet. She gave her name and was put right through.

Her friend dispensed with the preliminaries. “I’ve been worried about you.” In the background, a dog barked.

“Good. Because I’m worried about me, too.”

“What happened?”

Tensley sighed. “Let’s just say, he didn’t put his gun on the nightstand right away. Don’t think he had time, what with me ripping his clothes off and all.”

“I
knew
you wouldn’t be able to keep your hands off each other. I remember how you were in high school. Did I call it, or what?”

“You called it.”

“So you slept with Max.”

“There wasn’t much sleeping involved.”

Kate chuckled. “So that’s how you decided you could help him. Did it work? And was it crazy amazing, with fireworks? A Hallelujah chorus?”

Tensley sighed again and pressed a fist against her heart, remembering the way Max had left her. “For someone who’s supposed to be my best friend, you ask a lot of questions.”

“Oh.” A pause. “So no fireworks?”

“No, it’s not that.” Tensley shook her head and sat down on the bed. She gazed down at the white sheet and spread her fingers across it, as though she could hold the memory of him there. “It was incredible. On the scale of the monster fireworks that aren’t even legal.”

“Okay.” Kate’s voice softened. “Then what’s wrong?”

“He got a call and left.”

“Cops do that. All the time.”

“He turned into a different person when he answered his phone.” Tensley curled her fingers into a ball, pressing it hard into the mattress. “Couldn’t get out of here fast enough.” Gemini hopped up onto the bed with a soft thump and sat, watching her. “He said last night was a big mistake.”

The dog’s shrill barking escalated until Tensley could barely hear Kate’s sympathetic, “Oh, no.”

“His case is more important.”

“Then after the case is over — ”

“Bullshit. He just doesn’t want anyone to find out he was with a — stripper.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I’m pretty sure I do. The irony, of course, is that I’m not a stripper. Or at least I wasn’t until Madame Claire decided to screw with my life.”

A voice in the background paged Kate to an exam room. “Listen, Ten — ”

“You have to go.”

“I do. I’m sorry. A very sick Great Dane. We’ll talk more about this later, okay? I wish I knew what to say.”

“It’s okay. Not like I haven’t been down this road before.” Her attempt at sounding offhand fell to the floor with a splat.

“You don’t know what’s going on with him.”

Tensley straightened. “Well, you know what? I don’t care.”

“Yes, you do.”

“I can’t afford to. So I won’t.”

Kate’s voice was rueful. “Let me know how that goes.”

“You’ll know. Because I need a favor. Can I stay with you for a few days until I figure some things out?”

“Of course. Come by and I’ll give you a key to my place. You can have the guest bedroom.”

“Can Gemini come, too?” She couldn’t just leave the cat.

“What do you think? Of course.”

Relief surged through Tensley. “Thanks. I don’t want to be here when Razor comes around. Or Max. Not that he — you know,
will
. But I want to make sure anything I do to help him is all business.”

The overhead voice that paged Kate this time sounded less patient.

“I have to go,” Kate said. “But think about one thing.” She paused. “Maybe he’s afraid of what he’s feeling. And that’s why he left.”

Tensley’s laugh was sharp. “Are you kidding me? Max Hunter,” she said, “is a lot of things, but afraid is
never
one of them.”

• • •

Max Hunter was, for the first time in his life, scared shitless. How could one guy screw up his life this bad in one night?

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shove aside the memory of Tensley’s body against his, the feel of her mouth on him, the roller coaster thrill of being inside her, the fierce need they’d shared. Like two people stuck in a desert who’d finally found a drink of cool water.

His mouth went dry and he broke into a sweat every time he thought about last night, which was … . Every. Single. Minute.

“Hey, Hunter,” an officer said as he walked by. “You okay?”

“Fine,” Max said without looking up.

“Good,” came the retort. “’Cause you look like crap.”

Max zeroed in on his computer monitor, but the letters swam in front of him. Random, meaningless words about the hardware store Burns owned. He had to make sense of them. Fast.

And he had to stop thinking about her. Fast.

He’d call another woman. A cop never lacked for phone numbers; he had tons of them. Like maybe that cute little barista at the coffee shop who’d written her number on the side of his paper cup last week and slid it over to him with a smile, letting her fingers linger on his. That apron didn’t begin to cover her sexy little ass, which he’d enjoyed watching as she’d walked away.

Her ass didn’t come close to being as sexy as Tensley’s, but still —
Fu-u-ck. Get your head in the game, Hunter.

From the corner of his eye, he saw movement. He looked up. In front of his desk stood a hulking man in an expensive dirt-brown suit, with a scowl that took up every inch of real estate on his face.

You have got to be kidding me.

“Yeah. I’m just as happy to see you, Sunshine,” Rhonda’s Husband Number Three, otherwise known as Detective Carl Cole, drawled. “But apparently you need help from someone who knows what the hell he’s doing.”

Seriously. This day just could not get any better.

“I don’t need help.” Max stood and gathered his papers, shoving them into a file.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Carl said, scraping a chair’s legs across the floor to pull it in front of Max’s desk. He sat down hard, dwarfing the chair with his size. “Captain says you do. And then he tells me it’s my lucky day. I’m the one who’s gotta do the helping.”

Max stopped, leveling a gaze at the detective, who worked in the investigations unit that handled fraud and forgery. “I’ve got it handled. You can leave.”

The other man leaned back and templed his fingers. “It’s not like I want to be here. I’ve got real work to do. Instead, I’ve gotta be wasting my time with some shit strip club. And you.”

Asshole.
Max narrowed his eyes. On the up side, Carl had more experience than Max did with this kind of thing. On the down side, he was Carl. Who still thought Rhonda was the love of his life and that any other guy, but especially one who had also been married to her, was an obstacle. “So get me somebody else.”

The other man snorted. “Like we have a ton of guys sitting around waiting for — ”

“Got it. You’re the only one who has time on his hands.”

Carl opened his mouth and paused, obviously confused. The scowl returned. “Listen,” he said. “You don’t get to disrespect an order. And neither do I. So sit your ass back down and tell me what you’ve got.”

Max realized he wasn’t going to get out of this. Shit. Why couldn’t Rhonda marry outside the force? A firefighter, for once.

He put both hands on the desk and leaned in toward Carl. “I respect orders, but I sure as hell don’t take them from you. Are we clear on that much?”

“Crap.” Carl scowled and adjusted his belt. “You could spend your whole life tryin’ and not learn half of what I know — ”

Max cut him off with, “You going to bitch all day or are you going to help?”

He took Carl’s irritated grunt as assent.

• • •

Tensley picked up the key to Kate’s place and then wove her way through traffic to arrive at a new high rise not far from the downtown core. “Not bad,” she said to herself, peering up at the endless bank of windows.

In Tensley’s former life, Kate had bought a craftsman-style house in an older part of town. The two of them had had several debates about house vs. apartment, but Kate had finally decided to take the homeowner plunge and ended up loving the place.

Tensley wondered why things were different now.

She followed the instructions her best friend had written out for parking and then lugged her suitcase to the entrance, plugging in the code she’d been given. After the door clicked open, she walked into a high-ceilinged lobby furnished with plush rugs, elegant chairs and sofas, and large mirrors edged in a subdued gold. Tensley stopped and closed her eyes, breathing in a scent of furniture polish mingled with vanilla.

This was more like it. So much nicer than the place she was living in.

The elevator came immediately when called, with the soft pinging sound of one that knew to announce its arrival quietly. Tensley stepped into a mirrored car with gleaming gold rails, rolling her suitcase behind her, and pushed the button labeled 10. With a barely perceptible whoosh, she was delivered to Kate’s floor.

She found the apartment halfway down the hall. Tensley fit the key into the lock and she and Gemini stepped into a haven of white walls bathed in natural light and leather furniture dotted with three bright pillows and two snoring dogs. Neither opened its eyes, even when she shut the door behind her.

She couldn’t help but laugh, partially in relief. At least one thing hadn’t changed. Kate still had her two senior citizen Yorkies — Stinky and Blinky.

“Hey, guys,” she said, lifting her hand in greeting. Neither one stirred. Blinky, she knew, had trouble seeing and Stinky had trouble hearing. But both were champion sleepers. Gemini, wisely, didn’t say anything.

She took her things to the guest room and sat on the edge of the large, comfy bed. While it was a relief to know Razor wouldn’t come pounding on the door at any minute, Kate’s place was also a poignant reminder of Tensley’s previous life, where she’d had a similarly well-appointed apartment, tastefully designed and filled with luxuries large and small.

Flopping back against a comforter so soft, it felt like a cloud beneath her, she wondered who had taken her position as vice president of Tanner Industries and whether her mother listened to that person more than she had her own daughter. Not likely, she decided. Her mother didn’t listen to anyone.

For a minute, Tensley thought about calling her office number, to see who would answer. But a knot in the pit of her stomach warned her off. It would only make her feel worse and even resent that person when she regained her life and rightful position with the company. She didn’t want to know who had schemed his or her way into the job.

Especially if that person was better at doing it than she was.

It was quiet and peaceful in the apartment, with morning sun streaming through the windows. Thinking she’d just close her eyes briefly, Tensley didn’t realize she’d drifted off to sleep until she woke to the sound of snoring dogs, now lying on each side of her on the bed. Gemini was sitting across the room, giving all three of them the stink eye.

She blinked and then rubbed her eyes, lifting her head to see the dogs who, once again, didn’t budge from their slumber. “Stinky, I think you have asthma.”

At that, Blinky opened his eyes, looking at her through the cloudiness she knew was caused by his cataracts.

“I don’t suppose you remember me?” she ventured.

No response.

“Didn’t think so.” Tensley struggled to her feet, no easy undertaking with a dog on each side of her body. She found the bathroom and flipped on the light to see an expansive, gleaming Jacuzzi tub. “That is so calling my name.”

Several minutes later, she’d filled it and was soaking in a relaxing bath, letting the scented steam fill her nostrils. With the exception of the Italian marble tile that lined the back of her tub, this one was so like the one she’d had that it sent pangs of homesickness through her. “I’m going to get my life back,” she said to Stinky, who had padded his way into the bathroom. “No matter what it takes.”

There was something else she didn’t have in her former life. Max. But she wasn’t going to think about him right now. Or maybe ever.

He very obviously wasn’t thinking about her. And that’s all she needed to know. What was that old saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice —

Instead of finishing the thought, she ducked under the water and then shot back up again, letting it stream off her. She could figuratively, if not literally, wash away every trace of Max Hunter.

On the outside, anyway.

• • •

Max had to admit that Carl Cole knew his stuff. Within twenty-four hours, the detective had confirmed that not only did Gary Burns’s hardware store seem to be doing extremely well when other independent hardware stores were struggling, but Burns also appeared to have an unexpected civic side.