Parker's Passion (11 page)

Just the thought of her eased the tightness.

Around four he began tidying his desk. The ferry left at six, but it was a quick run from his Seattle office.  He thought about leaving even earlier, but realized she wouldn’t be there until the evening, so that might be a little too anxious on his part.

He had to chuckle at the thought.

He
was
anxious.

Far too anxious.

Still, excitement coiled in his belly as he stood and picked up his jacket. His suitcase was already in the car.

He was halfway to the door when the intercom buzzed. With a sigh, he returned to his desk
and pressed the button on his phone. “Yes, Elaine?”

“Mr.
Tucker here to see you.”

Parker frowned.
Shit.
He scrambled for his calendar. “Did he have an appointment?”

“I don’t believe so, sir. But he’s…” Her tone changed and Parker could tell she was whispering into the receiver behind her hand. “He’s agitated.”

Damn.
Babysitting and hand holding. Just what he needed right now. It sucked that sometimes that was part of his job too. “Okay. Send him in.”

Tucker burst into the room. There was no other word for it. He was a tall, thickly muscled man with wiry hair and an abundance o
f frenetic energy. Every meeting Parker had had with him left him emotionally drained. As though he sucked the oxygen from the room.

“
Rieth,” he boomed. He always boomed. “I want to talk to you.”

“Please, Mr. Tucker. Have a seat.”

He didn’t. He paced with a suppressed fury that made Parker a little dizzy. He finally halted before the window and propped his fists on his hips and, staring out at the city, snapped, “I am paying your firm a lot of money.” 

“Yes, sir.”

“I expect a faster response.”

“A…faster response?” Divorce proceedings were divorce proceedings. There was nothing fast about them.

“Finding them.” He whipped around, his eyes were limned in red, nearly glowing with fervor. Parker clenched his jaw. He’d seen a look like that before. It never ended well. “I want my wife and daughter found. Brought back home. This delay is untenable.”

Well
, fuck. He was a lawyer, not a hound dog. “We have our best man on it.”

Gilley was good. The best. But still, Parker couldn’t help the
ripple of trepidation at the thought of returning
anyone
to this man. The only reason he’d hired Gilley in the first place was because Barstow had insisted on it.
Every measure,
he’d said.
Every measure.

“Your best man isn’t good enough.” Tucker slammed his fist into the wall. The pictures rattled.

Parker stared at the slightly dented spot. A hint of horror dribbled through him. He held himself as still as he could and sucked in a breath. “Sir, we try to help our clients wherever we can in these matters, but—”

“Oh, cut the bullshit
, Rieth. Just tell me now if you’re not good enough to handle this case and I’ll find someone else.”

Panic flared. “No. No. We can handle it, sir. I promise you.”

“Find them.”

“We will.”

Tucker leaned in. His expression was fierce. His breath, sour. “You better,” he spat. Then he wheeled and stomped for the door, yanking it open. He paused with his hand on the knob. “I’ll give you a week. If they’re not in my possession in one week, I’m dropping this firm. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

Parker nearly collapsed when Tucker stormed off, but he couldn’t. Because, in his wake, Barstow poked his head in the door. He didn’t say anything, just shot Parker a speaking glance, but it was enough.

He sighed and trudged back to his desk to call Gilley.
The last ferry left at eight pm. He could only hope he could reach his friend before then. Otherwise, he might not make it this weekend at all.

Damn, some days, he hated his job.

Chapter Eleven

Kaitlin arrived at the beach house late on Friday night. She was excited to see Parker, had really anticipated seeing him tonight, but had received a text that he’d hit a snag at work and wouldn’t be here until tomorrow. While that stifled her mood, she was delighted to have some time with her friends. They didn’t get to see each other nearly enough.

Riotous
laughter rang off the walls as she dropped her suitcase by the door. She made her way down the hall, peering into the great room to see what was going on, but she couldn’t see anything. The guys were all on their hands and knees on the floor, hidden by the fat sofa.

Kristi
, who was in the kitchen making margaritas with Bella, greeted her with a wave.

Another round of male chuckles
rumbled and Kaitlin went up on her toes to see what the guys were doing. They were all perched in a circle around a man lying on the floor, tall and well-muscled with dark skin and a handsome face—with his head on a scale. Her heart leapt. “Patrick is here,” she sighed as Kristi wrapped an arm around her and rubbed her back. Kristi had such calm energy. She never minded a hug from her.

“
Umm hmm,” Kristi responded. “He just got in.”

Bella sidled up next to her but was careful not to touch.
“He’s on leave.”

Kaitlin let out a breath. “Thank God he’s back.” She hated it when Patrick went away. Sure, it was his job to go to Afghanistan or Iraq or Colorado. But she hated when he was gone. He’d always been like a big brother to her…more.
Her champion. Her protector. Her confidant.

Patrick hefted himself to his feet and peered at the scale. “Twenty two,” he said.

Drew chortled as Cam lay down in Patrick’s place.

“What are they doing?”
Kaitlin asked.

Bella sighed. “They’re weighing their heads.”

“Weighing their heads?” What on earth for?

A shrug.
“So far Drew’s winning.”

“He would.
” Kristi smirked. “The fathead.”

Patrick glanced up and let out a whoop. “KK!” he cried. “You’re here!” He nearly stepped on Cam as he sprinted across the room
. He certainly ignored Cam’s howl. He swept Kaitlin up in a huge bear hug and swung her around. “Baby girl, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.”

She put her hand on his cheek and stared up at him. His aura was a little
cloudier, but not too bad. And the shadows in his eyes wafted away as he grinned at her. She and Patrick had always been close. Probably because, unlike the rest of their friends, they’d both experienced the prejudices of the world. Patrick because he was a very large and intimidating-looking black man—which was ridiculous because he was the sweetest man on the planet, and Kaitlin because of her gift. When people learned about it, they either recoiled or they came at her with avaricious zeal, wanting to know next week’s winning lottery numbers or to speak to dead relatives.

She adored Patrick. And good heavens, she’d missed him.
He’d been the star running back in college and had played pro for a while before he decided to enlist in the Air Force and pursue his dream as a pilot.

“How are you, Patrick?”

“Good. I’m good.”

She ignored the lie
and hugged him again, surrounding him in a soothing cloud.

“God, I’ve missed that,” he huffed.

“Me too.”

The other guys came to greet her as well, giving her quick hugs and busses to the forehead. All but Drew. His hug was longer. It always was.

She pulled away and patted him on the chest. “How are you doing, Drew?”

He shrugged. Then frowned at her. “Why haven’t you answered my calls?”

“Oh, it’s been really busy at work.” She made a great show of removing her sweater and arranging it on the back of the chair. She couldn’t meet his eye, or he might sense the lie. Drew was pretty clueless about most things, but he was pretty good at ferreting out a lie.

She really didn’t want to have the conversation she knew was coming, so she sloughed it off with a chipper, “So what’s everyone been up to?”

They all gathered around the table and ate nachos and drank Margaritas as they got caught up. Kristi and Cam sat together, fingers linked, and Bella and Holt were side by side as well. Kaitlin made it a point to sit by Patrick, leaving the only spot open between Cam and Bella, much to Drew’s consternation. He practically pouted.

Kaitlin ignored him
.

Before, she would have tried to mak
e an effort to calm him, or send him a smile or something, but that felt wrong to her somehow. As though she’d be giving him encouragement.

It created a tension between them, of course, his pushing in and her pushing back
, sizzling where their trails touched.

Fortunately, everyone else was oblivious. They all sipped and crunched and chattered on gleefully. Which was nice. Kaitlin hated drama, and
she certainly didn’t have the energy for it now.

Parker had exhausted her—several times this week. But it wasn’t a negative kind of exhaustion, as she’d experienced before after raw physical contact. It was sweet. And satisfying. It surprised her to realize she hadn’t had a chocolate binge all week.

“Why are you grinning like that?” Patrick whispered in her ear.

She shot him a look. Ah, Patrick.
He
wasn’t oblivious. “I’ll tell you later,” she whispered back.

He nodded and slipped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a quick little half hug. At which, Drew frowned.

Again, she pushed his annoyance away.

Honestly. Sometimes it was a pain in the butt to feel
everything
.

She focused instead on the chatter around the table. Bella was excited to report that her sex toy shop had record sales last month since Holt had started referring her to his friends and Cam had upgraded her website.

“Upgraded?” Cam snorted. “I would call it a complete overhaul.”

Kristi smacked him.

“What? Well, it was.”

Bella frowned. “Okay. The website was shit. I admit it.”

“We monetized it, upgraded the cache and, for God’s sake, changed the operating system.”

Kaitlin laughed. “I have no idea what any of that means.”

“It means,” Bella said, rubbing her hands together, “I’m making money.”

Holt tugged her closer. “It means, she won’t lose the store.”

“Were you going to lose the store?” A trickle of chagrin swept through her. How had she missed that?

Bella shrugged without answering. Which meant:
Yes.

“How are things at Beanies?” she asked Kristi. Kristi and their friend Lucy owned a coffee shop in the Montlake neighborhood of Seattle.

Before Kristi could answer, Bella snorted. “It’s Montlake. It’s coffee.” And everyone laughed. Between the University of Washington and all the tech companies located nearby, there was always a need for a jolt of caffeine.

“And how about you Patrick? How was your tour?” She patted his knee.

She did not expect his flinch. A scorching tendril flowed up her arm and into her heart and mind, filling her with a jumble of visions. None of them pleasant.

Firefights. Flames. Explosions.

A crash.

Patrick holding the hand of a young
airman…as the boy died.

Immediately, she regretted the question.

Why had she not seen that too?

“I’m sorry,” she said softly.

“It’s okay. He squeezed her hand and turned to the rest of the group. “I’ll be honest. It was a rough tour. One of the worst. I’m, ah, thinking about retiring.”

A
chorus rounded the table, but Patrick lifted his hand and they all silenced. “It was a good run. I accomplished what I thought I needed to do. But now… Now I think I’m ready for some peace and quiet.”

Probably m
ostly peace.

“What will you do?” Cam asked.

“Football?” This from Holt.

Patrick cracked a smile. “I’m too old for
football.”

“Hardly…”

“Too beat up then. I was thinking about maybe flying for a commercial carrier or something.”

Yes
, he would be good at that. And Kaitlin would appreciate having him closer. She would appreciate knowing he was safe. She nodded. “You could still fly, travel—”

“Pick up stewardesses.” Everyone threw their balled up napkins at Drew.
“What? Don’t tell me it didn’t cross your mind.”

Patr
ick chuckled. “Okay. Yeah. It did.”

“Hah! I knew it.”

“I think that’s a good idea, Patrick,” Kaitlin said. She nibbled her lip. “But not the stewardess part.”

Laughter rocked the room.

A blanket of darkness
cloaked the view of the ocean, but Kaitlin could still hear it as she sat on the deck with her eyes closed. She’d needed to come out here, for a moment alone.

That is to say, away from Drew.

She loved him, but his approaches were becoming uncomfortably insistent. Almost desperate. So, when the guys went downstairs to play a game of pool and Bella and Kristi went to take a soak in the hot tub, she came out to the deck to sit in the shadows.

The
rustle of the wind in the trees tangled with the croaking bullfrogs. The shush of the waves and the scent of brine danced on the breeze.

She allowed her mind to wander.

It wandered to Parker.

This was not a surprise.

She’d been replaying all their dates, all their interactions, especially their sexual interactions, over and over in her mind.  She’d been reviewing her feelings for him. Incessantly.

In all that she just simply knew some things without even trying, no matter how she looked at this or meditated on this or prayed about this, the answers were muddled.

Oh, her feelings for him were clear.

She was head over heels. That part was easy. But she didn’t know how he felt—really felt—
and she didn’t have a clue if being with him was the right choice.

It
seemed right. But lots of things seemed right, when they weren’t.

If only the universe would be more clear.
Send her a lightning bolt or a neon sign or a carrier pigeon with the message,
yes! Parker is the one. Your soul mate. The man for you.

But other than that flutter of her heart when she thought of him, that pang of longing when they were apart, and the absolute delight when he touched her—nothing.

She didn’t like being clueless, she found.

Perhaps she sh
ould be more sympathetic to her clueless friends in the future.

The slider opened and she stiffened.

“Hey there KK,” Patrick’s low voice enrobed her and she relaxed. “Are you hiding?”

She laughed. “Maybe a little.”

“May I join you?” He held up two steaming mugs. “I brought cocoa.”

“Oh. Cocoa!” She reached for one of the mugs but he held it back. “Not this one,” he winked. “This one i
s laced with whiskey. This one’s mine.”

She took the drink he offered and took a sip. Delicious.
“Thanks.”

How Patrick knew she needed this, right now, was a mystery.

He slipped into a chair and settled his gaze on her. “Something’s different about you,” he said.

“Mmm.” She
took another sip. “I met someone.”

He shot her a surprised glance. “As in
, a man?”

She nodded, biting back her grin
at his surprised tone.

Patrick was the only one, of all of her friends, who knew the truth about what had happe
ned that night so long ago in college. He’d been home when she and Emily had returned, clothes ripped, eyes wild. He’d comforted them. And then, of course, he’d vowed to exact revenge. Both Emily and Kaitlin had insisted he let it drop.

Patrick was the only one who knew how deeply the incident had wounded Kaitlin. Only Patrick knew she’d responded by locking herself away.

He took a snort of his cocoa-whiskey and cleared his throat. “Is it serious?”

“I think so.”

“Does Drew know?”

Kaitlin frowned at him. “Drew knows I met him.”

“Does Drew
know
.”

Kaitlin sighed.

Patrick scrubbed his face. “Baby girl, you gotta tell him.”

“I know.”

“You gotta tell him he doesn’t stand a chance. That guy is tail over arse in love with you.”

She sighed again. He was right. Really right. Drew deserved to know. But
, good gravy, she didn’t want to have that conversation.