Parker's Passion (7 page)

“Me too.”

“And your dad?”

She didn’t answer. Just shook her head. His gaze fixated on her lower lip. The way she nibbled it. He wanted to nibble it. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted—

“There you are!” A booming voice invaded their bubble, bursting it with a jarring tenor. A bulky man—one of her friends
, the one who had met her at the door the night Parker had walked her home—pushed between them.

He
liked to think the look she shot him was apologetic, that there was a thread of regret in it.

“Drew.” She
smiled at him.

The big guy
shuddered. “It’s cold out here. Let’s go inside, Kait.” He looped his arm around her waist and tried to draw her away.

Everything in Parker rebelled at the thought.

“But it’s so beautiful. Look, Drew! See how the sun hits the water there? A rainbow.”

“This is the Pacific Northwest,” he said on a snort. “There are always rainbows somewhere.”

She glared at him. “No there aren’t. Let me enjoy this.”

He
frowned, but went quiet, standing between them like a defender. Or a boyfriend.

But if Drew was her boyfriend, would she have come home with
him the other day? Would she have unzipped his jeans? Would she have taken him in her hands? Her mouth?

He studied the guy
with an assessing eye.

No. She would not have done all those things.

But it was clear, this Drew character had the hots for her.

“What do you do?” he asked him, just to make conversation, although a part of him really wanted to know.
Wanted to gauge the competition. If he was, indeed, someone she
liked
. His gut flipped at the thought.

“Drew’s a firefighter,” Kaitlin said, when Drew answered only with a frown. She patted the bastard’s arm.

“Really?” Parker had a special place in his heart for firefighters. One of them had saved his life. “That must be interesting.”

“Totally,” Drew drawled. “And what do you do…
?”

“Parker.” This from Kaitlin, who seemed to know Drew was fishing for his name. He wouldn’t have given it. Two could play at this game.

“I’m a lawyer.”

Drew’s features bunched up. Yeah. Probably not what he wanted to hear.
He’d probably been hoping for
grocery bagger
or
arsonist
.

“You’re a lawyer?” Again, Kaitlin. Her eyes lit up
. Hell, her whole face lit up. “What kind of law do you practice?”

“I’m a divorce attorney.”

Fuck.
He hated the way her sweet expression soured. “That’s…nice.” She turned back to stare at the sea, threading her fingers together.

“Make a lot of money at that?” Drew’s tone was contemptuous. Why? Parker had no clue. People getting divorces needed attorneys too.

“I do okay.” Silence settled around them, but for the whip of the wind in his ears. It was uncomfortable. Parker searched for something to say. “What do you do, Kaitlin?” he asked, though Drew bristled when he said her name. As though he was the only man who had the right.

She glanced at Drew before she answered. Nibbled her lip again. “I, ah, I’m kind of a therapist.”

Drew snorted a laugh.

Kaitlin shot him a frown.

“What kind of therapist?”

Did he imagine the flush rising on her face? “I, ah, help people who are in pain.”

How like her. She’d helped him. Did she have any idea how much she helped him? “A physical therapist then.”

Her lashes fluttered. “Something like that. Yes. Oh, look.” She pointed to the sky again. “Now there are two of them.”
And indeed, two eagles wheeled through the sky, catching the wind and soaring higher, flirting with each other. “I wonder if one of them is the one we saved?”

Her eyes were bright. She
seemed so hopeful. He didn’t have the heart to mention there were thousands of eagles in these islands. “Probably.”

Yeah. The lie was worth her smile.

“You saved an eagle?” This, apparently, pissed Drew off. “When?”

“On Saturday. I went for a walk in the morning and we saw it there, trapped in a tree. Parker cut it loose.” She
gazed at him as though he’d hung the moon.

Drew didn’t. If
looks could kill, Parker would be six feet under. In fact, he wouldn’t put it past Drew to tip him over the rail into the propellers.

“We?”
he clipped. “Kaitlin, you really shouldn’t go walking in the morning.”

She gaped at
Drew. “What? Are you serious?”

“The tide. A tsunami. A tree could fall.”

Her laughter was a melody. “Drew, you are so silly.” She tipped her head back up to the eagles and sighed. While her attention was so engaged, Drew took the opportunity to glower at Parker. His meaning was plain.
Get lost.
 

Parker grinned and rocked back on his heels. Yeah, he wasn’t going anywhere.

Drew narrowed his eyes. And then he said, “You know, when eagles mate they often die?”

Kaitlin gasped.

Yeah, Drew had won her attention again, but at what cost? She was horrified. “No.”

“
Yeah,” he continued gleefully. “They fly way high and mate up there.” He waved at the sky. “Since they’re joined, they can’t fly and they plummet to the earth in a death spiral. If they don’t disengage before they hit the ground, they die.”

God.
He looked so pleased with himself. Parker wanted to punch him. And not just so he would stop looking so smug. But because he’d brought tears to Kaitlin’s beautiful eyes.

“Drew, that’s terrible. Why would you say that?”

His brow rumpled. “Because it’s true.” He glanced from Kaitlin to Parker. “It is. Google it.”

“I’m not going to Google it.”
She spun away, storming to a spot a few feet away. Parker followed. Drew did not.

L
ike a reprimanded child, he tromped back inside. But the glower he sent Parker wasn’t childlike at all.

Kaitlin blew out a breath and Parker settled at her side. She seemed to scoot closer. “Are you cold?” he asked.

“A little. But this is too lovely to go inside.”

It was. Lovely.

He curled his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. She smiled at him. His heart fluttered.

That had never happened before.

His heart had never fluttered.

It
was disconcerting. Maybe he should ask Doctor Marks about that on Monday.

As though she could read his mind, she asked, “How is your cut?”

“It’s fine.” It was. It would be. He wasn’t thinking about it now. He was thinking about her. This woman. In his arms. “Kaitlin…”

“Yes
?”

Words failed him. The look on her face, so open, so welcoming, nearly brought him to his knees. “I’d like to…see you again.”

She blossomed. Her smile swelled. Her eyes shone. Her lips parted. “I’d like that very much.”

“Dinner some night this week?” And then he
remembered. He had a big case to work on. One that could make or break his career with Barstow and Rank. At this stage in the game, there were always late nights, hurried meetings and panicked texts.

But hell. He wanted to see her again.

Maybe just one evening. The case could wait. Couldn’t it?

“I’m free on
Thursday.” Her smile was a little shy. Very sweet.

He leaned closer. “
Thursday would be perfect. What do you like to eat?”

She sighed. “Anything.”

“How about Tom’s Surf and Turf. It’s near Montlake on Lake Washington.”

Her eyes lit up. “I love that place. Okay. What time should we meet?”

Meet?
His belly dipped. She didn’t want him to pick her up. But yeah…it was probably too early to be exchanging addresses. He forced a smile. “How about six?”

“Six would be wonderful.”

“Perfect.” Exhilaration whipped through him…until he turned. His attention stalled on three burly men standing at the window, glaring out at the deck. Drew, of course, and two of his friends. Holt Lamm and Cam Jackson, if he wasn’t mistaken. They all had identical expressions. Furious expressions.

Parker shot them a grin and then turned back to Kaitlin.
He tipped his head toward the battalion. “But if you could? Leave your guard dogs at home?”

She glanced over her shoulder and then threw her head back with a laugh.

And he laughed too as elation trilled through him.

Because he was going to see her again in
four days.

And then despair.

How the hell was he going to make it that long?

But he didn’t see her.

He missed their rendezvous. It
devastated him, but he missed it.

To his surprise, it wasn’t work that scuttled his plans. It was family.

Which was odd, because Parker had no family. They had all perished in the fire that had nearly claimed his life.

On Wednesday
, his world imploded. Ash called to say that his father had had a massive heart attack and was on his deathbed. Something cold invaded Parker’s soul at the news. Adam Bristol was as close to a father as he’d ever had. And Ash was like a brother. He couldn’t not respond to the call. He couldn’t not go sit with his friend as they waited for news.

In retrospect, he realized he should have asked for her number. For something.

But, giddy with excitement, it had slipped his mind.

So he
missed their date.

It just about killed him.

Chapter Seven

Kaitlin was floating on a cloud when she returned home from the island. Her mind was filled with thoughts of Parker—and her heart as well. There was something about him, something magical perhaps.

When h
e’d slipped his arm around her on the deck of the ferry, she’d felt protected and warm. And there had been no pain, no snarl of sensation whatsoever. It was peaceful being with him, despite the angst and dark memories that sometimes surrounded him.

She could tell her presence was a balm to him as well.

She was a healer. It was part of her job. But her gift had never pleased her as much as it did with Parker. They soothed each other, somehow.

The guys were annoyed with her, of course, when she came back inside and
took her seat. She could tell from their roiling intent, they wanted to pepper her with questions, the way they’d peppered Emily, but Kaitlin did not allow it.

When Cam sat back and crossed his arms and drawled, “So…” she’d shot him a cool glance and his lips had snapped shut and that had been the end of it.

Drew was another story altogether.

He’d always been a hoverer, but now it seemed he was a hoverer on steroids. He called her that night as she made herself a bowl of soup for dinner. He wanted to come over. She told him no.

He called her at work and texted her several times the next day and then the next. After a while, she quit taking his calls. To which he responded by texting more often.

Thursday
was her day at the shelter. She was in a session with Susan and Lily when her phone buzzed, once again. She didn’t need to check it to know it was Drew.

She loved him, really she did, but if he didn’t back off, she was going to have to smack him.
It was an annoying intrusion because she was nervous about her date with Parker. If she weren’t humming with excitement and trepidation, she wouldn’t have minded. But as it was, each buzz from her phone set her teeth on edge.

“Do you need to take that?” Susan asked.

Kaitlin set it to ‘silence’ and dropped it into her purse. She hated that he was interrupting her work. “No.” She smiled and patted Susan’s hand.
While the sweet woman was getting better, there were still some nasty bruises on her cheek. She tried to cover them up with makeup, but some bruises refused to be hidden. “So tell me,” Kaitlin said, forcing her attention back where it belonged…on her clients. “How is Lily doing?”

Susan sighed and
gazed at her daughter who was playing with dolls in the corner. Dolls were helpful, Kaitlin found, in working through the pain. Lily held the boy doll up in front of the girl doll and then bashed them together making “
Kussssh Kussssh
” sounds. “She’s…okay.”

“It
will take some time.” Kaitlin nibbled on her lip. Possibly the memory would never be wiped away. “Any word?”

Susan flinched.

Kaitlin felt a thread of remorse for the question, but she needed to know.

“He wants custody.”

Kaitlin froze. She glanced at Lily, the adorable three year old, whose father had sent her to the hospital with a broken arm. Her cast was a brash reminder of his fury.

Susan shook her head. “He doesn’t want custody. He wants power. Over me. But I can’t let him have her. I can’t.” Panic rose in her voice.

“You’re safe here.” Kaitlin sent her a calming wave. “No one knows you’re here.”

“But what if
—”

“He won’t find you.” She forced a smile. “That’s what we do here. We keep women safe.”

“He has money. He has friends. He could track us…”

“Then we’ll move you. Susan. Look at me.” Kaitlin touched her face, to the side, where the
swelling wasn’t so bad. “You’re safe here. You need to focus on getting better. Let me help.”

“I…okay.”

Kaitlin stood and walked behind her and placed her hands on Susan’s slender shoulders and began to work.

She
forced all thoughts of Drew and Parker and everyone else from her mind and focused on this. On what mattered. On helping someone heal.

The pain was excruciating.

When she went home that night, she ate an entire chocolate bar. One of the big ones.

Drew called just as she was getting ready for her date with Parker. If she hadn’t been so frazzled—changing outfits six times—she wouldn’t have picked up.

“Hey, babe.” His warm voice flooded over the line. “What are you doing?”

“Oh. Hi
, Drew. I’m kind of busy.”

“Yeah. Okay. So I was thinking about going to the island this weekend. Are you going to be there?”

She juggled the phone as she tossed another dress onto the bed. Maybe this one was better? “I can’t this weekend Drew. I’m helping Emily prepare for a charity thing.”

“Ug,” he snorted. “She roped you in?”

These shoes? Or these? Kaitlin laid them out on the bed side by side and studied them. She tried to tap into Parker’s energy, to assess which he would prefer, but Drew kept chattering in her ear.

“She’
s a storm trooper when it comes to those charity things. Which one is this?”

“Teen Waystation.”

“Oh yeah. I think she mentioned that this weekend.”

“It’s important to her.” Okay. The black ones. Not too high of a heel, but not too casual.

“So…what are you doing for dinner tonight?”

“I have a date.” She winced as soon as the words left her lips.
Good gravy.
She could feel his hurt wafting toward her over the line.

Silence. And then, “A…date?”

Kaitlin sighed. “Yes, Drew. A date.”

“With
him
?”

Really, it was none of his business. Except he was her friend. And he cared. And he deserved better than to be sloughed off or lied to. “I really like him, Drew.”

“He’s a jerk!”

“He’s not.”

“Kaitlin, don’t go.”

She took a deep cleansing breath
and sent him a calming wave too. It didn’t work. The threads connecting them bristled with tension. “Drew, I really like him. He’s…different.”

“Everybody’s
different
.”

“Not like Parker.”

Drew made a sound, something like a snarl. “I’m coming over.”

“No, Drew, don’t—”

But he’d disconnected.

Kaitlin glanced at the clock and figured she had about ten minutes to get dressed and get out of the house before Drew showed up. It was probably cowardly to run like this, run and hide, but she really didn’t have the
inclination to fight with him about this.

She grabbed the dress on the top of the pile and the shoes closest at hand and got dressed. Ripping a
brush through her hair and grabbing her purse, she bolted.

Needless to say, she was early for their date. She got a table and ordered a sparkling water and waited for Parker. And waited. And waited.
All the while, trying to ignore her panic as they minutes ticked by. The time for their date came and went.

After
an hour, she ordered her dinner, to go, and took it home in a humiliating white box.

She tried to
disregard the devastation welling within her.

He’d stood her up.

Worse than that, she didn’t have his number, or anything. She had no way to contact him again.

As wonderful as it had been, as wonderful as
he
had been, it was over.

She snorted a laugh to herself as she got out of her car and headed for her
little house on Queen Anne Hill overlooking the Seattle skyline. Yeah. She hadn’t seen that coming.

Wasn’t that the way it always was? Infinite universal truths exposed to her—in the shower
—but something that really mattered to her? A mystery.

Thank God she had chocolate in the cupboard. She was going to need it tonight.

But ah. As if being stood up by Parker weren’t bad enough, Drew was lounging on her stoop. It was embarrassing to have to explain her tears to him. Painful beyond bearing to have him wrap her in his arms and hold her while she told her tale of woe.

Crushing to have to stop him when he tried to kiss her later,
and see his wounded expression.

It broke her heart.

He loved her.
Loved her
.

He was a wonderful person and a
marvelous friend, if a little too persistent.

Why couldn’t she just love Drew?

Why did life have to be so difficult?

Parker sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair in the hospital cafeteria and stared at his hands. His fingers were linked so tightly, his knuckles were white.

It had been a hell of a week.
Thank God it was Friday, though the weekend wasn’t looking any better. On top of the devastation of Adam being so sick, he’d missed his date with Kaitlin when his mentor had had another heart attack.

H
e would probably never see her again.

To make matters even worse,
work sucked balls. The case he was embroiled in was slippery, a nasty divorce, and the client was an important one.

Barstow had poked his head into Parker’s office on Monday and smiled. That in itself was horrifying. But then his boss had gone on to say, “
We’re counting on you Rieth. Counting on you to make this happen. If you can pull this off and please Tucker, that corner office is yours.”

Just like that. The office was his.

All he had to do was pull some freaking rabbit out of a hat.

Hell, he couldn’t even serve the papers.

Tucker’s wife had run off to the south of France or someplace like that. How did you serve papers on someone you couldn’t find?

Parker had Gilley on it. Gilley was one of the best P.I.s on the payroll. If anyone could find Mrs. Tucker, it would be him. But it had been over a week with absolutely no news. No records of transit, no
hits on her passport and nothing on her credit cards.

He didn’t know why it was sudden
ly
his
responsibility to find Susan Tucker, but it was.

He sighed and scrubbed his
neck, though it didn’t ease the pinging of his migraine. The headaches had come back in the last day or so. There had been a glorious release from them, but only for a short time. He tracked the reprieve to the moment he’d seen Kaitlin. Touched her. Possibly when she’d taken him in her mouth.

But
he couldn’t think about that. About her. Not here. Not now.

He hated hospitals. Always had. The smell, the squeak of the nurses’ shoes, the
whispers
. Even the fluorescent lights gave him the heebie jeebies. He glared up at them.

He should just go home. Ash had, for God’s sake. Ash and Michelle and Trish…they’d all gone. Adam’s surgery was tomorrow and they wanted to be fresh. Besides, Ash had said, there was nothing
more they could do here tonight.

But Parker didn’t see it that way. Staying here, standing vigil, felt like something.

Too bad the food sucked. He poked at his cherry pie. It bled. Some neon red, cherry-like substance. He didn’t know why he’d gotten it. Probably just to have something to poke.

He tried to pretend it wasn’t Drew.

He tried not to think of
her
.

A laugh at the register caught his attention. His heart jolted. His breath snagged. His head whipped up and
,
holy shit
, there she was.

He didn’t bother to wonder why she was here at the hospital. Or so late at night.  Or if he was, perhaps, hallucinating. When she picked up a cardboard container and nodded at the cashier and headed for the door he leapt to his feet and called her name.

Tried to call her name. It clogged in his throat.

Panicked, he ran after her—although it felt like slow motion.

Oh hell.

How horrible would it be to lose her now? When he’d found her again?

He rounded the corner to see her step on the elevator. She turned and pressed the button and the doors slid closed.

Desolation slithered through him.

And then, their eyes met. Hers widened in surprise through the ever shrinking crack.

In a moment. In
a moment, she would be gone.

But no. She thrust her hand between the doors and stopped them. She stepped out, toward him, her lips parted, her features
rumpled.

“Parker?” H
er voice was like a balm. It shivered over his skin. He shuddered.

“Kaitlin.” Thank God. He’d caught her.

She glanced around the empty hallway. “What are you doing here?”