Playing Dirty (19 page)

Over an appetizer of Manila clams, Dinah’s cheese and wheat crackers, it was her turn to lean across the table. “You said you were taking off right behind me this morning. So how did you tame your morning bed head? It looked like nothing short of a whip and a chair would do the trick.”

He laughed. “Yeah, and I wasn’t about to show up at the mansion looking like that. I stuck my head beneath the kitchen faucet.”

As they started their main course, mushroom risotto for him, sautéed halibut for her, Cade said, “So tell me about the jobs you’ve been working on for your own business.”

“I arranged a house and pet sitter for one client today—that was quick and easy.” She licked a dribble of buttered clam nectar off the side of her hand. “But I have new clients who are relocating to the area and that’s more complex. The husband has a job waiting at Microsoft and he doesn’t want to have to commute across the bridge. So I set them up with a good Realtor on the east side a few weeks back. They’ve been out here twice and it looks as if they’re leaning toward a place in Kirkland. So now I’m polling my contacts in that area, which frankly aren’t nearly as extensive as
my Seattle network. But I’m trying to find my clients good doctors, dentists, lawyers, etc.

“Once they pick a house I’ll arrange a reputable mover to get their stuff here. Then I’ll stock the kitchen and buy the usual paper products to get them through until they unpack all their boxes.” She shrugged and took a sip of her wine. “Or, who knows, that might become my job, as well.” She held up her goblet. “This is an excellent Roussanne.”

Then she gave him a serious look. “Can I ask you something about your dad?”

If his eyes went the slightest bit remote, he nevertheless nodded. “All right.”

“You never really said how you found out about him not being your father.”

He blew out a quiet breath. “He was angry with me about…I don’t even remember what, since he was always mad at me. I’m sure I was mouthing off, because that was during my damned-if-I’d-continue-seeking-his-approval stage. Then out of the blue he said, in that fucking icy, superior voice he always used with me, ‘I am through taking this disrespect from a child who is not even my own.’ And told me exactly how that had come to be.”

She jerked, hurting for him, and reached out to touch his balled fingers. “Oh, my God. I can see where you’d feel blindsided.”

“And angry. God, I didn’t know what true rage was before then.”

She drew in a deep breath and quietly let it go. “Is that when you made the bet?”

“Yes.” He gave a curt tip of his chin. Ava wished she’d never started this topic. It wasn’t exactly fun-night-out date conversation.

“It was about three days earlier,” he said. “The guys had brought it up before, but I’d blown it off. And I promise you, Ava, I wasn’t thinking of that when I slept with you. But, God, I was wicked furious, so when they brought it up again I said, ‘Sure.’ I guess I thought why not kill two birds with one stone. But I didn’t know they’d ambush you in the cafeteria—”

“Cade?
Cade Gallari?
”

They looked up at a tallish man with sandy-brown hair that was beginning to thin.

“It is you!” the man exclaimed. “It’s me—Dylan Vanderkamp.”

Ava’s gut iced over and, feeling a déjà vu moment of betrayal, she stared at Cade. “If this is another bet,” she said in a low voice, “you are a dead man.”

Cursing inwardly, Cade reached across the table to grip her hand. “No. I swear to you.” Damn, could the timing
be
any worse? She’d been so sweet, so empathetic and nonaggressive for once about the bet and—

“Huh?” Dylan said, then gave her a closer perusal. “Ho-ly—
Ava Spencer?
Jesus, when did you get so hot?”

Thinking he’d kill the guy himself if Vanderkamp screwed up the progress he’d finally managed to make with her, Cade watched Ava give Dylan a level look.

Color flowed up the other man’s neck. “Uh, that didn’t come out right. What I meant to say is nice to see you, you’re lookin’ good.” Then he blew out a breath, squared his shoulders and looked her directly in the eye. “Look, I’m sorry about that crappy bet, but I swear to you I’m not the same asshole I was back in high school. And if it’s any comfort, the bad karma from my actions came back to kick my family’s ass.”

She clearly didn’t have a clue what the latter part of his comment meant, but she gave him a regal nod.

You would have thought the unamused Queen of Hearts had rescinded her “Off with his head!” decree, so palpable was the relief with which Dylan turned to Cade. “How come you escaped the karmic payback?”

“Who says I did?”

“Well, look what you’ve done! You’ve sure made a name for yourself. Jesus, Gallari, my wife and I have seen every one of your films. She doesn’t believe me when I tell her I used to know you. I wish she were here, but we live in St. Paul now—I’m just in town for a quick business trip. What are the odds we’d run into each other? But the scientist I’ve been trying to wine and dine away from Amgen to come work for the biotech my partner and I own heard about this place and wanted to come.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “Which reminds me, I better get back to my table. I’ve been head-hunting this guy for our R and D department for two solid months now. He’s about seven-eighths ready to sign but is still hesitating because of our winters. I sure as hell don’t want to lose him due to neglect.” He looked from Cade to Ava and shook his head. “So you two are together, huh?” he murmured. “Funny how things work out.”

With a shrug, he turned and walked to a table across from the bar at the back of the room.

Cade gave Ava a wry smile. “Well, he hasn’t changed. He’s just as big a motormouth as ever—and it’s still all about him. What
are
the odds?”

She tilted her head to one side. “You took that bet to sleep with me in order to keep your friends. So how is it you lost touch with Vanderkamp?”

“I know, ironic, isn’t it?” He grimaced. “At the time I thought they were the only constant in my life. But maybe a week after we graduated, Dunn’s older sister
ODed on tequila and cocaine and damn near died. They got her into rehab in a small private place in Bremerton and the rest of the family stayed at their place on the canal to be closer. A few weeks after that Dylan’s dad’s company went belly-up. They sold everything they owned and moved away. Things were tenser than ever at home so I left and just trucked around the country until college started.”

He studied her curiously. “I get you not hearing about Serena Dunn, but I’m surprised you didn’t know about Vanderkamp’s family, given the role he played in that fucking bet—and how plugged in you are in this town.”

“Mother sent me to a ‘fat’ camp in Paris right after graduation.”

He snapped upright. “She did
what?
I thought you and Jane and Poppy were going to San Francisco for a couple of weeks. Didn’t you tell me they’d been saving for that trip all year?”

“Mother thought this was more important.”

“I don’t think I like your mother much.” He wanted to ask why Poppy or Jane hadn’t told her about his friends when she’d come back. But it didn’t take a genius to figure out they probably hadn’t wanted to make her revisit the pain of that day all over again.

They went back to more general conversation, but Cade was aware of a slight reserve beneath Ava’s surface sociability. So when dinner was over and he’d taken her home, after he kissed her at her door, then lifted his head and said, “Let me come in, Av,” he held his breath, fully expecting a cool refusal. He was surprised when she instead wordlessly took his hand in both of hers, pulled him inside and shut the door.

“I thought you were gonna say no,” he admitted, reaching for the buttons on her cashmere coat.

“Don’t think I didn’t consider it.” She pinned him with solemn eyes as she stood quietly while he divested her of her outerwear. “I keep wondering if I’m giving in too easily, if I shouldn’t make you pay more—”

“Are you kidding me? I
have
paid. Every damn time I’ve seen you for the past thirteen years, I’ve paid.”

“Then I considered that,” she agreed with a minute nod and her lips curled up in a tiny smile. “Why do you think you made it past my door?”

A
VA’S I
P
HONE
chimed the next day as she started down the stairs to tell Beks she was taking off for the evening. Pulling the device from her purse, she glanced at the screen and smiled when she saw she had a text from Poppy.

Girlz Nite, it read. My place @ 7:30. Bring chocolate. Or something salty. Or both. No excuses. C U then.

“Yes!” She tossed her phone back in her purse. Girls’ night was exactly what she needed; it had been too long since she’d spent any face-to-face time with her friends—at least any that included an actual opportunity for conversation.

Of course that was her own fault. To say she was torn when it came to Cade was an understatement. Yet she must not be
that
conflicted. Not when it suddenly occurred to her that she had mostly been avoiding Jane and Poppy for fear they would reinforce her own arguments on the negative side of the pro and con ledger. The damn thing seemed to stream like a continual stock ticker in her head as it was. The last thing
she needed was opinions she might not like adding to her confusion.

Still, while her motives might be murky, the bottom line was she’d gone too long without her BFFs’ company and was ready for some quality girlfriend time.

A couple hours later found her knocking on the door of the little Craftsman bungalow Poppy and Jase had bought in Fremont a couple of months back. The reverberation of the first rap of her knuckles had barely been followed up by the second when the entry whipped open. She jerked back her fist. “Jeez! Were you standing on the other side? I damn near bopped you in the nose!”

“But you didn’t. Come in, c’min!” Poppy danced back into the narrow entryway. “You’re right on time—fifteen minutes late.”

“Whoa!” Ava ignored the dig, since it was hard to argue with the truth. “What’s got you so wired? You sell another greeting card to Shoe Box or something?”

“I wish. So, what did you bring? Chocolate or salty?”

“I’m a pro, baby.” She fumbled in her oversized bag and pulled out a charcoal-colored box tied with a gold satin ribbon. “I brought both.”

“Omigawd,
Fran’s!
Janie, Ava brought salted caramels!”

“Gray or smoked?” Jane demanded from the living room on the other side of the wall.

Poppy removed the ribbon from the box, lifted a corner and peeked inside. She shot Ava a smile.

“You
are
a pro.” Raising her voice, she answered their friend. “Both. Dark chocolate for you, milk for me, and either for Miss I’m-not-picky here.” She turned back to Ava and gave her a one-armed squeeze. “You de woo-mon! Here, you take ’em into the living room. I’ll
go put on the tea water.” Sliding the candy box’s satin ribbon beneath her hair, she fashioned the ends into a bowtied headband as she danced into the kitchen.

Ava went to join Jane, who was lounging on the de Sanges couch in front of a crackling fire. She gave her friend the once-over.

“Well, look at you, all colorful and all,” she said, admiring Jane’s pale green, long-sleeved girl-T and the emerald velvet lounging pants it was tucked into. A flowing jacket that matched the pants was tossed atop the back of the davenport.

Jane looked down at her outfit. “Isn’t it pretty? Dev bought it for me.” She grinned. “I’m starting to get downright comfortable with colorful clothes.”

“As you should be.” She dropped down on the far end of the couch. “You look really good in them.” Opening the caramel box, she offered one to Jane, then took one for herself. “So has Poppy been this manic since you’ve been here?”

“I heard that!” their friend called from the kitchen.

“Yep,” Jane agreed. “Pretty much.” She raised her voice. “She’s not saying why.”

Their friend swept into the room bearing a tray that held a teapot and three colorful mugs. “Ava, this is just perfect,” she said, coming to a halt in front of the coffee table in a swirl of red fabric. Setting the tray down, she poured the tea and handed her a cup. “Here, you get first pour. I don’t know how you do it, but you always bring exactly the right thing.” She handed a mug to Jane next, then took the last one for herself and sat in the chair facing them.

“Jase at work?” Ava asked as she took a sip of the Earl Grey and reached for another caramel.

“Yes. He’s been working a case this week that’s kept
him busy till all hours. He hopes to wrap it up tonight, but you know how that can go.” She took a bite of one of the milk chocolate and smoked salt caramels and closed her eyes as she chewed. Swallowing a moment later, she looked at Ava and Jane. “
Damn,
these are good. Anyhow, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to get us together. It’s been way too long.”

“Precisely my thought when I got your text.”

“Plus, I have something I’ve been dying to share with you.”

Jane and Ava exchanged glances, and Poppy laughed. “Yeah, I know, I suck at secrets. But I promised Jason I’d wait until we were sure.” She reached for another caramel but merely held it as she gave her friends a blinding smile. “I’m pregnant.”

“What?”
they demanded in nearly one voice.

Then all three women laughed and leapt to their feet. Jane said, “Oh my God,” at the same time Ava demanded, “We’re going to be aunties?”

“Yes!”

She screamed her enthusiasm over the idea, then demanded, “When?”

“Late October, near as I can tell.”

“You haven’t been to a doctor yet?” Jane asked.

“I have, but only to make sure the three home pregnancy tests I took weren’t messing with me. I have an appointment with her next week for the full workup, so I should know more after that. But isn’t it
cool?
”

Ava was suddenly too choked up to do anything but nod her agreement, but Janie echoed what she was thinking when she said, “The coolest!”

Poppy tipped her head to peer at Ava. “Are you crying?” she said.

“I know, it’s dumb.” She wiped some tears away.
“But this is just so fabulous—you’re gonna be a mama. God, Poppy. It makes you seem so grown-up.”

The blonde laughed. “I know! I’m so excited. But another part of me is scared spitless. Because it is mega grown-up. And so, I don’t know—responsible or something.”

Ava hugged her friend. “Aw, you’ll be a natural. Look how good you are with all your at-risk art kids.”

“Yeah,” Jane agreed. “Not to mention you’ve got Detective Sheik, whose picture is probably in the dictionary right next to Responsible.”

“Yes.” She gave them a radiant smile. “There is that. He is
so
psyched over the whole thing.”

“I bet your folks are gonna flip. Have you told them yet?”

“Tomorrow. We’re supposed to have dinner at their house—and I’m going even if Jason can’t make it, because I cannot keep this to myself one more day. But he thinks they’re really close to wrapping things up, so here’s hoping.”

“How about Murphy?” Ava asked, referring to the man who had turned Jase from the life of crime he’d been heading toward as a teen to the cop he was now.

“We’re going to invite Murph to go with us—my folks always love to see him and he’s family. It’s important to Jase to be there when we tell Murphy, though, so if he can’t leave work, we’ll tell him the next day before Jason heads back to the precinct.”

They hashed over boys versus girls and possible names for the next hour, then debated whether it was best to throw a baby shower in August or September. Finally, Poppy waved a dismissive hand.

“As much as I love that it’s been all about me tonight,” she said with a grin, “what have you been up
to, Av? Jane and I talk all the time, but you have been one elusive girl recently.”

Ava inhaled a quick breath, blew it out—and braced herself. “I’ve been working at the shoot, fitting my own work in where I can…and seeing Cade.”

Jane cocked her head. “Define seeing.”

“Hanging out. Going to dinner. Having sex.”

There was a moment of silence, then, “Told you,” Jane said to Poppy.

Blowing out a short, sharp breath, the blonde stretched over the side of her chair, then sat back up holding her purse. She pulled out her wallet and handed Jane a five-dollar bill.

“Seriously?”
Ava stared from one to the other. “You’ve been making bets on my sex life? You don’t find that a little tasteless, considering?”

“Nah,” Janie said calmly, tucking the fiver in her pants pocket. “I saw the way you looked at each other at the mansion the day I came to talk to him about the collections and on the dance floor at the Alibi Room and it just seemed like a good way to get rid of the bad bet karma.” She shot Ava a crooked smile. “Plus this is Cade we’re talking about. You’ve had strong feelings about him one way or the other since—what?—we were ten, twelve years old?”

“Now, me, I didn’t think you’d ever get past the bet,” Poppy said.

“I sometimes worry I never will, completely,” she admitted, then looked back at Jane, who was tucking her shiny brown hair behind her ears and observing her with a slight smile. “What made you think I would?” She really wanted to know, because she didn’t want to be stuck in a high school moment for the rest of her life. But remembering her knee-jerk reaction to Dylan
Vanderkamp’s sudden appearance practically on the heels of her and Cade making love, she did fear an inability to completely let that day in the cafeteria go.

Jane shrugged. “We’re not eighteen anymore. And like the rest of us, Cade seems to have grown up. Actually, he seems to have grown up pretty good.” She studied Ava’s expression. “The real question is, what made you change your mind?”

“Well, lust played a part, for sure.”

Poppy gave her a wry smile. “I take it he’s improved then?”

Just the memory of their times together had heat pooling low in her body. “And then some. But it’s not only that. It’s a number of things I’ve been discovering—about him and about myself.”

“Like?”

“Like his mindset when he took that bet.” She told them about the way he’d discovered his father wasn’t really his father and how it had made him cling more tightly to his friends. “Not that he got much comfort from that association,” she said and related what she’d found out last night. “Did you guys know about this?”

“I heard about Vanderkamp’s family,” Poppy said, “but I never heard anything about Dunn’s sister.”

“Same here,” Jane agreed. “Then again, why would we? I was the scholarship kid in that school and everyone knew Poppy’s folks were hippies and her grandmother had paid her tuition. We weren’t as plugged into that social set as you were and only heard about Vanderkamp because of the role he’d played in the bet.”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything to me about it?”

“You were gone most of that summer and by the time you got back you were doing better emotionally than you’d been when your mom shipped you off to Paris.
So we debated whether knowing would make you feel better or just bring back all the pain. It was Miss A who finally said it was probably better to let sleeping dogs lie.”

Ava braced an elbow on the arm of the couch and propped her head on her fist. “It’s funny, you know? That damn bet turned into much too large a part of my life. It’s colored my thoughts for years. Hell, it used to shape every damn minute of every damn day—and occasionally I feel as if I still allow it to do that. But then last night—”

She blew out a breath. Looked at her friends. “I was so wrapped up in my own misery that summer I never once wondered how anybody else’s life was going—especially not Cade’s crowd of idiots. I just assumed they were merrily trucking along and it was all blue skies and honey for them. But it turns out they weren’t immune to bad times either. I guess no one is.

“Vanderkamp looked me in the eye last night and apologized. When he first showed up at the table I expected him to be the same braying ass he’d been back when. But his world had fallen apart after that day as well and, like me, he’d had to put it back together again. He seems to have turned into…an okay guy.” She sat a little straighter. “And it doesn’t pain me near as much to say that as I thought it would.”

Poppy studied her for a moment. “Are you in love with Gallari, Av?”

“No!” Her heart pounded with instant panic.
God,
no! Falling in love with Cade Gallari was a fast track to heartache. “I’m not an idiot.”

“No one would ever suggest you were.” Her friend gave her a puzzled look. “But you aren’t exactly Little Miss Let’s-jump-in-the-sack. You’re pretty darn…
cautious. So if you’re diving headfirst into sex with him when you’ve done so with maybe a handful of guys, it seems reasonable to assume—”

“That I’m enjoying myself. Period. Okay, sure, maybe more than I expected. Still. Cade and me? That’s a relationship with a finite shelf life. He’s got his life in Los Angeles. Mine’s here.”

The panic receded beneath her own logic and she gave her friends a wry smile. “This is about sex—and I guess a growing friendship. But I can tell you categorically—

“Whatever we have, it isn’t about love.”

S
O, IS THIS WHAT LOVE
feels like?
Cade slumped behind the wheel of his car in front of Ava’s condo, pondering the question even as he wondered where the hell she was and when she’d be home. All he knew was what Beks had told him: that Ava had left the mansion around seven. Well, that and the fact that he was sitting here like some lovelorn chump, freezing his ass off and letting jealousy chew a hole in his gut. Because what if she was out with another guy?

He assured himself that he was just suffering a weird case of temporary possessiveness. But deep down he feared his idiocy came from having fallen face-first in love. And if this was what it felt like, it sucked.

Yet when he was with her, it just felt so…
man
.

Amazing.

Like a dog shedding water, he gave himself a shake and smacked the heel of his hand against the steering wheel. Hell, what did he know about love? It wasn’t as if his life had been overburdened with the emotion.

Not that he hadn’t come a long way in his dealings with women. Well, he’d be an idiot not to, wouldn’t
he? He’d learned the hard way of the long-term consequences that could come from a single bad move.