Dangerous Proposition (17 page)

She was probably the perfect wife, too, judging by what she had seen. Her kitchen was small, yet immaculate, much unlike her own. The countertops shined, and they were completely free of clutter. Dinner had been served promptly at six, and Julia got the feeling it was like that every night of the week.

Nicole, just five years old, had the best table manners of any child she had ever seen. The girl had laid her napkin in her lap before starting, and she’d cut her meat without any help. Not once had she had to be told to stop playing or making a mess.

But no one there was behaving more strangely than Colin. He’d had not two, but three helpings of pot roast. And before the uncomfortable period of silence began, he’d gone on for some time about how delicious it was.

There was something between the two of them. Julia had told herself that she was not going to go there, but there was something between Colin and Erica. Something deep, which brought on strange bouts of muteness every time they were together. Something that was driving her out of her mind.

They’d probably dated. Probably did a lot more than date, she thought, feeling sick to her stomach. She shoved a bite of apple pie into her mouth, cursing under her breath as she tasted how good it was.

When there was nothing left on the dessert plates but crumbs, Byron stood, indicating to all that the meal was finished. Following suit, Julia volunteered to help with the dishes. She wasn’t exactly sure who she’d be doing them with, but the thought of Colin and Erica doing them together was a more than she could stomach.

“So,” she said, picking up a green-and-white checkered dishcloth a few moments later, “you guys were all friends back in the day?”

Erica, who was even prettier with her wavy hair pinned up, looked at the dishes in her hands. She stared at them as she piled them into the sink. “That’s one way of putting it,” she muttered under her breath.

Julia fought the urge to slap her own wrist. She had a perfect opportunity here. She could dig for information and find out what Colin had really been doing after college graduation. But all she could seem to think about was the question she wanted the answer to the most.

“The guys just get together every so often and beat the crap out of each other?” She held her breath.

Erica’s tanned cheeks grew scarlet. Drawing a long breath, she said, “Colin and I met when we were young. Both at odd points in our lives. I thought I was in love with him. In reality”—her voice lowered—“I guess I was looking for someone to save me.”

Julia knew all too well about Colin’s hero complex. It didn’t surprise her in the least that he would have been eager to come to Erica’s rescue.

Erica turned on the faucet. She washed a dish then passed it to Julia. “Not many people know this about me. But when I was a teenager, my older sister was killed in a car accident. It isn’t something I ever really got over. When I was in college, it hit me harder than ever. Some of that pain eased when I met Colin. He was stronger than anyone I’d ever known. He made me feel strong, too, like I wasn’t going to break all the time. I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with him. But when I met Byron…it was different. I should have told Colin how I felt. But after everything he’d done for me, knowing how much he wanted things to work out, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. He walked in when Byron and I were—”

Julia threw a hand over her open mouth. She could hardly believe what she was hearing. Colin Westwood, a man she’d been positive didn’t know the meaning of affliction, had been betrayed by the two people he’d trusted the most. To boot, he’d walked in on them having
sex
with each other!

There were definitely times she could have been a better friend to Abigail, but she could never do to her what Byron had done to Colin. He’d completely betrayed his trust. Erica, too—perhaps it was the reason Colin was so defensive all the time. Even if it wasn’t the whole story, it had clearly played a part in making him the man he was today.

Colin wasn’t exactly her pick for man of the year, but he deserved better than what his so-called friends had dished out. A lot better.

She sat at the table. “Erica, I’m very sorry you lost your sister. I don’t have siblings, but I can’t even begin to understand the pain you must have gone through. Still, you were a teenager. I can’t imagine you were a teenager when Colin walked in on you and Byron doing the horizontal hoo-ha.”

“I was twenty-one,” Erica said, shooting Julia a glare.

“Then I’m sure you’re well aware that you were responsible for your own actions. Wherever it happened, fraternity, back seat of Byron’s four-wheeler, it doesn’t matter. God, did you even stop and think about Colin’s feelings? How much it was going to hurt him to find out that his girlfriend was fooling around with his best friend? You were young and broken, I get that. But Colin has feelings, too. They’re buried somewhere beneath that armor he wears. I know you saw them, too, earlier today when Colin realized that you were married to his best friend.”

“Mommy,” Nicole said, running into the room wearing a pair of purple pajamas. “Can I have some apple juice?”

“Of course, sweetie.”

Julia bit her lip as Erica opened the refrigerator and poured juice into a plastic cup with flowers. She placed it into her daughter’s small hands.

Julia cringed. She wasn’t trying to traumatize the woman’s children, only to make a point. Clearly she couldn’t do that with toddlers running in and out of the room.

After Nicole thanked her mother, she turned and hurried off. Erica walked around for a moment then sat at the table, taking the seat opposite Julia.

“You have no idea what I was going through,” she said, tears in her dark-brown eyes. “It was hell when I lost Samantha.
Hell.
It always will be. I was looking for comfort. Colin understood that. At least, I thought Colin understood that.”

“Did he, Erica? Did he understand it when he found you in bed with his best friend? Or is that just what you have to tell yourself so that you don’t have to feel guilty?” Julia released several short breaths. There were two sides to every story, but in this case, she could only seem to see one of them.

She had no idea where all this anger was coming from, but she wasn’t finished yet. Not by a long shot. “Do you honestly think that a person
can
understand something like that? Why someone they love would stab them in the back and walk out of their life without so much as an explanation as to where they’re going?”

A strange smile formed on Erica’s face. “You’re in love with Colin. Aren’t you?”

“In love with Colin?” Julia laughed. “Not in this lifetime.”

“Well maybe you ought to think about it, then. Because I think there’s a very good chance that Colin is in love with
you
.”

“Colin, in love with me? That’s crazy,” Julia said, wondering how the conversation could have possibly taken such a ridiculous turn, or where Erica Murdock had gotten such a whacked-out idea. Surely anyone with eyes could see that she and Colin couldn’t stand each other. They were like oil and vinegar…on a good day! “We’ve only been here a few hours,” she said. “How could you possibly think that Colin is in love with me?”

“The way he looks at you, like he’s falling prey to a dream. How he came to your rescue when you got between him and Byron on the lawn. Knowing how Colin feels toward Byron, he wouldn’t have stopped hitting him on just anyone’s account. Colin cares about you.
A lot
.”

Perhaps there was a grain of truth to that statement. But it did not mean that Colin was in love with her. Colin had stopped attacking Byron when she’d jumped in the middle of their brawl because he didn’t want her messing up his fun, because he didn’t feel like wasting three grand on a hospital bill, wasn’t that right?

While Erica got her daughter ready for bed, Colin and Byron talked in the living room, and Julia changed into the pajamas she’d been given, a floor-length nightgown and a robe. Looking at her reflection, she saw that the flannel garment draped over her body like a potato sack. She had either been given the most matronly thing that Erica owned, or else the woman had moved well beyond her slut days.

She stepped through the bedroom door, entering a small space which contained a dresser and a closet. The room was a bit larger than the ones surrounding it, but all other thoughts escaped her when she discovered Colin lying on the bed, wearing nothing but a pair of pajama pants and a grin. His chest was bare, showing off his pecs and large muscled arms. Smooth, tanned skin was complimented with the stubble of dark chest hair.

Trembling, Julia came back a step. The Murdocks had only three bedrooms. And after a fair amount of resistance, their son Jeremy had agreed to sleep on the couch. Meaning, in spite of everything she’d done to avoid it, she was about to spend the night in the same bed as Colin.

“I won’t bite,” he said, holding up two fingers in
scout’s honor
position. “I promise.”

Julia laughed. She shook her head and sat beside him, half-disappointed he didn’t attempt to “bite” her. Whatever that meant exactly.

“Did you boys kiss and make up?” she asked, taking the pillow from the left side of the bed. She gave it a badly needed fluffing.

“Byron’s agreed to let me give him a sizable loan. Not so much that he feels like he’s mooching, but enough to get his family back on its feet.”

Julia smiled. It was heartwarming the way Colin had come to the Murdocks’ rescue, especially considering what she now knew about their history. He was really sticking his neck out. She got the feeling that wasn’t something he did every day.

“Unfortunately for us,” he went on, “Byron doesn’t swing in the social circle he once did. He was, however, able to point me in the direction of a private investigator. The man’s name is Mateo Esposito, and he’s known for solving hard-to-crack cases in a short amount of time.”

“So this Esposito guy,” Julia said, feeling a glimmer of hope, “do you really think he can help us find my dad?”

Colin nodded, failing to look her in the eye. “Byron says he’s the best at what he does. He and I have had our differences, but I think he’s telling the truth on this one. You just have to be patient. I haven’t gotten you killed yet, have I?”

Julia grinned, taking the pillow from where it rested. She tossed it at his head.

Colin caught the fluffy object just before it hit. He tossed it back, causing a few locks of hair to spill across her face. Leaning on his elbows, he brushed them from her cheeks.

A hot shiver shot up Julia’s spine. There was no clever comeback that could undo the jolt of electricity Colin ignited when he touched her. Blushing, she inched back and took the pillow from her lap, placing it behind her head it. She lay on her cheek, turning toward the outside of the bed.

With her eyes shut, she breathed in and out, assuring herself that working with a private investigator was much more likely to come through for them than taking a suicide cruise to the wrong side of the tracks. Not that she believed Griffin’s offer was anything more than a trap.

But after a while, the fear she was feeling began to intensify. There was no guarantee that Byron’s detective would track down her father any faster than she and Colin. He’d been missing for half a month. He wasn’t going to be easy to find. That was, if they could find him at all.

“Colin?”

A grunt that resembled the word “what?” sounded from the opposite side of the bed.

“What if this detective can’t help us?” Julia said, panic spilling into her voice. “If the FBI can’t track my father down, what are the chances that some half-baked detective is going to be able to do it?”

A groan sounded and Colin sat up, tossing his pillow onto the bed. He rubbed his face with his hands.

“Hey,” he said as he inched beside her, clearly trying to sound less tired than he was. “I know this isn’t easy. There’s no way of knowing what the detective will be able to find, or how long your father’s search will take. But you have to have faith. Everything’s going to work out, Julia.”

It was the very same thing her dad had said the day her mom left. If she lost him, too, she really would be alone. Tears spilled down her cheeks.

“What if we don’t get to him in time? What if whoever has him has already—”

Colin wrapped his arms around her. He stroked her back, moving his palm in slow, soft circles.

Was he really behind her, holding her in bed? Shocked and too tired to consider what that meant, Julia shut her eyes. She lay back, letting Colin’s hands soothe her, allowing his strength to comfort her.

Smoothing his hand up and down her spine, he said, “I’ll never let that happen. Never, Julia. I promise you. I’m going to find your father and bring him home to you safely.”

“But what if he’s—”

“He’s going to be all right. Everything’s going to be all right. Do you trust me?”

There was a time not long ago when she would have said no. Would have said that she trusted anyone else in the universe before trusting him. But after seeing with her own eyes that Colin cared, that he was doing everything humanly possible to help rescue her dad, she couldn’t help feeling that maybe she did trust him. In his arms, she felt safe. In some ways, she felt safer than she ever had.

“Yes,” she said slowly. “I do trust you.”

She didn’t know whether he’d heard her, or whether he’d fallen asleep. But Colin didn’t say another word. Didn’t let go of her, either.

Comforted by the feel of his arms, Julia lay awake, replaying the words she’d said in her mind.
I trust you.

Whether Colin had heard her or not, she knew what she’d just done. She only wondered what her trusting him really did mean.

It was raining the following morning, and the room in which they’d spent the night was dark. Seeing raindrops on the window beside him, Colin breathed a sigh of relief. He’d been listening to the patter for the last hour, and he had hoped it would keep up. If anyone was attempting to follow them, the weather would mask their getaway.