Looking for Trouble (12 page)

Sure. I’ll see you soon.

Alex wasn’t the type to smile much, but fuck if he didn’t smile his way through a quick shower and a change of clothes. This girl was the nicest thing in his world right now, by far. The nicest thing that had been in his world for a really long time. Not only the sex, but just the way she
was
. Sweet and hot and smart and secret. The best kind of mystery.

He really did want to talk. He wanted to see her. But he had no doubt things would heat up. She liked it just as much as he did. And he’d be gone by Sunday. They both needed to get their fill before he left.

Alex pulled up to his mom’s place five minutes later and knocked hard, hoping to get this over with quickly. He heard her talking on the phone as she approached, her voice high and excited.

“Oh, Alex!” she exclaimed as she opened the door. The tiny gray kitten shot out the door and down the stairs. Apparently it belonged to his mother, as if she could take care of an animal in this clutter. “I was just talking to your brother! He was telling me about all the places you’ve been. I am so proud of you.”

“Thanks,” he said gruffly as he followed her into the kitchen. “I’m just dropping these off.”

“Oh, you’re so good to me. Do you want some coffee?” He looked around at her mess of a kitchen. It wasn’t filthy. Nothing smelled bad, but there were piles of papers and canned goods everywhere. He shook his head, then accidentally kicked something when he moved to put the manila folder full of paper samples down. The bowl he’d kicked spilled cat food everywhere.

When he bent to pick it up, he saw that tiny ants were crawling in the bowl. “Mom, there are ants all over this cat food.”

“Oh, I keep putting out traps, but they come in from the garden. But the cats don’t mind ants. Extra protein.” Cats? Multiple? That wasn’t good. Not when the place was already so cluttered.

“Jesus.” He grabbed a paper towel to clean it up, then marched the whole mess out to the garbage can. When he came back in, she was tearing open the envelope.

“Oh, these are lovely! You’re going to stay and help me choose, right?”

“No.” He washed his hands. Twice.

“Well. All right.” She only lapsed into silence for a few minutes. “So how in the world did you ever become an engineer?”

“I went to college.”

“I’m sure, but... Well, sweetheart, you weren’t exactly a good student.”

He froze to shoot her a hard look, then threw the paper towel into the trash can. “Are you kidding me?”

“You almost failed ninth grade, remember?”

“Yes,” he ground out. “I definitely remember. That was the year you pulled me out of school four times to go on cross-country wild-goose chases.
Remember?
”

“Well, we had to. Your father—”

“My father was right here in Teton County, good and dead.”

“I didn’t know that!” she cried. “So many people were telling me so many things!”

“You mean you were harvesting rumors to keep you going. Regardless, after I had to go to summer school in ninth grade, I refused to go on any more trips with you and Shane. Amazingly, I managed to get my grades up by my junior year. Who would have thought that taking a kid to school every day would result in better grades?”

“Alex,” she sighed. “You’ve always been so rigid.”

He laughed. “Sure, Mom. I’ll see you later. Enjoy your paper samples.”

“Wait a minute! I wanted to talk to you about this awful lawsuit! What am I going to do? If that evil little man—”

“Mom. I’m leaving.”

Amazingly, she didn’t follow him out the door, weeping and wailing. He stepped outside and almost tripped over the tiny cat that wound between his feet. “Hey,” he murmured. She purred against his ankle.

Alex picked her up and nearly winced at how cute she was. Her tiny meow made him shake his head. “You’re not trying to survive with that woman, are you?”

She meowed again, and her purr vibrated through his palm.

“Take it from me. You need to get out of there.”

He glanced back at the house, thinking of the dangerous piles of papers and the ants in the cat food. “Shit,” he muttered. He couldn’t leave this baby here to get hit by a car or eaten by coyotes. He tucked the kitten inside his coat and headed for his bike.

Even without the warm bundle against his chest, he felt silly riding his bike a hundred feet, but he couldn’t leave it there for his mom to see, so he drove to Sophie’s and eased his bike into the narrow space between her garage and the next house.... Just in case he was still here when the sun rose. When he knocked, she answered the door wearing a modest blue dress and a frilled pink apron.

“Are you baking cookies?” he asked.

“Cupcakes, actually. Do you want one?”

“Hell, yeah.”

She led him to the kitchen and popped a little cake in his hand. The white frosting was covered with sparkly pink sugar crystals. “Pretty.”

“Thank you.”

“The cupcake, too.”

When she smiled he realized how tired she looked. Her makeup was smudged. Her eyes slightly red. “Are you okay, Sophie?”

“I’m okay. I’m really sorry about what my brother’s done. I had no idea. Nobody did.”

“It’s got nothing to do with me.” He ate half the delicate little cake in one bite.

“But it’s your family’s money.”

“My family doesn’t really have any money. There’s the trust. And my brother’s land, I suppose.”

“That’s awful!” she gasped.

“Hopefully it’ll be settled by the insurance company if it comes to it. Though if it does put his land at risk, then I’ll get pissed and come looking for your brother.” He held up the cake. “This is really good,” he said before he popped the rest into his mouth.

“Thanks,” she murmured. “But...your father’s memory. It shouldn’t be hurt like this. It’s not fair.”

He dusted his hands off over the sink with a chuckle. “I’m not the least bit worried about my dad’s memory. Many years of effort have gone into making that man into a saint. He could use some tarnishing. Especially considering that we’re about to have a ceremony honoring his sleazy death.”

When she winced, he muttered a curse.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I’m not used to talking to someone who was involved.”

“No, it’s okay. It was sleazy, unfortunately. But there’s nothing wrong with honoring his memory.”

He wasn’t sure about that, but it was too complicated to figure out tonight. “What about your mom? Did you have a ceremony?”

She swallowed hard before she turned and busied herself with piling bowls and pans in the sink. “Not really.” Clearly, she wanted to discuss it as much as he did. Good.

“You look awfully cute in that apron,” he said, eyeing the ribbons that curled over her ass.

She flashed him a bright smile and dried her hands on a dainty towel embroidered with berries. “Thank you.”

“You look awfully cute in everything. And nothing.”

“Stop.” She giggled, her cheeks flushing with a much healthier color than she’d had a few seconds ago. A tiny meow broke the silence.

Her eyes went wide.

“Oh. Um... Listen. Can you do me a big favor?” He unzipped his jacket and pulled out the kitten.

“Oh, my God,” she gasped, immediately taking it from his hands to cuddle against her chest.

“I found her wandering outside. I can’t take her to the motel, but I didn’t want to leave her outside. I’ll check out shelters tomorrow, but if it’s not too much trouble for tonight...?”

Sophie didn’t answer. She was too busy burying her nose in the kitten’s fur. The kitten purred like an engine. “Oh, my God,” Sophie breathed. “Yes, she can stay with me. How do you know she’s a girl?”

He shrugged. “She’s pretty?”

“I don’t think that’s how it works. But we’ll settle on ‘her’ for now.”

She got a can of tuna from the cupboard and set it on the ground. The kitten quickly abandoned purring and began eating like a pro. Sophie set down a bowl of water, too. Within minutes, the kitten was curled up in a chair, asleep, her fat tummy rising and falling with each breath.

“I’ll try to take her off your hands before the weekend.”

“Sure. I’ll make up a litter box. She’ll be fine.” She wiped down the kitchen counter.

“You said you wanted to talk.”

“I did.”

“What do you want to talk about? The lawsuit?”

“God no.” She took off the apron and turned to leave the kitchen, but he snatched the apron off the counter.

“Hey, no need to leave that behind. You might need it later.”

“Oh, my God!” She laughed. “You’re naughty.”

“Oh, I’m the naughty one?” he teased, loving the way she laughed until she collapsed into the couch.

“Shut up. You’re not supposed to bring any of that up!”

“So, just do it and never mention it after?”

“Exactly. I’m shy.”

That ridiculous lie was like a stroke of fingers down his belly. She wasn’t shy, she was a coy little vixen, and he had a sudden urge to make her admit it in the most breathless way possible. “That lie is even naughtier than what we did yesterday.”

“Not even close to true. And I am shy. A little.”

He shook his head and shot her a look that let her know he wasn’t fooled. “So no talk of last night? Or the lawsuit?”

“Nope. Tell me more about Alaska. Or tell me where else you’ve been.”

“Where else? Canada, California, Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, the Netherlands—”

“The Netherlands!” she yelped. “That’s crazy! I don’t know anything about it. Tell me everything.”

It was his turn to laugh. “I don’t know all that much. Some of the food was good. Some was really...fishy.”

“Were you on the sea?”

“No, strangely, their production is mostly on land. I only work on groundwater. Ocean hydrology is a whole different thing.”

“Did you see a lot of windmills?”

“Yep. It’s a beautiful country. Flat but really green. The people are fairly reserved, but friendly as hell when you get to know them.”

“Did they speak English?”

“Most of them.”

“Wow,” she breathed.

He suddenly remembered the pictures on his phone. “Here. This was my favorite place. The biggest town where I was working was a university town. Every single building is older than anything you could see here.” He called up the picture of the ancient row homes on the main canal and handed the phone over.

“Oh.” Eyes wide, lips parted in wonder, she stared at the picture. “Oh, Alex, I can’t believe you were there. Can I...?” She gestured at the screen, and he nodded, giving her permission to scroll through.

She slid through the photos slowly, pausing over each one to study it. Her eyes sparkled. Alex glanced at each picture, but his eyes always rose to her face again. Jesus, she was cute, with her little nose and black glasses and wide-eyed fake innocence.

“Oh,” she said suddenly, and pushed the phone back at his hand. “Sorry.”

She’d gotten past his pictures of the Netherlands and stumbled over a picture of a woman perched on his bike, her tank top dipping low over tan cleavage and her sunglasses hiding her almond-shaped eyes.

“I probably should’ve asked before now,” Sophie said. “Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No. She’s my ex.”

“Ex-wife?”

“No,” he answered. But then heard himself add, “We lived together for a while.” He wasn’t sure why he said it. It hardly mattered.

“I’m sorry,” she said simply.

“It just didn’t work out. It’s been six months now. It’s fine.”

“That doesn’t seem very long.”

“Well,” he added with a sardonic smile, “I hadn’t been home for three months before that. I’m not so good at settling down.”

Sophie curled her legs under her and watched him for a moment. “I understand that.”

“Really? I wouldn’t think you’d be sympathetic. Seems like you were born to settle down.”

She winced as if he’d struck her, and Alex immediately regretted whatever he’d done to offend her. “Hey—” he started, but she spoke over him.

“I’d like to travel. I’d like to move on. But I help with my dad’s ranch, and he needs me. He’s getting older. I wouldn’t walk away from that.”

Now he was the one wincing. “Like I did, you mean.”

Sophie shrugged. “I wouldn’t judge that. I grew up with the same scandal you did. You saw your chance to escape and you took it.”

“And you didn’t.”

“I haven’t seen my chance yet.”

“You went to college, obviously.”

Her smile wasn’t natural and wide this time. It was tight. “I took most of my degree work at the University of Wyoming online. I only spent a year in Laramie. Then I commuted to Salt Lake City for two years to get my master’s, but I only had to be there six or seven days a month. My brother...” She paused for a long moment, but then just shook her head. “I don’t know. He’s always been a little lost. He was so young when she disappeared.”

Alex’s mind cruelly flashed back to those first few weeks after his dad had left. Alex had been nine, his brain more than solid enough to record every moment. “I’d think maybe that would be a blessing,” he finally said.

“I’ve thought the same thing. But I guess not.”

“How old were you?” he asked.

She smoothed a hand over her skirt, her gaze gone distant. “I was almost five. My birthday was three days later.”

“Jesus,” he said, the hair on his nape rising in horror.

“I wasn’t even that scared at first. I knew she’d be back for my birthday. She had to make a cake. She had to—” The words ended in a strange little hiccup. Sophie took a few breaths and then cleared her throat. “It feels like it was a hundred years ago, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly.

“And then sometimes it’s right there all of a sudden, with no warning. It must be easier when you’re not here.”

“It is easier. No one knows about it, so after a while it’s almost like you don’t know about it anymore either. It’s almost like it didn’t happen. You should try it sometime. Get away.”

“Run away,” she corrected, but he couldn’t tell if it was an admonition or a yearning.

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

Her gaze stayed distant for a long time, but then she shook her head and smiled. “I can’t. Maybe someday.”

Alex wasn’t sure why he felt a stab of disappointment. He’d be moving along in a few days, what she did or didn’t do with her life was none of his business. Maybe it was only that it felt like a judgment of his own life.