toast. You think the charges’ll stick?”
“Don’t know,” Shane answered on a sigh. “Doesn’t look good for the Pride, though.”
Hailey’s mind spun as she tried to block out the conversation. Maybe there was a window in the
bathroom. If there was, she could make her grand escape unscathed after all.
“Some new faces in here,” Shane said as Hailey moved with haste toward the hall. “Those college
kids back there giving you any troub—”
Whether he’d stopped talking or she’d finally just blocked out his voice, she wasn’t sure. Either
way, she was happy to be out of there. Hailey closed and locked the single bathroom door, then
cursed when she discovered no window. Dammit, things were not going the way she’d planned, not
that they ever did.
What was he doing here so late? Lisa had said he stopped by for a quick drink after his shift—usually between six and seven P.M. Not ten o’clock at night!
Okay, so think. She could go back out, take her chances he was too wrapped up in his conversation
to notice her, or wait.
For some reason, waiting sounded a helluva lot better than facing the fire.
She paced. Sat on the closed toilet lid. Told herself she was being childish. All she had to do if he
saw her was say she’d been in town for business—which was true—engage in a little conversation
—like she’d originally planned—then hightail it out of here. Easy.
She stood and looked at her reflection in the mirror over the single sink. The makeup had done a
good job covering her bruised eye and cheek, and in the dim light of the bar, she was pretty sure no
one could tell she’d been knocked around recently. She pulled the band out of her hair so her curls
could hide a portion of her face. Not great, but better. Dropping her hands, she lifted the sleeve of
her sweater and checked the cut on the back of her arm.
The bandage Billy had slapped on in the van was bloody, but nothing fresh, which meant the bleeding had stopped. One good sign, at least. Her jaw clenched. Idiot, Bryan. Another reason she didn’t
feel guilty about what she’d done tonight.
She lowered her sweater again, rolled her shoulders and told herself to quit stalling.
She heard laughter and music, glasses clanking and the sounds of ESPN’s SportsCenter from the
bar when she stepped out into the darkened hallway. No Shane. Breathing easier, she turned and ran
smack into one very hard, very familiar chest.
“You made a wrong turn at Tallahassee, Officer Roarke.”
Heart thundering against her ribs, she looked up, thankful the hall was dark enough to camo her
bruises, and saw that sexy lopsided almost-smile of his. What would it look like at full grin?
“I…” Thump, thump, thump. In an instant she got lost in those smoldering eyes just like she’d done
three months ago. “Hi.”
“Hi, yourself.” Shane’s voice was as soft as a whisper and as dangerous as a lover’s first touch. And
he was standing so close she could feel the heat radiating off his muscular body and smell the beer
lingering on his tongue. “You are the last person I expected to see in Chicago in January. What are
you doing here?”
Oh, man. How to answer that one?
She should really step back. She had enough problems already to last a lifetime. Her arm ached, her
face hurt, and her adrenaline was suddenly back in the out-of-this-world range. But just like she’d
done in Puerto Rico at that wedding, she pushed aside the rational side of her brain that said she was
flirting with disaster where he was concerned. “I’m here for work. Not here. Um, in Lake Geneva, I
mean. But there were a few errands I needed to run in the city.”
Liar.
Had she really thought seeing him tonight was a good idea? Oh, good God. She was seriously losing it.
“Errands, like, hanging out in a dive bar all by yourself?” The sparkle in his eyes said he was baiting her and she should be careful.
And like a fool, she ignored it.
“No. That was an afterthought. Sorta.” And a bad one. Her palms grew sweaty.
“An afterthought,” he said, eyeing her carefully. He shot a thumb over his shoulder behind him.
“Shoulda been your first thought with this crowd. What kind of business does a Key West patrol officer have up here?”
“None. I mean, a patrol officer doesn’t. But I do. I’m taking a break. Leave of absence, really.”
Lovely. Now she couldn’t even form a coherent sentence. If that wasn’t a sign she needed to bail,
nothing was.
“Why?”
His sister must not have filled him in on what had happened with her family, thinking he wouldn’t
care. And why that bothered her so much at the moment was as much of a mystery as was the fact
she hadn’t cut and run already.
“My father died.”
“What? When?”
“Two weeks ago. Heart attack.”
“Oh, jeez. I’m sorry.”
She had to avert her gaze because the concern pooling in his chocolate eyes was suddenly too much
to deal with. And because even though she and her father hadn’t seen eye to eye recently, there’d
been a time, ages ago, when they’d been close. The memory of that stayed with her, and it hurt, just
a little, just beneath the breastbone, whenever she thought of never seeing him again.
“If there’s anything I can do—”
She waved a hand and pulled her gaze from his strong chest. “Thanks. No. Really, I’m fine. It
wasn’t a complete surprise. His health hadn’t been good lately. He asked me to help out with the
company about six weeks ago. I’m only staying on until a new CEO can be appointed.”
Double liar.
“So what are you doing in Lake Geneva?”
“Oh. Um. We’re midway through construction on a new resort there. Unfortunately it’s way behind
schedule. With everything surrounding my father’s funeral and such, this is the first chance I’ve had
to get up here to check things out.”
He nodded slowly, and again she had to look away because those eyes of his were just too much to
deal with. They made her think of dancing and laughing and his hands on her hips, his body pressed
up against hers, his breath fanning her cheek and all the incredible places they could have gone that
warm night in Puerto Rico if he hadn’t walked away.
Her cheeks heated at the memory, and she took a small step back to break the spell she was slipping
under. She’d fantasized about him for the last three months, but the reality was, if he’d been interested, she’d have heard from him before now. The fact she hadn’t was what she needed to remember. That and the fact the very last thing she should be thinking about right now was a guy.
“I should get going,” she said.
“What? You can’t leave yet. I just got here. Let me buy you a drink.”
A drink? With him? And those sexy smoldering eyes? Ah, no.
“I can’t,” she said quickly. “I have to drive back to Wisconsin tonight before the roads freeze much
more. And besides, I’ve reached my Cubs limit for the night. In fact, I think I’ve reached it until at
least the play-offs.”
He chuckled then, a smooth, rich sound that vibrated all the way through the floor and into her toes.
“It’s kind of a religion around here.”
“Ah, yeah. I got that. Spring training hasn’t even started.”
“Pitchers report in two weeks. Can’t get here soon enough.” He grinned then, and oh, man, yeah.
That smile at full force was too much. She had to glance toward the door to keep from staring. Before she could figure out a way to say goodbye, he touched her at the elbow. “How about coffee?”
“Oh, I—”
“Come on, don’t say no. My sister Keira gave me this espresso machine for Christmas that I haven’t
figured out how to use yet. This is the perfect excuse to break it out. My place is just around the
corner.”
His place? Oh, holy hell, no. That was a monumentally bad idea. “I shouldn’t—”
His fingers tightened on her elbow, and she looked up to see that mischievous spark in his eyes all
over again. The same one she’d seen in Key Biscayne. The same one she’d seen in Puerto Rico at
that wedding. The same one she’d dreamed of way longer than was smart, and which had driven her
here tonight when she should be safe in Lake Geneva right this minute, licking her wounds. “I don’t
bite, Hailey. And besides, even if I did, we both know you could kick my ass anytime you wanted.”
Their eyes held, and she felt her lips slowly curve at what he was obviously remembering. The
night he’d shown up in Key Biscayne to find his sister. Hailey had been there and thought he was an
intruder. She’d taken him down hard to the patio, disarmed this beefy Chicago homicide detective
and started reading him his rights before Lisa had come barreling out of the dark and announced he
wasn’t a peeping Tom, but her brother.
“I guess one cup of coffee wouldn’t hurt anything,” she heard herself say before she thought better
of it.
His grin widened. “Quick and painless. I promise.”
Her heart thumped. She seriously doubted that.
But damn if she wasn’t thinking how sweet a little pain, the likes of which only he could provide,
would go along well with some espresso.
He wasn’t sure how he’d ended up walking down a windy Chicago street in the middle of January
with Hailey Roarke, but Shane wasn’t about to go overanalyzing anything right now. Life had
thrown him a curveball when he’d stepped inside Players after work on this miserably cold day and
seen her standing there, looking as hot as she’d been in Florida. He knew it was wrong—she was
his new brother-in-law’s ex-wife, for crap’s sake—but for once in his life, he was determined to enjoy the surprise that’d dropped in his lap, no matter where it took him.
He glanced sideways at her, shivering in her puffy black jacket with the fur-trimmed hood, her curly
blonde hair tumbling down to her shoulders, and had a sudden urge to wrap his arms around her and
let her heat thaw him out.
That wicked attraction he’d felt for her from the first was very much at play right now. But whether
she felt it remained to be seen. Obviously she felt something, right? Why else would she have ended
up in his bar tonight?
“It’s just up here.” He led her up a flight of stairs and slipped the key in the lock. As he held the
door for her and she slid by him, warmth enveloped his body and the scent of lilacs drifted toward
his nose.
He closed and locked the door, flipped on the light, then slid the jacket from her shoulders. Tingles
ran over his skin where he touched her, and he had to force himself to lift his hands and not get lost
in her softness right there and then. Trying to keep his hormones in check, he tossed both coats on a
side chair. “Make yourself comfortable.”
“This is a nice place,” she said as he moved into the kitchen. “Not a typical bachelor pad.”
A small island separated the kitchen from the living room. He glanced up after he found the unopened espresso maker on the floor in the pantry, set it on the counter and took a quick sweep of the
living room to make sure it wasn’t trashed. No stray clothes on the leather couch, no soda cans on
the end tables. A folded newspaper and the most recent Sports Illustrated were the only things on
the coffee table next to his remote. “Thanks. Catrine will be thrilled you said that. She picked out
the furniture and all the decorative crap on the shelves.”
“You mean knickknacks?”
He dragged his eyes away from her and managed to get the contraption out of the box. Then eyed
the fifteen-page instruction booklet with a frown. Might as well have been in Chinese for all the
good it was going to do him right now. “Is that what they’re called? For some reason I can never remember that. Whatever they are, they were her suggestion. The only things I insisted on keeping
were my Cubs stuff.”
She chuckled, the sound so sexy it drew his attention all over again, and glanced toward artistically
framed photos that hung on the walls—the frames being Catrine’s idea as well. “Now those, for
some reason, look like your influence. Who’s Catrine? A girlfriend?”
“What? No. One of my sisters. You met her at Lisa’s wedding.”
“I did?”
“Yeah. Red hair, clipboard.” His brow wrinkled as he turned over the bag of screws in his hand.
“You couldn’t miss her.”
“I thought that was the wedding coordinator.”
Shane huffed and mumbled, “In her dreams.”
She wandered to the window, the way she moved drawing his eyes when he should be focusing on
the darn coffee-maker in front of him. “Nice view. I imagine property like this has to go for a pretty
penny.”
“It does. It was my grandmother’s place. When she died, I got it for cheap.”
Realizing she was now staring at him and that those pretty blue eyes of hers were short-circuiting
his brain, he darted a look back down at the instruction manual he had no desire to decipher. The
only thing he wanted to look at right now was her. “How do you feel about regular coffee? I think I
need a PhD in aeronautics to figure this thing out.”
Hailey laughed, the sound like sweet wine that sent his nerves humming. “Regular sounds great.
I’ve never been wild about all those designer coffees anyway.”
Neither was he.
He went about his business refilling the Mr. Coffee on the opposite counter and tried not to sneak
peeks at her across the room. She was wandering, checking out his books, the sports memorabilia
on the shelves he’d had to argue with Catrine to keep, the family picture his mother had taken just a
few weeks ago at Christmas. He thanked his lucky stars the place was clean. Mrs. Lewis was worth