Impulsive (7 page)

S
eth slipped into Eric's office before eight the next morning.

“Thought I'd find you here.”

Eric looked up even though he didn't have a second to spare. He'd lingered at Katie's house longer than expected the night before. Then he'd spent another hour on the Internet and in court records, trying to find out as much as he could about her.

Turned out the information was a bit more plentiful than he had hoped. His mind kept running back to the articles about her parents' crash and Katie's legal issues right after. When tragedy struck, she'd headed right down the crooked path to nowhere that so many other teens had taken. But somehow she'd pulled out of the tailspin.

Her turn from troubled twenty-something to catering assistant impressed the hell out of him, but it didn't make his life any easier. Dating a younger woman only a few years out of the tough part of her life was a gamble. Kevin would have a heart attack. So would every campaign donor.

“Where else would I be on a workday?” Eric asked.

“Good point. It's not as if you have a life or anything.” Seth dropped his file folder on top of Eric's, blocking his view and ending any possibility of doing more work. “Speaking of that, is there anything you want to tell me?”

“Not particularly.”

Seth stopped looming and sat down. “You sure?”

“Where are you on the Hobbes case?”

“I'm not talking about work, you idiot. I'm talking about where you were last night.”

Eric stayed calm as he pushed Seth's file aside. Showing panic would only feed Seth's interest. Give the guy an “in” and he would never leave the office.

“I'm working.” Eric held up his pen. “That's what we do in this building.”

“Try again.”

“How is my night relevant to anything?”

“You canceled a working dinner with me. One you'd originally insisted on, I might add.” The sarcasm in Seth's voice suggested what he thought about being ordered around. “No explanation. Just left a note on my desk and a message on my cell.”

Eric had known the abrupt change in plans would send up a red flag. His workweeks belonged to the office. Calling off an important meeting for a woman was not his style. “Did you want me to fly one of those signs behind an airplane at the beach?”

“You're hysterical today,” Seth said.

“Thanks.”

“What happened?”

“Something came up. Couldn't be helped.” Someone about five-seven with the softest brown hair he had ever touched and the hottest mouth he'd ever kissed.

Seth's gaze roamed around Eric's desk, probably searching for incriminating evidence of some sort. “See, I figured you were being your usual pathetic self and eating at your desk—”

“Are you ready to talk about the Hobbes case yet?” Eric would be happy to talk about anything else at that point.

“But you weren't here. Weren't anywhere in the building,” Seth said in a singsongy voice.

“I do have a personal life, you know.”

“No, you don't.”

Eric moved his hand to the top drawer of his desk, where he had put his surprise for Katie. It was small but significant. He wondered if she'd understand the importance when she opened it.

“And how do you know I wasn't even in the building? You breaking into my key card log now?” Eric pointed at his friend and issued a warning that was only half joking. “Think carefully before you answer because I will have your lazy ass arrested.”

“It would be good if I had access to shit like that, but no.” Seth propped his ankles up on the edge of Eric's desk. “That last part was a guess, the thing about you not being here. I didn't bother to come in and check. Figured it was easier to bug you about it this morning.”

“Move your feet before I get out my stapler.”

Seth's shoes hit the ground with a thud. “Well? Where were you?”

“You can ask fifty times—and you're halfway there, by the way—and we're still not talking about this.”

Seth's eyebrows lifted. “So, you were with a woman.”

Eric knew Seth would never leave this alone now. “Why are you in here?”

“Who is it?”

No need to lie. Seth had that look. He'd ferreted out the answer somehow and would now run with it. That's what came with knowing someone so well and for so long.

“You don't know her,” Eric said.

“So, we've established she was a she. That's a good start.”

“I'm starting to wonder why I ever considered you one of the best litigators in the office.”

“I got you to admit you had a date, didn't I?”

Eric threw his pen down against his blotter and eased back into his chair. “Is there a rule against my dating?”

“Only when you refuse to share the details with your friend Seth.” His tone grew more serious. “Look, I'm not looking for video here. I just want to know you've moved on to a cozy non-Deana relationship.”

Eric didn't know the real answer to that one. He still didn't understand what he had with Katie or why he couldn't stop going back to her. All he wanted at the moment was to preserve some nonwork time to be with her.

So, he lied. “I have.”

Seth clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “It's casual.”

Whatever the hell that meant
. “Yeah.”

“Those are the best kind.”

Eric decided it was time to steer the conversation back to something that mattered, something he did have a handle on. “The Hobbes case?”

“What's her name?”

“Amanda Hobbes.”

Seth snorted. “Not work. The woman.”

“If she starts to matter, I'll let you know.”

Seth opened his mouth and then shut it again. The lack of a reaction was unusual enough to be scarier than his questioning. “Fair enough.”

 

The box arrived by courier around three the next afternoon. First food and now gifts. Katie would have been thrilled if the timing hadn't been so piss poor. She had been avoiding Cara all day. The catering job for the brunch at the art gallery helped on that score. But now they were back in the kitchen, cleaning up. Prepping for another job tomorrow and hovering on the verge of a full-fledged yelling match.

“That's from Eric?” Cara asked.

Katie stared at the box, turned it over in her hands, too excited to open it. “Yes.”

The half-cursive, half-printed scrawl on the card said:
I'm ready for that date
.

“Just the person I wanted to talk with you about,” Cara said.

No surprise there. Katie had been dreading this fight. Having a pretty little gift made what was about to come a bit less daunting.

Katie sighed, letting Cara know there would be plenty of attitude in this battle. “Go ahead.”

“You picked him up during one of my catering jobs.” Cara threw the towel over her shoulder and moved to stand in front of Katie. “We specifically talked about this.”

They had argued about professionalism. They definitely hadn't gone into detail of the type that Cara was suggesting now. “No, we didn't.”

“You think because I didn't specifically say ‘don't use work as a way to pick up men' that we didn't have an understanding?” With her hands on her hips, Cara resembled their mother. Pretty yet stern, so protective and careful she almost squeaked.

“That isn't what happened.” Katie wasn't stretching the truth there. The reality was the story was so much more complicated than Cara imagined, more than Eric even knew.

Katie had always been the impulsive one. She rushed from thing to thing, got stuck on boys and used poor judgment. She'd wanted to get out of the house and away from the dragging feelings of loss after their parents died. She only got as far as another island, but the freedom still fueled her…and eventually threatened to taint everything.

She had toyed with drugs, using not selling, but didn't like the sensation of losing that much control. Once, she thought she'd found a decent guy, but he turned out to be all show and no substance unless lying was a form of substance. To this day she wasn't sure what that said about her judgment; she just knew it was a wake-up call. Plans for a new life started right after.

And while Katie wandered around with few responsibilities, Cara threw herself into work. She sought stability and found a false version of it in the form of a marriage that was all wrong for her. Katie often wondered what would have happened had she been at home when Bill arrived. Maybe she could have prevented Cara's heartbreak. Maybe with Katie around, Cara wouldn't have taken a chance on Bill.

“Explain how you went from serving poached opakapaka to two hundred guests to striking up a relationship with someone like Eric.”

Cara didn't say the words but Katie got the point: Her sister wanted to know how someone like Katie snagged the attention of someone so clearly above her. “He's attractive. He approached me.”

“He's not the first guy to ever glance in your direction, Katie.”

“Should I have ignored him?”

“Yes!” Cara blew out a long breath. “Though I'll admit he's not an easy man to ignore.”

Now there was an understatement. One that took some of the indignation out of Katie. Her sister deserved some sort of explanation. “We've seen each other a few times since.”

“Yeah, I figured that out.”

“Thought it was better to come clean on that point so you wouldn't get pissed off about it later.”

“If you really thought all of this was okay, why didn't you tell me?”

“Because I knew how you'd react.” There were so many other reasons but that was the obvious one.

Cara's hands slid off her hips. Her whole body went limp. “There's something else. Something you're not telling me.”

How the hell did she do that
? “All the cooking has fried your brain.”

“I can feel it. Your face changes.” Cara pointed as she spoke. “It tenses up like holding back information is physically painful for you.”

Those damn mother instincts kept biting Katie on the butt. “You're imagining things.”

“I'm not.” Cara looked as if she wanted to say something else but she let it drop. After a small shake of her head, she tried again. “So, what happens with Eric?”

“I have no idea.”

“You care for him.” She glanced at the box. “He obviously feels something for you.”

Katie sat down hard on the stool next to the butcher-block island. “I don't know what we're doing or how long it will last. I'm just trying to enjoy some time with a guy who is way out of my league.”

Cara pulled back as if she'd been slapped. Her mouth twisted. “Don't say that.”

“What, you can think it but I can't say it out loud?”

“Don't let anyone tell you you're not good enough. Not me and certainly not Eric.”

With a gentle reverence, Katie put the box on the table in front of her. “He's not Bill.”

She expected Cara to react violently to that one. To flinch or get mad or something. Instead she nodded her head. “I know.”

There would never be higher praise for Eric. With those simple words, Cara gave him her approval. Katie sensed it but she feared the gesture was misplaced. There was no need for Cara to give her consent to a relationship Katie still couldn't define.

Cara nodded in the direction of the box next to Katie's hand. “Enough with the suspense. Open it.”

When Cara smiled, Katie ripped into the thing. “Let's see.”

On top there was a small white note with an address. Under that a key.

The importance of the gift, what it was and what it meant, didn't sink in at first. Katie flipped the key over in her hand.

Cara leaned in closer. “What is it?”

Then came the fury. “That bastard!”

Cara's eyes grew huge.

“It's to his house.” Katie picked up the key and shook it in front of Cara's face.

“Is that a bad thing?”

The air had left her lungs or Katie would have started screaming. She settled for a furious grumble instead. “Do you know what that means?”

“Uh, that he wants to get more serious?”

“No. It's the exact opposite.”

Cara actually looked scared now. “Clearly I'm lost.”

“When a man gives you a key, he wants one thing.” Katie threw it against the counter with enough force to make it bounce. The jangling faded long before the red mist of madness clogging her brain.

“Company?”

“Sex.”

“Katie, I don't think—”

“He's not asking me out. He is asking me to stay in.” For sex. Quick and easy, no strong attachment.

She had no idea if she wanted more than that with him. She didn't even know if it made sense for them to be seen in public, not when someone was having Eric followed. But the idea that he didn't want to be seen with her was the problem. He wasn't giving her a choice or talking with her about it. He was steering them into dark halls and private rooms as if she was something he had to hide.

All those steps forward in her life, some small but all necessary, and here came Eric to remind her that she was easy and disposable—the two things she fought hard not to be. Well, not anymore. Her reinvented life was about family and work and trying to figure out how to pay for the education she needed to push her life in a new direction.

Cara put out her hands. “Maybe you're taking this the wrong way.”

“He wants me to be his dirty little secret. Bring me to his house now and then for service, so he's satisfied but his precious election isn't affected.” Every good thought she'd ever had about Eric gave way to a new and stronger negative one.

“That doesn't sound like him.”

“You don't know him,” Katie snapped back.

“Do you?”