Irresistible (13 page)

R
EID GLANCED
at the résumé in front of him. Sandy Larson, age thirty-five. She had a bunch of initials after her name, which he assumed was a good thing for a nurse.

So far he’d had three interviews with women who were qualified, but didn’t come close to having personalities that could stand up to Gloria. He was already bored with the process, so he was thinking he’d just hire them and call it a day.

Someone knocked on his office door promptly at ten-thirty. He glanced up and saw a tall, large-breasted blonde with big green eyes and a smile that could light up Chicago.

“It really is you,” she said with a laugh. “When I got the information from the service and they said Reid Buchanan, I’d hoped, of course, but I never dreamed I’d actually get a chance to meet you.”

She strolled into his office, her hips swaying in obvious invitation. “I’m Sandy and I’m a huge fan.”

He stood and walked around his large desk. “Really. Follow the game?”

“Less now that you’re not playing.” She held out her hand. “This is a real thrill for me.”

He took her fingers in his and held them longer than he should have. When the welcome in her eyes didn’t fade, he knew he was in.

“So you’re a nurse,” he said, leading her to the sofa in the corner.

“Uh-huh. About twelve years now. I did ten in a hospital and then I went into private duty nursing. I get to meet the most interesting people…like you.”

He sat down next to her on the leather and angled toward her. “My grandmother is a very demanding woman.”

“That’s okay. I’ve had crabby patients before. Mostly they’re mad about something. I’ve found if I can figure out what, I can deal with them.”

“Intuitive and smart. You’re quite a package.”

She smiled. “Do all the women fall for your lines?”

“Yes. Are you going to be an exception?”

“Now why would I want to do a stupid thing like that?”

Z
OE WAS AS EXCITED
as if it were Christmas morning. She’d climbed into Elissa’s bed shortly after five in the morning and demanded to know how long until they left.

While Elissa wrestled with a lot of unresolved feelings and questions, her daughter felt only the thrill of suddenly discovered grandparents. Now there was more family, potentially more people to play with and go out with and visit with. So many of her videos and DVDs involved extended families, and now Zoe could be a part of all that. Elissa understood her excitement and tried to respect it, but somehow she couldn’t shake the tightness she felt in her chest.

Of course it was hard to know how much of that was about her parents and how much of it was about what had happened with Walker. While she couldn’t regret the pleasure he’d given her, the circumstances were a little confusing. He’d been aroused, and she didn’t think he was involved with anyone. So why had he walked away like that when she’d made it clear she was interested in making things mutual? Were his reasons about her? Should she start getting a complex or checking out her butt in a mirror?

Considering the ice cream she’d downed after he’d left, the latter wasn’t a very good idea. And in an effort to be rational she had to admit his reasons might not be about her at all.

She paused in the act of stroking on mascara. “I need a vacation.” She shook her head, finished applying her makeup, then walked into her bedroom to get dressed.

Zoe had been ready since six-fifteen and she hadn’t gotten that way quietly, which meant Elissa had been up way too early after a fairly late night. Not that she’d slept. One would think that much pleasure would be mind-numbing, but not in her case. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what had happened.

“Mommy, hurry,” Zoe said from the doorway.

Elissa glanced at the clock. It was barely after eight. “Honey, we can’t get there until at least nine, which means we aren’t leaving until about eight-forty. Can you keep yourself busy until then?”

“Okay.”

Her daughter disappeared. Elissa debated what to wear. Jeans seemed too casual, but she didn’t want to put on a dress. Still, it seemed important to make a good second impression. Maybe khakis and a blouse.

Fifteen minutes later she’d chosen her clothes and had even used a round brush to give her hair a little curl. As she put away her blow-dryer, she realized the apartment was very quiet. Too quiet.

A quick search told her Zoe was not inside. Elissa stepped into Mrs. Ford’s kitchen, but her place was dark and still. Panic exploded as she debated what to do next, when she heard footsteps overhead. Not unusual, except that this time there were two sets.

As it was unlikely that Walker had left her living room and gone out to find someone to share his bed, she had a good idea who his visitor was.

Seconds later a smiling Zoe opened Walker’s door. “I told him about my new grandma and grandpa and he wants to come with us. Then he can meet them and they can meet him. Isn’t that great, Mommy?”

Elissa had planned to avoid her sexy neighbor for at least ten days. She didn’t know what to say after what had happened. “Thank you” seemed weird, but not acknowledging the subtle but measurable movement of the earth seemed rude.

The object of her musings stepped behind Zoe. “She’s pretty excited about all this,” he said.

Simple, polite words. Nothing to indicate that the previous night he’d kissed her so intimately, he’d made her see stars.

“She had me up at five,” Elissa said, then held out her hand. “Sorry she came up here to wait. Come on, honey, we should go finish getting ready.”

“I asked Walker to come with us,” Zoe said, ignoring her mother’s hand. “He should come with us. Grandma and Grandpa will want to meet him, too.”

Walker watched the emotions chase across Elissa’s face. She hadn’t planned on seeing him again so quickly, not after the previous night. She was embarrassed and confused and he would guess she didn’t understand why he’d ended things the way he had.

He wondered if she would feel better if she knew how hellish his night had been and how many times he’d started down the stairs to finish what they’d started.

He hadn’t acted and he wouldn’t tell her how tempted he’d been. This way was better—this way was safest for all of them. He knew who and what he was, while all she saw was what he let her.

“Zoe, Walker doesn’t want to come meet my parents,” Elissa said. “I’m sure he has plans and even if he doesn’t, he would be a complication.”

Right. Someone she would have to explain and with everything going on with her parents right now, not a good idea.

He crouched down and smiled at Zoe. “I’ll go another time.”

“Now,” the little girl said stubbornly. “Mommy always lets me bring a friend. You’re my friend, too.”

“Zoe, no,” Elissa said flatly. “We’re going now.”

Her daughter took her hand and allowed herself to be led away. Walker told himself it was better this way. That both he and Elissa needed time.

But five minutes later she was back on his porch.

“I have a flat,” she told him, not looking him in the eye as she spoke. “I replaced the second rear tire, but I didn’t get a spare. Randy’s place won’t open for a while and I was wondering if you could give me a ride to my parents’. I don’t want to explain a cab and I don’t really want them here.”

He found it interesting that she was more willing to deal with him than have her family at her house.

“I’m happy to,” he said. “I’ll drop you off and then come get you when you’re finished.”

She raised her gaze to his. “No. If you can stand it, you might as well come in.” She sighed. “I meant that to come out more graciously than it did.”

“I understand.”

“Do you? Do you know how confusing all of this is? A month ago I didn’t know who you were. Three months ago, you weren’t even living here. I don’t know what happened last night—I mean I know, but I don’t understand why you didn’t…”

She shook her head. “Damn. I promised myself I wouldn’t get into this with you. It’s just hard. I keep going to the typical weenie female response, wanting to know if it was my fault.”

“It wasn’t,” he told her, not sure how she could ever think it was.

“I didn’t think so. But it’s not…Men don’t do that sort of thing and then leave.”

“Agreed.”

“Are you going to tell me why?”

“Mommy, I’m ready,” Zoe called from downstairs.

“Let me get my keys,” he said, more than willing to use the distraction.

Before he could turn away, she touched his arm. “You weren’t the one who…You didn’t do anything to my tire, did you?”

He wasn’t surprised by the question. In her position, he would have wondered the same thing.

“If you have to ask,” he said slowly, “then isn’t it better that things ended when they did?”

“W
ILL
G
RANDMA MAKE
cookies sometimes?” Zoe asked from the backseat of his SUV. “On TV grandmas always make cookies.”

“I’m sure she will,” Elissa told her. “My mom makes the best peanut butter cookies.”

“Yeah!”

Zoe practically danced with excitement but Walker sensed Elissa wasn’t quite so enthused. Her tension grew with each passing mile. When he turned onto her street and headed for the house she’d pointed out as theirs, he half expected her to bolt from the car.

He parked and a middle-aged couple stepped out of the beige house. Elissa released her seatbelt.

“We’re here,” she said in a bright voice thick with tension.

Walker got out and walked around to the passenger side. He opened the door for both Elissa and Zoe. Elissa grabbed his wrist and dug her nails into his skin.

“You’re staying.”

He didn’t know if she meant it as a request or a statement. Either way, he nodded.

“Hi,” Elissa said with a smile. “Mom, Dad, this is my friend Walker. He lives in my building. I had a flat this morning and he gave me a ride. And this is Zoe.”

Elissa reached for her daughter, but the five-year-old wasn’t standing next to her. Walker glanced down and was shocked to see the child hovering just behind him.

Elissa crouched down. “Honey, it’s okay. Don’t be scared.”

“It’s all right,” Elissa’s mother said, staring at the little girl with a painful mixture of hope and disappointment. “It will take her a while to get used to us.”

Elissa’s father stepped toward Walker. “I’m Kevin. This is my wife, Leslie.”

Walker shook his hand. “Good to meet you, sir.”

They were ordinary people who had lived normal lives. No doubt they had loved their daughter as much as they could and hadn’t understood why she’d run away. He wanted to tell them it wasn’t their fault. When you least expected it, life took a shit on your head. People died or stopped loving you or went away. And it wasn’t anyone’s fault.

But he knew they wouldn’t understand.

Leslie Towers crouched in front of Zoe. “Do you know who I am?” she asked.

Zoe put one hand on the back of Walker’s leg. “My grandma.”

“Then you know it’s my job to love you and spoil you, right?”

Zoe nodded without speaking.

“Do you like cinnamon rolls?” Leslie asked.

Zoe nodded again.

“I just made some. Would you like to help me put on the icing?”

Another nod.

“Good.” Leslie stood and held out her hand. Walker found himself in the unfamiliar position of encouraging Zoe to go with her grandmother.

Elissa moved close. “Thank you,” she said in a low voice. “I guess the excitement only lasted until reality set in. She’ll be okay now.”

“What about you?”

“We’ll have to see.”

A
N HOUR AND A HALF LATER
, breakfast was over and Walker found himself in Kevin’s den, ostensibly to watch a baseball game, but in truth to be grilled by Elissa’s father.

Walker wanted to tell him there was no point to this—that he wasn’t going to be in Elissa’s life very long, that he wasn’t someone she was going to settle for, but he knew the other man wouldn’t understand.

“What sort of work do you do?” Kevin asked when they were seated in matching recliners.

“I left the Marines a couple of months ago. Right now I’m working in the family business. We own a few restaurants.”

Kevin frowned. “Buchanan’s?”

“That’s one of them.”

“Impressive. Good. Elissa needs a steady sort of man in her life.”

Walker wished he were back in Afghanistan. “Elissa and I are just friends, sir. As for the type of man she needs, you’re going to find she’s a very different person than you remember. She has put together a life for herself. With time you’ll see—”

Zoe ran into the room and headed directly for him. As she scrambled up onto the seat, he put his hands under her arms to help her.

“They’re fighting,” she said, her eyes wide. “Mommy and Grandma.”

Kevin sighed. “I was afraid of this. I’d better go see what’s going on.”

Walker nodded, but his attention was on the child. Why had she run to him?

She sat on his lap as if she’d done it a thousand times before. As if he were a part of her life.

“Grandma wanted to know what Mommy was really doing with those rock bands,” Zoe said in a low voice. “Mommy got all choky and said she hadn’t done anything wrong. Grandma said something about dugs and I ran away.”

He suspected the comment had been about drugs rather than dugs, but he didn’t correct her. She was five and didn’t need to know the difference.

“Why is Grandma mad at Mommy?”

How to answer that? “They didn’t talk for a long time,” he said slowly. “When people don’t talk, they get confused.”

“So if they talk now, they’ll stop being mad?”

“It may take a little time.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know.”

She sighed, then leaned against him. “I’m never going to stop talking to Mommy.”

“Good for you.”

He spoke without thinking, intensely aware of her slight weight as she relaxed against him. Just like that—as if she were safe. As if he would never hurt her or abandon her. As if she could trust him.

D
ANI TYPED
on the computer, pulling up previous specials. She agreed with Penny’s philosophy of not repeating items on the same menu. Obviously popular specials would be offered again at The Waterfront, but she was determined to make sure there was a different mix of soup, salad and entrée specials every time.