To Protect & Serve (4 page)

“Yeah, well, I’ve had good help,” he said, and his voice faded with the words.

“Oh, you think so, huh? Well, then it’s a good thing they brought us along or this here table might have just floated right away.”

Amusement danced through his eyes. “So you’ve got a presentation Monday?”

“Ugh,” she said as the lightheartedness collapsed around her. “The Youth Leadership Conference. Don’t remind me.”

“That bad?”

“They’re wanting to do this whole speaker thing and get the all the schools in Houston in on it.”

“Sounds great,” he said, turning as he laid a casual arm over the booth back, looking much more at ease than he had since she’d first touched his arm two hours before. “What kind of speakers are they going to have?”

“Oh, you know, community leaders, business people, that kind of thing. We’re really at the very beginning stages of planning it. It’s not supposed to be until the fall, but they want to get going on it now. I’m supposed to have suggestions for speaker names for the meeting on Monday, but at the rate I’m going—I’ll be lucky to have them by the time the conference starts.”

“The speakers?”

“Yeah, a long list of Houston’s most influential business people—the real top dogs, you know. It’s just that I’ve got this dumb Kamden Foods account to worry about because Kurt and Joel can’t put a progress report together to save their lives, and we really need to be working on the new campaign for Zebra Carpets—once everyone sees the zebra, that one’s kind of pointless.” She laughed at her own joke although he didn’t seem to catch it.

“Man, you must be going in circles.”

“That’s what it feels like.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “And then I’ve got Haley’s wedding next weekend, so we’ve got final fittings this week, and she wants me to go shopping with her for her honeymoon stuff, and then the rehearsal and setting up, and I don’t really know when I’m going to find time to do all of this.” Like she ran into a solid brick wall, she stopped and surveyed him seriously. “You don’t know of a way to get more than 24 hours into a day, do you?”

“At the rate you’re going, you may need like 75.”

The laugh that came from her soul felt very good. “You’ve got a point.”

Movement at the front of the table pulled their gazes over to where Dustin and Eve stood arm-in-arm. “Hey, man, I think we’re going to call it a night,” Dustin said, and Jeff jerked his arm off the back of the booth.

“So soon?”

“Yeah, we’ve got to get our stuff boxed up tomorrow. The moving van’s going to be there bright and early Monday morning.”

“Oh. You needing some help?” Jeff asked
as if he might need to go right then to start boxing things up.

Dustin grinned. “Hey, I never turn down a good offer of help.”

“What time?”

“Ten… eleven?” Dustin looked at Lisa. “Whatever time you can get there.”

“Let’s say eleven,” Jeff said, and Dustin nodded as he extended his hand, and the two of them knocked fists together. “See ya then.”

“Take care.” Dustin stepped away from the table and then turned back. “It was nice to meet you, Lisa.”

“Yeah,” she said as embarrassment crowded on her. “You too.”

“Night,” Dustin said with a final wave.

When they were gone, Lisa looked at her watch. “Two o’clock.” She shook her head. “Good. Now they have to go home.”

Jeff nodded as he laid his forearms on the table watching his thumbs bounce back and forth across each other. “So you might get some sleep tonight after all.”

At that moment the three girls and Ramsey approached the table, and Jeff and Lisa looked up and straightened.

“Come on, Lis. We’re going over to Shane’s,” Haley said
, never really breaking rhythm. “You ready?”

“Shane’s? Who’s Shane?” Lisa asked
as confusion tinged the anger.

“Who’s Shane,” Haley mocked. “Shane’s—the bar, dummy.”

“Bar?” Lisa asked in outright dismay. “But…”

“Ramsey says it’s excellent,” Bryn said, looking up at him in awe.

“But I’m not…” Lisa looked at her watch. “I really need to get home.”

The set of Haley’s hands on her hips said that Lisa was once again ruining her good time. “So what? You just want to bust up the whole party then? Come on, Lis. It’s not that late.”

“I could take her,” Jeff said from Lisa’s side, and Haley shifted her attention to him in the same second that Lisa turned her gaze to him. He shrugged as he looked at her. “I could take you. No big deal.”

“Cool,” Haley said, accepting for Lisa without so much as consulting her, and instantly Lisa turned and nailed Haley with a would-you-shut-up gaze. Haley returned the look with one that said, what? I want to go.

Lisa turned back to Jeff. “I’d hate to put you out.”

“It’s not putting me out. I was headed home anyway.”

“Great so it’s settled then,” Haley said, smiling.

“Great,” Lisa breathed, wondering when she had stumbled into this nightmare.

At the club door Jeff grabbed his jacket and half-followed, half-led Lisa outside. She was as stunning standing up as she was sitting right next to him. With her in that business suit, the slim curve of her waist, and the heels, his already scrambling brain waves were having a hard time keeping up with anything other than her. It felt like walking next to a runway model. As they exited, he swung his denim and brown suede jacket on, sensing how underdressed he looked next to her.

“So, where’s your car?” he asked, hoping his voice would hold out long enough to get the sentence out.

“At the office,” she said, and he noticed the protective fold of her arms across her chest.

“On Travis?”

She looked over at him, and surprise ran through her eyes. “Yeah.”

In slow lockstep they walked to his car, the product of a hundred million hours spent under a hood and on a hard concrete floor—a 1971 black-on-blue Pontiac GTO Convertible.

“Nice,” she breathed, running a hand over the shiny paint job when he led her to the passenger side.

“You think so?” he asked, surprised she had even noticed, and even more surprised she didn’t turn up her nose at the thought of riding in anything other than the very newest model. He watched her fold herself onto the off-gray seat, not wholly sure if he should take her hand to help her in or if that was just something he’d seen in some old movie. It wasn’t like he’d had much practice at this, and suddenly he really wished he had. Careful to make sure that she was securely in, he waited one more second and then slammed the door. When he slipped behind the steering wheel, she was still marveling.

“This is unbelievable. Did you do this yourself?” she asked in awe.

“Me and my dad,” he said, not really sure if it was her reaction or the pride he had felt when they had finally finished the project that was filling his chest.

Her smile lit the night around him. “So, is this like a hobby then?”

He started the car as his heart raced ahead of him. Somehow even sitting next to her in the noisy bar hadn’t been this intimidating. “I don’t really have the funds for it to be an on-going hobby if that’s what you mean.”

“But if you did?”

“I love cars.” He glanced over at her and then thought better of that move. “Ever since I was like 12. My dad and I would go to all the car shows. Classics, muscle cars, concept cars. It was just a trip to see anything with a motor.”

The lights winked across the windshield as they drove down the neon-lit street.

“So why this one?” she asked.

“Well, for one thing it wasn’t in perfect condition, so we got it pretty cheap. It really needed a lot of work, but that was cool too because we got to go all around, searching for ones like it to trade out parts. That was half the fun.”

“And what was the other half?”

He laughed. “Driving it once it was finished.”

She glanced down at the gearshift and wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know. I’m more of an automatic girl myself.”

“It’s not so bad.” Expertly he shifted down. “Once you get used to it anyway.”

She looked up at the ceiling. “So does the top really go back?”

“Yep, it really does although I don’t do that much anymore. I just about ruined it a few years back. I was at school and left it down. About halfway thought a statistics test, it started pouring rain. After that I left it up—just in case.”

Her hand glided across the door handle. “Smart.”

For an instant when he looked over at her, he wished they could simply drive forever. That would be so much easier than finding the words to get enough information so he could see her again. The question of her phone number slipped into his mind as his hand shifted the gears, but he didn’t have a paper or a pen—more than that he didn’t have the words to ask. “Okay, I guess you’re going to have to give me a little better coordinates than just Travis Street.”

“Oh, sorry,” she said as her gaze snapped from the car to the street. “Yeah, turn right up here at the light.” The shimmer of her red fingernail sparkled in the flash of the streetlight over the windshield. “It’s the third building on the right. There’s a parking garage next to it.”

“Okay.” He downshifted again and then spun the wheel to guide them into the darkened parking area.

“I’m on the third level.” She settled back into the seat, and when he glanced over at her, he liked how comfortable she looked. At that moment, her gaze chanced across to his, and his heart thudded to a stop. If only there were words...

“Third level, right?” he asked softly.

“Right.” Her gaze jumped from his to her window, and reluctantly he turned the car up the second ramp and into the third level. “It’s over there—the white Cavalier.”

It wasn’t hard to spot, there were only a few vehicles left on the whole level. Deftly he spun into a space two over from where her car sat overlooking the street below. Once parked, his brain scrambled for what to do next. The previous minutes had all been so easy, but now what to do or what to say evaporated from around him. Something told him to shut the car off because its noise was reverberating across the concrete. However, the second the car died, the silence around them echoed far louder.

“Well,” he said without looking at her, “this is it.”

“I guess so,” she said, but she didn’t move to get out of the car.

Suddenly his brain said,
You idiot, she’s waiting for you to open her door.
Not nearly as smoothly as he would’ve liked, he got out and ran around the back to her side where he reached for the handle. One click and she smiled up at him as she slipped out and waited for him to close the door. His senses didn’t miss the red fingernail and the slim finger attached to it as together they pushed the edge of her hair behind her ear. She smiled at him again, but nervous now.

“Well, thanks.”

“No problem.” Lest he do what his body was screaming at him to do and reach out and touch her, he jammed his hands into his jacket pockets. After a moment she looked over at her car and then turned for it, and although it was only a ten-step walk, he followed her—trying to find some way to make this moment last longer than any one had ever lasted before. “Thanks for helping me hold the table down.”

At the door of her car, she turned and her smile held no
longer held apprehension. “Thanks for keeping me sane.”

“My pleasure.”

The muted noise of the cars on the street below was the only sound as they stood there neither really looking at the other. Finally she wound her hair around her ear again as it had somehow become dislodged in the adventure of getting from his car to hers. “I’d better be getting home.” One hand produced her keys from some undisclosed place under her suit jacket. She turned, unlocked the door, pulled it open, and then she turned back to him for one more glance. “Take care, okay? And good luck.”

With that she slipped into the car as he held the door.
Say something!
his brain screamed. “’Night.”
Not that!
He couldn’t even get a real smile on his face as he shut her door. Helpless to get what should have been so easy to say said, he stood there and watched as she started the car. One small step at a time, he backed away and then with one little wave she backed out and drove away. At that moment every mistake he’d ever made paled in comparison to that one.

The air jammed into the top of Lisa’s throat as she guided the little car to the other end of the parking garage to the down ramp.
Don’t look back. Just don’t look back.
But her heart wanted one more glimpse, and defiantly it swung her gaze up to the mirror. In it, he still stood there in that jacket that made her skin burn like flames as he watched her drive away.

Go back!
her heart begged.
Please! We’ll never find him again!

With a force that felt like it was ripping her soul in half, she refocused her gaze from the mirror to the concrete in front of her. Guys were all the same. It was the way they were wired—nice looking on the outside and total jerks on the inside. Sure, he hadn’t tried to maul her like most of them did, but that was only a matter of time, and if she had the resolve to simply drive away, the amount of time he had to disappoint her would vanish just like he would from her mirror.