Читать книгу Front Page Affair - Jennifer Morey - Страница 11

Chapter 2

Braden watched Arizona pace the emergency room in front of the uncomfortable seat he occupied, chewing her thumbnail. Still in those shorts and colorful top, she had the same effect on him as the moment he’d seen her when she’d opened Lincoln’s door. Grapefruit-sized breasts. Hooker shoes that he would not complain about. Ever. Her legs made him imagine R-rated things.

She stopped when she saw a tall, thin doctor approach wearing a white uniform and rectangular glasses.

“How is he?” Arizona asked anxiously. He got the feeling she was close to her brother.

“Fine. The surgery went well. Give him the night to rest. By morning he’ll be able to go home.”

“Thank God,” she breathed.

Braden stood while the doctor finished explaining Lincoln’s condition. He’d have a long recovery but he’d regain full use of his knee. Lucky.

When the doctor left, she slowly turned to him, weary with relief. But then a new light entered her eyes. Fresh panic.

“We have to get out of here.” She grabbed his arm.

What was her hurry? He stayed where he was.

She gave up with a breath of exasperation, dropping her hands. “Any minute now, the press is going to descend on this place like flies at a food festival.”

“Why?” What would draw the media here?

She cocked her head. “You try being one of Jackson Ivy’s kids and stay out of the news.”

Her father was a famous movie producer. Now he understood her urgency and felt a little of it himself. If he was going to search for his sister, he didn’t need the press announcing his arrival in Tortola. He also wished there was a way to leave Arizona behind. She might attract too much attention. But he had no choice. Someone had gone after her, and the police had nothing to go on. Even if they found something during the investigation of their attack, it would take too long.

He started for the exit. “I would think you’d welcome the press.”

Her pinched brow told him she didn’t understand his meaning. Everything she did was so animated. Was she aware of that?

“The press hounds my family.”

“The way you want to hound my sister. She’s had enough of that already.”

Shock rendered her speechless for a second, and he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. “No, I wouldn’t. The kind of news I’m after is different than that, but I understand you not wanting me to do any story. What you don’t understand is I can still help you.”

She wanted to help him? Would she do a story anyway? Was this a way of getting him to let her go with him? He was taking her, but not because he needed help.

Outside, he steered her toward his car. “Why would you want to help me?”

She shrugged “Because I can.”

He looked over her petite frame in her girly outfit. “How?”

Shooting him a lowered brow with eyes full of affront, she said, “However. I can help you.”

“It could be dangerous.” He took in her long, slender legs as she walked beside him. Damn, they were hot.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t be going, either. Maybe you should let the police handle it.”

“The police aren’t getting anywhere, and I can’t leave you here.”

“What?”

He stopped at the door of his charcoal-colored Subaru, turning to face her. “Trust me, I’d rather not, but someone tried to kidnap you. What if there’s another attempt? I can’t allow the chance.” And she had no idea how unbending he was on that subject. She could argue all she wanted, he wasn’t letting her out of his sight.

“My brother won’t like that.” But she looked pleased as could be with the prospect of going with him. To help...or get a story?

He’d have to watch her. Stealing a glance at her breasts in the beaded, sleeveless pink top, he realized he wouldn’t suffer much doing so. “He just wants to make sure you don’t get hurt.” Or worse.

“Yes, he is very overprotective.”

“Probably a good thing in this case. What would have happened if that man had succeeded in taking you?”

She didn’t reply, the flicker of horrible imaginings crossing her eyes as she scanned the parking lot.

The white BMW wasn’t around. He’d already looked.

At last she returned her gaze to him. “Why is someone following you?”

Why was she asking? “I have no idea.”

“What do they want from you?”

He shook his head. He didn’t know. The man in the BMW would have let him know once he’d had Arizona. After Braden had gone after him with the flashlight, he must have decided he’d have too difficult a time overpowering him, and then he’d seen him with Lincoln and Arizona. He would have used Arizona as leverage. It was disturbing. What did the man want? And how was it related to his sister?

Where had his life intersected with Tatum’s to draw him into the fray? Tatum had come to see him during her trouble with the government. She’d told him then that her movements were being tracked. Now she was missing, and he’d have to take Arizona with him to find her. She was eager enough for that, which caused him to wonder why.

“What happened to your fiancé?” He was sure that was what drove her. Lincoln had indicated as much. She had a compelling motive to involve herself in this, and it was more than getting a story.

Deep pain sobered her eyes before she caught the reaction and stubborn determination returned. “Didn’t you say our flight departure was in two hours?”

The fact that she refused to discuss her fiancé only convinced him further of her resolve. The story was an excuse, a small part of what moved her. The mystery of her fiancé intrigued him; her determination made him nervous.

Using his fob, he unlocked the doors of his Subaru. Why didn’t she want to tell him about Trevor? Was it still too painful or did she think it would give him an edge in fighting her on the story he wasn’t convinced she’d completely abandoned yet? It had seemed so important to her.

This woman had so many facets to her, and it disconcerted him that he was beginning to want to learn every single one. Intimately.

* * *

At last, it was time to board. Braden couldn’t stand the waiting anymore. Their flight had been delayed and being with Arizona in her blue cotton sundress had tested him long enough. He moved with her toward the jet bridge. Pulling out his wallet for his boarding pass, a picture fell out and fluttered to the commercially carpeted floor.

Arizona knelt to pick it up.

Seeing his ex-wife smiling in what used to be his favorite photo of her and now was merely something he’d neglected to remove and destroy, Braden snatched it from her.

“Your wife?” she asked.

Did they really have to go down this path? “Ex. The divorce was just final a few months ago.”

“Oh.” She looked at his still-open wallet and saw more pictures. “You have kids?”

He crumbled the picture of Serena and tossed it to a trash can near a thick concrete column. He made the hole. “A son. Aiden. He’s six.” That was a topic he could discuss all night.

Arizona glanced from the trash can to him. What he could only call a grimace crossed her expression.

“I don’t want any pictures of my ex in my wallet,” he explained.

The hint of a smile began to push up her mouth. “I’m the youngest of eight. Everyone but me got to hold babies growing up.”

So, it wasn’t throwing out the picture of Aiden’s mother that bothered her. “Never been exposed to children, huh?”

“They’re little aliens who poop and scream and don’t stop wiggling.”

“Most women love kids.” They moved up in the line toward the jet bridge. Wasn’t it a natural instinct for women to nurture? In the office he often saw groups of them hovering around newborns, cooing and coddling.

“I’m not most women.”

“You don’t want kids of your own some day?”

Arizona’s eyes popped in appall. “Oh, God. No.” She shuddered, her bare shoulders shaking a little.

Well, wasn’t this an interesting highlight. Arizona Ivy couldn’t stand kids. It reflected badly on her, and he welcomed the barrier. “What’s wrong with them?”

“They’re on another planet?”

Although her sarcasm was obvious, he took the message literally. He had a son. She didn’t like kids. It would never work out for them. Good to know right from the start.

“They’re just kids,” he said. “Innocent. A clean palatte ready to absorb information and grow up to be an adult...just like you.”

“Great. Introduce me when they’re adults.”

He chuckled. “What happens when you encounter them?” He’d love to see that some day.

“I find an excuse to leave the room.”

“Don’t you mean planet?” She could be a science project. What made some women gush over babies and others turn cold?

She sighed, no longer joking. “I guess I don’t relate to them.”

“They’re kids.” Nobody was supposed to relate. Not on the same level.

“They’re loud and obnoxious.”

“Kid. Not adult.”

“Right.”

Braden shook his head. She really didn’t get it. “You’re missing out on a big part of life.”

“Yeah? What’s that? Exhaustion that leads to unhappiness and lack of sex?”

“No. The moments you remember for a lifetime. The words they say and how they say them. The questions they ask. The first time they tell you they love you.”

Feeling her watch him, he realized he was smiling fondly, thinking of Aiden.

“I can live without all that.”

“Right, because you have a serious career to go after.” And sex.

He wished that thought hadn’t entered his head.

“Which is precisely why I prefer other women to do the childbearing.” She walked forward, hauling her carry-on.

Braden felt better and better about her going along. Whatever had transpired when she’d bumped into him at Lincoln’s house, it was brief and over now. He could concentrate on finding his sister and not worry about Arizona attracting him into bed. Best to avoid any chance of getting her pregnant and forcing her to become one of those childbearing women.

* * *

Sitting next to Braden in first class, Arizona was thankful for the spacious seating. His lean body was far enough away to prevent contact. Contact was dangerous with him. He may inflame her physically, but he’d failed the intellectual test. Flawed, to be sure. Son. Recently divorced. That was plenty to convince her he wasn’t her type. Especially the kid part. A shudder wracked her shoulders. And it wasn’t all from revulsion. She couldn’t stop thinking about the look on his face when he talked about Aiden.

Beside her, Braden noticed, his perceptive eyes cynical.

Opening her People magazine, she tried to pay attention to that. Braden’s presence was too strong.

She watched him remove his laptop and survey the cabin of the plane at the same time, as though expecting the driver of the BMW to pop out of nowhere. He was as vigilant as Lincoln. As fearless, too. The combination of nerd and superhero was a curious mix.

“What do you do, anyway?” Lincoln had never told her.

“I’m an engineer for Hamilton Corporation.” As though on cue, he pulled out a pair of reading glasses and opened his laptop. Arizona watched him for a bit, disconcerted over the unbelievable comparison to her fiancé. Tall, handsome and an engineer for a high-tech corporation.

She kept that to herself. “What kind of engineer?”

He turned from his laptop screen, green eyes behind the anti-reflective lenses of his glasses. Still handsome.

“Advanced technology for the military. Countermeasure equipment. That sort of thing.”

Vague reply. “Oh.” She nodded through her discomfort. “Design and development?”

“Most of it’s classified.”

Her fiancé had worked in research. Top secret clearance, just as she was sure Braden had. She struggled to minimize the coincidence.

Then something dawned on her. “Do you think it’s possible there’s a link between what you do and your sister’s disappearance?”

He turned with a lifted brow. Clearly, he doubted that.

“You do weapons designs for the military,” she explained further. “Your sister was a freight forwarder accused of shipping weapons to a prohibited country.”

“Where’s the link? She didn’t get the weapons from my company.”

“Are you sure?”

“Very. The arms her company exported weren’t ours.”

His defensive response spoke loudly of his conviction, but it seemed forced. He refused to consider his sister could have been involved in anything sinister. In this case, Arizona agreed. It didn’t seem likely that his job had anything to do with the accusations that had ruined his sister’s reputation. The coincidence was unnerving, though.

A baby cried from somewhere in the back of the plane. The whine of jet engines and airflow muffled voices and the movement of flight attendants.

“Were you curious about my job because you were fishing for a connection or did something else prompt you?” he asked.

Prompt her? What had prompted her? She registered his reading glasses.

“I could tell you were—” a nerd, she almost said “—a college graduate.”

He stared at her. “A college graduate?”

“Yeah. You know, the office type.” His big chest and arms challenged her claim. So did the amusement in his eyes, entirely too...she’d rather not allow the word into her head.

“You could tell that by looking at me?”

She took in his stubble and the green of his captivating eyes. “Well, there are some deterring factors, but yes. I could tell.”

“Deterring factors?”

Never one to shy away from confrontation, she let propriety drop. “You have this masculine look about you, and yet you wear Gucci loafers and smudged reading glasses. It’s like Louis Vuitton clashing with Aeropostale.”

“Stereotyping, are you?” He removed his glasses and wiped them with his soft shirt.

Another non-office thing to do. Who wiped their glasses on their shirt? She smiled with an exhaled laugh.

“While we’re on the subject, I agree with your brother. You don’t seem like the international reporter type.”

She was having too much fun to be insulted. “You think I’m much more suited for tabloids?”

“It’s just an observation. Sort of like the one you made about me.”

Smart-ass. “Hey, I’m not the one who wears smudged glasses.”

“No, but you write entertainment news and are the subject of entertainment news, like what you’re reading about in that magazine.” He gestured toward the People magazine in her lap. “An interesting dichotomy, don’t you think?”

“Quite.” She wasn’t sure she liked his observations. She knew a lot of the people she read about. It was sort of like social media to her.

“Why’d you get into it anyway?”

“Jackson Ivy’s daughter...?” Her levity fell flat. The fun was over.

This was getting too close to personal pains she’d rather not stir up. If she explained why she’d made her observation and where it had come from, she’d have to tell him about her fiancé.

“The media will follow you no matter what you do,” he said. “So why not do something you love?”

What did she love? She thought awhile and nothing came to her other than her undying desire to be recognized as herself rather than Jackson Ivy’s daughter. “My brother thinks I should start a nonprofit organization that takes crime victims skydiving or other high adventures. His version of entertainment that would suit me. Dad would back me.”

“I’d get in on that,” Braden said.

She took in his profile as he typed on his laptop. Would he? Which part? The organization or her dad backing it? “I want to make it on my own. You skydive?”

Pausing in his typing, he turned his face toward her. “I love anything outdoors.”

That was different from Trevor. He’d been chained to his desk and his idea of physical exercise was taking the stairs. “Wow.”

“That surprises you?”

“It’s just...”

He angled his head, green eyes curious and prowling. “You think engineers are boring?”

“No...” He definitely wasn’t boring her right now.

“You’ve banned all engineers, is that it?” His flirtatious grin muddled her senses further.

“No...I...” She struggled with what to say. Engineers reminded her of Trevor. It didn’t matter what type of engineer, or how different they were, for some reason just the association hit a raw nerve. Except with him. Right now.

She had to stop all this focus on her. “Why are you so curious? Do you want to date me or something?”

Now he was the one speechless.

“No? Too soon after your divorce?”

“I don’t want to date you.” He was a rigid wall again.

His divorce had affected him profoundly; a man who’d loved his wife only to discover she didn’t love him back. Or was it only that? She sensed something deeper at work.

“What happened? If you don’t mind me asking...”

He averted his gaze to the front of the plane. “I wasn’t what she expected.”

Did all men answer questions so vaguely or were there only a few? The injured ones. “Did she cheat on you?”

“No. It had more to do with my title, or lack thereof.”

What was wrong with engineer?

“Her parents are rich. She has a trust fund. She’ll never have to work a day in her life. When she met me, I think in her mind she was giving me a chance. And when she realized I’d never advance to executive management, she served me and left.”

He said it so simply. All that emotional baggage wrapped up in a few sentences. Discovering his wife’s lack of caring had to have been difficult on him. How could some women be so shallow? Did they have no consideration for the men they married? They thought they loved them at one point. Of course there were always exceptions, but didn’t the past they shared mean anything? To Arizona, that was like erasing a relationship as though it had never happened. What a waste. She planned to cherish every second she was alive. There was no such thing as mistakes. Everything happened for a reason. Good or bad. The mistakes were just things that happened to correct the course of life. The catalysts of fated change.

“She wasn’t what you expected, either,” she said quietly.

They shared a long look.

“Was Trevor what you expected?”

“I think he would have been.” She stared over the top of the seat in front of her, falling into what-ifs. What if they’d gone to Paris instead of the Caribbean? What if they’d stayed in the hotel room all day? What if...

“Did he die?”

Braden’s question brought her back to him. “Yes.” Odd, how it didn’t bother her to tell him this time. “He was kidnapped in St. Thomas. His captors demanded money. My father gave it to them, but...”

“Were his killers caught?”

She shook her head, angry all over again.

“Lincoln never told me.”

“We tried very hard to keep it out of the press.” Her entire family had. For her. She wouldn’t have survived Trevor’s death otherwise. “We succeeded somewhat.”

“Private family matter?”

His meaning drove straight through her. She’d experienced what too much press could do to a person during a time of grief. Could she inflict that on Braden?

“I said we succeeded somewhat,” she said.

But could she go against his wishes? If his sister turned up dead like her fiancé, would she be able to do it?

She wouldn’t have to.

The news would leak out. One way or another. She’d been approached by reporters once Trevor’s kidnapping and murder had gotten out. The same would happen to Braden. Wouldn’t he rather it be her than a stranger?

She’d convince him he would. And not by giving in to her attraction. Getting mixed up with a man on the rebound was a risk she wasn’t willing to take. Like his ex, her parents were rich. Like his ex, Arizona didn’t have to work for a living. And if that wasn’t enough, Braden was an engineer with a six-year-old son. No way.

* * *

Braden went into the bar for a drink. It was off the only restaurant in their hotel, a historic fort remodeled in the early sixties. There was little they could do until morning when they planned to go to the police, and it was too early to go to sleep. He wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway, wondering where Tatum was and whether she was all right. Was she frightened? Hurt?

Just the thought made him curl his fist. “I’m here, Tatum,” he murmured. “I’m coming to get you.” And whoever had taken her would pay.

He just hoped Arizona wouldn’t make that harder than it already would be. And not just while he was making bad people pay. More and more he thought he’d have to keep her out of his heart, too.

“You’re ruining my perception of you as an engineer.”

He twisted to see the object of his thoughts standing behind him, holding a bottle of beer. “Mine of you is still intact.”

She humphed at his witty response and sat on the barstool next to him, a grin tugging her kissable lips. “You drink?”

“Not every day. You?”

“Not every day.” Laughter lit her stunning blue eyes, clear and light. Mysterious. “Couldn’t sleep, huh?”

“It’s early.”

“You stay up late, too?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t engineers need their sleep?”

He leaned close. “Depends on what’s keeping them awake.”

She held her forefinger up. “Stop that.”

“Breaking your stereotype?”

“I’m afraid it’s already obliterated.” She didn’t seem happy about that. And then, she did.

If she was warming to him, he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. “How long has it been since your fiancé died?”

“Four years.”

Plenty of time for her heart to heal after someone she loved died. He surveyed her flawless skin, glowing a healthy tone, free of lines. Soft. “How old were you?”

“Twenty-one.”

Did anyone know what they wanted in a spouse at that age? He sure as hell hadn’t. “Young.”

“You say that as though it was too young.”

“I was twenty-one when I first got married. Divorced a year later.”

His divorce record left her silent for a while. “Does that make this your second divorce?”

“Marriage must not be for me.”

“I can see how two divorces would make you cynical.”

Bitter. Resentful. Giving up on love. Yeah. Her apparent understanding threw him off, though. “You’ve been divorced?”

“No. Everyone chooses the one they marry. And in some cases, we have to choose more than once.”

In other words, he chose badly. It wasn’t far off what he thought himself. “Thanks.”

“I don’t mean it as an insult. I don’t believe in mistakes, that’s all.”

Divorces weren’t the result of mistaken choices. Interesting take. Simple. And guilt free. He liked it.

“You married young and it didn’t work out. It wasn’t meant to. Your second marriage ended, but you have a son. Where’s the mistake in that?”

For someone who didn’t like kids, she sure had a soft spot for them. He fought the warmth swelling in him. “Is that how you feel about your fiancé’s death?”

She turned away, sipping her beer.

She didn’t believe in mistakes, yet she avoided men who reminded her of her fiancé as though she meant to prevent one.

“He never should have been killed,” she finally said.

Nobody should have to die like that. True. “But it must not have been meant to be.”

Her head whipped toward him.

“You marrying him, I mean.”

“I would have if he hadn’t been killed.”

He said nothing, just let her fill in her own blanks. It was her philosophy. There was no such thing as mistakes. Everything happened for a reason. Change happened for a reason.

Seeing how much she resisted what he’d forced her to think about, he decided he regretted making her feel that way.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” He flagged over the bartender and ordered two waters and charged their drinks to his room.

He needed a distraction. Anything to stop imagining Tatum being held against her will. If she were still alive. He couldn’t even bring himself to go there. She had to be alive. She just had to be.

All he had to do was get by until morning. What better way to do that than get a taste of the adventurer in Arizona?

* * *

Braden wouldn’t tell her where he was taking her, but Arizona suspected he was only doing this to pass time. They couldn’t talk to the police until morning. She needed this, too. Searching for Tatum brought back a lot of painful feelings. If they failed and Tatum wound up dead, she’d relive the agony of losing Trevor all over again. Success was a necessary ingredient each time she had an opportunity to help someone in need.

She walked with Braden toward the beach. When they reached it, she removed her sandals. A small group of people gathered near a building, lights from two posts shining on them. Down at the dock, a boat was ready to motor out to sea. Night diving.

She smiled big. “I haven’t done this in years.”

Braden went to the building where three people were being fitted with gear.

“How did you know there was a trip tonight?”

“I called when I got to the hotel. I thought it would take my mind off Tatum.”

Just as she’d thought. But instead he’d opted for a drink. “It’s more fun with a partner.”

Now he was the one who smiled. A sexy grin that gave her an unvarnished glimpse of his thirst for adventure. She loved it because she could so relate.

He spoke to the man in charge, who nodded and set them up along with the others. She and Braden needed all of the gear. Dressed in a warm-water wetsuit, she boarded the boat after Braden and put on her gear. Now she understood why he’d asked the bartender for water. They’d each only had one drink but hydration was important when scuba diving.

Sitting next to him on a stern bench seat, she watched the three other passengers, a trio of men in their late thirties talking excitedly and paying them no attention. Two crewmen manned the dive.

“When did you learn to night dive?” Braden asked.

“I started by going to my parents’ house in California. I swam in their indoor pool with the lights out. How did you learn?”

“In the ocean. Now it’s one of my favorite things to do.” He tipped his handsome face up to the moonlit sky. “It’s pretty dark now.” He looked back at her. “But if you dive at sunset you can see creatures getting ready for the night, some settling in, some preparing to feed. Sunrise is even better.”

She fell into the images he created. “Seeing everything wake up. The sunlight brightening the water.” She sighed. “Yes, it’s beautiful.”

She looked over at him and met his eyes, as lost as hers in the wonder. And then the wonder changed to something else. A connection, deeper than the physical chemistry they shared the first moment she saw him. A real connection. And then that fizzled when the reason they’d come here came back to her.

She shouldn’t be enjoying this so much. While Tatum either suffered or was already dead, they were living it up on an excursion. A glance at Braden made her think he felt the same.

But there was nothing they could do until morning. They needed to talk to the police first.

The boat slowed. One of the crewmen dropped anchor, and the other began instructing them on how to proceed with the dive. When it was their turn, Arizona dropped off before Braden. She turned on her headlamp and swam down, taking note of the anchor line to make the return easier. He caught up to her and they descended together, slowly. A crewman swam ahead of the group. Light from every diver’s lamp helped with navigation. Light from the moon illuminated the surface just enough.

The sea bottom came into view. Colorful fish scattered and regathered. The reef inhabitants swayed with the ocean current. Lobsters crawled along the bottom. Waving her hand, she saw phosphorescent plankton lighting up the darkness.

Arizona looked at Braden and wondered if he could see her smiling. His eyes creased as though he were, too.

Kicking her feet, she navigated along the reef, checking out the flourishing life. There were signs stuck into the ocean floor that said Do Not Touch!

She wished she had a camera.

Feeling Braden take hold of her ankles, she stopped kicking while he swam up her body and pointed.

Looking ahead, she saw a big, long shark swim by, barely visible in the sphere of light. Ghostlike. Exotic. Her heart beat faster with a flash of apprehension. But the shark passed the group of divers, probably having already fed at sunset.

Arizona rolled to swim on her back, facing Braden to convey her excitement. With his hands on her hips, eyes smiling, no words were necessary, especially when his gaze lowered to the way the straps of her vest plumped her breasts. She breathed deeper through her mouthpiece.

His green eyes glowed in their headlamps, excitement flaring to passion. She didn’t mistake that. He felt it, too.

Then a crewman poked him on the arm, jarring them both back to attention. He jabbed his thumb upward. Time to surface.

Braden released her, and she surfaced with him, finding the anchor line in the moonlit sea. When her head broke into the night air, Braden surfaced in front of her. He removed his mouth pieces and then moved his mask down and slid it around to the back of his neck. Why he’d done that gleamed in his eyes. He was impassioned enough to kiss her. She hoped he did. Removing her mask, she slid it to the back of her neck as he had done. Braden’s eyes smoldered hotter.

The others surfaced on the other side of the boat, talking excitedly about the shark. Their reason for coming to this island dropped away.

Braden reached up to hold on to a ladder. His intensity hadn’t abated since touching her underwater. Hers hadn’t, either.

Angling his head, he kissed her. Wet mouths melded. The way his strong arm held her, the way his other held them both above water, heated her already swirling senses. The exhilaration of the dive only added to her desire, spontaneity and a dash of danger with a man who had fallen under the same spell.

Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she gave everything she had into the kiss.

“All right, you two, it’s time to head to shore,” one of the crewmen said. A chorus of chuckles passed across the boat.

Braden lifted his head, green eyes shadowed and hungry. She shook herself back to the present and turned. He pushed her rear as she climbed into the boat, making her laugh.

Sitting on the bench seat, watching them approach the shore, her levity faded as the weight of what had just happened came down on her. He was recently divorced. He had a child. And he was an engineer, even though she couldn’t think of him that way anymore. She couldn’t remember if it had ever felt this way with a man before. This quickly. It had never felt scary, that was for sure. She’d always cut it off before it got to that point. This felt scary.

Sneaking a glimpse over at him, she saw him staring off to his right, not smiling. Tense. Regretting, like her.

“It was just the dive,” she said. It had served its purpose. It had taken their minds off Tatum and passed time.

But a little too well. They were here to find his sister, not have a steamy affair. His sister needed them. There was no time for anything else.