Some Like It Hot (17 page)

And if her time here was finite, she planned on getting as much more of that everything as she could. Right up until the day she packed her tent and moved on.

* * *

L
ATER
THAT
WEEK
Max stared at
the screen on his work computer, but for once he was too distracted to see a word of the report he’d been typing up. Vaguely, he was aware that Sheriff Neward was holed up in his office, but that was hardly news. The man spent most of his time there these days and had begun talking more and more often about retiring.

In all honesty, Max thought the department would be better off if he did. Neward was a dinosaur who had pretty much quit doing his job. Plus, he was old school all the way, opposed to anything he considered newfangled. Hell, Max and Amy had had to talk themselves hoarse to convince him to
computerize
the department. They’d been years behind the rest of the state.

The question was, did
he
want to run for Neward’s position when Neward did finally retire? He knew he’d be good at the job, but all the glad-handing it would take to get there wasn’t exactly his strong suit.

But, man. He had a million ideas for improving the efficiency of this department.

The phone rang out at the dispatch/reception desk, and he heard Amy pick it up. When she didn’t buzz his line, he tried to go back to his report.

And failed. This time his thoughts went straight to Harper. They’d gotten together twice in the past three days. And Jesus, the sex had been so damn good. When he was inside her, when he held her and felt her holding him, it made him feel...whole.

Their conversations, unfortunately, were less satisfying. Hell, who was he kidding—meaningful conversation had basically become nonexistent. He couldn’t think of one significant thing they’d discussed since the morning after his birthday.

He couldn’t kid himself any longer. Something had been niggling at him for a while now. For all that he’d gotten her to talk a little about her family that morning, he still had the sense there was more that she wasn’t saying.

For years he’d longed for a relationship that was solid—something along the lines of what his brother had with Jenny. He really wanted someone who’d feel free—no, anxious—to share the details of her life, her thoughts, with him.

He’d like to believe that’s what he was building with Harper. He was crazy about her, but her jones for keeping on the move aside—which, c’mon, all on its own hardly boded well for her remaining in town—his cop instincts were screaming that parts of her story didn’t add up.

He’d given her a lot of openings; she’d ignored them all, shying away from saying more than the little she’d already told him. Then there was her habit of disconnecting every damn time he walked in on her talking on the phone. And the girl didn’t exactly have a poker face. She was definitely up to something.

Well, either that or had someone else, and
he
was the piece on the side.

He hated that idea, and God knew, he’d tried to ignore it, because any way he looked at it, it didn’t strike him as Harper’s style. But something was sure as shit off, and he just couldn’t pretend otherwise any longer.

Which left him with only one recourse. He had to do some quiet digging.

It wasn’t like he planned to run a full-scale background check on her or anything. But he could ask a few questions of the right people and see where that got him. Because if nothing else was true, he knew this much.

He needed to know what the hell he was dealing with.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“H
EY
,
IS
THIS
a race?”

Harper, who had suddenly sprinted ahead of Tasha on their trek down the beach, stopped next to the wind-and-salt-water-bleached log she’d scoped out earlier. Setting down the Styrofoam cooler she’d borrowed from the inn, she flashed Tasha an unrepentant smile.

“Sorry. I got a little excited. But, honestly, don’t you think this is the most fabulous spot? Look, it even has an honest-to-gawd patch of sand.” She waved at the rare-for-Razor Bay fine-grained strip of beach in the protected lee of the log, then snapped open her blanket and watched it drift down atop it. Sitting down, she stretched her legs out in front of her and crossed her ankles.

“You’re right, it’s really fantastic. And this was such a great idea.” Tasha dropped her small cooler next to Harper’s and looked out over the canal at the mountains. “I’ve lived here my entire life, but lately I hardly ever seem to get out long enough to enjoy the scenery.” She toed off her Keds and plopped down on the blanket next to Harper.

“I know, right?” Resting back on her elbows, she looked at the strawberry blonde. “I was busy planning a bonfire for the guests at the inn when I suddenly thought
we
need one, as well. Sure, they’re paying guests, but why should they have all the fun? And since I haven’t been to a bonfire since I got here, or okay, since I was—” mentally, she counted back “—good God, in college—”

“Holy crap, you two have long legs!” Jenny called as she and Jake approached. “I feel like a Corgi trying to keep up with a couple of greyhounds.” She waved that aside to jump into the conversation she’d obviously overheard. “I’m not a native, but I have lived here since I was sixteen, so close enough, right?” She set her cooler with the others. “And unlike I-make-pizza-and-that’s-all-I-do Riordan, I do get out and do a few fun local-recreation kinda things.”

“Well, sure,” Tasha agreed. “You have a teenager around.”

“Yes, it definitely makes a difference.” Settling next to Tasha, she looked around the secluded spot Harper had selected away from town. Then she grinned at them. “I gotta tell you, a no-kids-allowed/not-connected-to-work picnic is just what the doctor ordered.”

“Sez you,” Jake grumbled, squatting to drop a load of firewood on the pebbled beach between the women-occupied blanket and the high-tide line. “You frail, female types aren’t the ones doing the heavy lifting for this non-work-related shindig.”

“No, we left that to you,” Harper said cheerfully. “We did the heavy thinking, recon and planning instead.”

He sent her an easy smile over his shoulder. “Good one.” Then he turned his entire body in their direction, a move that should have looked awkward to execute in a crouch yet somehow didn’t. His hands hung loose and relaxed between his spread thighs in a pose that reminded her a lot of his brother. He gazed around him, taking in the cliffs that soared above this part of the beach and the line of trees that had tumbled down their banks over the years to stretch across the shore toward the water, down a bit from the spot where they’d congregated.

“You probably heard I grew up in Razor Bay but got the hell out of town the minute I could,” he said. “I can’t say I recall this exact spot, but it’s a good one.”

He brought a finger up to scratch at his temple. “I’m surprised I don’t recognize it—I thought I knew all the good make-out spots.” He wiggled his eyebrows at Jenny. “And that’s a good-sized rock over there,” he said, indicating a huge boulder jutting up out of the pebble and shell beach. “Bet we’d have all kinds of privacy to get busy in on the other side of that baby.”

She rolled her eyes but gave him a slow, sexy, get-back-to-me-later-on-that curl of her lips.

“Don’t mind me.” Heaving a big sigh, Tasha let her head droop theatrically on the long stalk of her neck. “The fifth wheel will just sit here poking at the fire and eating too many s’mores while you couples disappear into the bushes and behind rocks to have all the fun.”

Jake opened his mouth, but she raised her head enough to give him a look. “Trust me, sport. You don’t even wanna go there.”

Harper spotted Max striding down the beach toward them, balancing a sizable bundle of wood on each shoulder, and it was as if someone hit the mute button on her friends’ conversation. Suddenly the only sound she heard was her heart beating like a bongo.
Holy Mary, mother of—

Since Max’s birthday they’d gotten together several more times, and she kept expecting the newness, the edgy excitement he made her feel, to wear off. Or at least to dim a little. Instead, she kept getting sucked in deeper, into that rampant sexuality, into his
life.

And this despite her best efforts to hold him at arm’s length from her own. She’d love to be insouciant about the affair they seemed to be having, to simply enjoy it while it lasted. At the same time, it didn’t seem quite right to be so intimate on a sexual level when she refused to say anything the least bit intimate on a personal one for fear she’d give away who she really was and why she was here in the first place.

She was tired of having secrets and truly wanted to share all of herself with him. And not just with Max, but with Tasha and Jenny and Jake, who’d befriended her, as well. Then there was everyone at Cedar Village. This had gotten way out of control. She was giving her mother one final call, and if she didn’t promptly come through, she’d inform Mary-Margaret herself that the grant had been approved.

Then she’d get busy explaining herself to everyone. But until then she really ought to at least take a big step back from the sexual relationship with Max.

She swallowed a snort. Right. She’d
initiated
a great deal of it. And every time she made a genuine attempt to stay away from him, he simply slid like smoke past all her barriers. She’d had a lot of opportunities to hold herself aloof. Yet Max seemed to be carving out a place for himself in her life—and might even have been carving a more long-lasting place in her heart.

At least for however long she remained in Razor Bay.

The thought made her very nervous. Because if anyone was settled in his life, it was Max. And she was so not.

She had to tell him the truth. To hell with her mother!

“Well, lookie here,” Jake said drily as the man in question strode up and crouched to unload his wood next to Jake’s. “If it isn’t the overachiever.”

Max snorted. “Says the guy who went to Columbia University while I went into the Marines to keep from ending up an angry, bitter loser.”

“Aw.” Jake grinned. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better about only bringing one load of wood.”

“Well...
yeah.
” He turned to Harper. Flexed an impressive bicep, turning his fist forward and back to make it jump. “So, we manly men did all the heavy lifting—”

“You don’t wanna go there, bro,” Jake warned. “She’s got a real good comeback for that.”

Max dropped his hand to his side. “Tried it already, huh?”

“Yeah, and trust me, it didn’t fly.”

“Okay.” Max’s dark-eyed gaze made a leisurely trip up and down Harper’s body.

It took all she had not to wriggle in place. She raised her eyebrows and hoped to heaven that she came across coolly amused and not like a toddler in need of a bathroom.

Or a woman thinking about her next orgasm.

The genuinely amused look he returned made her fear she’d fallen short of her goal. But all he said was, “What’s for dinner?”

“I picked up some fried chicken and potato salad from the Sunset café.”

“I brought a marinated veggie salad, s’more fixins and wine,” Tasha said.

“And I’ve got corn on the cob,” Jenny added. “Which I pre-buttered and salt-and-peppered and wrapped in foil. All you need to do is toss it on this little rack that I leave up to you big, strong men to figure out how to put over the fire. I’ve also got grapes and some sliced watermelon and tossed in a couple of beers for you and Jake.” She slid him a sly smile. “He tells me you’re a new fan of Ridgetop Red.”

“That I am.” Max wasn’t the least embarrassed to admit as much. Hell, prove him wrong, and he didn’t mind owning up to it. But neither did he see a reason to beat the subject into the ground, so having done the owning, he moved on. “That’s some great menu.” He patted the back of his hand to his chin. Gave the women a little smile. “Am I drooling?”

“And if you were, how would that be different from any other day?” demanded Jake, who had come over to help him scrounge for the bigger beach rocks to form a fire pit.

“Hey!” Max used a couple of stiffened fingers to punch his brother in the sternum, and the next thing he knew Jake had him in a headlock. They wrestled on the ground for a moment, and it was like a blast from the past.

With one big difference. This time they weren’t genuinely attempting to beat the shit out of each other.

Jenny came to stand over them, legs akimbo and her small fists propped on her hips. “If you boys are quite finished getting your clothes all gritty, we need a fire built,” she said, then handed them each a beer when they promptly rolled apart, grinned at each other and started slapping sand, bits of shell and small pebbles from their jeans and T-shirts.

Jake’s clothes, of course, were ten times classier than his, and Max indicated them with a jerk of his chin. “Who the hell wears a silk T-shirt to a beach party?”

“Hel-lo!” Jenny said. “Have you
met
your brother? He thinks silk T-shirts are appropriate for all occasions.”

“Damn straight,” Jake agreed. But in a patent bid to change the subject, he said to her, “So, have you told your posse our news?”

That got their attention. “What news?” Tasha demanded and was echoed by Harper.

“We’re getting married,” Jenny said.

Tasha blew a raspberry. “That’s not news. He gave you a ring almost three months ago.”

“We’re getting married January seventeenth.”

“You picked a
date?
” Tasha demanded, and the women did that female thing of squealing their enthusiasm. “When did you decide this?”

“It doesn’t give you a lot of time,” Harper added.

“Are you kidding me?” Max demanded. “That’s almost four months from now.”

They turned identical why-are-you-talking-moron looks on him, and he put his hands up in self-defense. “What?”

“Churches and reception halls tend to be booked a full year in advance when it comes to weddings,” Tash explained kindly—if a bit as though she were speaking to a four-year-old. “And bakeries like notice for the wedding cake months in advance.”

“That’s fuckin’ nuts.”

She laughed. “That’s the wedding industry, baby.”

“We circumvented a lot of the problems by deciding to keep the wedding small and hold it at the Pierces’ place.”

Harper blinked. “Who are the Pierces?”

“Austin’s grandparents and my former in-laws,” Jake said. “They died last year within six months of each other, and after Emmett passed Austin moved in with Jenny.”

“I lived with them from the time Austin was about four,” Jenny said. “He’s my little brother in every way but blood.”

“And she’s taken real good care of him.” Jake turned a look full of love on his fiancée.

“Wait,” Harper said. “I think I know the house you’re talking about. That beautiful sage-and-cream Craftsman up on the bluff?”

Jake nodded. “It’s been empty since Emmett’s death, but we’ve decided to move back into it after the wedding.”

“Austin is so thrilled the three of us will finally be living together,” Jenny said. “The house is legally his, but I don’t think that part’s even registered.”

“He’s not the only one who can hardly wait to have us all together,” Jake said drily, wrapping an arm around the petite brunette. “I’m tired of the living-in-two-houses thing myself.”

“Not to burst your bubble,” Tasha said. “But you do realize that most of the town will expect to be invited to your wedding, right?”

“That’s why we’re having a big reception at the inn. As long as we throw a big enough party, I doubt anyone will feel the pinch of not attending the wedding.”

“Will you be able to accommodate everyone?” Harper asked. “Or did I totally miss the fact that you have a banquet room?”

“We don’t,” Jenny replied cheerfully. “But we x-ed out that weekend on the inn calendar, and we plan on using the entire first floor. We haven’t figured out exactly how yet, but we’ll make it work.” She turned to Tasha. “You’ll be my maid of honor, of course.”

“But of course,” Tasha said regally. Then her entire face lit up, and she hauled Jenny in for a fierce, quick hug. “This is sooo wonderful!” She turned the little brunette loose. “And we
are
going to get me a kick-ass dress, not one of those frou-frou monstrosities.”

“Yes, we are.” Jenny turned to Harper. “I want you to be my bridesmaid.”

“Oh.” Harper’s expression radiated delight. In the next instant, however, the pleasure dimmed. “But I’ll be gone by then.”

A shard of pain cut through Max’s chest at her talk of leaving. He realized he hadn’t given it any real thought, but before he could ask himself what the hell he thought would happen when her gig at the inn was up, Jenny was pinning Harper in place with a stern look.

“Then you’ll simply have to come back for the weekend, won’t you?” she said. “You heard Jake—you’re part of my posse now, one of my girls. I know we haven’t known each other very long, sweetie, but I
feel
as if I’ve known you forever.”

Tasha nodded her agreement. “Me, too.”

Jenny essayed a gesture that said
there you have it.
“That’s not something you get with just anyone.”

“No, it’s not,” Harper agreed. “And I’d be so honored to be part of your big day. I’ll x out the weekend on my calendar, as well.”

“Alrighty then.” Slapping her hands together as if checking another chore off her list, Jenny turned her back on everyone to fuss with her cooler. “Let’s get that fire going. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m starving.”

“She’s gonna cry,” Jake murmured. “The woman’s a sentimental fool.”