Suddenly One Summer (19 page)

“What about you? Do you have a birthmark?”

“I’m not the firstborn daughter, and according to Rose’s journal, the mark only goes to the first daughter. You want proof? I’ll show you.”

She led Reid out of the basement and down the hall to Lexie’s room. Lexie had changed into her pajamas and was sitting in the middle of her bed, with a hairbrush in her hand. She was trying to get the tangles out of her hair to no avail.

Jenna took the brush out of Lexie’s hand and sat down behind her on the bed. “I’ll do that, honey. Why don’t you show Mr. Tanner the angel’s kiss on your foot? He wants to see it.”

Lexie immediately stuck out her foot. Reid sat down on the bed and examined her foot.

“That’s cool,” he said, tracing the lines with his finger.

“Only very special people have one. It’s the kiss of an angel,” Lexie said. “My mommy had one. I mean…” She licked her lips and gave Jenna a quick look.

“It’s okay, honey. Mr. Tanner knows that I’m your aunt. But he’s the only one, so we have to keep it that way. You understand, right?”

Lexie nodded solemnly and then turned back to Reid. “My name used to be Caroline, but I like Lexie better. Mommy told me that I could pick any name I wanted. We used to read a story about a girl named Lexie, and she had a lot of fun. She climbed trees, and surfed in the ocean, and looked for buried treasure. I’m going to learn to surf when I’m older.”

Reid smiled. “I always wanted to surf, too.”

“Maybe we can do it together.”

“Maybe,” Reid said lightly, but Jenna could see that he was uncomfortable.

“I like the name Lexie,” Reid continued. “I always wanted to change my name.”

“To what?” Lexie asked.

“Dragon,” Reid said very seriously.

Lexie laughed. “No one is called Dragon. That’s silly.”

“I didn’t think so. If someone told me something I didn’t want to hear, or forced me to do something I didn’t want to do, I’d breathe fire and scare them away. I thought it was the perfect name.”

Reid’s childhood must have been rough, Jenna thought. He’d mentioned growing up in foster care, and she felt a rush of emotion for his loss. No wonder he kept himself closed off. He’d already suffered through a great deal of pain. Perhaps it was his past that made him connect with Lexie. He knew what it was like to lose parents.

“Will you read me a story, Mr. Tanner?” Lexie asked. “I don’t have any about dragons, but I do have one about mermaids.”

“Uh, I think Jenna wants me to leave,” Reid said.

“You have time for a story, if you want,” Jenna replied with a smile.

Lexie handed Reid the book she’d borrowed from the library. It was about mermaids living in an enchanted sea until the pirates came along to steal their gold. Jenna brushed Lexie’s hair while Reid read the story. She was impressed with the way he got into it, changing his voice for the different characters. Reid was certainly not a man to do anything halfway.

After she finished brushing out the tangles, Lexie slid down on the bed, her eyes drifting closed as Reid read the climactic scene where the mermaids outwit the pirates and retrieve their gold. Jenna liked the story because the mermaids saved themselves, not a hero in sight, which was unusual for a fairy tale.

“And they all lived happily ever after,” Reid said, shutting the book.

“Night, Reid,” Lexie whispered, then she rolled onto her side and tucked her hand under her chin. She was asleep in a second.

Jenna covered Lexie up, turned on a nightlight and a monitor, and then ushered Reid out of the room. She closed the door behind them and followed Reid down the hall and into the living room. “You were great with Lexie.”

He shrugged. “She’s a good kid. It was the least I could do. I wish I could do more.”

“You said you were raised in foster care. What happened to your parents, Reid? Did they die?”

“No, they disappeared.” Reid dug his hands into the pockets of his jeans, rocking back on his heels. “My father took off before I was born. I never met him.”

“And your mother?”

“She bailed on me a few years later. She took me to a church one day.” He gave a bitter smile. “And I thought it was a good sign. We knelt down at a pew in the back. She bowed her head, said some prayers I guess. Then she told me to stay there and she’d be right back. Five hours later I was still waiting when the priest came to lock up the church.”

She caught her breath at the look of bitter betrayal in his eyes and her heart tore for the little boy who’d been abandoned without a word. “I’m so sorry, Reid.” No wonder he’d wanted to be a dragon. He’d had a lot of anger and nowhere to put it. “Did you ever see her again?”

“About a year later. She came to find me because she wanted to get her child welfare money back. Unfortunately, the judge didn’t think she was a fit mother and left me where I was. I was furious at the
time. I wanted to be with her. I believed in her even after everything she’d done. I was a fool.”

“You were a child.”

“After that, I saw her a few times over the years. She’d try to get clean, but she always fell back into the drugs.”

“So who raised you?”

“No one, really. I lived in a half dozen homes. I wasn’t a very popular kid; I kept trying to run away to find my mother.”

“When was the last time you saw her?”

“Ten, twelve years ago…she could be dead for all I know.”

“Don’t you want to know? You’re a journalist. I’m sure you could find out.”

“I’m done looking for her. Sometimes you have to cut your losses.”

She nodded, understanding him a little more. “Do you want to sit down for a few minutes?”

He hesitated. “Why?”

She smiled. “Because there’s more to say.” She walked over to the couch and sat down, patting the cushion beside her.

He came over, but sat in the armchair across from her. “Okay, here’s the deal—you get two more questions; that’s it.”

“That deal really didn’t stop you,” she reminded him. “You’ve asked about a hundred questions since then.”

He smiled back at her. “All I have to say is, choose your words carefully.”

“Fine. How did you get from foster homes and
poverty to reporting for major newspapers? That’s an amazing feat.”

“I knew that I would have to get whatever I was going to have in life myself. I wanted to be in the newspaper business for a long time. I wanted to be someone that people had to listen to, that they couldn’t ignore. I wanted the power of the press. And I got it.”

“Why did you give it up?”

“A lot of reasons.”

“Be specific.”

He stared down at the floor, then raised his gaze to hers. “I was doing a story on counterfeit drugs. It’s a booming business, and a dangerous one. People are dying because they’re getting placebos or watered-down medication. One of my best friends, Allison, was a nurse at a hospital suspected of using fake drugs. I asked her to help me get the inside story. She dug up some information for me over a period of weeks. Then one day when she was leaving work, she was run down by a car. No one saw the driver. She died a few hours later. It was made to look like an accident, but it was murder.”

She was shocked. What had happened was horrifying.

“Allison was killed because I involved her in my story—my all-important story that I had to break before anyone else,” Reid continued. “She was a nurse, not an undercover spy, and I shouldn’t have used her that way.”

Jenna wanted to tell him that it wasn’t his fault,
but she knew he wouldn’t hear her. Instead she got up and knelt in front of him, putting her hands over his. She could feel the tension in his body, and was sorry she’d made him talk about something so painful.

His fingers closed around hers. “When I asked Allison for help, she jumped at the chance. She told me that I always kept her at a distance, that I never let her into my life. And now she’s dead.” His gaze bored into hers. “Maybe you should be pushing me away, Jenna. I might be as dangerous to you as Brad.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“I told you to trust me. The last person who did that is dead.”

“So Allison’s death is the reason why you’re punishing yourself—working for a tabloid, pretending not to care anymore what you write.”

“I’m not pretending,” he said flatly. “I don’t care.”

“Yes, you do,” she said, holding his gaze. “Maybe you didn’t before. Maybe you managed to get through most of the year believing that you were done with your old life. But then you came here—and I made you care.” She saw the truth in his eyes. “You met me, and you sensed a story. I made you want to do real news again. I made you want to help someone.”

“You give yourself a lot of credit.”

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

He stared back at her, the air between them thick with tension. “You had to jump off that damn pier. I couldn’t believe anyone would do that to save a
stranger. But you did. Even with everything you were trying to protect, you still couldn’t walk away. Just like you couldn’t walk away when your sister asked for help, when Lexie was hiding in the park, when you threw away your entire life to protect your niece. You amaze me, Jenna.”

“You amaze me, too. You’ve had a difficult life, but you’ve accomplished a lot. And you did it all on your own.”

“I just survived, that’s all. Don’t make it more than it is.”

She shook her head. “You really don’t see how great you are.”

“Jenna—”

“No. Don’t try to talk me out of my opinion. I can be stubborn when I have to be.”

He smiled. “I’ve noticed.”

“I
do
trust you, Reid. Nothing you’ve said has changed that. I’m sorry about what happened to your friend. But from what you’ve told me about her, I suspect she wanted to help not just because you asked her, but because of the people she wanted to protect. She was a nurse. She knew how dangerous counterfeit drugs could be. I’m sure you saved a lot of lives with that article, with her investigation. It wasn’t all for nothing.”

“I only snagged the small fish, and stopped one outlet. It wasn’t nearly enough. I thought when I became a reporter that I could change the world, but the only world I changed was that of my best friends. And I destroyed it. I quit the day after she died.”

It saddened Jenna to see the pain in his eyes, the guilt weighing him down. He’d loved only a handful of people in his life, and Allison had obviously been one of them. “I understand why you quit, even though I might not agree. You had to regroup. And now you’re ready again. You’re going to help me. We’re going to be partners.”

At her words, a mix of emotions ran through his eyes. He was fighting her and himself as hard as he could. He’d been alone a long time and had built an impenetrable wall around his heart. He didn’t know how to believe in people. He didn’t know how to believe in himself. But she saw what he couldn’t see—a strong, intelligent, articulate, determined man who could make a difference in a lot of people’s lives, including hers.

As the silence lengthened, the tension between them built. The anger and grief were replaced by something else, something that was far more dangerous.

“I don’t want to
just
be your partner,” Reid said.

His words stole the breath from her chest. There it was—on the table, front and center. Her stomach clenched at the new spark in his eyes, at the silent question in his gaze. He was giving her a choice, asking her if she really wanted to cross that line. She told herself that she didn’t. She told herself that the best thing to do was tell him to go—but the words wouldn’t come. She was tired of lying, tired of pretending. Maybe she needed to be honest for this one moment.

But Reid wasn’t giving her the moment. He was on his feet, heading for the door.

Damn him! He could never wait two seconds for an answer. Just like the night before, he was running out on her. Was he quitting on her? Was this the end of their alliance, or just the end of this night? He always had to have the last word, and she was sick of it.

She raced over to the open door. Reid was halfway down the walk. “That’s the second time you’ve left in the middle of a conversation,” she called after him. “I don’t like it.”

He paused and glanced back at her.

“You don’t want me to finish the conversation,” he returned.

“Don’t tell me what I want. I know what I want.”

He hesitated for a long second, and then walked slowly back to the house, stopping a few inches away from her. “What’s that?”

She drew in a deep breath, feeling as if she were about to leap off a cliff. “You.”

His eyes glittered in the moonlight. “Jenna…”

“Have I scared you?” she asked, feeling more reckless with each passing second.

“Hell, yes,” he murmured huskily. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Stay.” She held out her hand and for a very long moment, she worried that he wouldn’t take it, but then his fingers curled around hers. She led him back into the house. He shut the door, threw the deadbolt, and then hauled her into his arms.

There was no slow buildup to his kiss, no tenta
tive touch or hesitant caress. Reid took her mouth as if he owned it. His kiss was hot, demanding, intense. She felt his fire burning into her as his tongue tangled with hers. His hands were in her hair, holding her head where he wanted it. His lips moved from her mouth, roaming across her face, her cheek, her jaw. He nipped at the curve of her neck, a delicious sting of passion.

Then his hands dropped to her waist, his fingers bringing heat to her bare midriff. He helped her out of her sweater, their hands colliding as they both reached for the hem of her T-shirt, pulling it over her head.

He smiled as he saw her hot red bra. “So this is what you’ve been hiding. Sexy underwear. I like it.” His eyes darkened as he gazed into hers. “I like you.”

“I like you, too,” she said.

He ran his lips along her collarbone, then his mouth slid lower. He opened her bra, flicking aside the cup, and feasted on her breast, sucking her nipple into his mouth. A rush of desire shot straight through her body. She ran her hands through his hair, pulling him closer. He moved from one breast to the other, teasing, tantalizing her with the promise of more.