Tahoe Blues (17 page)

Leah sat up just a little bit straighter and took a sip of wine. “Thank you.” She blew out a huge breath. “And I thought this was going to be difficult.” She leaned back in her chair. “We still have some things to work out. I’m not going to let you off the hook that easily.”

“I would expect nothing less from you.” Cara got up and made her way to the oven where the pumpkin pie was warming. “I’m ready for dessert, and I think this pie is at just the right temperature.”

Leah joined Cara in the kitchen
, but veered off towards the coffeemaker. “Leave it for a few more minutes until the coffee is ready. Do you have any decaf?”

“In the fridge.” Wanting to simply warm the pie and not cook it
, Cara flipped off the oven and left the pie inside to maintain its internal temperature.

While Leah was busy making coffee the doorbell rang. Cara peeked out the window and saw a uniformed officer standing on her doorstep. Her heart began to
race and she wondered what it was about this time. She really didn’t want to spend another night in jail.

“Who’s at the door?” Leah called out as she scooped some ground Columbia
n into the filter.

Cara
turned the doorknob. “It’s the police, again.” She pulled the door open and smiled. “What can I do for you tonight, officer?”

The police man removed his hat and grinned. “I’m Officer Waters ma
’am, and I’m here to issue you your one and only warning, Ms. Greene.” He handed Cara a document.

“What’s this?” she asked confused.

“A copy of your ankle monitor agreement. I believe you have been drinking this fine evening.”

Cara stepped back horrified. “This thing monitors my alcohol consumption
, too?”

“Yes, it does. May I come i
n?”

Cara stepped aside
and allowed the Officer to enter. “We were about to have some pumpkin pie and coffee. Would you care to join us?”

He placed his hat on the table and eyed the remnants of their meal longingly. “I had to skip dinner, if you have any of that soup left
, I would be forever in your debt.”

Leah looked towards the living room and gasped. Officer Waters was one hot monitoring piece of blue shield. She quickly smoothed her hair into place and said, “I didn’t think that was allowed while you were on duty.”

The man in blue looked up at her
, and Leah swore she saw his eyes heat up. “Drinking on the job isn’t, eating is.”

“T
hen sit down. We have plenty left.” Leah fought the urge to wink and hurried to get the officer, some food.

Cara stepped in and pulled out a chair. “What is all this about
, Officer?”

“If you are going to feed me
, please call me Nate.” He sat down and continued, “This is a courtesy call. It’s quite common for the perpetrator not to fully understand the conditions of house arrest. Depending on the seriousness of the violation and if it happens within the first week of monitoring, we find it’s much more cost effective to simply go over all the stipulations again in the privacy of their own home.”

Leah held her breath and waited for Cara
to go ballistic because the cop had just referred to her as a perpetrator. She watched Cara’s head jerk back and her shoulders square defensively, but her friend held her tongue and began spouting the terms of her monitor as she knew them.

“
I am under the two plan. I am only allowed to leave the premises on Tuesday, at two in the afternoon, for only two hours in order to shop and run errands, and I am not allowed to leave a two mile radius. I don’t believe I was told anything about not being allowed to drink alcohol.”

Nate Waters glanced over to see how Leah was coming along with his food. “That is another reason for my visit tonight
, Ms. Greene. You’ve been charged with a crime, but not convicted. You were given the standard form to sign, but the alcohol clause doesn’t apply to your circumstance. Your attorney should be able to have it amended. It’s a simple cut and dry process.”

Leah placed a bowl of steaming
minestrone in front of his uniformly fit figure and peeked down to see if he was wearing a wedding band, when she saw that Officer Waters was not spoken for she asked, “Are you always so nice to your perps?”

Nate reached out and took the spoon out of Leah’s fingers. “
I try to be. The majority of times a monitor goes off it’s a false alarm, besides you catch more flies with honey. I find people tend to get a little defensive when you bust into their home with your gun drawn.” He shoveled a spoonful of soup in his mouth, as he chewed on the thick noodles he looked up at Leah and winked.

That was all it took, Lea
h was hooked. She plopped down into the chair beside him and continued with her line of questioning. “How’s the soup?” Her chin rested in her hand, and her eyes never left his jawline as he relished the hearty cuisine.

Nate nodded his head appreciatively. “This is really good. Did you make it?” He gazed into Leah’s eyes
, and she felt the heat of a blush rise up on her cheeks. He smiled, obviously pleased by her reaction.

Leah didn’t look away. She loved how he made her body quake
, and she wanted to get to know Nate Waters better, but she avoided his question. “The coffee should be ready. Would you like a cup?”

Cara stood back and watched the exchange. Neither one of them would notice if she slipped out, at least not until Officer Waters was notified that her monitor had gone off again. She was shocked to see Leah acting all domestic and even more surprised to see her graciously serving the nice, polite officer dinner and offering him a beverage. She wondered what would happen when he found out dinner at Leah’s usually consisted of a grilled cheese sandwich and a bottle of beer.

Cara also surmised by all the flirty interaction going on at her dining table that she had been wrong about a relationship growing between Brett and Leah. That realization made Cara a little sad. She truly felt they were made for each other.

As the two continued to make goo-goo eyes at each other, Cara went into the kitchen and grabbed three mugs out of the cabinet. She found a trivet and took the pot of freshly brewed coffee and placed it in front of Leah. When she went to retrieve the sugar and cream, she pulled the pie out of the oven and placed it on the counter to cool.

A moment later there was a knock on the door
, and Cara had a feeling Mrs. Grimes could no longer contain her curiosity, and had come to find out why a strange car was parked out front. She opened the door and found her tool-man, Tanner Reed, looking every ounce like the hard working maintenance man who first caught her eye. Despite the grungy white t-shirt and muddy jeans, he still looked awfully attractive. “Hey there,” she said warmly. “Would you like some dinner?”

Tanner ignored her question and kicked his head towards the
policeman. “Is everything okay?”

Cara grabbed his arm and pulled
him inside. “Yes, I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to drink alcohol while wearing my new accessory. My monitor went off. Officer Waters came to investigate.” She leaned in and whispered, “He’s letting me off with a warning.”

Nate turned around. When he saw Tanner
, he smiled and walked towards him with his hand extended. “Let me shake the hand of the man who was able to shut Duncan Alexander up.”

Tanner laughed
and held up his bruised knuckles. “Thanks, it felt pretty good until just after I connected.”

They fell into an easy going guy exchange
, as they discussed the finer points of punching someone without hurting yourself. The two men sat at the table and allowed Cara and Leah to wait on them.

Cara brought Tanner a bowl
of soup.

Leah
shared what was left of the French bread.

Cara handed Tanner a beer
while Leah refilled Nate’s coffee mug.

Cara cut the pumpkin pie into four pieces as Leah came around th
e counter and stood beside her.

Leah glared at the men and sighed, “Let the romance end and the bro-mance begin.” S
he turned and focused a glare on Cara. “I can’t compete with knocking Duncan’s lights out. Why did you have to let
him
in? I was getting ready to turn on my best moves.”

Cara dug into her pocket and handed Nate Waters
’ card to Leah. On the front was all his professional information and on the back was his personal cell phone number. “He asked me to give this to you.”

Leah twirled the card between her fingers and grinned like the Cheshire Cat. She picked up two plates of pie. “You realize this
is probably the one and only time I’m going to serve the dude.”

“Oh, I know it
, girlfriend. I know it very well.”

Leah made sure Officer
Nate Waters saw her holding his card when she reached in front of him and placed his slice of pie on the table.

Nate looked up into her shi
ning eyes and winked. “I hope you put that card in a safe place. I would hate for you to lose it.”

Leah held his gaze as she undid a couple of buttons
and exposed just a hint of her lacy black bra, then she slipped the card securely over her heart.

Tanner rose from his seat and guided the mesmerized Leah into the chair he had just vacated.

A
s Nate Waters and Leah Bailey got to know each other better, Tanner slid up beside Cara and took a plate of pie from her hand. “It’s getting hot in there. Let’s have our pie out back,” he suggested.

Cara frowned. She shook the can of whipped cream and squirted a generous helping over her desse
rt. “The door has a sensor and it will go off if I step over the threshold.” She shook the can a bit more vigorously and sprayed the cream into her mouth. She swallowed it down and licked her lips. “I don’t want to interrupt Officer Sexy and Leah Lust with another monitor alert, so we’re stuck in the kitchen.”

Wide-eyed Tanner watched her display. “Do you have any idea what you did to me just then?” He took the whipped cream from her hand and spurted the airy remnants of the empty can onto his pie. “Do you have any more of this stuff?” He cocked his head and raised his brows suggestively.
“We could always take the dessert into the bedroom.”

With a grin on her face
, Cara reached over and patted his hand. “I think we should wait until those two leave. If I know Leah, that will be any second now.”

As if on cue
, the newly formed couple rose from their chairs.

“Cara, I’m taking off
. Thanks for dinner.” Leah called out.

Cara shook her head negatively. “Don’t we have a conversation we need to finish?”

Leah waved her off. “We’re all good. I’ll let you know if you step out of line again.”

Nate Waters gently took hold of Leah’s elbow while his gaz
e lingered on his card tucked at her breast. “Come on, I’ll walk you out.” He looked over at Cara and Tanner. “Thank you for the lovely meal, Ms. Greene. Talk to your lawyer and read over the monitor agreement one more time. My superiors won’t like it if I have to come out here again.”

Cara nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll be good.”

Nate looked at Tanner. “Take care of that hand. You never know when you might need it again.”

Tanner
slept peacefully beside Cara. With every fiber of her being she wanted to reach out and touch him, but she held back. She awakened in the middle of the night with a horrible thought, what if Tanner was the person responsible for planting those incriminating documents? What if he and Barbie Blue, Bug-Assed, Disaster were working in tandem to send her up the river? Why else would he hire a woman Cara could never trust? Was punching Duncan just a ruse to divert suspicion away from himself?

If any part of this new theory was correct
, Cara couldn’t see Duncan being a part of it. Duncan felt he still possessed her. She knew he would never agree to, or come up with, any plan which included Cara having sex with anyone other than him.

She ran different scenarios through her brain. More and more she felt she could dismiss this insane notion, but that small lingering doubt refused to be silenced.

She sank deeper into the bedding and pulled the comforter up under her chin. She felt insecure and helpless, and she didn’t like it one bit. With the ankle bracelet limiting her movements, she didn’t have a chance in hell of discovering new information on her own, and there was no one she could turn to for help. Mrs. Grimes knew Tanner better than anyone on the planet, but she was fiercely loyal and loved him like a son. Cara didn’t feel it would be appropriate to ask her to spy on him.

Leah remembered him
as a high school heart throb. She would be biased and would probably think Cara lost her mind at the mere mention of her doubts. Brett Boden was still maintaining radio silence, and Cara increasingly felt she had lost his friendship forever. The only other person who had any contact with Tanner was his little sister. She and Erin had never spoken and had barely exchanged a nod of acknowledgement towards each other. Cara couldn’t imagine that she would be able to turn her into a double agent against her own brother.