The Fountain of Infinite Wishes (Dare River Book 5) (34 page)

“You know,” she said, running her hand over his muscular shoulder. “I’ve always hated being sweaty. Certainly, I couldn’t stand anyone touching me if they were icky. That seems to have changed with you.”

His dark chuckle made her toes curl. “Good, because we’re going to get good and sweaty pretty often from now on.”

She wanted to clap with joy. He edged off her, and she realized he had to attend to…well, the after-business of things. She made a face at the sheets and then did some tidying up as well. When he pulled her back to his chest, she laid her head there and sighed, deciding it the best pillow on the market.

“You all right?” he asked, stroking her hair.

She leaned up and looked him in the eye. “If you’re asking if I’m sore, the answer is yes.” Her pout was for punctuation. “I
said
you were big.”

“You’ll grow to like it,” he said, practically preening like a lion. “You don’t strike me as the kind of woman who likes it small.”

She punched him in the arm and settled back down on his chest, hearing his chuckles reverberate in her ear. Goodness, he was heading to hysterical. “You’re so bad.”

“You bet I am,” he responded. “And you need to trust me a little more. I didn’t steer you wrong this first time, did I?”

So he was looking to have his ego stroked a little. She could do that. “No, you didn’t.”

“Be honest, Shelby,” he said, toying with her spine. “You shouted my name.”

“You’re a scoundrel to point that out,” she said in a huff, but secretly she loved that they were bantering in bed. It was one of her favorite things about being with him. “But I’m still not doing any prisoner break scenarios with whips and chains for you.”

More laughter, all from his rock-hard belly. “Scoundrel, huh? I’ll have to figure out a way to live up to that without the whips and chains. I can make you shout my name every time. Just you wait and see.”

Had he shouted her name? She honestly couldn’t remember. “Two can play that game,” she said easily, only to realize she’d have to follow through.
 

Was she ready to take him to the brink of desire all by herself? When she rose up to look at his smirking face, she didn’t have to gather her courage. She
wanted
to make him shout her name.

“Oh, you are so going to get it now,” she told him, making him laugh even harder.

He shouted her name the first
and
the second time that night.

Chapter 32

Vander didn’t believe in walking around on a cloud—it was too dangerously close to a belief in wishes—but his feet didn’t feel quite as grounded over the next couple of weeks. He and Shelby were scorching up the sheets at both their places and laughing up a storm.
 

Whenever a shadow crossed her face, he knew she was thinking about her family. He’d either kiss her softly until it cleared or ask her about it—whatever she needed. As the anniversary of his father’s murder approached, a shadow crossed over him periodically as well, but she was as intuitive about his pain as he was about hers. Somehow it was easier when they did it together, and Vander came to appreciate they were more than lovers.
 

They were partners.

The best combination imaginable.

Shelby challenged him in the best way possible, brainstorming about his cases with him when he hit a wall, something he’d never done with anyone outside his firm. Sure, they bantered about everything from the best way to load the dishwasher to the safest way to make love in her shower after she refused to let him install bars—but he ate up every minute of it.

Charlie couldn’t keep the knowing smile off her face when she caught him whistling as he went through case files or completed paperwork. He found he didn’t care. He was happy, and it was new and weird and wonderful.

At first he’d feared all this love stuff would make him soft, but he felt like more of a man than ever. Shelby shouting his name two to three times a day made him want to beat his chest like Tarzan. Then an undercover subject pulled a knife on him, and he disarmed the man as quickly as he’d ever done. This love stuff hadn’t made him lose his edge at all—if anything it had given him more of a reason to be strong.

And he wasn’t dreading August 30th quite like he usually did every year, and that rocked him to the core.

Shelby’s siblings had made an extra effort to welcome him anew. Susannah had invited everyone over for a BBQ—minus the old people, she’d joked. He’d understood: everyone was giving Louisa some time to settle down.
 

They’d feasted on ribs and grilled corn and polished off chocolate chip pie and homemade vanilla ice cream. Rory and Annabelle had even colored him pictures to take home. The girl had drawn a big yellow daisy with a smiley face while Rory’s masterpiece was of his dog playing with a bone. He’d put them on his refrigerator since that’s where kid pictures were supposed to go. Shelby had kissed him senseless, and they’d taken each other on his granite countertops as a celebration.

He might not be fully integrated into the entire McGuiness clan, but they were making great strides. Everyone seemed to breathe a lot easier as time passed.

It was a rainy Saturday when his phone sounded, the ring tone signaling a forwarded call from his burner phone. He was reading the paper with Shelby tucked against his side. She was watching some chick flick.

“Did you change your ring tone?” she asked, sitting up.

“It’s my undercover line,” he said, moving off the couch and picking it up. He noted the Memphis number as he answered. “Hello.”

“Toby, is that you?” a familiar voice asked. “Honey, it’s Lenore. I need to speak with you about my boy. Between us, you hear?”

“Yes, hello there,” he said in his undercover accent. “Give me a second to get somewhere I can talk.” He felt a flash of indecision when he met Shelby’s curious eyes, but until he knew why Lenore was calling, he needed to honor her wishes. Placing his hand over the receiver, he whispered, “It’s a case. I need to take this outside.”

She nodded. “Take it in my office. It’s hot out.”

He closed the door moments later, feeling guilty.

“All right, I’m back,” he said to Lenore. “I needed to find somewhere private. I’m with Shelby.”

“How is my granddaughter?” Lenore asked.

“Good,” he responded simply. “What can I do for you, Lenore? Must be important since you don’t have a phone.”

“I’m using my boy’s new phone,” she told him. “He dumped the old one after you called.”

His whole body tensed. “Preston’s with you?”

“Yes,” she drawled. “He was mighty put out I’d told you where to find him. Read me the riot act, and I read it right back to him. He’s being an ass. I told him he has wonderful children looking for him and that he was a fool to have run away again. He told me to mind my own business. Said I had no idea what was going on. We went nine rounds, but he finally agreed to tell both of us whatever secret he’s been nursing. At the same time. He said you could decide whether or not to tell Shelby and the other children once you hear it.”

A sense of foreboding rose up in Vander. His gut had told him all along that there was a dark story behind Preston’s abandonment of his family. The weight of learning the truth settled over him.
 

Shelby wasn’t a client anymore. She was his love. His ethics tugged at him.
 

“You’re sure he won’t tell Shelby or the rest of them? I don’t like this none.”

“I’m sure, honey. I done cursed a blue streak. He won’t budge.”

Damn. “Are you at your house?” he asked.

“Yes,” Lenore said. “I know it’s a drive.”

“That doesn’t bother me,” he said, “but I’m a little concerned Preston might take off again.”

Lenore laughed. “I made him promise me that he won’t, but just to be certain, I’ve set my dog at his feet. That mutt won’t let him get away. Trust me.”

He looked at his watch. “I can be there around three.”

“I’m glad you can come,” Lenore said. “It will be nice to have a friendly face around when he finally says his piece.”

Worry laced her voice, and he couldn’t blame her. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. I have to tell you I’m torn about going there alone, Lenore.”

“I hear ya, boy,” the woman said, “but Pres is mule-headed.”

“All right,” Vander said, “I’ll see you soon. Call me if anything changes.”

“I’ll sit on him if I have to,” Lenore said. “We both know he won’t get far if that happens.”

She hung up, and he set his phone on Shelby’s desk, thinking things through. He didn’t like doing it this way, but if Preston refused to tell anyone other than him, he didn’t see as he had a choice.

He called Charlie to confirm his thinking.

“I thought you weren’t working today,” she said when she answered.

“Preston has reemerged,” he told her. “He’s with Lenore and has agreed to tell us what happened, but no one else. He said it’s for me to decide whether to tell the others.”

She was silent, and he let her ruminate. “Sticky situation, being as how you’re with Shelby. I don’t envy you this one, Vander.”

“I have to go, don’t I?” he asked. “I have to find out what happened.”

“It concerns me Preston is letting you decide what to do with the information. Both of us have guessed it’s bad, but this makes me think it’s real bad. Definitely not a regular dad-walks-out-the-door-on-the-family story.”

“I hate not telling Shelby.”

“She initiated the search,” Charlie told him. “She’d want you to go, I think. She trusts your judgment.”

He thought so too. “I don’t want to lie to her about why I’m leaving today.”
 

“Her father isn’t giving you a choice,” Charlie said. “You could tell her against his wishes, but she might insist on going. If she did that, we both know he’ll clam up and then run again.”

She was right. Shelby wouldn’t want to be left behind. “Okay, thanks for talking it through. I’m going to head out.”

“Call if you need me,” she said, “and call when you have the information. I’m as eager as you are to learn what he’s running from.”

“Talk to you.”

He clicked off and pocketed his phone. Running his hands through his hair, he took a moment to compose himself. When he found Shelby, she looked up immediately. She’d been waiting, he could tell, worrying.

“Everything okay?” she asked, her face tense.

“I had a break in a case,” he told her, feeling like shit. “I’m sorry, but I need to go. I’m…not sure when I’ll be back. Tomorrow for sure.”

She rose and wrapped her arms around him. “It’s not dangerous, is it?”

“No,” he assured her, stroking her back. “But it can’t wait. I really wish they hadn’t called on our day off.”

“It’s okay,” she told him, edging back and tracing his jaw. “Your job isn’t the nine-to-five kind.”

He kissed her sweetly on the lips and then cupped her face in his palms. “You know how much I love you, right? How much you’ve changed things for me?”

She smiled. “I know. You’ve done the same for me.”

Struggling with himself, he gave her cheek one last caress and took her hand. They walked together to the entryway. He picked up his keys and wallet resting beside her purse.

Kissing her again, he said, “I’ll call you when I can.”

With another smile, she reached for her purse and took out her own keys. He watched with a mingled sense of wonder and guilt as she drew a brass one off the chain.
 

“Come whenever,” she said, fitting it into his palm. “You’re always welcome here. Day or night.”

He felt the significance of the action and wanted to meet it with a gesture of his own. Taking off his own house key, he gave it to her.

“I want you to feel the same way,” he said, watching as her eyes darkened with emotion. He’d had an extra one made a couple of days ago and had been waiting for the perfect moment. It didn’t get more perfect than this. “Can you remember my alarm code?”

Her smile was radiant. “I have a head for numbers.”

He told it to her. “And my password is justice.”

“Of course it is,” she said. “You’d better get going before I make you late. When I see you next though…be prepared to be loved within an inch of your life.”

“I can’t wait,” he said and made himself open the door and walk out.

Four hours later, he arrived in the trailer park after taking the time to change clothes and switch cars. He couldn’t very well show up in his Ferrari and his street clothes. Lenore met him at the door with No-no by her side, barking up a storm.

“Hush it,” she told the dog, grabbing his collar. “Good to see you, Toby. Thank you for coming on such short notice.”

“It’s all right,” he said. A few feet behind her, he could see a lanky gray-haired man he recognized from two very different photos. “It’s good to see you too, Lenore. And Mr. McGuiness, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

The man had on a denim shirt worn thin at the elbows and a loose pair of jeans without a belt. “Can’t say as I feel the same. You’ve caused me a lot of trouble, showing up like you did. Making me leave my girl. You have no idea what you’ve stirred up, boy.”