Within Striking Distance (10 page)

“Wouldn’t miss it.” Jake leaned closer and pitched his
voice so only Kent would hear him. “Can you spare a few minutes? I need to run something past you in private.”

Kent lifted his eyebrows at that, but didn’t question Jake’s request. He left his helmet in the car and followed him to a picnic table in the shade of the garage. “I have to put in some more laps,” he began.

“That’s fine,” Jake said. “I’ll be quick. I’d like you to provide a DNA sample.”

“A DNA…This is about Gina.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t tell me you found her!”

“It’s a strong possibility.”

“Who is she? Where is she?”

“The woman I’m currently investigating is Becky Peters,” he said, pulling the photo from his pocket. “This is her in ’78. I won’t go into all the details now, but I think it’s worth doing the test.”

“Sure. Of course. I’ll do whatever you need.” He peered at the picture. “Cute kid.”

“That’s nothing. You should see her now.”

“This is incredible. That baby could be my twin. Mom and Dad are going to be—”

“Hold on, Kent. I don’t want to tell them yet. That’s why I asked you for the sample instead of your parents. As Gina’s twin, your DNA should provide a good basis for a match.” He returned the photo to his pocket. “I don’t want to get Dean and Patsy excited and then have it turn out to be a false alarm. Your mother concerns me the most. If Patsy got her hopes up and the test showed no match, it would be like losing Gina twice.”

“I understand.” He looked toward the tower where his father was still talking with the crew chief. “Dad’s trying to be the strong one about all this, but I know he’s anxious, too. He blames himself for not looking harder after Gina disappeared.”

“He shouldn’t. The police told him Gina was dead. They had to move on. It was the only healthy thing to do.”

He regarded Jake once more. “I’m glad you came to me, Jake. I want to find my twin as much as everyone else, but I never even knew she existed until a few months ago. If the test shows no match, it’s not going to hit me like it would my parents.”

“Thanks, Kent. I’ll make the arrangements and get back to you.”

“Great.” Kent gave him a thumbs-up as he returned to his car. Minutes later, he was back on the track and roaring through the first turn.

Jake remained at the picnic table to watch the action. Like the cars hurtling past, the events he’d just set into motion would be hard to stop. Was he jumping the gun with the DNA test? Possibly. Last week he’d told Becky he’d wanted to be more certain before he took the final step, but that had been before he’d felt her in his arms.

He clenched his jaw as the memory flooded over him. He couldn’t understand why he kept thinking about it. He’d held plenty of women, and in far more intimate circumstances. Why had one fully clothed encounter in a dusty garage made such an impact? And why the hell had he decided to talk to her about it?

He shouldn’t have brought the attraction into the open. He’d done a good job of keeping his feelings to himself until then, but his pride had gotten the better of him. He hadn’t wanted a young, beautiful woman like Becky to believe his bum leg had been the reason he’d cut short their embrace.

So instead of simply walking away, he’d told her he’d wanted to kiss her. Uh-huh. That had been so much smarter.

Which only went to prove that Jake couldn’t rely on his judgment with anything concerning Becky anymore. Luckily, DNA wasn’t a matter of judgment, it was science.

“W
E DO IT
once more. I do not like the shadow.” The photographer barked instructions in Italian to his assistants, who scurried to adjust the reflectors at the edge of the set. The shoot was taking place in a studio rather than outdoors, which allowed more control of the lighting and more efficient clothing changes. It also meant less opportunity to move around. Becky used the delay to straighten up and stretch the ache out of her back.

“Tired,
bella?
”

She glanced at the model beside her. “I don’t have any complaints, Paulo.”

“I do not, either. It has been purely pleasure working with you.”

Somehow she restrained herself from rolling her eyes. Paulo had been coming on to her all afternoon. She suspected it was mainly to relieve the boredom between shots.

“You are too warm,
cara.
Permit me to help before the maestro notices the dampness.” He pursed his lips and curled forward to blow lightly on her skin above her bikini top.

Becky leaned back. “Give it a rest, Paulo.”

“I only want to dry your skin. We do not want more delays while makeup is called.”

“Well, thank you. That’s a wonderfully selfless gesture. But in case it escaped your attention, we’re modeling swimwear. We’re supposed to be damp.”

He smiled, showing her his perfect teeth. Even amid the collection of perfect bodies and faces that had been assembled for this project, he was startlingly good-looking: dark, brooding eyes, sharply defined features and thick, black hair that was slicked boldly back from his forehead. He gestured to the six-pack abs that graced his torso. “Perhaps you could help me, as well. These lights make me hot but your hands are cool. If you could rub me here…”

“You’re original, I’ll give you that.”

“What else will you give me,
bella?
”

“Advice. You’re wasting your time.”

“No time with you could be wasted.”

“Does that Latin lover act actually work on anyone, Paulo?”

“It does.” He winked. “I will be happy to provide references if you wish.”

She bit her lip. She didn’t want to laugh or it would only encourage him. She was saved from having to respond by the art director, who used a mangled mixture of languages to order everyone back into position.

Paulo immediately slipped his arm behind her waist and propped his chin on her shoulder. She smiled for the camera. The pose was tame and not suggestive in the least. It was meant to display the swimwear in an atmosphere of friendliness and fun. Becky suspected there was a grain of truth in Paulo’s bragging, because there likely were plenty of women who would enjoy having his spectacular body so close to theirs.

Yet the contact did nothing for her. No tingles, no shivers of awareness, nothing other than mild irritation with the way the fashionably macho beard stubble on Paulo’s chin was abrading her skin.

Now, if it had been Jake standing next to her like this, practically naked and breathing on her neck…

Oh, yes, that would definitely do something for her. She could only too clearly imagine what the sculpted muscles that she’d felt through his sleeves would feel like against her skin. She didn’t think it would bother her to feel his beard stubble against her neck, either. Even better, what if it was first-thing-in-the-morning stubble and he was waking her up with a nuzzling kiss?

She inhaled unsteadily, surprised by the rush of heat. She’d thought that distance would give her some perspective. Everything Jake had said about her being emotional and
vulnerable had been right. A crush should have faded, especially now that she was immersed in her work. She needed all the contracts she could get if she was going to boost her savings. Although the investments she’d chosen had been performing beyond her expectations lately, she still needed more before she could open her own business.

Yet from the time she’d arrived in Italy, all she could think about was how soon she could go home.

“N
ICOLE
! What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for you. How was your flight?”

“Completely ordinary,” Becky said, still trying to absorb the fact Dr. Nicole Foster was at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. She’d been friends with Nicole almost as long as she’d been friends with Tara, but neither one had ever met her at the airport after one of her modeling jobs. Why would they? Becky’s trips were routine.

She peered at her friend more closely. Nicole looked well. More than well. She looked fabulous, as usual. Becky had always admired her combination of red hair and blue eyes, characteristics that were made all the more striking by the energy that simmered beneath the surface. Yet was that a hint of tension around her mouth? “Nicole, is something wrong?”

“Relax, everything’s fine. Where’s your luggage?”

Becky tipped her head toward the carry-on bag that hung from her shoulder. She’d learned to travel light when she was working—most of the time she wore clothes provided by the client and the rest of the time she preferred easy-care, packable knits. “This is it.”

“Great,” she said. She checked her watch, then turned and started walking. “Let’s get out of here.”

Becky followed on her heels as they worked their way through the crowd. “Nicole, it’s really nice of you to meet me like this. Don’t get me wrong. It’s always great to see
you, but I don’t remember even telling you which flight I’d be on.”

“You didn’t. Jake McMasters did.”

“Jake?” She looked around quickly, half expecting—no, half hoping—to see him. “Why would he—” She halted, her hand going to her mouth. “Oh, God. Is he all right? Did something happen?”

“Will you relax?” Nicole caught her arm and urged her to start moving again. “He’s fine. It’s interesting that you’d be so worried about him, though. Why is that?”

“I…Don’t change the subject. Why are you here?”

“I’ll fill you in when we get to my car.”

It wasn’t until they had left the lot and joined the afternoon traffic on the parkway to the city that Nicole finally could devote her attention to Becky’s questions. “Jake called me a few days ago,” she said. “He told me that you gave him my name.”

“What? I don’t remember…” Becky thought about it. She had indeed mentioned Nicole to Jake. The man must have an exceptional memory. “Oh, right. Well, that explains how he knew who you were but not why you’re here. Are you deliberately dragging this out and acting mysterious just to make me crazy?”

Nicole grinned and gave her a sideways glance. “You know me too well.”

“Nicole,” Becky said, twisting on the seat to face her. “I’m hungry and I’m jet-lagged and used up my quota of patience on a certain overly amorous hunk of walking ego, so—”

“Ooo, that sounds delicious. Who was he?”

“His name was Paulo but don’t change the subject. Need I remind you that I’m bigger than you?”

She laughed. “Not by much.”

“Nicole…”

“All right, all right. Jake called me because you already
volunteered my help as a doctor. He wants me to take some DNA samples.”

It took her a few seconds to process what she’d heard. She dropped her head against the headrest, stunned. “Jake wants a DNA test to see if I’m Gina.”

“Yes.”

Her mind was spinning. “This is so fast. When I left he was still being cautious about it. He said he didn’t want to have the test done until he was more certain.”

“Oh, he’s still being cautious. He tried to play it down.”

“What do you mean?”

“When we first met at my office, we got to talking about how I do weekend work at NASCAR races and I mentioned that my father was an itinerant doctor in Tennessee. You know, how my dad took jobs filling in for other doctors while they were on sabbatical or vacation?”

“Sure, I remember. You talked about that when the story of Gina’s kidnapping broke.”

“Well, Jake pointed out that my father could have been working at the hospital in Nashville when the Grosso twins were born. I’m the right age, too. He said for all we know,
I
could be Gina.”

Becky did her best to squash the resentment she felt. She knew that until they had proof, Jake would have to continue considering every possibility. That was what the Grossos had hired him for. He had every right to look at another woman as a potential Gina. That didn’t mean he was being disloyal to Becky, it meant he was doing his job. He’d made it perfectly clear before she’d left that their relationship would remain professional.

“Not that I am,” Nicole said.

“What?”

“Gina. That’s reaching. You look a lot more like the
Grossos than I do. I look like my father. Anyway, I think Jake was going out of his way to demonstrate he’s still keeping an open mind. If you ask me, I’d say he’s concerned about you getting your hopes up.”

Becky sighed. “That sounds like Jake, all right. He takes caution to a whole different level.”

Nicole took her hand from the wheel and squeezed Becky’s knee, then flipped on her signal and steered toward the exit. “I’m concerned, too. I know how important finding your birth family has always been to you. At the same time, I’ve been so excited to be part of this, it’s been hard waiting for you to get home.”

“Thanks, Nicole.” She took note of the exit they were heading for. “I take it we’re going straight to your office now.”

“It was the only time we could arrange that worked with everyone’s schedules. Do you mind?”

Becky assured her that she didn’t. In a way, she was glad that Jake hadn’t warned her earlier, because by the time they pulled into the parking lot of the clinic where Nicole worked during the week, Becky was already feeling too antsy to wait. They went through the rear entrance of the building and down a short hall to Nicole’s office.