Within Striking Distance (12 page)

And if she did turn out to be Gina, then Jake’s caution would be moot anyway. These people would be her family. She would be spending as much time with them as she wanted.

What was there
not
to smile about?

“You look familiar. Have we met before?”

Becky turned and found herself face-to-face with a dark-haired, middle-aged man. He was slightly shorter than her, although his broad shoulders and self-confident posture gave him a presence that made him appear taller. She knew who he was—she’d seen Dean Grosso’s face countless times on television and at a distance on the track—yet they had never met.

At least, not that she remembered. They might have met thirty-one years ago, though. In the delivery room at a Nashville hospital.

This man could be her father.

Becky felt Jake’s arm settle around her shoulders. His touch steadied her enough for her to smile and extend her hand. “Hello, Mr. Grosso. I’m Becky Peters.”

He took her hand in a firm clasp while he studied her face. “Hi, Becky. Call me Dean.”

“Becky’s a friend of mine from Charlotte,” Jake said. “We were watching the race together.”

“I hope you don’t mind that I came along to your barbecue,” Becky added.

“No, of course not. You’re more than welcome.” He glanced at Jake. “My wife’s always trying to get him to bring a date. It’s about time.”

“Funny, I said that to him, too,” Becky said.

Dean returned his attention to Becky. His forehead furrowed. “So, have we met before, Becky?”

“Not that I remember.”

“Then you must look like someone I know. I’ve heard people say that everyone has a double somewhere.”

“You might have seen Becky’s picture,” Jake said. “She’s a model.”

Dean raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”

“There are ads all over the place with Becky modeling blue jeans.”

“I guess that explains it. You’re certainly lovely enough to be a model, Becky.”

“Thank you. All the credit for that goes to my parents.”

A trim, blue-eyed woman moved to Dean’s side and slipped her hand through the crook of his elbow. “Did I just hear you calling someone lovely?”

Even if Becky hadn’t recognized the woman’s face from NASCAR coverage, she would have known this was Patsy Grosso by the way she fit so perfectly next to Dean. The couple had gone through a rocky period in their marriage but had reconciled last year. It was obvious by their body language they adored each other.

Becky’s adoptive parents had broken up more times than she could have counted. Their reconciliations hadn’t lasted long. The brief periods of peace in the house had been laced with tension that would continue to build until the next argument.

Oh, how she’d wished her parents could have been like the Grossos.

It was mind-boggling to think that this couple actually
could
be her parents.

Dean’s face softened into a smile as he leaned over to give his wife a kiss. “You did, Patsy. This is Becky Peters, Jake’s date.”

Patsy smiled and shook Becky’s hand. “My husband was
right. You’re a beautiful young woman. Jake, why haven’t you brought her around before?”

“Becky does a lot of traveling for her work,” he replied.

“Becky’s a model,” Dean said. “Jeans.”

Patsy’s gaze sharpened. “You’re the woman in the jeans posters!” she exclaimed. “Imagine that, we have a celebrity in our midst.”

Becky was startled that Patsy would consider
her
a celebrity when Dean and Kent were so famous. The Grossos must be down-to-earth people, she thought happily. They would probably welcome their daughter no matter who she was. “The campaign is getting a lot of good placements.”

“Those ads are everywhere. No wonder I thought I’d seen you before.”

“It’s a common reaction,” Jake said. “Happens a lot.”

He was right, Becky thought. She often met people who knew her face because of her ads. Yet she couldn’t help thinking there might be more to the recognition Dean and Patsy had felt.

Did they see a resemblance to themselves or someone in their family? Or perhaps they sensed a blood tie. Could they really be her parents?

She’d been excited by the possibility for months, but there was a huge difference between merely thinking about it and meeting the couple in person, feeling their palms against hers as they shook her hand, watching them smile, hearing their voices…

Oh, God, yes. She wanted to be their daughter.
Please, let it be true.

To have a mother again, someone to hold when the world got mean, or even when things were good. Someone who would listen to her fears without laughing and wouldn’t be afraid to say what she thought. Or say nothing, if that’s what she wanted. It wouldn’t matter what her mother did, as long
as she was there. And, oh, to have a father who was here where she could see him and be part of his life instead of on the other side of the world with his new wife and family. And what would it be like to have a sister to share secrets with, and a brother to lean on, and a place where she was always welcome?

Becky yearned for that so much that it hurt. It had been too long since she had felt that she belonged. That she wasn’t alone. That she was
loved.

Jake moved his arm from her shoulders to her waist and eased her more firmly against his side. She leaned into him, grateful for his presence and for his support. He’d warned her all along this might be hard on her emotions. She hadn’t realized until now how right he’d been.

The conversation turned to the day’s race and Kent’s chances for the rest of the season. Somehow Becky managed to contribute comments at the appropriate time, but it was almost a relief when the Grossos moved away. Jake leaned over to look at her face, then without another word left his beer on the nearest table and gently steered her past the barbecue and around to the rear of the motor home.

The huge vehicle blocked much of the noise and most of the light that was centered over the barbecue. There were other motor homes still in the lot, but the people around them were either having small parties of their own or making preparations to leave. No one appeared to pay any attention to Becky and Jake, leaving them in relative privacy. “Are you okay?” he asked.

Becky pulled away from him and leaned her backside against the bumper. “To be honest, I’m a bit overwhelmed.”

“Meeting the Grossos wasn’t as easy as you thought, was it?”

“No, it wasn’t. Meeting Kent last week was one thing, but being face-to-face with the couple who might have borne
me…” She rolled her soda can along her forehead, focusing on the cool metal against her skin. “I know in my head that nothing might come of this, but my heart’s not listening. I want so badly to believe they’re my family.”

“Yeah, I was afraid of that. I shouldn’t have brought you here.”

She grasped his hand. “No, Jake. I’m glad you did. The Grossos are wonderful people. My feelings might be mixed up, but they’re nice feelings.”

“You sure?”

“Positive. However this turns out, I can’t regret trying.”

“I remember you mentioned that before. You told me you can’t see keeping your heart safe if it means it never gets used.”

She blinked. Had she said that? Probably. It’s what she believed. “You have a phenomenal memory.”

“At times. But overall I find my brain hasn’t been functioning all that reliably around you.”

Although his face was in shadow, she could see the beginning of a smile. She tugged him forward until he turned around to lean against the bumper beside her. “As far as I’m concerned, you’ve been terrific,” she said. “Thanks.”

“Geez, you’re not going to start telling me I’m a nice guy again, are you? That’s embarrassing.”

She realized he was trying to lighten her mood. As far as she was concerned, that only proved that he
was
nice. “What do you want to be, Jake?”

“Where should I begin? How about seventeen years younger?”

“You’ve got a real hang-up about this age difference between us, but it didn’t seem to bother your cousin or her husband. They both seemed happy that you brought a date.”

“They might not have been that open-minded if they thought you were their daughter.”

“Nonsense.” She leaned forward to set her soda on the ground by her feet, then reached up to smooth back Jake’s hair. “You’re an attractive man. And as much as you try to deny it, you’re sensitive and considerate, too. Any woman would be lucky to go out with you, but from the sound of things, you haven’t been dating anyone lately. Why is that?”

“Hey, we were talking about you. How did this get to be about me?”

She dropped her hand. “Why are you avoiding the question, Jake?”

“There’s nothing much to say. I’m not a monk, Becky, but most women want a relationship to go somewhere and I’m not a settling-down kind of guy. Especially not at my age. I thought you realized that.”

The answer was too glib, Becky thought. Anyway, she didn’t believe it. Yes, Jake had told her weeks ago that he was a confirmed bachelor, yet he had struck her as a responsible man, one who sincerely cared about people. She was sure he would take any relationship seriously. “You seem to get along well with the Grossos. What about the rest of your family? Your mother and your brothers?”

“I don’t see them much. Two of my brothers went to live in California and the other one moved to Portland. Our mother remarried years ago, before I joined the army. She and her husband are in Denver now. He takes good care of her.”

A silence fell between them. Becky became aware of voices around the other side of the motor home and the occasional clink of cutlery, but she and Jake were still alone. She slid closer to him. “You keep in touch with them, don’t you?”

“Oh, sure. E-mail, telephone. We’re busy but we haven’t lost track. My sisters-in-law send me stacks of pictures of all my nieces and nephews. Not as many as your mother took of you, but they’re still working on it.”

“Haven’t you ever wanted children of your own?”

He stretched out his bad leg and rubbed his knee. “I told you, I’m not the settling-down type.”

“I know that’s what you said, but it’s not an answer.”

“Whoa, all I did was bring you to a barbecue. Maybe in some culture I don’t know about that’s akin to a marriage proposal, but the last I heard—”

She swatted his arm before he could derail the topic into a joke. “I’ve been totally honest with you, Jake. Can’t you trust me enough to do the same?”

Even in the shadows, she could see the flash of discomfort on his face. She knew it couldn’t have been from her swat. It had to have been from what she’d said. “That’s it, isn’t it?” she murmured. “You don’t want to trust me.”

“You’re making way too much of this, Becky.”

“I think you’re cautious about everything, including people. You don’t want to take chances.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being careful.”

“Maybe not in your job. Being methodical and wanting to make sure of your facts makes you a good detective. It probably made you a good soldier.”

He gestured toward his leg. “Not good enough.”

“You told me that was an accident.”

“There were warning signs I should have picked up on. There was debris on the road. We hadn’t taken the time to secure the load properly. Between the smoke and the dust, the visibility was next to nil. Looking back on it, the accident could have been avoided if I’d been more cautious. I’ve learned the hard way that caution’s a good thing, Becky.”

She placed her hand on his knee. She could feel the ridges of scar tissue through his pant leg and she thought yet again how much he must have endured. Was this why he didn’t like to take chances, either in his business or his personal life? What did she know about how deeply a trauma could affect someone? It was a testament to Jake’s character that he’d
remained such a sensitive and considerate man in spite of it. No wonder she was falling in love with him…

She withdrew her hand, shaken by what she’d just thought. She must be wrong. She couldn’t go from a crush to love in a matter of days. Her emotions had to be scrambled from getting that DNA sample taken and meeting the Grossos. Yes, that was it. Only minutes ago she’d been thinking about how much she longed to be loved. She was probably projecting those feelings onto Jake.

She was attracted to him. They were having a good time together. She shouldn’t confuse that with something deeper.

“I’m sorry,” she said, shoving herself off the bumper. “You were right, all you did was invite me to a barbecue. That doesn’t give me the right to interrogate you like this.”

He caught her wrist. “Do you still want an answer?”

“Answer?”

He rose to his feet. “You wanted to know why I’m single.”

“It’s okay, Jake. You don’t have to—”

“It’s not a secret. All the Grossos know about this, so you might as well, too. Not that I’m saying you’re a Grosso.”

Of course, he had to add that qualifier, she thought. That’s just the way he was.