Husband and Wife Reunion. Linda Style
gone. He was a smart guy. Someone who could unravel puzzles in a flash, who understood people at a glance. And he hadn’t believed for a second she was there on vacation. But what difference did it make to him why she was there?
If he’d just finish the fence, hire someone to help Abe and then go home, she’d be fine. But from the determined look she’d seen in his eyes, she had an awful feeling that wasn’t going to happen. Luke would hound her until he found out what he wanted to know.
THAT NIGHT during a very late dinner, Luke told Julianna and Abe about his progress with the fence. “But there’s still more to do,” he said.
Luke didn’t ask why Abe’s hand was bandaged differently and Abe didn’t offer that they’d gone to the clinic. Julianna talked about the weather, of all things, simply because she wanted to get through the meal without any further references to why she was there.
So far, so good, she thought as she brought dessert to the table, a pie that she’d picked up at the grocery store after Abe had his hand stitched and had grudgingly submitted to a tetanus shot.
“Good pie,” Luke said.
“Thanks to Sara Lee.”
“Pot roast was good, too.” Luke forked another piece of pie and brought it to his lips.
Her eyes fastened there, on his mouth, the little indentation in the middle of his top lip.
“I don’t remember you cooking much before.”
Maybe that was because he was never home at dinnertime. She and Mikey had eaten alone most nights. “I learned a thing or two when I had an exchange student living with me for a while. Actually the student was doing an internship at the magazine and somehow I ended up with her at my house.”
“You have a house?” Luke looked surprised.
“A loft condo. No upkeep, and someone else does all the fixing.”
He nodded. “Not a bad idea. At my place there’s always something going wrong.” His bluer-than-blue gaze caught hers. “But then, you know that.”
Her pulse quickened. Was he still living in his grandfather’s house? The house they’d shared?
“That’s why I didn’t want that place,” Abe grumbled. “Too much fixin’.”
Both she and Luke turned to Abe. Then Luke said, “And there isn’t here?”
“It’s different,” Abe said gruffly. “There’s memories here.”
Julianna sighed. There were memories—both here and at the house in Venice Beach. She couldn’t believe Luke was still living there.
“The ranch has memories of all kinds,” Luke said. “Some good, some not so good.”
Abe’s chair scraped on the tiles as he abruptly rose to his feet. “I need to feed the horses, and then it’s time for me to turn in.”
When Abe was gone, she carried some dishes to the sink. “The doctor gave your father a tetanus shot and put five stitches in the cut.” Luke was right behind her with the dessert plates. Close. She moved to the side to put the dishes in the dishwasher.
“Good.” Luke scraped off a plate and handed it to her.
“He said Abe should come in for a checkup.”
Luke gave a dry laugh. “I don’t have to guess what the old coot’s response to that was, do I?”
“Right. But I think someone really needs to make sure he goes. He hasn’t seemed like himself since I got here.”
Luke leaned on the counter, watching as she finished up. She felt sweaty all of a sudden, unnerved to have him so close. It seemed odd that they were talking about Abe as if they were still married.
“If you could work some of your magic to get him to agree, I’d be indebted,” he said.
The soft plea in his eyes touched her. She put the last cup into the dishwasher, added soap, pushed the button and started the machine. “I’ll see what I can do. But right now, I’ve got work to do.”
Luke’s gaze followed as Jules walked away. She’d seemed nervous—as if she couldn’t wait to get away from him. If he didn’t know better, he might think… But hell, she was probably worried that he was going to ask again why she was there. And truth was, if she hadn’t left, he would’ve.
Repeatedly asking the same question was one way to wear someone down. He did it with suspects all the time when he thought they weren’t being truthful. While Jules might not be lying, something was definitely wrong. She jumped out of her skin every time the phone rang.
Walking into the living room, he heard the kitchen door slap shut. His dad coming back inside. Abe had said he was going to bed, and though it seemed early for that, his father’d had a busy day what with the fence and the doctor and all. Luke felt tired, too, but he knew it was more mental exhaustion than physical.
As he reached the worn-out couch, its worst parts covered with a red-and-blue Southwestern serape blanket, he inhaled the familiar scent, a mixture of cigarettes, Old Spice and old man. He glanced around. Nothing had changed. Nothing in the house and nothing with Abe.
Though he’d come here with the idea of smoothing out his relationship with his dad, he could see now it was a bad idea. Abe was too set in his ways. More importantly, his dad didn’t care about mending anything between them. And now, in addition to finding hired help, he had to get Abe in for a physical.
He couldn’t leave until he had those two things under his belt. He hoped Jules would help. She was good at getting people to do things without them realizing it.
An image of Jules immediately popped into his head. An image of how she looked today, not the one he’d carried for the past five years. She looked more mature, more comfortable in her own skin, and she was every bit as beautiful as he remembered. Just watching her had made his blood run hot…made him remember what it was like to feel something.
Something other than duty and responsibility.
And Jules was the last person he should be thinking about like that. He reached for a magazine. The Achilles’ Heel. What the hell. Reading might get his mind on something else. He flipped it open. The title of the article practically leaped off the page. “Missing.”
He read a couple paragraphs. Turned the page. What the—the story was about a little girl who’d been abducted fifteen years ago in Los Angeles. Renata Willis. He tossed the magazine on the pile and picked up another. Another story with the same theme, but a different child.
Anger rose from the dark well inside him, the place where he’d buried his feelings. How long had she been doing this? A sharp, heart-stabbing pain drove into his chest.
How could she!
CHAPTER FOUR
SOMETHING WAS WRONG. Luke had kept his distance all day, barely grunting when Julianna or his father asked a question. Would he like coffee? Grunt. Aren’t you going to have breakfast? At least that one had gotten a grumble that she thought was a “No thanks. Gotta get to work.”
He’d left immediately and, since he’d been gone all day, Julianna suspected he’d long since finished the fence. “He can’t still be working, can he?” she asked Abe as they finished up dinner. “It’s getting dark.”
“Luke can take care of himself.”
“I know he can, Abe. But for him to be gone so long, something could’ve happened. Aren’t you worried just a little? Curious maybe?”
“Nope. I learned a long time ago that Luke doesn’t need anyone to worry about him.” He glanced at her from under his brows. “And I think you seem more worried than necessary.”
Julianna stared at him in surprise. Abe never talked about anything