Kara Lennox - Reluctant Partners

He climbed out of bed, threw on the shorts and T-shirt he’d planned on wearing for a morning jog, and headed into the living area.

Allie burst from her bedroom. “What’s going on? What’s happening?”

God Almighty, she had on nothing but a nightgown that was so skimpy she might as well not have bothered.

He looked everywhere but at her. “Jeez, woman, would you put some clothes on?”

“Is there a fire?”

“Probably not.” But a recorded voice was blaring from the hallway that they should proceed to emergency exits. “Allie. Put some clothes on.” Before he grabbed her and took her right there while the building burned down around them.

She looked down at herself and did that blushing thing she did so well. “Oh. Oh, God.”

She darted back into her room and slammed the door. Moments later she reappeared in shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops. She clutched her purse to her chest and looked utterly terrified. “Shouldn’t we go?”

“Yes. But don’t be scared. It’s probably nothing.”

“They wouldn’t blast us out of bed for nothing.” She hurried for the door.

He had to remember that she wasn’t a seasoned traveler like he was; this experience could be disconcerting if it was new to you. He followed her out the door. Other people were emerging from their rooms into the hallway, some laughing and making jokes, some clearly irritated.

They all started down the stairwell. No one was scared-until they reached the seventh floor and smelled smoke.

When the group of hotel guests smelled smoke, they got very quiet.

Allie was too terrified to utter a word. This was the stuff her nightmares were made of and one reason she liked being close to the ocean.

They walked down one more flight, but the smoke got thicker and Allie stopped, refusing to go any farther.

“The smoke is probably coming from one of the lower floors,” Cooper said. “Smoke rises. We have to keep going down past it.”

What he said made sense, but Allie couldn’t get her feet to cooperate. She felt as immovable as a hundred-year-old tree.

“Then let’s go back up one story,” he suggested, “and down the hall to the other stairwell.”

She nodded, but she still couldn’t move, not until he put his arm around her and gave her a good nudge. She clung to his arm as they walked up past a group of people determined to head down despite the smoke.

When they entered the seventh floor it was clear of smoke. She breathed a small sigh of relief, though she wouldn’t truly relax until they were outside on the ground. They made their way down the hall to the opposite side of the hotel.

The second staircase was free from smoke, thank God. Allie ran as fast as she could down the steps, passing other, slower people in her quest.

“Jeez, Allie, you’re gonna break your neck,” Cooper called from behind her.

She didn’t respond, just kept going until they reached the first floor. There, a hotel employee herded everyone out an emergency exit.

As soon as she was outside, she gulped several long breaths of fresh air-well, as fresh as air in downtown Houston ever got. She realized she was hyperventilating and forced herself to slow her breathing before she passed out.

“Are you okay?” Cooper was there beside her, sliding a comforting arm around her shoulders. His arm felt nice there, secure and safe, and she did feel better.

She couldn’t talk, but she nodded.

The crowd of people who had evacuated the hotel milled around, dazed and shocked. One poor woman wore nothing but a sheet she’d wrapped around her body, and Allie was glad Cooper had made her get dressed, even if it had taken a few precious seconds to do so.

“Let’s get out of this crowd.” Cooper took her hand and led her across the street, where they found a place to sit on the edge of a planter.

Allie gazed up at the beautiful old hotel, searching for signs of smoke or flames, but the building appeared perfectly normal-except for all the fire trucks with their flashing lights cutting through the night. The firefighters seemed to be working calmly, not panicking, as if this were a routine job.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cooper asked again.

“Yes, I’m fine.” She forced a smile. “Sorry about the meltdown.”

“That’s okay. Have you been in a fire before?”

“No. But I have a vivid imagination. And we were so high up, so far from the ground, and that stairwell didn’t have any windows…” She shivered.

Cooper rubbed circles on her back. “Come here.” He pulled her close to him, and amazingly she let him. It had been so long since she’d let anyone in. No one had comforted her like this since her father died.

Not that she and Johnny hadn’t been close. But she always felt like she needed to be strong around him. He’d had his reservations about hiring a woman, so she’d had to present a strong front. She’d never shown him her fears, her vulnerabilities.

It felt so good to lean against Cooper’s warm, strong body, to feel his arm around her. She tried not to think too hard about who he really was. Yes, they were involved in a legal battle, and the stakes were very high. But right now it was easy to forget all that. Maybe he was a slick, high-powered lawyer, but his work hadn’t beaten all the kindness and compassion out of him.

Or maybe she was just trying to rationalize the warm tingles coursing through her right now. All she knew was that she liked this closeness, and she didn’t want it to end.

“So why do you hate lawyers so much?” he asked out of the blue.

She should have known he had an angle. She answered him, anyway. “My uncle was a lawyer. My father died when I was sixteen, and Uncle Daniel was executor of his will. Let’s just say, by the time I turned eighteen there was nothing left.”

“Jeez. Where was your mother?”

“She died when I was ten.”

“Any brothers or sisters?”

“No. Daniel’s the only family I have left, and I haven’t seen him in ten…”

“…ten years,” he finished for her. “Isn’t that what you condemned me for?” His tone was merely curious, as if he truly wanted to understand her logic.

“My situation is different. My uncle wants nothing to do with me, and that suits me fine. He’s a thief and a liar.”

“Hmm.” Cooper was silent for a few moments. Then, “Would it surprise you to know that Johnny is the one who refused contact with me?”

“That’s not how he told the story.” Funny, but just days ago she would have jumped on Cooper accusing him of lying. Now, she felt more as if she’d misunderstood somehow, and she needed more information.

“Oh, I’ll admit my father and my other uncles cut off contact initially,” he said. “I don’t know the details of their feud, but it had something to do with Johnny’s drinking.

“Later, when I was grown, I tried to get back in touch with Johnny. I called the marina and left several messages for him. I wrote him five or six letters. He never returned the calls. I sent him a Christmas card every year, and at first he sent one back, but even that stopped.

“I know I should’ve come down here in person to see him, but I got busy with my life and I figured there would always be time. Johnny wasn’t an old man. At least, not in my memory.” His voice was thick at the end of his explanation, and Allie wanted to believe he was telling the truth.

But her uncle had told her a lot of pretty stories, too. Stories about how he was taking care of her inheritance, making it grow so she could go to college or buy a house when she turned eighteen.

She didn’t want more school or a house. All she wanted was the Ginnie , the one place where she could still feel close to her father. But her uncle had put the boat in dry dock against her wishes, insisting a derelict fishing boat was no place for a young girl.