Sherryl Woods - The Calamity Janes - Gina and Emma

“A long way from home, aren’t you, Mr. O’Donnell?”

“As are you, Ms. Petrillo.”

“No, this is my home,” she said firmly.

“And New York?”

“Where I work.”

“Not any longer, if I have anything to say about it.”

She gave him a wry look. “Then I guess the battle lines are drawn. It’s a good thing you’re not either judge or jury. I might be quaking in my boots.”

“You should be, anyway. I’m very good at what I do.”

“And what is it that you do, Mr. O’Donnell? Condemn people without a trial?”

“Get at the facts, Ms. Petrillo. That was the whole purpose of that deposition you skipped out on.”

She regarded him with indignation. “I didn’t skip out on anything. Check your appointment book. I rescheduled.”

“Without my permission.”

“Your secretary didn’t seem to have a problem with it.”

“Yes, well, Lydia sometimes forgets who’s in charge.”

If it had been anyone else under any other circumstance, Gina might have grinned at his resigned expression. Instead, she said only, “You must find that extremely annoying.”

“Mostly it’s just an inconvenience,” he corrected.

“Yes, I imagine chasing halfway across the country after bad guys like me must play havoc with your schedule.”

To her surprise, he chuckled.

“You have no idea,” he said. “I had really big plans for this weekend.”

“Oh? A ball game with the kids? Maybe a charity event with the wife?”

“No kids. No wife.”

That news set off totally inappropriate little butterflies in Gina’s stomach. To her deep regret they seemed to be doing a victory dance. She refused to let him see that he could disconcert her in the slightest way—especially not in that way.

She studied him thoughtfully. “A hot date, then?”

“Nope.”

“Surely you weren’t spending the weekend all alone, Mr. O’Donnell.”

“Afraid so. Of course, I would have had my share of entertainment. Before I left I got a subpoena for the Café Tuscany books. I had someone pick them up yesterday morning. I understand your assistant was very helpful. Too bad you and your partner aren’t that cooperative. Where can I find Rinaldi, by the way?”

Gina barely contained a groan. That explained the frantic messages she’d been getting from Deidre all day. Gina hadn’t called back because she had vowed to take this weekend off from everything connected to the restaurant. She had figured Monday would be soon enough to return the call and face whatever catastrophe had struck. Just one more bad decision she would have to live with. They were stacking up faster than the ones the Calamity Janes had made in high school.

“I’m sure those books would have been as illuminating as anything I can tell you,” she said. “You should have stayed at home with them. You could have crunched numbers all weekend long. As for Bobby, if you locate him, let me know. I have a few choice words I’d like to share with him.”

“Do you expect me to believe he skipped out without telling you?”

“Frankly, I don’t care what you believe. Now, go home, Mr. O’Donnell. It’s not too late to cozy up with those financial records. Why not fly back tonight?”

“Because I gave the pilot on the charter jet that brought me here from Denver the night off and I hate to ruin his evening,” the attorney countered. “He was looking forward to doing some line dancing at someplace called the Heartbreak.”

“How very thoughtful of you. And how very expensive to go around chartering jets to get from here to there. Do your clients know how you toss their money around?”

“Oh, this trip’s on me,” he said easily. He glanced around at the crowded field, took a deliberate sniff of the smoky, barbecue-scented air. “I haven’t been to an event like this in a long time.”

She regarded him with skepticism. “For such a proponent of truth, Mr. O’Donnell, that’s quite a fib. You’ve never been to an event like this, have you?”

She deliberately looked him over from head to toe. “I’m guessing some East Coast prep school, then Harvard. If you’ve ever been to a reunion, I’m sure it was in some fancy hotel or private country club. And my hunch is that the closest you’ve ever come to a horse is on a New York street corner and there was a cop mounted on its back.”

“You’d be wrong,” he said without rancor. “I went to public schools, then to Yale, not Harvard.”

“That’s not exactly a significant distinction.”

“I suggest you not say that to an alumnus of either university. We do like to cling to our illusions of supremacy.”

“Well, cling all you like, just do it somewhere else. I’m here to have a good time with some old friends. I don’t want to find you lurking in the shadows everywhere I turn.”

“Too bad. I’m not going anywhere.”

His vehemence was annoying, but not all that surprising. “What really brought you running all the way out here?” she asked curiously. “Are you afraid I’m going to disappear? Are you hoping to discover I’ve stashed the missing money in a mattress at my parents’ house?”

The idea seemed to intrigue him. “Have you?”

“Nope. No stash. No hiding place. And I can show you my airline ticket. It’s round-trip. Go home, Mr. O’Donnell. I’ll see you right on schedule in a couple of weeks.”

“We could get this out of the way right here and now,” he suggested. “Then I could get back to New York and you could enjoy the rest of your weekend.”

“Without an attorney present? I don’t think so.”

He shrugged. “Then I guess you’ll just have to get used to having me underfoot for...how long did you say you were planning to stay?”

“Two weeks.”

The news seemed to make him very unhappy, but he nodded. “Two weeks, then. I’ll look forward to it.”

Gina sighed. “Suit yourself. I’m going to get another beer.”

He seemed to find that amusing. “Drinking won’t make you forget I’m here.”

“No, I imagine it won’t,” she agreed. “It would take a blow on the head to accomplish that. But the beer might make your presence more palatable.”

She gave him a jaunty salute. “See you in court, Mr. O’Donnell.”

“Oh, I’ll be seeing you long before that,” he said smoothly. “In fact, I’ll be everywhere you turn.”

If only his mission weren’t to put her in jail, Gina thought with a trace of wistfulness, she might actually look forward to that.

As it was, the knot of dread in her stomach tightened. She might not be guilty of anything except the bad judgment to go into business with Bobby, but Rafe O’Donnell struck her as the kind of man who could dig up secrets, twist words and paint a very dark picture of the saintliest person on earth.

And he intended to stay right here in Winding River turning over rocks, no doubt, looking for incriminating evidence, pestering her friends. She shuddered at the prospect.

Maybe she should just get it over with. Talk to him, and send him on his way. But that idea held no appeal, either. She needed time to gather her thoughts and see an attorney back in New York. She didn’t want to drag Emma or anyone else here into this unless she absolutely had to. It was her disaster and she would fix it. Assuming it could be fixed.

In the meantime the music had started and nobody loved dancing more than Gina did. She could postpone that beer for a few more minutes. She gave Rafe O’Donnell a considering look.

“Can you do a two-step?” she asked.

He looked at her blankly. “What’s that?”

She regarded him with pity. “Never mind,” she said, reaching for his hand. “Just follow my lead.”