Teresa Southwick - Something's Gotta Give

“Jamie, are you leaving?”

“Hi, Al. Yeah. Something’s come up.”

Al considered Sam. “Is he a friend of yours?”

“Sam Brimstone,” Sam said, holding out his hand.

“Al Moore.”

The guy had up-and-comer written all over him. Young, good-looking, a firm aggressive handshake. And Sam didn’t like him.

“Al’s an attorney here at the firm,” Jamie explained.

“I thought we were firm friends, too.”

“Of course,” she said, shaking her head at his pun. “You’re always there for me.”

“Good to know.” He looked at Sam. “People make the job, and friendships are what make the long hours tolerable.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” she agreed.

Al grinned, the effects of his white strips so bright, Sam was tempted to whip out his shades. And again he picked up a whole lot of unspoken communication from body language and what Slick didn’t say. This guy wanted Jamie, and there was nothing friendly about it. Lust—pure and simple. It glowed in his eyes, and the tension was there in every muscle in his twenty-four-hour-fitness toned body.

Sam really didn’t like this guy.

It wasn’t jealousy, he told himself. He barely knew Jamie, certainly not well enough to be jealous of her coworker. And he didn’t want to know her better because a detective should never get personal with a person involved in a case.

She looked at the watch on her wrist. “Well, we have to be going.”

Al slid his hands into the pockets of his tailored slacks. “So where are the two of you headed?”

“Dinner,” Sam said, putting his palm at the small of her back, the gesture intimate, but only to urge her forward.

The guy’s smile disappeared faster than you could say “teeth bleach,” and Sam felt a surge of satisfaction that told him he really had to work on that SOB thing. And he would. Real soon, he thought, escorting Jamie to the elevator.

Jamie drove to the restaurant with Sam on her tail in his sleek, black Mustang. They went into The Homestead through a back entrance, and she knew Sam was following her, this time on foot. Even if she hadn’t heard the heavy sound of his boots behind her, she could just feel him. His presence raised the hair on the back of her neck and tingles everywhere else. Back in her office, she’d sworn he was staring at her mouth. But she was probably wrong. He’d stopped in town to say hello to a friend, and her family had turned his life upside down. Why in the world would he be thinking about kissing her?

She turned a corner and poked her head into the room her folks used as an office. As usual, paperwork was scattered around the computer on each of the two desks facing each other from opposite walls. Two desks, two computers, and neither of her parents was anywhere in sight.

“They must be out front working,” she said.

“Do they always leave the back door unlocked?”

His body was so close behind her she could almost feel his chest against her back and the vibrations of his deep voice. There was no mistaking the disapproval in his tone.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

“Anyone could have walked in and helped themselves to anything in here, including the picture of you that your parents told me was stolen.”

“Even if it was locked, this place is so busy at lunch and dinnertime that it would be easy to slip back here unnoticed.”

“I need to have a talk with them about security.”

Before she could respond, there were footsteps in the hall. Sam moved farther into the room and stood beside her, just before her parents appeared in the doorway.

“Jamie.” Her mother held out her arms, and Jamie went into them.

“Hi, Mom.” She gave her father a quick, hard hug. “Dad. You already know Sam.”

“Louise. Roy,” he said.

They shook hands, Sam towering over the other man, Jamie noticed. Roy and Louise Gibson were like a matched set, one complementing the other—both small and round and solid and comfortable. Her mother’s short brown hair was shot with red highlights to cover the gray. What hair her father had left encircling his head was gray. He always said he’d earned every single one worrying about his only daughter. They were both dressed for the evening crowd—her father in a navy suit and red tie, her mother in a long-sleeved black knit dress and matching low-heeled shoes.

“I see you and Sam have met,” her father said.

Jamie huffed out a breath, then leaned against her mother’s littered desk, folding her arms over her chest.

Before she could say anything, her mother asked, “So, why are you upset?”

“Let me count the ways,” she mumbled.

“What?” Her mother’s expression grew wary.

Jamie shot Sam a look that said this was all his fault, then cocked a thumb in his direction. “You guys have some explaining to do.”

Her mother sighed. “We have a nice quiet table in a cozy corner. How about we sit down, have something to eat. Maybe a nice glass of wine. We can talk.”

“I don’t want food. I don’t want wine. I want some answers.” She glanced at them both. “So?”

Louise shrugged, clearly unapologetic. “So, we bought him at the auction.”

“What were you thinking?” Jamie asked.

Roy moved beside her and put his arm around her shoulders. “He’s a detective from Los Angeles.”

“Used to be,” Sam clarified.

In the doorway, he casually rested a shoulder against the door frame, as if he was holding it up. As wide as his shoulders were, he almost could. A man in the prime of his life, yet he’d left LAPD. Why? Jamie wondered.

“Whatever,” her father said. “L.A.’s loss is our gain. For thirty days we don’t have to worry about our little girl.”

Jamie struggled to keep the irritation from her voice. “You don’t have to worry about me at all. And I’m not a little girl.”

She made the mistake of looking at Sam as she said that. Something sparked in his eyes, a very male response that confirmed he agreed she was all grown-up. It was almost enough to distract her, but not quite.

“You’ll always be little to us,” her mother was saying. “We’re your parents. We changed your diapers—”

“Okay.” Jamie held up a hand. On the upside, at least all the naked baby pictures were at their house. “No one’s arguing about the family connection. But you guys have got to stop treating me like a china doll.”

“We’re just concerned. Maybe he can figure out who’s harassing you and make them stop,” Roy said. “He finds perps. It’s what he does.”

“Used to,” Sam said again.

“Dad, you’ve been watching too many cop shows on TV.” Jamie sighed. Maybe she should approach this from a different direction. “So why didn’t you guys tell me what you’d done?”

The folks exchanged a guilty look. “Didn’t your receptionist tell you I called?” her mother asked.

“Yes. But—”

“You could have called back.”

“You could have tried my cell. Since when do you go through the switchboard?”

“I think maybe cell phone reception isn’t so good in your office.”

“Since when?” Jamie demanded.

“I tried,” her mother said. “Apparently you were busy today.”

“I’m busy every day and I always get your calls. You guys aren’t very good fibbers. You’re so busted.”

“Okay.” Louise met her gaze. “We went ahead and bid on him at the auction, but we knew you’d say no.”

“And just turned him loose on me without warning?” she scolded, then met Sam’s gaze. He’d been a victim in all this, too. Although the humor glittering in his eyes didn’t make him look very victimlike.

“We didn’t want to hear how you don’t need anything and can take care of yourself.” Louise looked at Sam. “She’s our miracle child. We tried for years and couldn’t get pregnant—”