Tempting Adam Read online

  “I made her show me her license before we started going out. I didn’t want any of that kind of trouble.”

  “Does her father know where she is?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “From what you’ve told me, he doesn’t seem the type to just let her run off without knowing where she’s going.”

  Rusty shifted uneasily. “I don’t think she told him she was leaving.”

  “She ran away?”

  “She’s eighteen. She’s not a minor. She’s got a right to live her own life.”

  “Granted, but what are you going to do when her father shows up?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “I’m not saying you did.” A horn blared in the distance along the busy road fronting the complex. Adam shook his head. “Is she living with you?”

  Rusty’s shoulders heaved. “Yes.”

  “And that’s all right with you?”

  “I guess.” He blew out a breath. “She rearranged everything—the furniture, the kitchen. I go to shave this morning and I can’t find my razor. It’s in the shower, where she’d been using it.”

  A deep furrow formed between his eyes. “She’s been reading bridal magazines.”

  Adam whistled softly. “That’s serious.”

  “What am I going to do?” A note of desperation colored Rusty’s voice.

  “Well, we’re just going to have to send her home.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know.” Adam patted him on the back. “I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry. We’ll work something out.”

  “Thanks, Adam.” His eyes shone with relief. “I should have come to you right away.”

  “Rusty?” Sherry called from the car. “Can we go?”

  “Coming.”

  A slight breeze scattered golden leaves across the road. Adam shook his head. He had to get Sherry safely home before Lauren caught wind of this. The last thing she needed was to worry about her brother. Somehow, Adam had to fix this and fix it fast.

  THE STOCK FIGURES blurred before Lauren’s eyes. She blinked. Normally, she had no trouble concentrating on the numbers that often reflected whether or not their campaigns had impacted a client’s business. Tonight, however, she couldn’t keep her mind from wandering.

  Rusty’s return, then dinner with her mother had Lauren obsessing over events she’d thought she’d long put to rest. Her father’s illness had been a frightening time. They’d all been distressed to learn her father had known of his cancer for a while but had chosen to keep it from them until he could no longer hide his condition. The shock of it, combined with his imminent death, had sent them all reeling.

  After his death, she’d come close to losing her mother, too. The memories of those dark times rolled over her—trying in vain to wake her mother, scavenging for food for Rusty and holding creditors at bay with the promise of payments she knew they couldn’t make.

  Though Adam had been there for her, she’d kept the extent of her mother’s despondency from him.

  Responsibility had dropped on Lauren’s shoulder like a lead cloak. Through necessity, she’d taken matters into her own hands. She’d called a friend of the family who owned a small sporting-goods store, then roused her mother, dressed her and driven her to the store for the interview.

  Like a lost child, Delores had followed Lauren’s instructions. She’d taken the job and Lauren found part-time work after school, waitressing at a family-run diner. Somehow they’d struggled through the following years.

  All the while, Lauren was the one to patch Rusty up when he got into fights—and there were plenty of those—to wait up all night worrying about him when he missed coming home by curfew, then to drive across the state to pick him up when he’d been stranded after a night of partying with the wrong crowd.

  She shook her head. She’d had a year of peace while he’d been gone, but now he was back, and if the knot in her stomach was any indication, trouble wasn’t far away.

  If she worried like this about her brother, how could she possibly take on the responsibility of a child?

  She glanced at the clock. It was late, but not too late to see Adam. She just had to talk to him. She had to make him understand that she didn’t want children—that she might never want them.

  And if that meant she had to let him go in order for him to pursue the life he wanted, then so be it. Her throat tightened as she headed out her door. The sooner she got it over with, the better.

  ADAM SMILED as Judith McDougal took a seat across from him. He’d expected a P.I. to have a harder look. With her short brown curls, rosy cheeks and warm smile, Judith presented a picture of wholesome goodness. He liked her immediately.

  She’d asked him to meet her at Blarney’s, a tavern not far from his house. A waitress hurried by with a tray of drinks for a table near them. The chatter of myriad conversations mingled with a steady rock beat.

  Judith leaned toward him over the table, raising her voice so he could hear over the noise. “I hope you don’t mind. I have to make this pretty quick. I’ve got some baking I’m doing for my troop.”

  “Troop?”

  “I’m a Girl Scout troop leader.” She shrugged. “My niece wanted to join Brownies, but there weren’t any openings in her area. My sister is just too busy, so I volunteered to lead a new troop.”

  “Oh. Well, you certainly aren’t what I expected.”

  “I get that a lot.” She reached into her purse. “My company’s licensed and bonded. I’ve got a four-year degree in criminal just—”

  “I’m not questioning your qualifications. You’ve come highly recommended.”

  She sat up straighter and favored him with a smile. “So, you’d like me to ascertain the identity of your girlfriend’s secret admirer?”

  “That’s right.”

  He handed her a manila envelope. “Like I said, she doesn’t know I’m doing this. And it’s very important we keep it that way. I wasn’t able to get much. There’s Lauren’s business card, and the card that came with the roses. Then I made some notes about the dates she received the gifts.”

  He cleared his throat. “And the title and publisher of a cookbook I think he sent her. I just want to be sure this isn’t some wacko.”

  “He sent her a cookbook?”

  “Right.”

  “Odd. That doesn’t sound like the kind of gift a secret admirer would send.”

  “Well, it’s um…an erotic cookbook.”

  “Oh.” Her eyes rounded. A pink flush crept up her cheeks. “Yes…that’s…noteworthy.”

  “Adam?” Lauren’s voice sounded behind his shoulder.

  With a start, he turned to face her. His pulse pounded in his ears. “Sunshine, what are you doing here?”

  Lauren stiffened as Adam rose to place a kiss on her cheek. The awful feeling in her gut intensified at the guilty look in his eyes.

  Her gaze swept over the dark-haired woman. “I was coming to see you and happened to notice your truck in the parking lot.”

  “You were coming to see me?” A look of surprise with an unexpected measure of delight flickered across his features.

  “I wanted to talk.” Lauren fisted her hands, too aware of the strain lacing her voice.

  Her gaze shifted again to the strange woman. Who was she? What was she to Adam? Who was Lauren to him, for that matter? She was more than his best friend, but they were far from life partners at this point. There were just so many issues between them.

  She tamped down her jealousy as he gestured to the woman. “Um…this is Judith, a…friend of mine. Judith, this is Lauren, the one I’ve been telling you so much about.”

  The woman rose and extended her hand to Lauren. “It’s a pleasure.”

  “Judith has some baking to do, right, Judith? So we’re all done.”

  “Right. I think that’s it.” Judith hefted her purse onto her shoulder. “Like I said, I do need to run. I’m baking brownies for my Brownies.”

&nbs
p; “Girl Scouts. She’s a troop leader,” Adam explained to Lauren.

  “Oh.”

  Judith nodded. “Well, it was really nice meeting you, Lauren. Adam, we’ll talk soon.”

  “Right.” He pulled out his wallet, then dropped a number of bills on the table.

  “You want to head over to my place?” he asked Lauren as Judith retreated into the crowd.

  “No, I don’t have much time, either. I really have to get back to work.”

  A look of unease passed over his face. He gestured toward the booth. “Then, please have a seat.”

  She hesitated for a moment before dropping into the space the woman had vacated. He was lying. This Judith woman was more than a friend. Lauren stifled the horrible urge to cry. She was losing her best friend.

  Instead of returning to his seat, he slid into the booth beside her. “Look, that wasn’t a date or anything. Judith is just—”

  “A nice wholesome girl who looks like she’d fit your new life plan.”

  “Lauren, sweetheart, you’re the only woman I want fitting my life plan. You are the plan.”

  “No, I’m not. You want a wife and kids, remember? I want a career and stability.”

  He gritted his teeth. “You would have stability. Don’t you see? I want to provide for you. I’d like to take care of you. You don’t have to do all this on your own. I hate watching you kill yourself over your work. You look so tired and I have to wonder if it’s really necessary.

  “You’ve made it through your first year. I know you have a strong client base. You’re not sleeping, are you? Unless I’m around, you don’t eat right, either. Sweetheart, you’re making yourself sick.”

  The table before her blurred. “I am tired. I know I can’t keep this up, but it’s so hard to get everything done that I need to do in a day.”

  “And seeing me has really complicated things.”

  “Yes.”

  “Talk to me.”

  She hesitated. If only they could go back to the way they were. She’d never had trouble talking to him before.

  His warm hand closed over hers. “Lauren, it’s still me, Adam—your best friend. Tell me what’s wrong.”

  “I understand that you want to take care of me, but don’t you see that I will never allow myself to be so dependent on another person?”

  “I know how rough things were back when your dad died—”

  “You don’t know all of it. You don’t know that my mom didn’t get out of bed for weeks. That I had to force-feed her because she wouldn’t feed herself, let alone me and Rusty. That Dad left us in debt, with no money coming in. That if I hadn’t dragged Mom down to Mr. Forester’s store, she wouldn’t have gotten that job and God knows what would have become of us.

  “And even then we were lucky to keep a roof over our heads. He never told us. We never had time to prepare. It was hard, Adam. It was damn hard.”

  Adam swallowed. A mixture of emotions raced through him—surprise, guilt, anger that she’d kept so much from him for all these years. Of course he’d known things had been difficult after Lauren’s father died, but she was right. He never knew the extent of it.

  How could he have not known? Had he been so absorbed in his own misery, he hadn’t noticed hers?

  He resisted the urge to take her in his arms and soothe away the hurt. She sat stiff and straight beside him. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.

  She wiped a stray tear from her eye and stared at a candle flickering on the table. “I don’t know. Family pride? She was always such a great mother. I thought she was invincible. Maybe by not admitting what was happening, it somehow wouldn’t make it real.”

  “But, how?”

  “It was easy to make things seem okay on the surface. And I guess it was a little like what you said before. When I was with you, it was like that was all a bad dream. I was always happy around you.”

  “Was?”

  She finally turned to face him. The torment in her eyes sent a shaft of apprehension through him. “It’s so hard now. It’s just…I saw you sitting there with that woman—the baker of brownies and leader of young girls—and there’s part of me that’s really…hurt and jealous that you found another woman to spend any time with, even if it was all innocent. But then there’s this part of me thinking you look perfect together and if I really care about you, how can I possibly keep you from pursuing someone who might want the same things you want?”

  “Whoa. There is nothing going on with me and Judith. You have it so wrong.”

  “She’s just a friend.”

  “Right.”

  “Who likes children and baking.”

  “That doesn’t have anything to do with anything. Besides, you cook.”

  “That’s really not the problem.”

  “You think we want different things.”

  “We do.”

  “I want to be with you. You want to be with me. The rest will work itself out.”

  “I need some time.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut and drew in a deep breath. When he opened them, she was again fixated on the candle. “How much time?”

  “A few days. I don’t know.”

  She looked up at him and it was all he could do not to crush her to him. Somehow, he spoke past the lump in his throat. “You get some rest. Everything will seem brighter when you’re not so tired.”

  She nodded as she scooted out of the booth. He moved to follow her, but she held her hand up to stop him. “I’ll see myself out.”

  For a moment, she stared down at him as if she might change her mind, then she turned and walked away.

  “RUSTY ISN’T HERE. He’s visiting his sister.” Sherry leaned against the half-open door, her eyes wary.

  A wave of empathy moved through Adam. He felt as left out as she did. He had done his best today to give Lauren all the space she needed. It hadn’t been easy. He’d caught himself punching in her number at least half a dozen times yesterday.

  He shrugged. “They need some time to catch up. Besides, I came to see you.”

  “Me?” Her eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed, her chin coming up defensively. “Why? I’m not even good enough to introduce to his family.”

  “You’ve met me, and I’m like family.”

  The door eased open a fraction more. “I think that was an accident. He wouldn’t have introduced us if you hadn’t happened to be there when I came to get him. He seemed a little upset about it.”

  “Why don’t you let me come in? You look like you need someone to talk to.”

  She hesitated, then swung the door open. “I don’t understand why he’s acting so uptight all of a sudden.”

  Sniffling, she led Adam to the dimly lit living room, where she flopped unceremoniously onto the couch. “He’s so cranky. I can’t seem to say or do anything right. I gave up my whole life to come here—quit school, my job at the nail salon, left my sister.”

  “You have a sister?” Adam perched on a nearby chair. The furniture was old, secondhand and sparse, a reminder of the rough times Rusty and Lauren had gone through.

  “Becca. She’s younger. Still living with Daddy. I wanted her to come, too—to get away from that tyrant, but she was too softhearted to leave him. Plus she wants to finish up high school.”

  “So, she knows where you are?”

  Sherry’s eyes widened. “I wouldn’t just desert her.”

  “Does your father know?”

  “Hell, no.”

  “Your sister won’t tell him?”

  “She wouldn’t rat me out.”

  “What do you think your dad will do?”

  Her shoulders shifted. “Who cares? He can drop dead. That would just suit me fine. I’m on my own now. I don’t need him bossing me around.”

  “So you’re going back to school?”

  “I need to establish residency first, so I probably won’t go back until next year.”

  “You’re working in the meantime?”

  She straighten
ed. “Rusty’s taking care of me. And I’m taking care of him. I bought groceries and made us pot pies for dinner last night. He said it was really good. He ate every bit, too, so I think he meant it.”

  “You know, Sherry, Rusty’s trying to get himself established. I have a feeling he may have borrowed that money he sent you. He’s already in debt and working really hard to stay afloat.”

  “Well, I tried to get a job. I put in an application at that nail place in the strip mall around the corner. I don’t have a car and I’m trying not to use his too much. Not that he minds,” she added hastily, her chin jutting higher. “He wants to help me. He wants me here.”

  Adam leaned forward and softened his voice. “Did he ask you to come?”

  Her eyes widened, shimmering with all the trepidation of a young girl out on her own for the first time and realizing how frightening the world could be. “No.”

  “But he was happy to see you when you showed up on his doorstep?”

  “He said I could stay. He said it was okay.”

  “And I’m sure he meant it.”

  “Then why is he so moody? I think he went to his sister’s to get away from me.”

  “Did the two of you live together before?”

  “No. I was still at home. We only went out a few times. He didn’t even know who my dad was.”

  “But you followed him here, without asking him first, and moved in with him, expecting that everything would just work out.”

  “I thought he liked me.”

  “I’m sure he does.”

  “But he doesn’t love me.”

  “Do you love him?”

  The question seemed to take her by surprise. Her eyebrows arched. She opened her mouth to respond, then closed it and looked away. “I don’t guess so.”

  She swiped her hand across her eyes before turning back to Adam. “Maybe I shouldn’t have come.”

  “That’s not for me to say.”

  “But that’s why you came here. To talk me into going back. Because Rusty’s too nice to tell me to leave.”

  “Would going back be such a bad thing?”

  “I’m not living with my father anymore. He thinks I’m still a child. He thinks he owns me.”

  “I’d be willing to bet you’ve gotten his attention by now. Maybe he’s willing to listen.”