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“No problem.”
See, I’m flexible. I can adapt to not being in charge.
He could almost hear his ex-wife, Corrine, refuting that statement in counseling, where she’d made him sound about as warm and cuddly as Attila the Hun.
“He treats me like one of his rookie officers. As if I should accept his word as the ultimate authority on everything. Having him home all the time during his…career transition…has been eye-opening.”
Apparently so eye-opening that she’d asked him for a divorce after a few short sessions. No, not asked. Demanded. As if she couldn’t stand to be with him one more second. Yet she still called to chat with him or ask for tips on fixing something around the house. He would never understand women. Maybe that was why he hesitated to jump back into the dating scene.
“Excuse me.”
He turned to see a redhead waiting expectantly. She was medium height, her turquoise tank top revealing toned arms and plenty of cleavage. A purple skirt of lightweight crinkly fabric covered her from hips to calves.
Her eyes narrowed and he realized he was staring.
“My seat’s back there.” She gestured behind him, silver bangles jangling on her wrist. “I need to get by.”
“Sure.” He stepped to the side, wondering if he should help her maneuver around the bench. Judging from her stiff posture, he figured probably not.
Two older ladies were already seated at the table. Heads together, they whispered to each other, nodding toward the door, where a distinguished gentleman with silver hair had entered.
So far, no sign of Sterling.
Tony took his seat opposite the two women and next to the redhead. He hated having his back to the room, but didn’t want to draw attention to himself by changing seats.
“Hello, ladies. I’m Tony.”
“Lorraine and Lola,” the one in blue said.
“We’re twins,” the woman in orange said. “Fraternal.” As if that explained everything.
“Nice to meet you.” He turned to the redhead, extending his hand.
She ignored it. “You’re Tony. I heard.”
He raised an eyebrow at her clipped tone. If she thought he’d been ogling her earlier, she was wrong. His ex-wife was tall, thin and blond; his taste hadn’t changed much over the years. He preferred understated women, and the redhead dressed to draw attention. “According to Linda, we’re supposed to be one big happy family. And your name is?”
“Kat.”
“Short for Katrina?” The exotic name suited her.
“Kathleen.”
“Irish?”
She rolled her eyes. “Mmm-hmm.”
Then she turned her shoulder to him as the older guy sat on the other side of her. She extended her hand, her voice warm. “Hi, I’m Kat.”
Shrugging off the snub, Tony glanced around. The driver’s license photo he had of Sterling wasn’t good quality and showed an average-looking man in his mid-thirties—thirty-six if the date of birth was to be believed. Though Tony had seen more than a few average-looking guys in the right age range at the small resort, none of them appeared to be Sterling. What if he’d already departed? Decided some larger resort provided better pickings? Or worse yet, Phoenix Rising was merely a diversion to throw someone like Tony off track, while Sterling went on to his true destination?
Wherever the man was, Tony would find him. He would track Sterling’s credit card purchases as long as it took, to see where the guy holed up.
Linda approached the table. “We’re waiting for three more members of your group. Please relax and take this time to get to know one another until they arrive.”
Tony glanced down the table toward the three unoccupied seats. Two cards, side by side, were decorated with wedding bells. Troy and Angie Birmingham. Unfortunately, the angle was wrong on the lone place card and Tony couldn’t read it without being obvious.
He resigned himself to more waiting. Not his strong suit.
KAT WAS ACUTELY AWARE of Tony sitting next to her. It wasn’t simply the fact that his arm occasionally brushed hers, or the accompanying sizzle. There was something commanding and dangerous about the man. She sensed a leashed energy, as if he was waiting for something to happen. A focused energy that reminded her of the red-tailed hawk, waiting to swoop in on a tasty morsel.
There was no way Kat would allow herself to be any man’s tasty morsel. At least not until she figured out how to avoid picking jerks. And judging from Tony’s earlier fixation with her breasts, he was a grade A jerk.
She heard him speaking to Lorraine and Lola, though what he was saying didn’t register. But the deep, strong timbre of his voice raised goose bumps on her arms.
This was insane. He was the kind of man she knew to avoid—one who came on strong to land a woman, but barely returned a crumb of affection once the novelty wore off.
Kat was done with accepting crumbs. Next time she fell in love, she wanted the whole damn cake.
But a quick glance at his tense jaw and observant eyes had her poised to run. Or throw herself at him.
She began to stand, intent on acting on her first impulse. Because throwing herself at a virtual stranger, while satisfying in the short term, never ended well.
A hand brushed her shoulder. There was no accompanying zing of awareness. Sneaking another glance at Tony, Kat was surprised to see he’d turned to talk to the older man. They appeared to be deep in conversation about the merits of the Dallas Cowboys versus the Phoenix Cardinals.
“Here’s my new neighbor. Kat, isn’t it? We met on the shuttle to our casitas,” a male voice said from behind her.
She turned to see Will standing there, a nice guy in his thirties with an easy, safe smile.
“Yes, I remember. It’s good to see you again.” Her tone was more effusive than she’d intended, bordering on desperate. Damn.
His eyes widened for a second. “Good to see you, too. You all settled in?”
“Yes. You were the one with the golf clubs, right?”
Grinning, he said, “Yes, that’s me—didn’t want to overdo the exercise. We’ll have to talk later.” He squeezed her arm and moved to his seat on the other side of the table, where he charmed Lola and Lorraine for most of the meal.
And totally ignored Kat.
How was she supposed to see if she could drum up some enthusiasm for a nice guy when he wouldn’t even glance in her direction? And what did he mean by “talk later”?
With Zach, it would have meant a booty call that turned into a three-year live-in arrangement at her place. Unfortunately, the arrangement hadn’t included employment on his part.
“He’s not for you.” Tony’s voice was low, his breath warm on the curve of her ear.
Her shoulders tensed again. Not only at his assessment, but also because she could imagine him tangled in her sheets, whispering her name in the dark.
Her best bud, Annie, would tell her to run like crazy from a man who rang her bells so insistently on the first meeting. Granted, the advice could be construed as hypocritical if her friend didn’t mean so well, since Annie had slept with her husband, Drew, the evening of their blind date.
Steeling herself to make the right decision for once, Kat ignored her reawakened libido and managed a frosty glare for Tony. “I’ll be the judge of what—and whom—is best for me. But thanks anyway.”
With that, she flipped her hair over her shoulder, smacking him in the face with it. Anything to get the man to back off and stay out of her personal space.
Anything.
She managed to ignore Tony all through the meal. And then Linda broke the group into pairs for icebreaker exercises after dessert, circulating a brown paper sack. “It looks like our newlyweds have chosen to forgo the welcoming activities, which is quite understandable. But it means we have a small group. Each of the ladies needs to pick one slip of paper from the bag for your partner’s name. Then follow me to the playground out back.”
Tony groaned.
Kat felt the same way. Especially after she drew his name. For a woman who had recently won the lottery, she would have expected better luck. But then again, she’d had to split her winnings with four other people and contribute a healthy chunk to Uncle Sam.
Some self-destructive impulse prodded her to bait this Tony. “What’s the matter? Chicken?”
In retrospect, it felt an awful lot like the impulse that had told her Zach had potential.
And she knew how well that had worked out.
CHAPTER TWO
THE LIGHT OF CHALLENGE in Kat’s blue-green eyes made Tony reconsider inconspicuously strolling away from this kiddie playground and whatever icebreaker Linda had cooked up. Ex-Rangers did not do party games.
Until Kat made a clucking noise with her tongue that sounded suspiciously like a chicken.
He’d never walked away from a challenge. Folding his arms over his chest, he considered his options now that he knew for a fact Will Sterling was staying at Phoenix Rising. Being seated at dinner with the man had been a welcome stroke of luck.
An adjusted cover was essential, since Teresa wasn’t here to play the role of his wealthy sister. If he appeared to be a man on the make, he would have plenty of reason to mingle with the female guests while keeping an eye on Sterling. And it might just give him the opportunity to befriend the man, one stud to another.
Hitting on Kat would be an easy way to plant that perception right away. And he wouldn’t be risking his hormones getting the better of him, because she wasn’t his type. It seemed like a doable solution.
Tony was distracted watching Will from the corner of his eye. He had been paired with Lola, and they were close enough that Tony could eavesdrop on their conversation.
“If I can do it, you can do it.” Kat’s disdain was evident as she taunted him. Tony had no idea why she’d taken an instant dislike to him, but he intended to change that, and very publicly.
“You’re on, red.”
“I might have to hurt you if you call me that again. My hair is auburn, for your information.”
“Duly noted.”
Linda walked over and handed him a bandanna. “First, I’ll blindfold one person in each pair. Then I want the sighted partner to describe his or her favorite piece of play equipment from childhood, but you can’t name it.”
Tony raised an eyebrow, several locker room jokes coming to mind.
“Keep it clean,” Kat muttered.
“That wasn’t part of the instructions.”
Covering his eyes with the bandanna, Linda knotted it snugly at the back of his head. “Behave yourselves. This is an icebreaker, not the battle of the sexes.”
What had seemed harmless suddenly made Tony want to rip off the offending cloth. It went against every instinct to render himself helpless.
He cursed under his breath.
“I’ll be gentle, I promise.” Kat’s whisper made him want to laugh. She was in over her head.
Tony heard Lorraine—or was it Lola?—giggle nervously as she was blindfolded. Then tell her partner she’d loved to swing as a child.
“Lorraine, you’re making it too easy.” Linda’s tone was patient. “The idea is to give ambiguous clues. And when your partner guesses correctly or gives up, you may lead him to the appropriate equipment.”
Tony was glad he could screen out Lorraine’s conversation now, since she’d been paired with the older man. It was time to work on his cover and get into the spirit of competition. “What was your favorite, Kat? I have you pegged for a tomboy doing death-defying stunts on the monkey bars, showing all the boys you were better than them.”
“Nice guess. My favorite required more imagination, though it was generally a solo endeavor.”
“You were a loner, huh? Your clue’s still too general. That could be anything on this playground, with the exception of the teeter-totter.”
“Okay, my mind whirled with possibilities.”
“The merry-go-round.”
“Wrong again.” Her voice became thoughtful, almost soft. “I could fly through the air…climb the Himilayas….”
“Swings?”
“You’re not concentrating.” Now it sounded as if she was smiling.
He was distracted from his purpose for a moment. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” he accused.
“Immensely.”
“Just remember, paybacks are a killer.”
Her sigh brushed his cheek, smelling of peppermint.
Tony dropped his arms to his sides. “Go ahead, toy with me all you want.” He had to admit she had his complete attention, and he was enjoying himself more than he’d anticipated. It wasn’t just the mystery the blindfold provided. It was her in-your-face attitude.
Fingers snapped near his ear. “Pay attention. All the other partners are already changing blindfolds. Did your mother ever tell you not to judge a book by its cover?” she asked.
“Yes, but I didn’t listen to much she said back then. Now I’m more willing to admit she’s a truly wise woman. How about your mom? Is she wise?”
When there was no response, he asked, “Kat?”
“I heard you. My mother has nothing to do with this. Stay on topic, please, and listen closely. You know, you could take a page from your mother right now.”
“Huh?”
Kat let out a huff of exasperation. “Those were clues, Einstein. Now concentrate—covers, pages, imagination…”
Irritating her was fun. She was like a pesky younger sister. Maybe Linda had something here with the play ground theme.
