❖

Deo wiped the sweat from her face with the bottom of her T-shirt, then clambered down the scaffold and headed around the side of the house into the front yard. Pia and Joey ambled toward her from the street.

“Two hours,” Deo said. “You can eat a lot ice cream in two hours.”

“Oh, stop being such a tyrant,” Pia said. “I got him back in plenty of time to do all the paperwork you need. Besides, it’s my mother’s birthday party this weekend and we had to pick out a present.”

“The list of the paint and drywall we need is in the kitchen,” Deo said to Joey. “We have to get the orders faxed out today.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Joey said, giving a mock salute. He dodged as Deo tried to swat him and hurried off laughing.

“You’re coming to the party, right?” Pia said.

Deo looked away.

“You have to.”

“I know.” Deo sighed. “I’ll stop by for a few minutes, okay?”

“My mother adores you, and she’ll be heartbroken if you don’t come. My father will keep an eye on how much your father’s drinking.

• 176 •

Winds of Fortune

It will be okay.” Pia slid an arm around Deo’s waist. “And I need you there. Otherwise, I’ll drown in testosterone.”

Deo laughed. “What about KT? Won’t she be there?”

“She’s going to try, but she’s on call the night before, and sometimes she doesn’t get out when she expects to. Besides,” Pia nudged Deo’s hip with hers, “KT makes my bones melt, but she rates right up there with my brothers on the macho scale. She’ll probably spend the afternoon talking sports with Joey and Antonio.”

“What do you think I’m going to be doing? Discussing fl oral arrangements?”

“At least I can count on you to hang with me.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll come.”

“You can always bring a date.”

Deo rolled her eyes. “Yeah right.”

“Still seeing Allie?”

“Not that way. We’re friends, that’s it.” Knowing where the conversation was headed, Deo tried to extricate herself from Pia’s grasp. “Look, I have to get back to work.”

“Uh-huh,” Pia said, grabbing the bottom of Deo’s T-shirt and twisting it in her hand. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Nothing. Not a thing.”

“You looked just like this when you were up to your eyebrows in Calley O’Reilly a week before she was supposed to marry Jimmy Jones. You didn’t want me to know you were fooling with her because you knew I’d kick your ass.”

“She was a dyke,” Deo protested. “She didn’t marry him, did she?

And now she has a pregnant wife and so does Jimmy. It all worked out just fi ne.”

“That’s not the point. Jimmy wanted to kill you.” Pia dragged Deo over to the porch and pulled her down onto the steps “You couldn’t hide the good stuff from me then, and you still can’t. Who is she?”

Deo wanted to say no one, because technically it was true. She and Nita hadn’t slept together and they certainly weren’t dating. But denying her didn’t feel right. “I’m sort of in the middle of this…thing, right now. It’s just temporary.”

Pia frowned. “A temporary thing. Defi ne thing.”

“Jesus, Pia. Gimme a break, will you. I have to go back to work.”

“You’re the boss. You should be sitting in a lounge chair under a

• 177 •

RADCLY fFE

tree telling the boys what to do. You can spare me fi fteen minutes.” Pia rested her hand on Deo’s leg. “You look like shit, by the way. What’s going on?”

“I just had a rough night.” Deo stared hard at a sliver of blue water that was visible between two houses across the street. By day, the harbor looked beautiful, by night, its dark surface refl ected her tormented memories. “I told Nita about Gabe, and it kind of twisted me up. That’s all.”

Pia took Deo’s hand and drew it into her lap. “You told Nita.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re seeing Nita?”

“Not exactly,” Deo said quietly.

“Sleeping with her?”

“Not exactly.”

“What does that mean? Heavy petting?”

Deo laughed. “We kind of have this thing.”

“You said that already, sweetie. Your vocabulary is a little lacking today.”

“I can’t get her out of my head, and if I don’t get her into bed soon I’m going to do more than fall off the roof.”

Pia squeezed Deo’s hand. “I thought there was something when I saw the way she looked at you this afternoon.”

“What way?” Deo studied Pia intently.

“When you fi rst walked in she got really still, for just a second, and looked at you…how should I say this. Like she wanted to swallow you whole.”

Deo groaned.

“How long has this thing been going on?”

“I don’t know. I think maybe since the fi rst time I saw her.”

“Uh-oh.”

Deo closed her eyes. “You got that right.”

Pia kissed Deo’s cheek. “She’s beautiful. And I really like her.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Deo, sweetheart,” Pia murmured. “If you told her about Gabe, then this is like nothing you’ve ever experienced before. You know that, right?”

“I’m not like you, Pia. I don’t do relationships.”

“I know.” Pia stood up and dusted off the back of her slacks, then

• 178 •

Winds of Fortune

smiled at Deo. “Of course, you’ve never had any reason to before.

Bring her to the party this weekend.”

“No fucking way.”

“Never say never,” Pia called back over her shoulder. “Love you.”

“Yeah,” Deo muttered, wondering how it was Pia always got her to tell her everything. Even the things she didn’t want to admit to herself.

❖

“Can you believe it?” Tory said to Nita as they walked up the hall together, leaning into the examining rooms and turning off the lights as they went. “We’re actually done at a decent hour. Both of us.”

“I think this is the fi rst time that’s happened in almost two months.”

Nita shrugged out of her lab coat and stepped into her offi ce to hang it on the coat tree. She had an hour before she was due to meet Deo, and she was inordinately pleased that she could go home and change into something more casual than what she wore to work. It seemed foolish, because they weren’t actually having a date.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m going to make the most of it.”

Tory waited while Nita collected her bag. “I’m going to fi nd Reese and make her take me out to dinner. How about you? And don’t tell me you’re going to stay home and read a book.”

Nita fl ushed, imagining herself saying, I’m meeting a woman for sex. “I’m having dinner with Deo. To talk about the house.”

“Ah. A business dinner.”

“Yes,” Nita said quickly. It was a business dinner of sorts. They were going to deal with the unfi nished business between them. Clear the air. Scratch the itch that had been driving them crazy. Driving her crazy, at any rate. She still wasn’t certain why Deo would bother when there had to be any number of women who would likely volunteer to scratch her anywhere she needed it.

“I hope she’s taking you to Porto’s. It’s her cousin’s restaurant.

Really hard to get into during the season.”

“I’m beginning to think that Deo has a family member available to fi ll every need.” Nita laughed as she and Tory entered the deserted waiting area. Randy was still behind the reception counter working on the computer.

• 179 •

RADCLY fFE

“Don’t stay too late,” Tory called to him.

He waved. “Don’t worry. I’m out of here in fi ve minutes. I can still catch the last hour of the tea dance.”

Tory held the door open for Nita, then followed her out into the parking lot. “I hope you have a great time tonight.”

“It’s not a date,” Nita clarifi ed.

“I haven’t forgotten that conversation we had about a certain gorgeous someone you weren’t really attracted to,” Tory teased gently.

“Oh God,” Nita said, stopping by her car. “I don’t know why I’m pretending with you. I haven’t the slightest idea what I’m doing with her.”

“Maybe that’s good,” Tory said. “Maybe it’s better not to have expectations, either good or bad. That way, whatever happens will just be true.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” Nita whispered as she slid into her car.

She rolled down her window and waved as Tory unlocked her Jeep.

“Have fun with your sheriff.”

Tory grinned. “That’s my plan.”

• 180 •

Winds of Fortune

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The station house was empty except for Gladys, sitting behind the semi-circular counter that held several computer screens and the radio equipment.

“Hi Gladys,” Tory said. “Reese around somewhere?”

“In the offi ce,” Gladys replied, inclining her head toward the closed door behind her. “I hope you came to kidnap her.”

“You’re reading my mind.”

“Good, because as much as I love her, I’m getting tired of her company.”

“I’ll take her off your hands for tonight, at least.” Tory saw by the large plain-faced clock on the wall that it was closing in on six-thirty.

Gladys usually left two hours earlier. “Shouldn’t you be getting out of here too?”

“I will, as soon as one of the boys shows up to relieve me.”

Tory wagged her fi nger as she pushed through the wooden gate and threaded her way between the desks towards the chief’s offi ce. “I know everyone’s working overtime, but I’m counting on you to set a good example for this crew.”

“You know damn well that if Reese works eighteen hours a day so will everyone else, even if she doesn’t tell them to.”

“Well I’m going to take care of that problem right now. She won’t be back tonight.”

“Good.”

Tory tapped on the door which said Nelson Parker in bold black letters and walked into the unadorned ten-by-twelve-foot offi ce. Reese was behind the desk, her tie askew and her eyes red rimmed. She looked more harried than tired.