Jill Shalvis - Serving Up Trouble

Both stopped Angie in her tracks. She knew those eyes, that smile. “You’re Sam’s mother.”

The woman opened her mouth, then slowly closed it again. Her expression went from helpful to un welcoming in two seconds flat. “Who are you?”

“Angie Rivers. You…he looks like you.”

Her mouth tightened. “Sam is young and ridiculously handsome. We look nothing alike.”

Angie sat in the chair in front of the desk. “Oh, but you’re wrong. I knew right away. It’s in the eyes. There’s no mistaking it.”

“I…see.” Sam’s mother set down her pencil. “What do you want?”

There was no way to ease into this conversation. “I guess I want to know why you don’t talk to him. Why you don’t call him.”

She frowned, her knuckles white on a book. Then she turned away.

“I’m sorry,” Angie said to her ramrod-stiff spine. “I shouldn’t have asked. He thinks of you, is all.”

She didn’t turn back. “Is he…all right?”

“Yes.” Angie hesitated, then decided to go for broke. “He told me about you. About you not wanting to see him, since he’s a cop like his dad.”

“If he told you that, the two of you must be close.” The woman’s hands trembled. “Oh dear,” she breathed, then covered her eyes before turning around again. “I think of him, too.”

“He’d probably like to hear that.”

“It’s been so long. Are you his girl friend?”

“Not exactly.” Angie managed a weak smile. “He, uh, has a few issues in that area.”

“Yeah.” She reached for a stack of books and made herself busy separating them. “I’m sorry, I’m working.”

Angie nodded and, taking her cue, walked away. Halfway across the room, she hesitated, then glanced back.

Sam’s mother stood staring out the window, work for got ten, lost in thought.

But there was an achingly sad smile on her lips.

To avoid going home after work, Angie went to the book store to waste the hours before class.

Ellie Wilson was behind the counter, frowning as she added up some thing on her calculator. “Studying?”

“Always. How’s business?”

“It’d be a heck of a lot better if people would just do their jobs.”

“Employee trouble, huh?” Angie smiled sympathetically. “You haven’t by any chance seen that guy I asked you about?”

Ellie’s frown deepened. “For your cop?”

“Yes.”

“You should stay out of that nasty business before some thing terrible happens.”

Angie thought about the prank calls, the break-in, and nearly said, Too late. “I’ll be okay.”

“Well, just be careful.” Ellie sighed and set aside her paperwork. “And no, I haven’t seen him. Got enough to worry about. I never thought it would be this complicated and stressful to run a business.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“That’s so sweet.” This from George, who came out of the office. He gently set aside his wife and sent Angie a warm smile. “You’re looking quite happy today. It’s nice to see you that way after all you’ve been through.”

“Thank you.”

“You must have some thing special going on to be glowing like that.” Ellie peered at her from over her spectacles. “You pining over that cop or something?”

“Uh…no.” Not much anyway.

Okay, yes. Yes, she was, but she didn’t have to admit it.

“Cops are terrible lovers,” Ellie said with a shake of her finger. “Remember that.”

Angie choked on a laugh. “That’s quite a blanket statement.”

“They’re too side tracked with their work,” Ellie insisted, slapping George’s hands away when he tried to steer her aside again.

Angie didn’t know about all the other cops in the world, but given how Sam had kissed and touched her-as if she was the only woman on the entire planet-she had to say, Ellie was pretty far off base.

“Just watch out,” the older woman warned, still pushing her husband aside. “Will you stop?” she said to him. “Men are traitors, Angie. Every one of them.”

“Hey, not all,” George corrected mildly.

Ellie rolled her eyes, and when George turned his back, Ellie mouthed, All of them.

After class that night, Angie walked to her car with a group of other students and purposely didn’t allow herself to think about going home.

Alone.

Instead she concentrated on how lovely her day had been, doing as she pleased, filling her mind with new and exciting things.

It was late when she pulled into the carport of her apartment. For a moment, she sat in her car, staring at her apartment, wishing she’d had the insight to have left on lights.

Her cell phone sat in her purse.

Call if you need me, Sam had written.

Angie put her chin in the air. She was a big girl. Strong. In de pen dent.

And only a little scared. So she got out of the car, walked up the path and…nearly had a seizure when Sam stepped out of the shadows and said her name.

“Holy smokes,” she whispered, hand to her heart, which had skipped a beat at the tall, leanly muscled, grim-looking man waiting for her. “Don’t do that! You scared the life out of me.”

“I could say the same for you.”

She had time to think he looked pretty darn amazing with that deep scowl on his tough face, when he held up his flash light, illuminating a note that had been left taped to her door.

Mind your own business or die.

“Pack a bag,” Sam muttered. “You’re coming with me.”

Angie stopped in mid-pace of her living room and stared at him. They’d called the police, who’d already come and gone. “The police officer said they’d put a car on the street tonight.”

Sam had waited with what he thought was admirable patience while Angie got the same old spiel from the cop that he’d himself given a million times.

Don’t answer your door, ma’am.

Keep track of incoming calls, ma’am.

Call if whoever it is comes back, ma’am.

In other words, hang tight until she got hurt, or worse, in which case the cops would be able to do some thing for her.

“I don’t care what they said,” Sam said through his teeth, barely resisting the urge to haul her close and kiss all this stuff away, until it was just her and him, skin to skin, the rest of the world be damned.

But that would be beyond stupid, and Sam was anything but stupid. If he so much as touched her, all good intentions to keep his hands to himself would go right out the window. “Like I said, you’re coming with me.”

“Where?”

“My house.”

Angie crossed her arms. “You don’t look thrilled about the idea.”

He decided not to respond to that. “Tell me you didn’t chase any more suspects down an alley today.”

“So you really think this is your guy?”

“I think it’s a good possibility, unless you’re tormenting some other criminals I don’t know about.”

Her mouth tightened, and he was afraid he recognized the look. Pure stub born ness. To avoid looking at her, he took out his cell and called Luke.

“Talk,” Luke growled when he answered, sounding gruff and…busy.

“On a date?”

“So to speak.”

“Did you track down John’s roommate this evening?”

“Uh…” In the back ground, Sam heard a woman’s low, sexy murmur.

“Bad timing, huh?”

“You could say so. But the roommate has, curiously enough, not come back as promised.”

“Well, just to make it interesting, we’ve got another development. A note on Angie’s door.”

“Saying?”

“Back off or die.”

“Hmm. Not so light weight anymore, is it?”

“No.” Sam’s gut clenched. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He clicked the phone shut.

“I haven’t seen the suspect in a few days,” Angie said behind him. “I don’t know why he’d bother with me.”

“Because you seem to be the only one who can point him out.”

“I’m staying here tonight, Sam.”

Sam pocketed his phone and faced her. “I’m not leaving you alone. Don’t ask me to.”

“I’m not asking, I’m telling.”

He stared her down, and after a long moment, she let out a long sigh. “You know, I really want to tell you to go to hell.”

“Tell me whatever you want. I’m still not leaving you alone.”

“I don’t follow demands or take orders from anyone, Sam. But…”

“But…?”

She turned away. “Fine. I don’t want to be alone either, okay? I don’t want to be alone bad enough that I’ll go with you. Just do me a favor and stay out of my way while I get my bag.”

Angie came back into her living room a few moments later with a backpack on her shoulder. She stopped a breath away from Sam and tipped her head back to look at him. “I packed.”

“Okay.”

“And while I did, I did some thinking.”

Uh-oh. “Okay.”

A hint of a smile crossed her lips as she dropped her backpack to the floor and put her hands on her hips. Though she barely came to his chin, she managed to look down her nose at him. “You’re furious, tense and worried. And now, you’re surprised,” she added. “Did you really think I can’t see what’s going on in your head by now?”

“Not many can,” he muttered.

“Well, that alone should tell you some thing. But because you are furious, tense and worried, it tells me you care about me. Enough to want me with you.”

“I want you safe.”

“If that was the case, you’d send me to a friend’s. To my parents. But you want me with you. Why can’t you just say it?”

“Are you always this bossy?”

“No, as a matter of fact, it’s a new thing for me.” She smiled now, and it was a stunner. “And I like it. You know what else? I like you. I’m not sure why, but I like you. Okay, we can go now.”

He took her pack, shouldered it. As she moved ahead of him, he found his hand at the small of her back. Not for her, but for him, because damn if he didn’t want his hand on her.

At the touch, Angie craned her neck and smiled. One of those just-for-him smiles that did some thing ridiculous to his stomach.