Temptation Bay (A Windfall Island Novel) (12 page)

“Great,” Maggie rolled her eyes, almost her old self, “now I’ll have to share my hero status with you.”

“Nope, I don’t get to be a hero until I learn to fly something bigger than a paper airplane. Unless I talk you into the arcade. Then I can almost compete.”

Maggie grinned, full out. “I love the arcade.”

“Now how,” Jessi said darkly, “did I know you were going to say that?”

J
essi’s house sat on one of the curved roads that were nestled behind the town’s main street, a tiny house with peaked roofs and fancifully painted gingerbread trim that looked as though it could have been waiting for Hansel and Gretel to happen by. But in a good way.

Dex walked up a bricked path lined with Chrysanthemums in fall colors, smiling when he heard the sound of a child’s laughter right through the front door. He knocked, and at the muffled “Come in,” he turned the knob and stepped through the door, saying, “I heard you feed half the neighborhood on a nightly basis,” but instead of Jessi, Maggie was on the floor, tickling a tow-headed kid six or seven years old. “Well, isn’t this domestic?”

Maggie sat back on her heels, not the least bit embarrassed. The kid popped to his feet and ran over to peer up at him. “I’m Benji—Benjamin Randal. Who are you? Where do you come from? Did Auntie Maggie bring you here on one of her planes?”

“Helicopter,” Dex managed to get in.

“I’m going to fly one of those, too. When I get big like Auntie Maggie.”

Dex looked over at her, both his eyebrows raised.

“What’s wrong with you?” Maggie said.

“Nothing. Auntie Maggie.”

She got to her feet, pulling the kid against her, his back to her front, and looping her arms around his neck. “Jessi and Benji are as close as it gets to family for me. If you have a problem—”

Dex held his hands up. “It’s just nice to find out you have a soft side.”

“It’s not a side. More like a tiny little nugget of aberration I do my best to keep hidden.”

“I never would have guessed.”

She shot him a humorless smile. “Jessi’s the one with the soft side. I assume you were invited to dinner, just like I was, so let’s call a truce while we’re here.”

“Auntie Maggie?”

She looked down at the kid, everything about her softening, including the tone in her voice. “This is Dexter Keegan.”

“Dex,” he said to Benji, but he couldn’t tear his eyes off Maggie, struck by the way her face relaxed, the slight, reassuring smile that made her look so… maternal. And made him go just a little breathless.

“Mr. Keegan to you, Benj,” she said, looking up at him with that bite-me expression.

It put him back on firm footing again, let him forget that little tug of
emotion
he’d felt at seeing Maggie in a new—and appealing—light.

“Now go tell your mom he’s here.” She gave the kid a light pat on the butt to send him on his way.

“We’re not at war, Maggie,” Dex said after Benji had disappeared into the sunny yellow kitchen.

“You’re the one with the secret intelligence.” Maggie
dropped into an overstuffed chair and crossed her long, jeans-clad legs. “If you aren’t the enemy, why don’t you come clean?”

Jessi saved him by breezing through the doorway with Benji skipping along ahead. “Thanks for picking up Sunshine, here,” she said to Maggie. “I never would have made it home in time to make my famous pork chops. They have to brine for at least an hour.”

“Auntie Maggie should let you out early enough to pick up your son and brine your chops.”

“Well, Maggie’s a slave driver,” Maggie said, rising from her armchair and letting Benji tow her off to his bedroom to show her some new poster. She shot Dex a look over her shoulder, a look that wasn’t quite bland enough to hide the edge of hurt—hurt he’d caused her.

Jessi saw it, too, and she wasn’t cutting him any slack.

“Maggie tried to get me out the door early, but I was stuck with a customer,” she said, “trying to carve out some time for Maggie to fly him down to D.C. Her schedule is pretty intense, but that’s
her
schedule.”

“And I jumped to conclusions.”

“Don’t let her fool you. She’s not nearly as…”

“Hard?”

“It’s not the word I was looking for, but okay.” Jessi headed for the kitchen. “Maggie isn’t nearly as hard as she comes off.”

Dex followed her, leaning on the jamb of the wide doorway, watching as she picked up a wooden spoon and stirred something bubbling on the stove. “What is she?”

Jessi shook her head, turned to face him. “Not my place to say.”

“Loyalty.”

She smiled, a small wobbly smile that made Dex wonder
just what Maggie had done for Jessi to inspire that kind of complex emotion, gratitude mixed with God knew what else. Sure, women were emotional creatures, but there was something deeper than friendship between these two. Sisters, Dex decided, and not because of an accident of birth. By choice. The kind of sisters who wouldn’t keep secrets from one another.

Unless they could be convinced it was the right thing to do.

“What’s going on in there?” Jessi asked, pointing her spoon at his forehead.

“What goes on in any man’s mind?”

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t have made some of the choices I made.”

“Sounds like there’s an interesting story there.”

“One you’ve probably heard a thousand times from a thousand women who let the wrong kind of man matter to them,” Jessi said quietly, her eyes shifting toward the doorway where her son had disappeared.

“Now,” she went to the fridge and pulled out a serving plate, pulling plastic wrap off and handing it to him. “Take this into what I laughingly refer to as the dining room, and let me get the rest of this finished up.”

Dex carried the plate in to the small space off the living area where a table only big enough to seat four sat, nipping a cube of cheese as he set it down.

“You’re gonna ruin your appetite,” piped a voice from behind him. “And you’re not supposed to eat with your fingers.”

Dex turned, took in Maggie’s amused expression before he concentrated on his accuser. “How about hamburgers?”

“That’s not a hamburger,” Benji pointed out with the bluntness and logic of the very young.

“He got you there, Keegan. Good going, Champ.” Maggie held her palm up, high enough that Benji had to jump to make the high five. Which only made it more fun, judging by the peal of his laughter. “You have to watch out for guys like this, Benj. First it’s cheese and then they move on to the big stuff.”

Benji’s eyes went wide. “What’s the big stuff?”

Maggie hunkered down, her smile so open, her eyes so bright, there was no way for Dex to ignore the way his pulse lurched, especially when she slid him a teasing look as she said to Benji, “Could be just about anything, but I’d keep a close eye on your Legos if I were you.”

“Great,” Dex said as Benji rushed off to make sure his building blocks were still where he’d left them. “The kid thinks I’m a cat burglar now.”

“Cat burglar? There’s that ego again.”

“If I were a thief, I wouldn’t be a common one.”

“No.” Maggie rose to her feet. “I don’t suppose you would.”

Jessi came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel and looking like Betty Crocker in her cute little apron. “Did someone say cat, as in are you two fighting like cats and dogs again?”

Maggie, for once, had no quippy comeback.

Dex decided it was better to change the subject, even if he’d have liked to know what Maggie had been—and still was—thinking, as she studied him.

“No wonder every kid in the village wants to move in here,” he said.

“Who told you that?”

“Everybody. Not only is Benji an irresistible kid, but you’re the kind of mother everyone should’ve had.”

Maggie smiled. “She never raises her voice at dirty footprints or spilt milk, and there are always cookies.”

“Nice to know my publicist is working overtime,” Jessi said, but her cheeks pinked becomingly as she returned to the kitchen.

“You should give up your life of glamour at the airport and open a daycare,” Dex called after her. “You’d probably make a killing.”

Maggie shook her head. “More like she’d end up babysitting for free half the time. She’s too soft-hearted.”

“That’s not a little self-serving?”

“Well, it’s true… and a little self-serving, since I couldn’t run Solomon Charters without her.”

“This is really entertaining,” Jessi said, coming back with her arms laden with serving dishes and a face like a storm cloud, “but do I get a vote?”

Maggie backed off immediately, but Jessi was already swinging around to confront Dex. “For the record, Mr. Keegan, I don’t need you to defend me.”

“So we’re back on formal footing.”

“We’ve never been off it. I invited you to my home for dinner, despite the secrets you’re clearly keeping.”

“Or maybe because of them?”

“Mom,” Benji said, coming over to curl an arm around her.

“It’s all right, kiddo,” Jessi said, “Why don’t you go wash up for dinner.” When he hesitated, she gave him a little nudge. “Go on.”

He went, but he kept a wary eye on Dex the whole way out of the room.

“You’re right,” Jessi said to Dex, “but you’re also a guest, and it’s not very polite of you to attack my best friend.”

“Jessi—”

She held up a hand. “And just so you know, I don’t work for Maggie. I’m her partner. Maggie insisted on giving me a percentage of the business—”

“Jessi,” Maggie said again, her face going a mortified red.

“She made me a partner,” Jessi continued, “because she claims she’s hopeless at the business end.”

“I gave you a percentage because you work just as hard as I do.”

“But we both know you could handle anything you put your mind to.”

“The truth is I don’t want to. I’d rather be in the air or tinkering with an engine. So this works out for both of us. And you’d only take ten percent.”

“I’m sorry,” Dex said, and truly meant it. “I didn’t intend to cause trouble.”

“Didn’t you?” Maggie whipped back around, pinned him with a glare. “You waltz in here and stir the pot, then step back to see what boils up to the surface.”

“What choice do I have?” Dex went toe to toe with her. “No one will answer my questions.”

Maggie crossed her arms, pinned him with a look. “I have questions, too. Questions like what the hell are you doing here?”

“Having dinner, I thought.”

“On Windfall,” Maggie shot back. “You’ve been here almost a week, grilling people, wandering around, wanting favors—”

He knew by the way she broke off, by the glance she shot Jessi, that she hadn’t told her best friend. Interesting.

“Why don’t you cut the client-lawyer privilege crap and tell us what’s going on?”

“I’d really love to hear the answer to that,” Jessi said. “Just like I’d love to know what you and Dex were talking about so intently the other day.”

Maggie clamped her mouth shut, going sullen.

“If you value our friendship,” Jessi said.

“That’s a low blow, Jess.” Maggie crossed her arms. “But maybe—”

Dex took Maggie by the arm, effectively shutting her up, since she rounded on him. “Can I have a word with you?”

She tried to get loose, but he only took a firmer grip. “Now,” he said, catching her enough off guard that he was able to pull her past Jessi and out the front door.

Maggie jerked free, cocking her arm back.

Dex stared her down. “I told you what would happen the next time you hit me.”

She kicked him instead, stalking for the door when he bent to rub at his shin.

He snagged her around the waist, dragging her back. She didn’t go easily. It was a shame, he thought as they wrestled on Jessi’s front walk, that he couldn’t take more time to enjoy the way she felt against him, the sleek curves, the wiry strength of her body, the way she smelled like spring, with just a hint of motor oil thrown in. And then she nearly got in a killing blow.

Dex ignored his libido, twisting sideways to keep her from making it a moot point. “If you stop—” he dodged a fist, “—for one second—” he blocked her knee with his thigh, “—and listen to me—” she tried to head butt him.

He gave up on trying not to hurt her, twisting her around to put her back to his front, and banding his arms around her so that hers were trapped under his. She tried to stomp on his feet, then kicked back, but he managed to avoid injury.

“Knock it off or you’re going to take us both down, and if we go down, I’m not doing the manly thing and falling on the bottom to spare you.”

She only struggled harder.

“Keep it up; you’re giving Jessi and Benji a hell of a show.”

“Bastard,” she spat. But she stopped struggling

Dex might have been sorry to let her go, if the muscles in his arms hadn’t been trembling on the verge of exhaustion. “When I asked you to get Meeker’s journals, you told me you wouldn’t help me without an explanation. And then you made it impossible for me to get them without you. Are you going to behave and listen to me?”

She nodded once, stiffly.

He let her go, making sure to move out of the way, just in case. He’d spent two long days arguing with his conscience, and although necessity had won, he still hated asking her to take on Meeker again. After wrestling with her, though, he figured he should pity Meeker. If the man was stupid enough to lay a hand on her, he’d deserve what he got.