Killer Summer by Lynda Curnyn (e book reading free .txt) 📗

protect me. Then I remembered she hadn’t exactly protected Maggie.

“I threw together a little red sauce for you. You do eat pasta, don’t you?” Whack.

I looked at the stove and saw that there was, in fact, a pot with red sauce simmering. That was kind of nice of him.

Whack.

I swallowed hard. “Uh, you didn’t have to do that, Tom.”

He looked at me, eyes narrowed. “Oh, but you’ll be glad I did.” Dropping the knife, he turned to the stove, spooning up some sauce and turning to me. “Taste this.”

I looked at him as he held out the spoon to me, his eyes coaxing.

Obediently, I leaned forward, looking into his eyes as I tentatively tasted from the spoon he held to my lips.

My eyes widened.

“Good, right?”

Good? I don’t think I’d ever tasted a red sauce that good. Death by marinara. Was it possible? “It’s fantastic, Tom.” I mean, it was. “What’s in that?” I said.

“Oh, that’s my secret,” Tom said with a wink that sent a shiver right to my toes.

As it turned out, I didn’t die that night. In fact, two glasses of wine and a plate of pasta later, I thought I was in love. Just kidding. But I was feeling some sort of strange kinship with Tom, especially when he told me that before he followed his fathers footsteps and went to work in the garment industry, he dreamed about joining the coast guard.

Maybe Sage was right. Maybe I did have a thing for guys in uniform.

“I told you I was a lifeguard when I was young?”

I nodded, despite the fact that I had heard the story secondhand.

“Saved seven lives,” he said. “Eight now, if you count Les,” he continued, pouring himself a glass of wine from the second bottle he’d cracked open once we’d settled in the living room. “More wine?”

I held my hand over my glass. Clearly I needed to keep my wits about me tonight.

“So I guess Sage should be coming back soon,” I said, if only to remind him that someone else would be joining the house shortly.

He frowned.“I guess.” Then he chuckled.“So you think maybe there’s a little romance going on between those two?”

I shrugged, not sure if Sage would want to divulge to one boss that she was hankering for the other. “I don’t know.”

He sighed. “Well, I guess that’s all right. Though I don’t know about Vince.”

“What do you mean?”

Shrugging, he picked up his glass. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Vince. But I get the feeling Sage might need someone a little more established in life.”

I raised an eyebrow. “He seems pretty established to me, Tom. Isn’t he a VP in your company?”

“Oh, yeah. But I didn’t mean it that way. I meant more settled, I guess. With his life. Right now he’s still living in the same small condo he bought after the divorce.”

“He has the beach house, though.”

Tom chuckled. “He wishes. Nah, that house belongs to his ex-wife. Her family has had it for years. But they don’t come out here much anymore, so Gabriella lets him stay there. It’s a sweet deal. And it’s nice for Vince to have a place to take Sophia once in a while.“

That was interesting. I wondered how Sage would feel if she knew that. From the way she talked about Vince, I thought it likely his glamorous lifestyle was a big part of his appeal for her. It certainly wasn’t the whole “kid” thing.

But just as I was considering the state of Sage’s romance, Tom stood up to change the CD in the player. A soft romantic ballad filled the room.

Oh, dear. Was it too early to make a dash for my bedroom? Because suddenly it was looking like I was in a whole different kind of trouble.

Even more so when Tom straightened, looking at me with eyes clouded by all the wine he’d consumed. “Dance with me?”

“Oh, Tom, I’m really not much of a dancer—”

“Come on, Zoe, be a sport,” he said.

“I really can’t—”

“Sure you can,” he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me off the couch.

I stiffened once he put his arms around me.

“Relax,” he said, beginning to move gently against me.

Which only made me step on his foot.

“Easy, easy. Feel the music,” he said, placing a firm hand at my back to guide me.

All I could feel was scared. Not of death. Actually, at the moment, death might have been the easier option.

“Maggie never liked to dance, either,” he said.

I held my breath at the mention of Maggie’s name.

“Well, she liked to dance, but that crazy freestyle dancing.” He laughed, the sound rumbling through me as well.

“You must miss her, though,” I said, trying to keep her memory between us.

He paused, but only momentarily. “Of course I miss her.”

I was heartened by his words, even though I realized they were just that: words. I couldn’t know what he was really feeling. Or hiding. “Do you ever think about that night?” I asked. “The night it happened?”

He didn’t answer, though I felt his own body stiffen. Okay, I was getting into dangerous territory. But my need to know more overrode the fear that shimmered through me.

“I mean, it was kind of odd, wasn’t it,” I continued, “that she would go in the water like that? Alone?”

“I try not to think about it,” he said easily, despite the tension I felt in him.

I wished I could look up at him, but realized I’d only get a bull’s-eye view of his chin. What I wanted to see was his eyes.

Then suddenly he dropped his arms away from me, and I did look up, only to find a baffled expression on his face. “You really can’t dance, can you?” he said, shaking his head at me.

My stomach plunged. I wasn’t sure whether it was because he’d avoided my question or because I felt…insulted.

The only feeling I was sure of was the relief that washed over me once Tom disappeared into the bathroom. I headed immediately for the sink to wash dishes. Actually,