Luck Be a Lady - Cathie Linz [35]
“You are such a liar.”
“I’m a damn good liar,” he said.
“Their situation is different than ours. Buddy and Ingrid were engaged. You and I are strangers.”
“We’re not strangers any longer,” he said.
“Sure we are.”
He shook his head. “I know you like chocolate chip pancakes and your burgers medium. You have ‘Life Is a Highway’ on your BlackBerry playlist. You like vintage clothes and Lilly Pulitzer designs.”
She was surprised he’d remembered that much about her. Maybe being stuck with her, marooned here in Last Resort, meant that there was nothing else to think about. They were basically out of contact with the outside world.
“And you read Nancy Drew books as a kid. I also know you’re tougher than you think you are,” he added.
“How do you know that?”
“I’m a detective. It’s my job to know these things.”
“Your job?”
“Right.”
“Your job really defines you, doesn’t it?”
“It seems to—in your eyes.”
“And in yours. I know you’re a Chicago cop who likes his coffee black and his burgers medium-rare. But that’s about it.”
“That’s not true. I told you about my family. About my marriage. It’s more than you’ve told me about your personal life, aside from your mother.”
His words made her realize he was absolutely right.
“Or did you block all that from your memory bank because knowing it would make me more human?” he said.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do. And it scares you.”
“I don’t scare easily.”
“No?”
“Okay, sometimes I do get scared, but not all that often.”
“There’s a definitive answer.”
“Hey, I can be as definitive as the next person. I was definitive when you crashed the wedding.”
“Yes, you were. You were damn definitive.”
“Damn right I was. And don’t you forget it.”
“I’m not likely to. You’re pretty unforgettable.”
She smiled ruefully. “Not many women hijack you into tracking down their mother, huh?”
“No, not many.” He looked around the room. “And not many end up with me in a cross between the movies Deliveranceand Viva Las Vegas.”
She laughed. “That’s an unusual combination.”
“Everything about the past twenty-four hours has been unusual,” he said.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. It has been pretty strange.”
“Law enforcement officers are accustomed to strange.”
“I’m sure you are.”
“You’re not going to start feeling sorry for me like Pepper was at dinner, are you?”
“No way.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“I think you’re trying to distract me from brooding about my mother. It worked for a while, but now ...” Megan re-focused her attention on the notepad in front of her. “Why would she walk away from her own child like that?”
“Maybe she thought she didn’t have a choice.”
“You mean my father threatened her?”
“No. I mean she could have had her own reasons for leaving that had nothing to do with you.”
“But to leave your two-year-old daughter behind ...” Megan shook her head. “I need to know why.”
“Then you need to ask your father. Even if he doesn’t tell you the truth, you have to ask.”
“How can I know if he’s telling me the truth or not? That’s the problem. I don’t trust him anymore. He’s broken that trust.”
“Don’t be so quick to dump on your dad. You don’t have enough information to make any decisions. And you’re exhausted. I got some rest this afternoon, but you didn’t get much.”
“I had a three-hour nap.”
“So you’re not tired?”
Her yawn gave her away.
“Why don’t you go to bed?” he said. “I’ll sleep in the car.”
“But it’s cold out there.”
“It’s balmy compared to Chicago in January.”
“Balmy, huh?”
“Yeah. One of Buddy’s contributions to my vocabulary.”
“He does have an interesting way of verbally expressing himself. Faith told me he’d given up cursing, but she didn’t know why.”
“That’s his story to tell.”
“Right. I wasn’t trying to be nosy or anything. So, uh, I guess this is good night then.”
Logan nodded.
“Okay, then. Well, good night.”
He headed for the door.
“Wait.”
He turned to face her.
“You’ll need a pillow and a blanket.” She gathered both from the closet and handed them to him.
“See you in the morning, when we’ll be leaving