Mad, Bad and Blonde - Cathie Linz [38]
“True.”
“In fact, she never married.”
“Yes, but she was engaged.”
“For about twenty-four hours, and then she broke it off. I’m telling you—if you prepare for the worst, then you’re pleasantly surprised when things do work out.”
Megan shook her head. “I don’t think I could live that way.”
“Because you’re the eternal optimist. I tried that. It didn’t work for me.”
“So how does your worst-case scenario fit into your new mad and bad persona?”
“I feel more in control.”
“It doesn’t sound like things with Caine are more in control.”
“They will be when I figure out what really happened with his father.”
“Going with your worst-case scenario—what do you do if you find that the agency made a mistake and that Caine’s dad really wasn’t guilty? How do you prepare for that?”
“I don’t know,” Faith admitted. “I’m still trying to figure things out.” Including how she really felt about Caine.
“Is that Caine?” Megan asked.
“Cut it out. It wasn’t funny the first time around.”
“Hello, ladies,” Caine said. “Mind if I join you?”
Chapter Eight
“Caine, I presume?” Megan said.
He nodded and smiled at her. “Megan, I presume?”
Megan smiled back. The traitor. “That’s right. We were just talking about you.”
Faith kicked her cousin under the table.
“What?” Megan blinked. “We were.”
Caine sat in the empty chair next to Faith. Naturally that gave her a flashback to meeting him for the first time in Italy. They’d shared a table on the sunny terrace. She’d had pizza. He’d spoken fluent Italian.
Like then, he had that sexy stubble thing going on. His dark hair fell over his forehead.
“The man is stalking me,” Faith reminded her cousin and herself.
“I just felt like having sushi, and someone I know raved about this place,” Caine said.
“That someone was me, and you damn well know it. I told you about Sushi Tuesday.”
He started singing Sushi Tuesday to the Rolling Stones song “Ruby Tuesday.” He had an awesome voice. The man could read the phone book, and he’d sound incredible. It was criminal.
Faith refused to be seduced. “They don’t do karaoke here,” she said. “I’m sure there are plenty of other places that do. You might want to go eat there tonight.”
He ignored her comment and instead asked Megan, “Did your cousin tell you how she used the White Sox to steal a client away from me?”
Megan nodded. “Why, yes, she did.”
“I did not steal a client from you! He was not your client. He was undecided. He made the right decision by going with West Investigations. Does your boss know you’re here? Did he send you to spy on me again?”
“No. And no.” He took the menu a server handed him. “Thanks.”
“You’re not eating here,” Faith said. “You are not a sushi kind of guy.”
“Really? What kind of guy is a sushi kind of guy? Your ex-fiancé?”
“Well, yes. He was a foodie.”
“And you don’t think I’m a foodie?”
She remembered the delicious meals they’d had in Italy. “I don’t know you well enough to say.”
“Trust me, if you can eat MREs, you can eat anything.”
Trust him? No way. She’d done that once with disastrous results. “MRE?” she repeated.
“Meals ready to eat. What they hand out in the Marine Corps. I’ve eaten worse than MREs. Bugs. Snakes.”
“Are you trying to impress me?” Faith said.
“She once ate a grasshopper on a dare,” Megan said.
“I was only five at the time.” Faith kicked her cousin again, warning her not to reveal any other childhood secrets and anecdotes.
Megan had a warning of her own. “Ow! If you kick me again, I’m kicking you back.”
“Do you two fight often?” Caine asked.
“Never,” Faith said. “You bring out the worst in people.”
“Maybe I just get them to tell the truth,” Caine countered before placing his order.
“Why are you here?” Faith demanded.
“I already told you. I felt like eating sushi.”
“Are you totally incapable of telling the truth?”
“No.”
“That’s it? No?”
Caine shrugged. “You asked me a question. I answered it.”
“Did you answer it truthfully?”
“Yes. I am capable of telling the truth.”
“Have you ever told me the truth?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Plenty of times.”
“Be more specific.”
“Why should I?”
“Because