Snoops in the City (A Romantic Comedy) Page 18

  "For you, anything, any time," she said, her eyes gleaming. Before she drove away, she called, "Don't make me hunt you down, Wade Morrison. Call me and let me make good on my promise."

  This time, Wade knew he would call.

  CHAPTER TW ENTY-EIGHT

  Grady kept Tori's hand firmly in his when they got out of the SUV to walk the short two blocks to Giovanni’s.

  Although he'd rather have stayed in, with ready access to his bed or hers, he'd been open to her suggestion that they eat at the Italian restaurant.

  "Can I ask you something, Duke?" Tori asked.

  "You can ask me anything as long as you stop calling me Duke," he said. In truth, though, the nickname didn't bother him as much as it used to.

  He liked old Westerns where the good guys came out on top. If Tori thought that made him a closet Pollyanna, so be it.

  "I like the nickname.” She wrinkled up her nose. "It makes you seem like less of a curmudgeon."

  "I'm not a curmudgeon."

  "Only 'cause I won't let you be."

  "What's the question?"

  "Do you think the end justifies the means?"

  He nearly stopped walking. Was this the prelude to a confession? Had he gotten it wrong after all when he'd gone with his heart and trusted her?

  "Why do you ask?" he ventured. "What did you do?"

  She looked guilty, telling him he was on the right path. "I know it's your birthday today," she confessed. "That's why I wanted us to go out."

  He'd meant to ignore his birthday this year, considering the circumstances, but found he couldn't get annoyed.

  "Lorelei told you," he guessed.

  She nodded.

  "So that's why we're going to Giovanni’s?"

  She nodded again.

  "I wish you'd told me before but I think it's nice that you want to take me out to dinner," he said.

  They reached the restaurant. He opened the door and waited for Tori to precede him.

  "That's only part of it.” She sounded miserable.

  "You can tell me the rest after dinner." He smiled at the vibrant, dark-haired woman in red who stood at the hostess stand. “We have reservations for two under Whitley."

  "Actually, the reservation's under Palmer," Tori corrected. "And it's for more than two."

  The hostess checked something off in her book, and the hairs on the back of Grady's neck stood at attention. She smiled pleasantly and picked up some red-and-white menus. "Right this way.”

  "Would you give us a minute?" he asked the hostess before she could leave her stand.

  He barely waited for the hostess to nod her agreement before he took Tori's elbow, steering her into the empty waiting area at the entrance to the restaurant.

  "Who are we having dinner with?" he demanded.

  "If I tell you, you might not stay," Tori said.

  "If you don't tell me, I'll definitely leave."

  "Lorelei's here, and I'm pretty sure she brought her boyfriend and his twin girls."

  "What boyfriend?"

  "Wade Morrison. They've been seeing each other."

  "What? I told her to stay away from him. I told her he was bad news."

  "She's all grown up now," Tori said. "She didn't listen."

  "She damn well will listen to me," Grady said, turning to head back into the heart of the restaurant. Tori's hand on his arm detained him, reminding him of where they were.

  He sighed. "I know. Now is neither the place nor the time."

  "Now definitely isn't the time, but that's not it," Tori said. "Lorelei, Wade and his girls aren't the only people who came to celebrate your birthday. Your parents are here, too."

  The news that his parents waited at the table took a temporary back seat to another, even harsher realization. Now he knew what Tori meant about the end justifying the means.

  "You lied to me," he said. Again, he thought.

  "I didn't lie. I just didn't tell you everything."

  "A lie by omission is still a lie," he said.

  "I meant well," she said quietly. "Lorelei did, too. She's sick about this rift with your parents and thought getting you together might help mend it."

  "Lorelei doesn't know what she's talking about."

  "Because you won't explain it to her," Tori said. "She wants to help. For that matter, so do I. Neither of us can do anything if we don't know what's going on."

  He nodded toward the exit of the restaurant. The corners of her mouth dipped in obvious disappointment. She preceded him, waiting just outside the restaurant for him to join her.

  He indicated she should sit down at a wooden bench a storefront away and joined her.

  "About a month ago, I needed a copy of my birth certificate.” He tried to keep his voice flat and toneless. "I stopped by my parents’ house. Nobody was home so I let myself in with my key and went into Dad's office, thinking I might be able to find it myself. Instead I found my adoption papers."

  Wade saw understanding dawn in Tori's eyes.

  "Your parents never told you that you were adopted.” She shook her head back and forth. "They shouldn't have kept that from you."

  "Damn right. I turn twenty-nine today. You would have thought that sometime in the past twenty-nine years they would have mentioned it."

  "That's why you're upset," she said.

  "You'd be upset, too, if your entire life was a lie. All this time I thought they were my parents, and they're not."

  Tori shook her head. "That's not true. They're your parents in every way that matters."

  "Then why didn't they tell me the truth?"

  "Have you discussed this with them?" Tori asked.

  He shook his head vehemently. "I couldn't trust anything they told me. I can't stand being lied to. You know that."

  "Sometimes people lie for the right reasons," she said softly. "Maybe your parents thought it would be best for you not to know."

  "It wasn't," he said harshly.

  "Okay, so they were wrong. Did it occur to you that they lied because they didn't want to lose your love?"

  He blew out a breath. "You can't know that."

  "Lorelei tells me your mother cries over you. She wouldn't do that if she didn't care."

  He raised his eyes skyward, for the first time taking into account how his estrangement from his parents might have affected them. He'd been so angry he hadn't considered they'd be hurt.

  "It tears me up when my mother cries," he confessed.

  "Then dry her tears, Grady," Tori said.

  "You're saying I should forgive them? Just like that?"

  "That's what loving somebody's all about.” Tori laid a hand on his arm. “Everybody makes mistakes. By punishing them for theirs, you're also hurting yourself."

  He rubbed a hand over his face. "I've let it go on so long I'm not sure I can walk back in that restaurant and end it.”

  She reached for his hand, folding it in her smaller, softer one. He didn't know why that made him feel better. "You won't be alone," she said. "I'll be with you."

  He nodded and together they stood.

  Somehow, knowing she'd be at his side made all the difference.

  ***

  "ARE YOU OKAY?" Wade asked Lorelei later that night after they'd finally settled the girls in their side-by-side twin beds. "It's not every day you find out your brother was adopted."

  Lorelei leaned her head back against the cushion of his sofa and turned to answer him. Not only had Grady and her parents taken a huge step toward mending their relationship at dinner, they'd also broken their silence.

  "It's wild," she said. "I love him every bit as much as I always did, but it explains a lot of things. Like his brown hair. His athleticism. The fact he's the only one in the family taller than five feet eight."

  "I guess it'll take some getting used to," Wade said, smoothing the hair back from her face.

  "I'll say. Grady still doesn't seem used to it."

  "That's understandable. Most people find out they're adopted when they'r
e kids," Wade said. "I can see why your brother felt betrayed."

  "Me, too. But I think everything will be okay now," Lorelei said, knowing she spoke the truth. "Grady won't be able to hold a grudge. He pretends to be cynical. Inside where it matters, he’s a softie."

  "Really?"

  "Oh, yeah. The reason he's so tough on people is that he expects a lot from them. He has a highly developed sense of right and wrong."

  "Then why is he doing so much business with the city?" Wade muttered, almost to himself.

  "Excuse me?" she said.

  "Nothing. I'm just trying to piece things together."

  "He doesn't like me dating you," she confided, stroking his lean cheek to soften her words. "He warned me against you at the mayor's party. He said you weren't a good man."

  "Is that so?"

  "He must have gotten his wires crossed, because I know you are.” She kissed him shortly and sweetly on the lips. "For proof, all you have to do is watch you with M.K. and Ash."

  "I haven't done a very good job there. I didn't realize their misbehavior was a cry for attention. I needed you to tell me that."

  "You do, you know," Lorelei said.

  "What?"

  "Need me.” She removed his glasses and kissed him again, this time long, slow and hot. She rubbed sensuously against him. "You not only need me sexually, you need me in your life. M.K. and Ash do, too. It's about time you admitted it."

  "I admit it," he said, staring at her intently. She wondered if it was because he couldn't see clearly or because he finally got it.

  "You're not only saying that because you want sex, are you?" she asked.

  He shook his head. "I want you in my life, Lorelei."

  "That's what I want, too," she said softly.

  He rose and extended his right hand. She took it, letting him pull her to her feet. "That doesn't mean I don't want sex, too."

  She laughed. "I thought we couldn't make love with the girls in the house."

  "The girls are deep sleepers, and there's a lock on my bedroom door," he said.

  She pretended to think about it, but really, what was there to think about? She wanted this man. She even believed she loved him, although she'd be quiet about that. She couldn't risk sending him into hiding once again.

  "Okay, I'll make love to you," she said, as though it had been his idea all along, "but I'll leave before the girls get up in the morning.”

  "Since when did you get to be so responsible?" he asked, drawing her close.

  "Since I met you," she said and preceded to spend the next few hours showing him exactly how exciting her new responsible self could be.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Tori watched in fascination as her friend Crystal dug into her Chocolate Seduction with undisguised relish.

  "Mmmmm," Crystal said after she'd barely finished chewing the piece of chocolate-glazed, double-fudge cake. "The food here is to die for. I can't believe I never heard of this place before."

  Neither had Tori until Grady pointed it out on the way back from the carnival. Tucked between a barbershop and a dry cleaner in an obscure strip shopping center, the restaurant gave new meaning to the term out-of-the-way.

  Crystal took another bite of cake and demolished it as quickly as the last.

  "This cake alone was worth the hassle I had to go through to get a night out. Not that being waited on and spending time with you isn't enough. But this. . . this is better than sex."

  "I doubt that," Tori said before she could stop herself.

  Crystal raised her fork in the air. "Girlfriend, do tell. I can't believe we got through dinner without you mentioning you had a man."

  Tori could believe it. Crystal had been at her entertaining best talking about her not-yet-potty-trained sons, her husband's quest to become a stand-up comic and the cast of characters at the Roseate Spoonbill.

  "It's kind of new," Tori said.

  "Oh, my gosh," Crystal exclaimed. "Is this the multiple-choice guy from the other night? Did he pass the question about the position of the toilet seat?"

  "He passed every question, even the one about cats."

  "You don't mean he actually likes your homely little rat-cat?"

  "Better. My landlady wouldn't let me keep Gordo so Grady took her. She's living with him now."

  "There's only one explanation for that," Crystal said, an awed expression on her face. "He has it bad for you, girl."

  "Maybe not as bad as I have it for him," Tori confided. "I think I'm in love."

  Crystal gave a low whistle. "So where is Loverboy now?"

  Tori got ready to reiterate what Grady had told her about working late. The words, however, wouldn’t come.

  Because Grady, looking tall and handsome in a cream-colored shirt and brown slacks that accentuated his coloring, walked into the restaurant.

  "There," Tori breathed.

  "Excuse me. What did that mean? Are you paying attention? What are you looking at anyway?" Crystal's back was to the front door and she twisted in her seat.

  "Turn around.” Tori fastened a hand on her friend's arm. "I don't want him to see me."

  Crystal threw her free hand up in the air. "Who?"

  "Grady.” Tori watched him say something to the hostess and glance over the sea of diners. She quickly picked up a menu that was still on the table, opened it and hid behind it, a la the mysterious Ms. M the first time they'd met.

  She peeked over the top of the menu and watched Grady thread his way to a back table with a sense of purpose. He didn't glance her way once.

  Crystal's index finger appeared at the top of the menu, pushing it down so Tori's face was once again in the open.

  "I take it that hunk who just walked in here is Loverboy and he told you he'd be somewhere else tonight?"

  "He said he'd be working,” Tori said.

  "Then go over there and give him a piece of your mind for lying to you," Crystal declared.

  Tori shook her head, trying to ignore her breaking heart. A girlfriend would be in her rights to confront him. A private eye wouldn't. She technically still worked for Ms. M, which meant she should have checked Grady's story about working late instead of taking it as gospel.

  "I can't do that. I need to know who he's meeting," Tori said. Tables stretched the length of the long, narrow restaurant. Grady sat somewhere behind her, at a table she couldn't see. "Can you tell who he's with, Crystal?"

  "If it's a woman, I'll go over there and slug him for you.” Crystal craned her neck and frowned. "It's a man. He's middle-aged. I'd guess early forties. Dyed black hair. Lots of gel."

  The description sounded familiar, but Tori couldn't mentally match it with anyone she knew. "Can you see what they're doing?"

  "Talking, it seems like. No, wait a minute. That lying hunk you're dating just took something out of his pocket. It looks like. . . an envelope. He's giving it to the hair-gel guy."

  Tori's heart seemed to stop beating. Crystal was describing a classic bribe. The City Council meeting that would determine which construction company got the contract to build the community center was tomorrow night.

  Everything inside Tori rebelled at the notion of Grady paying off city officials to win the contract. There had to be another explanation.

  "What's happening now?" she asked Crystal.

  "Hair-gel guy's getting up. He’s coming this way. Quick! The menu!" Crystal grabbed for it, then hid her face. Tori didn't turn. She didn't need to because the man Grady had met would come into view within seconds.

  She offered up a silent prayer. Please don't let it be someone from City Hall. Then she waited for the man to pass their table.

  "Why am I hiding behind this menu?" Crystal asked. "If I don't know that man, he certainly doesn't know me."

  Her words hardly registered because the man had Tori’s full attention. His slacks were different, but she recognized his black silk shirt as the one he'd worn at the mayor's party. She still had the business card he'd given her somewhere at home.
/>   Hair-gel guy was Ned Weimer, the mayor's Chief of Staff.

  ***

  GRADY WIPED HIS DAMP palms on his slacks, ignoring the cup of coffee he'd ordered from the waitress.

  His stomach churned. The thought of drinking anything, even a glass of water, seemed impossible.

  The exchange with Ned Weimer had gone as well as could be hoped. It had still left him feeling dirty.

  Now that Tori was in his life, he wanted more than ever for the City Hall investigation, and his part in it, to be over.

  Taking into account that he had the mayor's Chief of Staff on tape accepting a bribe, he could see a light at the end of the tunnel. However, he couldn't help thinking the light signaled an onrushing train.

  Thrusting the negative thought aside, he took a bill from his wallet and threw it on the table.

  It had been a full five minutes since Weimer left, plenty of time for the other man to have cleared out.

  Grady rose, intending to walk out of the restaurant as quickly as he'd come. The back of a woman's head stopped him. Her hair was an unusual shade of rich auburn, and she wore it loose around her shoulders. The same way Tori did.

  His heart pounding, he approached the table. The freckled redhead sitting across from the woman with the auburn hair stared daggers at him. She wasn't the one who mattered.

  "Tori," he ventured, hoping he was mistaken.

  The woman turned and he found himself staring at his lover. The lover he never should have trusted. Especially after he'd discovered the tête-à-tête she'd had with the mayor at City Hall.

  "Are you following me?" he asked in an accusing voice.

  "Following you? We were through eating dinner before you got here." The redhead answered for Tori, who looked as though she'd been struck.

  Grady knew with instant clarity that Tori had seen him with Weimer and pieced two and two together. Judging by her expression, she'd come up with an answer of three hundred sixty-four.

  "What are you doing here anyway when you said you'd be working?" the redhead continued when neither he nor Tori spoke. "And what's up with that envelope?"

  At the woman's raised voice, other diners turned to stare. Not good. Grady bent at the waist, imploring Tori in a soft voice, "Can I talk to you in private? Outside the restaurant?"