Rose gathered up a few more things, then slid the door closed, beeped the lock and headed for the house again. She never once glanced at her surroundings, so she didn’t notice Lucas and Sean standing on the porch staring at her.
“What’re you planning?” Sean asked and Lucas turned his head to look at him.
“Not planning a thing,” he lied as his mind raced with sudden possibilities.
“Right. Sell that to somebody who doesn’t know you.”
“Don’t you have a date tonight?” Lucas asked.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Then maybe you should go.”
“Translation,” Sean said wryly, “you don’t want to tell me what you’re thinking about doing.”
Lucas grinned. “Smart man.”
Shaking his head, Sean set his half-empty bottle of beer down onto the stone rail and headed for the steps. He paused, though, to look over his shoulder at his brother. “You know, it was Dave who cheated us. Not his sister.”
Lucas met Sean’s gaze evenly, his eyes giving away nothing he was feeling. “Did I say anything about Dave?”
“No,” Sean admitted. “But I know how your mind works.”
“Is that a fact?”
“It is.” Sean tipped his head to one side and studied him for a long minute. “Kings don’t like getting screwed. But Lucas King takes betrayal as a personal insult.”
“Isn’t it?” Lucas looked away from his brother, back to his neighbor’s empty front yard and Rose’s ridiculous van.
Dave Clancy had been a friend. Someone Lucas trusted. And he didn’t trust many people. Having that friend turn on him had cut deep and damned if he’d apologize for still being angry.
“Dave cheated all of us,” Lucas reminded his brother. “He paid one of our employees to give him insider information and then he went out and undercut our bids on four different projects. I call that pretty damn personal.”
“We never found any proof of that.”
“Yeah? I got my proof when Lane Thomas left us to go to work for Dave’s outfit and suddenly the undercutting stopped. Coincidence?”
“Fine.” Sean pushed one hand through his hair and shrugged. “All I’m saying is taking your anger out on Rose won’t do a damn thing to settle up with Dave.”
“Who says I’m taking anything out on anybody?” Lucas asked.
“So you’re not planning on a little payback?”
“I’ll see you at work tomorrow, Sean.”
“No way does this end well,” Sean told him, then turned and headed down the front walk to his car.
Lucas dismissed his brother in the next minute. “It won’t end well for the Clancys,” he murmured thoughtfully. “That’s for damn sure.”
Rose waved goodbye to the woman standing in the doorway and didn’t let her smile fade until the front door was closed. The sidewalk was brightly lit and the streetlights on Ocean Boulevard gave off a soft, yellow glow, so she didn’t mind the darkness. It was actually a relief to get out into the cold, crisp night and away from the lingering smell of burned onions.
Kathy Robertson was determined to become a good cook—which made her an excellent client—but it wasn’t going to be easy. Still, that meant Mrs. Robertson was going to be a long-term project, and that meant solvency for Rose’s burgeoning business. A good thing. Smiling to herself, Rose stacked her supplies back in her van, slid the door closed and then jumped when a man’s voice spoke up from behind her.
“Been a while.”
She spun around, hand to her chest, and looked up at a man she hadn’t seen in two years. Not since he and her older brother had cut off all communication. As soon as her heart slid out of her throat, it started pounding in excitement. “Lucas?”
He was leaning against her van. How had he walked up without her being aware of it? Now that she knew he was there, her skin was prickling and her nerve endings were standing up straight, dancing in appreciation. He was wearing a pullover red sweater over a white T-shirt and black jeans. His boots were scuffed and his black hair was ruffled by the wind. His jaw boasted the shadow of a beard and his blue eyes were fixed on her.
“You scared me to death,” she admitted when she could find her voice again.
“Sorry,” he said, but didn’t sound apologetic at all. “Didn’t mean to startle you. But I wanted to talk to you before you left.”
“Where’d you come from?” She glanced up and down the street, idly noting the steady stream of traffic.
“I live next door,” he told her, jerking his thumb toward the two-story house boasting a wide, stone front porch.
“I didn’t know,” she said, which was a good thing. Because she might not have taken the Robertsons on as customers if she had known Lucas King lived right beside them.
A few years ago, she had spent a lot of time daydreaming about this man. It hadn’t gone any further than that, of course, because her brother, Dave, had made sure to keep Lucas at a distance from her. Still, it hadn’t been easy to put Lucas out of her mind. He continued to sneak back in at unexpected moments. Seeing him again was only going to refuel those old daydreams and make not thinking about him even more difficult.
But he’d made himself very clear three years ago. He hadn’t been interested in her enough then to go against her brother’s interference and there was no reason to think that had changed. Besides, she’d been through a lot in the past few years. She wasn’t the easily charmed or foolishly romantic girl she had been.
Sure, her mind taunted slyly, that’s why your heart’s still pounding and your palms are damp. Because you’re so cool and controlled.
Frowning at her own inner turmoil, she missed what Lucas said and was forced to ask, “What?”
He pushed away from the car, stuffed his hands into his back pockets and repeated, “I said, I’m glad to see you’re teaching Kathy to cook. I’ve been to dinner at their place. Not pretty.”
Wryly, Rose was forced to admit, “She is…challenging. But she’s determined to improve, and that’s good for all of us.”
Nodding his head, he glanced at the skillet on top of her car. “Interesting advertisement.”
She knew what he must be thinking, but Rose liked her skillet. An artist friend had made it for her and attached it to the roof of the van. “I think it’s quirky.”