Pam cured me of wanting anything long-term. Since her, I’ve kept my relationships strictly superficial.”
Gracie wanted to ask more questions, but she spotted something. “Is that his car? Look. That dark SUV is exiting the freeway.”
She glanced around for a sign and saw they were coming into Santa Barbara.
“What could he be doing here?” she wondered aloud.
“We don’t know that it’s him. I can’t read the license plate, can you?”
She squinted. “No. You’ll have to get closer.”
Riley tried, but they missed the signal at the bottom of the off-ramp and had to hurry to catch up with the other vehicle. They shot through the intersection only to see it turn left up ahead.
“Go, go, go!” she yelled.
“I’m going.”
They followed the other car through a residential neighborhood and watched it pull up in front of a two-story house.
She couldn’t believe it. What was Zeke doing here?
The front door opened and a young child dashed out into the rain. “Oh, my God. He’s not just having an affair. He has a whole other family. It’s just like those Lifetime movies.”
“Not exactly,” Riley said as he pointed.
The driver had stepped out of the SUV and walked around front. Gracie relaxed as she saw a small, curvy woman reach down and pull the child into her arms.
“Oh. I guess we lost him,” she said, feeling both foolish and relieved.
“You think?” Riley turned around in the narrow street and headed back the way they’d come. “I should have let you drive. You’re the professional.”
She raised her eyebrows and looked at him.
He had the nerve to grin. “It’s true,” he told her. “Okay, I’ll back off. It’s nearly seven-thirty and I haven’t had dinner. Want to grab something before we head back?”
She couldn’t have been more surprised if he’d morphed into a leopard man. Okay, that would have surprised her more, but not by much.
“You mean dinner?” she asked, trying not to sound too stunned by the invitation.
“It’s the generally accepted meal for this time of day, but if you’d prefer something else, I’ll see what I can do.”
Her stomach clenched and for once it had nothing to do with acid. Her big eating plan had been her usual tuna salad that she generally had five nights out of seven.
“I, um, yeah. That would be great,” she said calmly.
She wanted to open the window and scream out into the night, but instead she contented herself with a little inside shimmy and a very big smile. Dinner with Riley. Talk about a great ending to a good day.
* * *
RILEY CHOSE A restaurant on the water and, despite the rain, Gracie found it far too romantic. If only she’d worn something different. Something sexy and flirty and... Oops. As they were shown to a booth by the window she had to keep reminding herself that this wasn’t a date and that Riley wasn’t interested in her in that way.
They were, um, friends, maybe. Former acquaintances brought together by a common goal—to find out what Zeke was doing when he stole away at all hours.
“You’d think she’d just ask him,” she said as she was seated.
Riley settled in his chair and raised his eyebrows. “What?”
“What? Oh, sorry. Thinking out loud. Just my sister and the problem she’s having with Zeke. Why doesn’t she just ask him? She says it’s because she doesn’t want to know, but isn’t knowing better than not knowing? I’d want to know. At least then you have something you can handle. But this nothingness is just too much like being left in the dark. Don’t you agree?”
He shook his head. “I lost the thread somewhere.”
“It doesn’t matter.” She picked up her menu but instead of looking at it, she stared out into the storm.
Rain pounded against the windows. Below she could see the angry surf smacking into the shore. Lights from the restaurant offered a feeble glow that quickly bled into the darkness.
“What a fabulous night,” she said.
He raised both eyebrows. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No. I love storms. Hey, I live in Los Angeles where we get all of nine inches of rain a year. So when there’s some exciting weather going on, I like to enjoy it.”
He glanced out the window. “This is nothing. I’ve been on an oil rig in a typhoon. That’s weather.”
His statement made her instantly want to ask a thousand questions. Was that where he’d been? How on earth had he gotten there when he’d started out in Los Lobos? But she settled on, “I thought they evacuated rigs during bad storms.”
“Oh, we’re supposed to go, but who’s going to enforce the rules? I worked for a small private company. Everyone on board was a little crazy.”
“Including you?”
He grinned. “Especially me.”
The waiter appeared and told them about the specials.
“How about some wine?” Riley asked.
“Sure. You order.”
“What are you going to have?”
She scanned the menu and picked a grilled salmon dish with a house salad. Riley chose a surf and turf, then surprised her by ordering an Australian Shiraz.
“I thought you would have gone fancy and French with the wine,” she said.
“I like Australian wines. Spanish as well.”
“There are some great local vineyards around here. The whole Santa Ynez valley is covered with grapes.” She started to say they could go on a tasting trip sometime, but stopped herself before the words formed.
This was Riley, she reminded herself. This wasn’t a casual dinner with a guy she liked. This was...dangerous.
“So,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “How did you get into wedding cakes?”
She smiled. “The basic need for transportation. I was sixteen and I wanted a car. My aunt and uncle insisted that I contribute to the gas and insurance part of the equation, so I had to get a job. There was a local bakery a couple of streets over and I applied there. When they hired me, it was late May and wedding cake season was in full swing. I received a baptism by fire. But it turns out I had a real talent for making and designing cakes. Instead of college, I apprenticed with a master baker, then went out on my
