drive by in a half hour or so, see if her car was in the doctor’s parking lot. If only he knew who her doctor was …
Luke stretched and faked a yawn, taking the opportunity to glance around the office. Most of the detectives were on the phone. The rest were gathered near the coffee machine, gabbing about something. His sergeant was nowhere to be seen.
Rising to circle around to Simone’s desk, Luke told himself not to look guilty. There was nothing weird about him sorting through her stuff. They worked the same cases. They shared the same space. Still, he felt a flush climb up the back of his neck as he tugged open the top drawer and pushed some papers around. It didn’t take much. The corner of a business card appeared. He pulled it free of the pile and immediately spied a stylized logo of a woman holding a baby. Bingo.
Luke tucked the card into his pocket and circled back to his desk just as his cell phone rang. “Asher.”
“Hey, it’s Jamie Donovan. Do you have a minute to swing by the brewery?”
Perfect. Now he had an excuse to leave. “I’ll be there in a few.”
He slipped on his coat and grabbed his keys to head out. The doctor’s office was on the way to the brewery, so he drove by just in case. Simone’s car wasn’t there, but it was early yet. Luke had the sinking feeling that he was stepping over a line here, and he was still trying to shake off the guilt when he walked into the brewery. The front room was empty, but before he could head to the back, Jamie came through the swinging doors.
“Hey, Jamie. What’s up?”
“Stay the hell away from my sister, Luke.”
Amazingly, Luke had been so caught up in the drama with Simone that he’d forgotten about the problem of Tessa Donovan. He just stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face.
“You promised to leave her alone.”
“She asked me to dinner.”
“So you should’ve said no.”
“I did. But …” He cleared his throat. “Then I said yes.”
“Whatever. It doesn’t matter. She’s no longer interested. I told her about your partner.”
Any guilt Luke had been feeling snapped into cold fury. “What about my partner? You don’t know a damn thing about it.”
“I know she’s pregnant. And you’re the father. And I know you’re trying to date my sister. That’s all I need to know.”
“You’re wrong,” he managed to push past clenched teeth.
“About what?” Jamie snapped.
He refused to say more. It wasn’t right to talk about Simone this way. She never said a word about it to anyone. She’d always been a private person, and he couldn’t disrespect her that way.
Jamie shrugged. “Whether you’re the father or not, it’s hardly the only issue.”
“Oh, yeah? What else puts her out of my league?”
Jamie shifted, running a hand through his hair and looking everywhere but at Luke.
“What?” Luke snapped, expecting to hear more about the divorce.
Jamie finally met his gaze. “Tessa is a virgin.”
“Uh … What?”
“You heard me.”
Luke wondered if the stress of the past few years had finally broken him. “You’re not serious.”
Jamie’s frown turned to a scowl. “You’re damn right I’m serious.”
“But … that’s … How do you know?”
“She’s told me as much herself.”
“She told you?” Luke asked weakly. Something that felt suspiciously like horror was rolling through him in waves. Tessa was a virgin? Good God. She hadn’t said a word. Except that part about being a good girl. Had that been a hint? “Wow,” he breathed.
“So when I say you’re not good enough for her, I mean you’re not fucking good enough for her, all right?”
Luke rolled his shoulders. “Look. I don’t like to talk about Simone, but what you’ve heard isn’t true. I’m not that guy. And I’m not looking to jump your sister’s bones. It was just dinner. We had a good time.”
“Well, make it the last time, all right?”
“What if I don’t want to?”
Jamie crossed his arms and dropped his eyes to the floor. “This is my sister.”
“Fair enough. But—”
“There is nothing about you that’s good enough for her. You’re damaged. Your job is dangerous. Your partner is pregnant. And even aside from your reputation, there are the stone-cold facts of your divorce. You can’t argue those away.”
Luke’s heart paused.
“She had cancer, man. How could you have walked out like that?”
Luke’s vision went dark at the edges, and he considered warning Jamie that he shouldn’t say that sort of thing to a man with a gun strapped to his body. Because in that moment, Luke wanted to kill someone. He really, really did.
“We’re friends, Luke, but—”
Luke cut him off with a hard laugh. “That friendship was a long time ago, obviously.”
“I’m sorry. It’s none of my business, and I wouldn’t make it my business, but I don’t want you anywhere near Tessa, got it?”
“Fuck off,” Luke said. He slammed through the front door of the brewery, blood rushing so hard in his ears he almost walked right into a car that pulled up. Two business types got out of the car, each of them eyeing him warily. Luke just stalked around them and got into his own car. Even two states away, he couldn’t get away from it. Luke had been married and divorced in California, which was one of the reasons he’d moved back here. Yeah, word got around the department, but he hadn’t expected it to get back to everyone. He should have known better. Eve wasn’t from Boulder, but she’d gone to school here. People talked. They always did. Hell, the police wouldn’t solve any cases if people weren’t so inclined to spread rumors.
God, what a disaster.
His rage leveled off to frustration, a constant, scalding burn beneath his skin. Everything about his divorce was frustrating. Not that that shocked him. His marriage had been frustrating, too, but he’d loved her like crazy.
“Shit,” he spat out. At least the anger had smoked out his guilt about spying on Simone. He didn’t feel even a twinge as he started the car and headed back toward the doctor’s office. But he was still reeling under a healthy dose of Holy crap, Tessa Donovan is an untouched innocent as he wove his car through streets filled with packs of hunched-over bikers. Frankly, the various emotions
