The One Who Got Away

Steve laughed and Lisa gave a tentative grin. But then Lisa was the stranger amongst them, and that had to be hard.

Ben liked Taylor’s style. Come right out with it. No beating around the bush. She’d always been like that, since the time she was a little kid, demanding to play touch football when she could hardly hold the ball. The only time she’d been reticent had been that last weekend, but he figured it was the newness of the situation. He imagined that had changed.

“We met on the Turquoise Mermaid,” Steve said. “Her dad was fishing and Lisa decided to join him and his buddies for the day. She didn’t fish, which turned out to be a good thing because we started talking and just kept right on going.”

“I hadn’t even wanted to go,” Lisa said, leaning in to the table, her eyes brighter now that they were on a subject she could dive into. “But my father insisted, although he was with Trent Foster and Cal Peterson. Cal brought his wife, Annie, who is closer to my age than his, so Daddy dragged me along. But Annie got horribly seasick, and she didn’t want to talk to anyone, which left me free to concentrate on the wildly handsome skipper.”

Steve’s grin widened. “I got so involved with Lisa it almost cost her father a swordfish. But we nailed him.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Didn’t we?”

“We? I got as far away as I could. I had no idea swordfish were so big and so dangerous.” She settled back in the booth. “At least we won’t have to worry about that anymore.”

Taylor didn’t like the sound of that. “What do you mean?”

“She means I’m letting Larry take over the management of the fleet,” Steve said. “Once we’re married, I’m moving to Kansas. Her dad’s offered me a hell of a good job in sales and marketing. I don’t know much about the aerospace industry yet, but I’m learning. They make seals, connectors, gaskets, that kind of thing. Real high-end stuff, the highest temperature seals in the industry. I’ll be traveling a lot. Except for missing Lisa, I think it’ll be great. I mean, they have this major air show in France every year. Of course, she’ll come with me.”

Taylor was grateful the waitress arrived with their drinks so she had a moment to absorb what she’d just heard. Her brother hated working in an office. He’d built his life around the freedom of the sea. This was a complete one-eighty, and it made her nervous as hell. She sipped her Cosmopolitan, glanced at Ben, whose expression mirrored her own concern. “So Larry’s going to run the fleet, huh? You’re okay with that?”

Steve’s grin faltered. “Yeah, sure. He’ll do a great job. He’s been with me for six years now, and he knows everything about the job.”

“But Kansas?” Taylor leaned in, trying like hell to make Steve look her in the eyes. “No sailing? No fishing? It’s what you love best in all the world.”

“He won’t miss it,” Lisa said. “And we’ll visit San Diego often enough for him to keep his sea legs. You know how bright he is, though, and it’s a shame to waste that on fishing. He has a brilliant career in front of him. I’m sure one day he’ll take over the company. My father always wanted a son, and now he’ll have one.”

“You had no interest in the business?” Ben asked.

Lisa laughed. “God, no. I have my own interior design firm. I’ve done some of the largest homes in Wichita.”

“Really?” Taylor said, her concern deepening by the second.

“Oh, yes. I absolutely love it. My mother works with me, and we have a wonderful assistant, Renee. Right now I work out of mother’s house, but when Steve and I build our home, we’ll include an office. That way, when we have children, I’ll be able to be nearby all the time.”

“Wow. It sounds like you’ve got the whole thing worked out.”

“We do,” Steve said. “Like Lisa says, it’s time for me to grow up. Take on the real world. I can’t be Peter Pan forever.” He kissed her again, lightly on the cheek.

The waitress came back to take their dinner orders. Taylor stole another look at Ben, and he wasn’t disguising his worry in the least. Lisa seemed like a very nice woman and all, but this was nuts. Steve would be miserable working in sales. He hated that kind of thing, and without an ocean nearby, he’d go stir-crazy.

“It seems like all this happened pretty damn fast,” Ben said.

“It all just fell into place,” Steve said. He held on to his drink with both hands. “I’d been thinking a lot about my life, what I was doing with it. Sure, it’s fun helping a bunch of rich guys catch trophy fish, but, I don’t know…”

“My father took to him from the moment they met.” Lisa smiled. “Just like I did. He saw the potential in Steve. He’s a brilliant salesman. There’s no reason on earth he can’t use those talents in the real world. He could take Daddy’s business to the top.”

“It sounds lucrative.”

“Oh, yeah.” Steve nodded. “I’ll be making more than I ever dreamed of.”

“I didn’t know you dreamed about money.” Taylor wished she could say more, remind him of how he’d laughed at all those poor schmucks chasing a dime. But it wasn’t the time or the place. She needed to think. If this truly was the direction Steve wanted to go, then who was she to butt in? Although it felt wrong. Seriously wrong.

“Of course I think about money. Who doesn’t? I mean, if it was just me, it wouldn’t matter. But with a wife and kids… How could I put the time into the boats? You know the life. Living at the pier, away for days at a time, no regular schedules.”

“I suppose so,” she said.

Ben lifted his glass. “To new roads.”

She joined in the toast, all the while feeling like her brother wasn’t heading down a new road, but off a cliff.

BEN HELD THE TAXI DOOR for Taylor, unable to look away from the expanse of thigh her short dress revealed. Despite his genuine and deep concern for his friend, a large part of him had been preoccupied with the woman at his side. No matter what was happening with his frontal lobe, the primal part of his brain had locked on to Taylor, her scent, the way her hair cascaded down her shoulder, the curve of her breasts.

His plan was to ditch Steve and Lisa, which wasn’t going to be too difficult, as Lisa had already said she was beat, and get Taylor to himself. So they could talk. That’s all. Talk about Steve.

Steve paid off the cab, then turned to the small group. “We’re going to our room. We have to be up at the crack of dawn to pick up Lisa’s mom at the airport.”

“When’s our mom coming in?” Taylor asked.

“Tomorrow afternoon.”

“Do you need me to get her?”

“Nope, we have it covered.” Steve kissed his sister on the cheek. “But thanks. Why don’t you and Ben go have some fun? Win a little dough.”

“Right,” she said. “You know how lucky I am with cards.”

Steve laughed. “Okay, so don’t play poker.”

“I still maintain that you cheat every chance you get.”

He held his hand up to his chest as if shocked. “Me? Never.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Thanks for the dinner, you two. We’ll catch up with you tomorrow,” Ben said.

“Great.”

Lisa said good-night, then took Steve’s hand. Taylor watched them walk into the hotel. Ben watched Taylor.

“This is weird as hell,” he said, as soon as they’d entered the lobby.

“I’ll say. Did you have any idea?”

He shook his head. “Last I heard, he was thinking about buying another boat.”

“He asked me to quit my damn boring job and come work for him. He said I was a fool for wasting my life,” Taylor added.

“So what changed?”

Taylor shook her head. “Love?”

“I don’t know…”

Ben wanted to touch her again, as he had on the way out. Gently, palm to the small of her back. He wanted to feel her quiver. Instead, he put his hands in his pockets.

“I want to talk to Mom about it,” Taylor said. “Maybe she knows.”

“Good idea.” He stopped just before they reached the main casino floor. “Are you too tired for a drink? We could go outside by the pool.”

She smiled and he thought he detected a slight blush. “That sounds great.”

“Good.” He took her hand, which might have been better than touching her back, and led her through the youngish crowd. Everyone was on the right side of dressy, trying to look hip. The music, loud enough to make people shout to be heard, was only the coolest rock. Right now they were playing Stevie Ray Vaughn from his second album. Although there were lots of people playing video poker and slots, they were mostly silent, concentrating on whatever voodoo they had to mesmerize the machines. The real hubbub came from the craps tables.

Ben and Taylor threaded through the winners and losers until they got to a hall leading past a couple of high-end restaurants, to the door to the pool. A guard stood at the exit, and they had to show their room keys.

After that, they stepped into a lush, green paradise. The pool area, one of the prettiest in Vegas, had a lot of night swimmers gliding about, mostly by the swim-up bar and the water blackjack tables. But that’s not where Ben wanted to be. He led Taylor past the purple lounge chairs and the swaying palms ’til they passed the huge bar. Once there, they climbed a few steps to reach the cabana level. He hoped he’d find one empty, and luck was with him. During the day, the cabanas could be rented for a bundle, but after ten, if you were lucky, you could homestead. The refuse from another party still cluttered the small round table, but that wasn’t a problem.

He ushered Taylor to one of the green padded chairs, and he sat next to her. The television in the corner was off, which was what he wanted, and the overhead fan was on, creating a nice breeze in the semiprivate space. He’d like it even better if he could close the curtain, but he didn’t want to scare her.

“This is unbelievable,” she said. “I haven’t been here before, but I’d heard about the cabanas.”

“They’re not easy to reserve,” he said, “although sometimes you can get lucky.”

She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. It was a sight he wouldn’t soon forget. The long stretch of bare thigh, the perfection of her knee, the subtle curve of her calf. To say nothing of the arch of her foot, and the seduction of her high black heel. He felt as mesmerized as a compulsive gambler staring at a royal flush.

It was the waitress that brought him out of his daze. She of the black leather short-shorts, leopard-print vest and perky smile. “What can I get you?”

Taylor ordered a piña colada, he got a scotch on the rocks. The waitress cleared their table, then hustled off, leaving them in the relative quiet. The music, now something by Tom Petty, wafted in along with the laughter and muffled chatter from the group at the bar.

Taylor leaned toward him. “It’s good to see you, Ben.”

His gaze moved up to her eyes radiating fondness that touched him unexpectedly. “You, too.”

“You probably know how horrible Steve is at gossip, so I don’t know much of what’s happened to you other than you’re now a private investigator. Are you happy?”

“For the most part. I like being my own boss.”

“That makes sense.”

“But I still work with the NYPD a lot. More than I figured.”

“Interesting stuff?”

“Occasionally. Mostly it’s the kind of footwork that takes a special know-how.” He chuckled. “That makes it sound like I’m some Colombo or something. I meant that I do the kind of background checks that don’t make it into the NCIC. Paperwork traces, poking into things that might get dicey for the force. That kind of thing.”

“I think it sounds fascinating.”

“How kind of you.”

“I’m more interested in your personal life. Again, according to my brother, you’re divorced.”

“For two years now.”

She ran her hand down her thigh to her knee. Not scratching, just an unconscious gesture that held him rapt. Odd, because it had been a hell of a long time since he’d been spellbound by a woman. Maybe it was the memories. Or the fact that he’d had to get up before God this morning and he was getting punchy.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Was it bad?”

“I can’t think of a divorce that isn’t. But we’re friends. In fact, we still occasionally make a night of it.”

Taylor’s brows lifted.

“Not that much of a night. Alyson’s gay.”

Taylor’s brows stayed lifted.

“You can imagine how that went over with all my cop buddies.”

“Oh, my.”

“At the very least. But I don’t think I’m too emotionally scarred. I vent my anguish by boycotting all reruns of Ellen.”

Her laughter hit him low, like a vibration right in the balls. It felt good, too good.

The drinks arrived, and she tried to pay. He used his best scowl, and gave the waitress too large a tip. Once they were alone again, he sipped his scotch, aware that it was either going to make him drunk as a sailor or put him to sleep. “So what are we going to do about this wedding thing?”

Taylor twirled her drink with her straw. It made the little umbrella spin. “I’m not sure there’s anything we can do. Or should.”

“Are you kidding? Can you honestly see Steve in a suit and tie, doing aircraft sales in the middle of friggin’ Kansas?”

She shook her head. “No, I can’t. But maybe he’s had some sort of epiphany. Maybe we should honor that.”

“Epiphany? Steve? Are we talking about the same guy?”

Her sigh echoed his own frustration. “I know. Let me talk to Mom. I don’t want to jump the gun.”

“He’s getting married in six days.”

“Look, the last thing I want to do is hurt him. He’s such a puppy. And I know he’s lonely.”

Ben grinned. “I’ve never thought of him as a puppy, but I do agree about the lonely part. It’s not easy to find a woman who likes to fish as much as he does.”

“That doesn’t mean he has to go in the opposite direction. I could even understand a compromise. But this…this is nuts.”

“I agree.”

She sipped again, and he focused on her lips. Glossy-pink. Perfectly formed, ripe for kissing. She’d become an uncommon beauty, and if his signals weren’t crossed, she wasn’t averse to the idea of making this week quite memorable. However, it wasn’t going to be remembered for tonight. The dollop of scotch had gone straight to his head, and if he didn’t get up to the room soon, things were going to get ugly.

“Taylor,” he said, “I hate to cut the party short, but I’m going to have to bail. I was up way too early this morning.”

She put her drink down on the table, and he would swear she looked guilty. Why? He hadn’t a clue.

“No problem. I need to get some sleep myself.” She stood, smoothing her short skirt down. “Are you going to be around tomorrow? I’ll talk to Mom as soon as I can.”

He pulled out his wallet, then one of his cards. “Try my room, but if not, I’ve got my cell.”

“Terrific.” Her smile made him weak in the knees.

He stood, held out his hand. “Can I walk you up?”

“Thank you, but actually, I need to pick up something at the gift shop. You go on ahead.”

Disappointed, he nodded. Leaned over and kissed her cheek. Wanted to do a lot more. But he backed off. What he needed was sleep. He wanted to be on his game for Taylor. Nothing less would do. “Until tomorrow.”

She nodded, and as he walked away, he heard that sigh again. It almost made him turn around, but he held the course. Although he made his living interpreting nonverbal cues, he couldn’t figure this one out. Either she was glad to get rid of him, or damn sorry to see him go.

He chose to believe it was the latter.

3

TAYLOR WATCHED BEN get into the elevator. He smiled at her, not noticing that behind him, a tall brunette in shorts was eyeing him with palpable lust. Or maybe he did know. Maybe he’d grown so accustomed to gorgeous women wanting him that it was old hat by now. The elevator doors closed while she still had her hand up, waving.

She wasn’t sure why she’d told him she had to buy something. In fact, she didn’t need a thing, and for all she knew the gift shop was closed by now. Instead, she wandered into the circular casino, her gaze shifting from the machines to the gamblers at the tables.

She’d never done much playing herself, even though she’d come to Vegas several times since she’d turned twenty-one. Mostly she liked to hang out at the blackjack tables—the cheap ones, not those with a minimum bet of twenty-five dollars. She wasn’t rich enough to squander money like that. And normally, she wasn’t an extraordinary risk-taker. Her mother didn’t believe that, given her preference for motorcycles over cars, but it was true. There were only so many chances a person could take in life, and she wanted to make her gambles count.

Like her personal agenda for this trip, for example. Sleeping with Ben wasn’t so much a gamble as a last-ditch attempt to get herself back on course. She was twenty-eight, for heaven’s sake, and dammit, she wanted to get married. Have kids. Two, to be precise. And she had no intention of settling.

Sure there had been nice guys, and she’d liked one or two a great deal. But it hadn’t been enough. Perhaps her friends from Eve’s Apple were right: she was too picky. She wanted a fairy-tale hero, not a real-life husband. What Taylor didn’t understand was why she had to have one or the other. And no, she didn’t feel as if she were reaching for the moon.

The truth was, she liked her life. She didn’t sit around and mope because she wasn’t married. She had lots of things she loved doing, including her bike, shooting pool in her league, going to flea markets, reading, a secret addiction to the Food Channel. She never felt bored, she always had a full plate, and for the most part, she was happy. All she really wanted was someone to share it all with. And, oh, God, how she wanted to have kids.

The Apple gals had suggested she consider doing that on her own, but Taylor had dismissed the idea. In her opinion children needed a father. Not that women couldn’t raise kids successfully solo, but it was tough on everybody. Taylor had gotten along incredibly well with her father, and that relationship had formed her in so many ways. A lot of her independence had come from her father’s attitude toward her. He’d always told her she could do anything, be anyone she wanted to be.

She couldn’t imagine having grown up without his influence.

So, okay, maybe by the time she was thirty-five, if she still hadn’t found Mr. Right, then she’d seriously consider it. But for now, she was determined to go for the brass ring. Being with Ben was an important part of the equation, and she still believed with all her heart that once this week was over, her life would change dramatically. She’d be able to date with new eyes, not always comparing the men she met to Ben.

She already felt better about things. His looks, for example. Yes, it was true he was stunningly gorgeous. But she’d been able to put that fact into perspective. There were lots of gorgeous men, but frankly, she would have been drawn to him even if he wasn’t so handsome.

And that was the whole point. By the time Steve and Lisa got married she would have everything about Ben in perspective, and then she would be able to move on.

It didn’t hurt that the task was going to be such a pleasant one, either. She grinned, but her mood deflated the next second. Perspective was well and fine, but the end result also meant she was going to lose something kind of special. A long-held fantasy was going to disappear in the light of those new eyes, and that was kind of sad.

He’d been her superhero, her perfect guy for so long, it was hard to imagine that standard falling away. But it had to.

Someone bumped her right shoulder, and she turned to face a nice-looking, white-haired gentleman in a really snazzy tuxedo. He smiled, bowed his head gently and apologized. She nodded, then headed toward the elevator, but stopped just before she left the casino floor. There was an Elvis slot machine which would play a song if you hit the jackpot. She pulled a five from her purse, and slipped it in the slot. Instead of a handle, she pressed a button, playing maximum coins. Nothing.

Nothing the second hit, or the third. In the end she only got one cherry. Her five was gone, and she hadn’t heard “Love Me Tender.”

C’est la vie. Her real gamble was up in his room, sleeping by now. Dreaming of her?

BEN STARED AT THE CLOCK on the night table, the minutes passing so slowly they felt like hours. Sleep eluded him—due, to a large degree, to his preoccupation with Taylor.

The connection was still there after all these years. He hadn’t expected that. She’d been so young back then, and had he had an ounce of decency in him, he’d be ashamed that he’d taken advantage of her youth. Yeah, she’d come on to him, but a stronger man would have said no. When it came to Taylor, however, he wasn’t the least bit strong.

Not that he’d always felt that way about her. Back when he and Steve had first started hanging out, Taylor had been a nuisance. She’d followed them everywhere in the tradition of baby sisters, always running to her mother when they’d shut her out of their “big kid” adventures. So they’d had to drag her along when it would have been a lot more fun without her. He hadn’t minded too much. As an only child, he’d always wondered what it would be like to have a sibling. He would have voted for a brother, however. A girl was too foreign. Too girly. And he’d wanted to be the toughest kid in town.

Steve had always protected the little brat, no matter what, even though he’d complained about her presence. Then protecting Taylor had become a part of him, too. He’d kept the older kids from picking on the tall, skinny tomboy.

After he’d graduated high school, he’d pretty much forgotten about her. Until he’d come home that last week, just after she’d turned eighteen.

His folks were gone on a trip he’d bought them. He’d liked the quiet and the peace, the time to study. He’d been taking night classes, studying forensics. During the day, he’d been a beat cop, and the toll had been heavy. The week away had been a blessing.

When Taylor had dropped by, making it awkwardly, painfully clear that she’d wanted him to take her, he’d hesitated, sure, but finally, he’d given in.

They’d stayed in bed for damn near three days. Doing everything they could think of, and by God the girl had an amazing imagination. She’d been wild, free, unafraid. The first time she’d taken him in her mouth, he’d nearly had a heart attack. And he could still remember her cries when he’d showed her the pleasure of his mouth on her.

She’d cried when they said goodbye, and he’d felt bad, but he’d explained to her that he was only in town for a short visit. The letters she’d sent him had come frequently at first, always with an invitation for a return visit, but he’d only answered one. There was no future for the two of them. Even if she had ended up at a college in New York, he couldn’t have kept up a relationship.

His career had been his whole focus for a long, long time. Back then, he’d wanted to be a homicide detective, and he’d accepted every lousy assignment, volunteered for all the crap no one else wanted to do. He’d eventually gotten his master’s degree in forensic science.

But he’d still made it out to California most years to go fishing with Steve. He’d heard about Taylor’s adventures at Berkeley, her first apartment, her job as a paralegal.

Steve had also told her that Taylor wanted to marry, to have kids, to have the kind of life that demanded the suburbs. Not Manhattan. Not with a cop.

But this week wasn’t about marriage and kids, at least not for them. It was Vegas, after all. Sin City. They were here to have a good time, to be there for Steve, although not in the way Steve imagined.

Ben turned over, thinking about his friend, what had gotten into him. Lisa represented everything Steve had avoided in his life. His love of his fishing boats, and his freedom, were so important to Steve, and anyone who knew him saw that from the get-go. So what had happened? Why the radical shift?