An Offer He Cant Refuse - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,5

memories and emotions that had no place in his don't-wanna-scratch-the-surface life. He was so effing tired of looking up from his desk or waking up from a deep sleep to find it was 1:09:09, the exact time on the face of his digital watch when he'd heard the gunshots that had killed his father.

Months ago, Johnny had packed his Rolex away. Most nights he didn't close his eyes before 2:00 a.m. But damned if he still didn't find those numbers everywhere he looked.

He reached for the phone again. He needed to get on with it. Today. Now. Without further delay.

In Palm Springs, in that house, back at the scene of the crime, he was betting he'd put an end to this torture-by-numbers by puzzling out the answers behind his father's unsolved murder.

As for revenge... he didn't know why that had come to mind. His return to California had nothing to do with vengeance - well, at least not against Tea Caruso. But her last name meant she was a glimmer of possibility, a potential advantage, that's all. Professional gamblers like himself didn't bet on anything unless they had an edge.

And he had a hunch that Tea Caruso was his.
Chapter Three
"The Man That Got Away" Judy Garland A Star is Born(1958)

Following the brush with her grandfather. Tea escaped from the restaurant foyer to a corner booth. She grabbed up one of the waiting glasses of ice water and swallowed the liquid down, intent on drowning the sudden disquiet churning inside of her. The back of her neck prickled, and her gaze jumped across the room, catching the Caputo-Caruso woman casting her a nervous look over her lemon-sherbet shoulder.

Maybe she should have changed her last name, Tea thought. She'd considered it dozens of times. But years ago she'd vowed not to allow any more deceit into her life.

It was a promise made in response to her father's abrupt disappearance and her sudden understanding of the trouble he'd brought them. Both explained her need to always know exactly where she stood. Both were why she never wanted a man to surprise, shame, shock, or betray her ever again.

So she hadn't run away from her last name and she hadn't run away from Palm Springs either. Instead, she'd cut her ties to her grandfather. And those ties were still cut, she assured herself, forcing down another swallow of water. Still cut.

Her mother and sisters were all the family she wanted. All the family she needed. The only people she truly trusted.

So where were they now?

She held the cold, sweating glass to her cheek, then checked her watch again, telling herself that three minutes tardy didn't really mean twenty-three minutes late.

It only felt that way. It only felt that way to her.

At least that's what her mother and sisters claimed. They teased her, claiming that along with a priggish appearance she was punctual to the point of compulsion.

What was it, exactly, that made a woman's closest female relatives feel entitled to identify her most serious character flaws? Not that they were wrong about TeVs - the four of them knew each other just that well.

The product, she supposed, of having their hearts broken by the same man.

The thought sent uneasiness churning inside her again until her two sisters finally walked through the restaurant doors. Younger by less than a year, Tea's half-sister, Eve, was dressed in a slinky, pearl-colored wrap dress. As usual, heads turned. With her golden-blonde hair and pouty mouth, she was the reincarnation of some sophisticated young starlet who'd spent her cocktail hours poolside in the Palm Springs of the 1950s. Beside her, in pipestem black pants, youngest sister, Joey, was oblivious to the attention. She pulled an impatient hand through the pieced-out chunks of her short hairstyle, further disordering its trendy disorder.

Tea blinked, and the years dropped away. Once upon a time there were three little princesses...

She saw them in her mind's eye. Towheaded Eve, wearing a stiff pink tutu, spinning dizzying, show-offy circles while chattering Joey monkeyed up the back of their father's chair.

Plump Tea sat on his lap as it if were her throne, serene in her position as the oldest princess, the smart one.

She blinked again and the image vanished, leaving behind the grown women her sisters had become.

Her sisters.

Of course!

Her sisters were the solution. She could count on them to make sure their grandfather understood her position hadn't changed, eighty birthday candles or no. Her sisters would help her maintain the safe distance she'd kept for all