cool and dark. I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink.” He steered her toward his pickup.
The last thing she wanted was a cool, dark, intimate place to go with him, let alone a drink. Isn’t that the way it had started last night?
He didn’t drive far before he pulled into a small beach bar overlooking the water. As he shut off the engine, she heard music drifting on the warm afternoon breeze. The air smelled of sand and surf with the faint scent of burgers and fries and beer.
Once inside, he headed straight for the crowded bar. She hesitated by the door, half-afraid of what he wanted to talk to her about. Maybe it was just her guilty conscience, but she felt an icy chill skitter up her spine.
Then she glanced behind her and spotted a car parked just down the street. She couldn’t be sure, but it looked like the one that had been following them before. It was hard to see if there was anyone behind the wheel because of the glare off the windshield. Had they been followed? Again?
She stepped back out of the bar and walked toward the car, turning down a short alley and circling around in order to come up behind it. The car looked like a rental. There was no one behind the wheel and on closer inspection she could see that the car was locked.
She glanced around but didn’t see anyone who looked suspicious. Maybe the driver had gone into one of the businesses and was watching her.
She made a quick call to Clare to run the plates. “I think you’re going to get a rental car agency. Find out who rented the car and let me know ASAP.”
As she headed back inside the bar, she told herself she wouldn’t be surprised if the car was rented by Presley Wells. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d been dead wrong about a man. Or the last, she thought as she saw the expression on Alex’s face.
He stood by the door to the beach with a drink in each hand, a frown on his face. “Let’s take these outside.”
She started to lie and tell him she’d been trying to find the ladies’ room. But she was tired of lying to him and determined to end it here today.
He didn’t say another word as he put down the drinks at one of the empty tables and pulled up a chair. He seemed to be waiting for her to say something.
She picked up the margarita he’d ordered her and touched her tongue to the salt, avoiding his gaze as she looked out over the water and thought about how to tell him the bad news.
ALEX HAD PLANNED to ask Samantha outright as soon as he saw her if she’d gone back to Caroline’s condo the night after they’d been there together.
Looking at her now, though, the question seemed ludicrous. What possible motive would a wedding planner have to break into anyone’s condo? It made no sense.
What did make sense was someone trying to make him distrust her. Trying to muddy the waters. He and Samantha had been working together to find Caroline’s fiancé. Someone didn’t like that. It told him that he and Samantha were getting close.
Even with all that wonderful rational thinking, Alex knew he was kidding himself. He’d already suspected that Samantha was hiding something from him. Now he would be watching her. And she already intrigued him.
“You look pretty today.” He meant it. Even with the bruise on her cheekbone.
The compliment seemed to embarrass her. He watched her swallow and look away and a sinking feeling gripped his stomach. He still wanted to believe that the call last night had been a prank.
He raised his glass and said, “To you, thank you for all your help.”
Samantha raised her plastic glass trying not to squirm. He couldn’t have made her feel more guilty than if he’d toasted to honesty.
She didn’t drink alcohol other than an occasional glass of wine. She liked to be in control. Always.
And, she needed all the control she could muster around Alex. The last thing she needed was alcohol and this beautiful beach on this wonderful afternoon. Her defenses were already down at just the hint of his smile.
“To happy endings,” she said, wondering where that had come from, and took a sip, pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted.
She licked the salt from her lips, the alcohol in the margarita sending a shot of