In A Fix - Mary Calmes Page 0,67

men with no necks.”

“That’s a bouncer at a club,” I volleyed back. “The best bodyguard doesn’t stand out, not someone you’d notice.”

“Then, sweetie, however does that work in your case?” Jackie asked me. “Your hair is so striking.”

“That’s very kind,” I said, smiling at her.

“No, I agree,” Cate chimed in. “Your complexion is so fair that, along with the platinum hair, you have got to know you turn heads.”

“Not so much that I notice,” I demurred.

“Yeah, but––”

“I’m sorry, Cate,” Law interrupted, drawing my attention back to him. “I didn’t get to introduce you to my boyfriend, Evan.”

I stood up again and held out my hand to Evan, who smiled tightly, glanced at Dallas, and then back to me.

“Pleasure,” Evan said flatly.

“And you,” I replied automatically before I sat down again.

The conversation around us picked up as I sipped my drink. “Mr. Whitney, that’s excellent, thank you so much.”

“Please, call me Thad,” he insisted, and unlike his son, he seemed entirely genuine.

“Thank you. You have a lovely home, sir.”

He nodded. “I appreciate that.”

“That drink is really good, Thad,” Dallas told him. “Thank you.”

“You’re so welcome,” he said, and I heard how gruff he sounded, staring at Dallas.

“You should eat something,” Dallas told me, and I turned and smiled at him.

“I’ve never been a big appetizer guy, but I’ll try the brie.”

He put his plate down on the coffee table and then put cheese and bread on one for me. It was excellent, especially with the apple chutney.

As I sat and listened to the conversation, I noted how Jackie was watching Thad and Dallas as they talked. Her expression was so hopeful, and the light that infused her face was beautiful. I had to wonder what Dallas and Thad’s conversations normally looked like.

I was talking to a couple who wanted to know what I planned to do while I was in town—they really wanted to take Dallas and me golfing—when Dallas put his hand on my leg and did what was fast becoming his habit, gripping the inside of my upper thigh.

“So, Dallas,” Gina, Callum’s wife, began, leaning forward in her chair. “Do you think I could talk you into coming to visit my fourth-grade class for career day? I would totally win if you showed up.”

He grinned at her. “Win? Really, Gina?”

She put her hand over her heart. “They’re just so—ugh.”

“And by ugh, she means the other teachers,” Callum chimed in, grinning. “It’s a bit cliquish at that school.”

“I see,” he told her, and his smile made those dimples of his pop. “I’ll wear a suit, and the badge on a lanyard, and I might even shave.”

“I don’t care if you come after an all-night stakeout; you’re always gorgeous.”

“Sitting right here,” Callum groused at her as she tipped her head and smiled at Dallas.

“You should let us take you and Croy out to dinner to this new Italian place we found off the Strip,” Callum suggested. “They have these amazing meatballs.”

“I would love that,” Dallas told him, and I watched his stepbrother nod happily.

When we all got up for dinner, everyone helping to carry the dishes back into the kitchen, Law tapped my shoulder and asked if he could speak to me a moment. I followed him to the bar, and once we were there, he rounded on me.

“You’re not just some random guy, are you? He’s serious about you?”

I squinted at him. “I’m sorry?”

“No, wait,” he backpedaled, stopping himself, shaking his head. “I didn’t—please, let me start over.”

I crossed my arms, waiting.

He exhaled sharply. “A year ago, Dallas met Evan at some frou-frou wildlife fundraiser. Dallas was there because—you don’t care why he was there, and it doesn’t matter, but the point is, they met and hit it off, and they were together. They were dating exclusively, until Dallas brought him here for dinner, and he and I met.”

Dallas’s reticence in coming to his mother’s house was starting to take shape. I didn’t really understand, because clearly everyone was crazy about him, but this, now…it was starting to make some sense.

“And you know how, when you meet someone, and everything works almost seamlessly, so it’s hard to tell whether you’d be walking away from what could be your life, or what might be nothing more than an awkward Sunday dinner?”

I waited.

“It was terrible of me…”

I knew where this was going, and yes, it was. “You pursued a relationship with Evan behind Dallas’s back?”

Heavy sigh. “Yes.”

“Why?” I asked automatically, even though it was none of my business.

He cleared his throat, taking