Midnight Kiss (Men of Midnight #7) - Lisa Marie Rice Page 0,6

that she could read Luke Reynold’s expression pretty well.

The wheels were almost visibly turning in that incredibly handsome head of his. Was he being shanghaied into being a shrink? Had she mobilized vast resources — that private plane ride across the continental US alone probably cost $50,000 — for a family squabble?

“Not what you think,” she said.

“Not thinking anything,” he replied, which was a lie.

“This isn’t a therapy session,” she said.

“Good thing, because I’m no therapist,” he said. Instead of taking a small sip of his whiskey, he gulped the rest of it down.

Yeah, Luke Reynolds didn’t look like a shrink. He looked exactly like what Felicity said he was. A former soldier and a cop. Totally reality-based guys who didn’t speculate and didn’t do feelings. Certainly not the touchy-feely kind that came with discussions of family. Every inch of that lean and muscled body was meant for action, not reflection.

Which was great. Because reflection was her field and action was his.

Hope was in big trouble, had no idea why, and needed a Luke.

“Hear me out.” Hope leaned forward a little, body language for hear me out to go with the words.

He nodded his head soberly.

None of this was going to be easy. She gathered her thoughts and resolved to be as clear and as concise as possible.

Here goes nothing, she thought, and began.

“My parents weren’t good parents. They weren’t bad parents, either, really. They were just indifferent, wrapped up in themselves, so they farmed out the parenting. We always had money, though I’m not too sure where it came from because I never saw them work. I’m investigating that right now. My parents hired nannies to look after me and they hired really good ones. At the age of ten I was sent to a boarding school that by sheer chance happened to be exactly what I needed. It had an excellent academic program, gifted teachers and a student body of kids like me — with parents who had more money than parental instincts. I had a good time, made good friends, got a superb education. At first, until I was about fourteen or so, I’d go home for Christmas and Easter and summer vacations, but then I stayed over at the school for extra courses in the summer, which is why I graduated at sixteen. I ended up staying with friends for Christmas and Easter after that. My parents … didn’t mind.”

He was listening carefully, to his credit. There was a reason she was telling him this and he understood that.

“The only time my parents showed any strong feelings about me was when I said I wanted to study at Stanford. For some reason, that agitated them no end. My father put his foot down and said he wouldn’t pay for it. I was pretty sure I could get a scholarship and anyway I was already writing code for pretty good money so I knew I could pay my own way. But one evening both of them begged me to stay in Boston. Cried, even. Begged and cried so much I … gave in. I have absolutely no idea why they were so set against Stanford. But it was the first thing they’d ever asked of me, so …” she shrugged. “I went to MIT. About six months ago, they retired, though for the life of me I don’t know what they were retiring from. Neither of them worked a day in their lives, that I could see. They bought a condo in Clearwater, Florida and spent the winter there.”

She stopped, sipped more tea. It was lukewarm, but that was okay. It gave her a moment to gather her thoughts. She’d never really laid her family life out like this. Hadn’t even thought about it much, really, until very recently. When the past reached out and tried to take a big bite out of her.

She met Luke’s eyes. They were a light blue, a beautiful color, but bloodshot. Either the man had been on a bender or he wasn’t sleeping. She didn’t think Felicity would have entrusted her to an alcoholic. Felicity had mentioned that he’d been having problems.

Welcome to the club.

She drew in a deep breath. “Spoken out loud like this, I’m wondering why I wasn’t more curious about them. But — your family is like the ocean for a fish, I guess. Just there. What you swim in. Do you know a lot about your parents’ past?”

“Everything,” he said. “I was close to my parents and