who had more heart than she’d ever expected.
“I have a feeling he’ll be okay, though. You’re a good distraction for him.”
“What?” Barely catching Hailey’s words, Lisa turned.
“No ‘what’ about it. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. Teresa did too. We’re not blind.” She glanced back at the map.
Looked at her like what? Lisa’s pulse kicked up. “He only wants me because of Tisiphone.”
Hailey rolled her eyes. “That’s not the only reason he wants you. Trust me, I know the man. And I can’t tell you how many times I wished he would have looked at me like that. Just once.”
Reality formed a lump in Lisa’s throat. She set her dish towel on the black granite counter. “You loved him.”
An uncomfortable silence spread over the kitchen. Hailey pushed away from the table. “I feel like some wine. Don’t you?” Without waiting for an answer, she found a bottle of cabernet in the wine cabinet. After uncorking the top, she poured two generous glasses and handed Lisa one. “Did he tell you how we met?”
Lisa took the glass, knowing a diversionary tactic when she saw one. Hell, she was a pro at the same exact thing. “No.”
“My father’s loaded. Runs a chain of five-star hotels up and down the East Coast. He also has an insatiable art-collecting habit. Buys junk all the time and never looks at it again. Pete had a client who was in the market for an abstract painting by some unknown artist out on the West Coast. Rafe tracked it down and found my father had bought it. The thing was in an attic collecting dust. It had never been hung, and I’m willing to bet my father forgot he even had it. Anyway, to make a long story short, being the generous man my father is, when Rafe approached him about selling, he said no.”
“So Rafe stole it,” Lisa guessed.
“Yep.” Hailey lifted her wine and sipped again. “I showed up at my parents’ estate in Palm Beach unexpected the night he went after it, and I caught him.”
Lisa couldn’t help smiling. The smart international art thief had been caught by a small-town cop. Just like that. “I bet that was a surprise for him.”
“It was. And my father, even though he never liked my career choice in the first place, made a big deal about me making the arrest and getting the credit.”
“Which, I’m guessing, you didn’t want.”
“No. And when I found out what had really happened, I made sure the evidence got buried. Just to spite him.”
Lisa lifted her wine to her lips. “I take it you don’t get along so well with your parents.”
“That’s an understatement.” Hailey shrugged. “Anyway, Rafe was grateful, took me out to dinner to say thanks, and one thing led to another from there. When my father heard through the grapevine who I’d been seen around town with, he blew his stack.”
“And that made the two of you go out again.”
“Bingo.” Hailey glanced out the window at the boat. “My parents pretty much disowned me when they found out I was dating a thief.” Her voice softened. “But then he’s not your normal run-of-the-mill criminal, is he?”
“No,” Lisa said, gaze following. “He’s not.” And every day she got to know him, he was turning into more.
“He’s easy to be around, and he’s got a big heart. He’d do anything for the people he cares about, even if that means sacrificing something he wants in the process. I realized that pretty fast, and I thought it would be enough, but it wasn’t.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell him how you felt?”
Hailey turned away from the window. “It wouldn’t have made a difference.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.” Her voice softened. “I’m not stupid. I knew after we got home from that trip to Vegas he wanted out, but he was too honorable to ask for it. And I let it go on longer than it should have, using Teresa as an excuse. It upset him to have to ask for the divorce, because he thought he was letting everyone down, but it was the right thing for both of us.” She smiled. “Besides, I got over it, which tells me it wasn’t meant to be in the first place.”
Lisa looked down into her wine. Fifteen years later and she still hadn’t gotten over what had happened with Doug. They were obviously never meant to be together either, so why was it so hard for her? If she could go back and change