A Very Important Guest (5 page)

She met his gaze and shook her head in amazement. How had he puzzled her out so quickly? But moreover, why did he want to? She wanted to act as she would’ve a few years ago. Until then, she’d always been a demonstrative person. In an interaction like this, with a hot guy who made her heart sing, she’d be all over him, showing him how she felt. Her old boyfriend loved her for it, but as the fire of her soul slowly cooled and then chilled, so did their relationship. At that moment with Will, she wanted to pounce on him. She stammered, “You’ve got my number.”

“Figuratively and literally?” He seemed to suppress a laugh.

She kept quiet, and he quickly said, as if he knew she was anxious. “Don’t worry. You’ve got mine, too.”

As she absorbed what lay behind his words, she beamed. “We should both get back to work.”

“See you tonight,” he said and waved a hand to usher her out of the room.

“Yes. Tonight.” She headed straight to her cart, grinning the whole way.

* * *

When she pulled up to a side street of the hotel, she saw Will across the way, posted at the hotel front doors and looking around. She hoped he’d recognize the car so that she didn’t have to get out. Though the bellhops and valets were her buddies, she didn’t want them seeing her drive off with a guest. Luckily, her car was distinct enough she assumed Will might remember it from the night before. In only a few seconds, he spotted her and walked over.

She rolled down her window. “Hey.”

He grinned. “I couldn’t miss the car.”

As he walked around to the passenger side, she smiled when she saw his more casual dress for the evening. “Welcome,” she said when he finally sat down on the aged leather interior.

“Thanks for picking me up.” He looked about the car’s interior. “What year is this?”

“1985.”

“Wow. It’s an antique.” He pointed to the Mercedes symbol. “Thirty years old, and it still has that German car smell.”

“It was my stepfather’s. He kept it in perfect condition.” She started the car and began to pull out of the parking space. “When my Honda got totaled by a drunk, I took this car.”

“Did your stepfather get another Mercedes?”

Taking her eyes off the road, she glanced at him and shook her head. “He’d died a few months earlier. The car was just sitting there.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

His serious expression felt like proof he already knew that part of her story. “Thanks,” she said, her voice small. She stole another quick look at him before turning her attention back to the road. The distraction of driving would make the conversation easier. “He had congestive heart failure. It was a slow decline.”

“That’s rough. Were you close?”

“Not particularly. Chuck was a big officer in the Navy. He was always kind to me, but we never really connected. When he and my mom met, he’d just become a widower. He was over twenty years older than my mom with two grown sons. He adored her, but I don’t think he knew what to do with me. I was just a little girl.” She looked at Will for a few seconds and saw he was listening intently. “Don’t get me wrong. He was a good man. I liked him, and my mom loved him.”

“But your mom’s sick now?” he ventured.

She kept her attention fixed on the car in front of her. “Yeah. We can talk about it later.”

“Okay,” he said softly. His curiosity must’ve gotten the best of him because he asked, “And where is your father?”

“He lives in
San Diego
. We’re close, but I don’t get to see him that often.”

“When did your parents divorce?”

“I was two. He was a Navy SEAL when he was younger and always off on some crazy mission.”

“Wow. That’s impressive.”

“Yeah, but my mom couldn’t handle the secrecy and long absences. It was hard for her, being alone all the time with a baby. Not long after they divorced, Chuck walked into her life to take care of her—and me, I guess.” She stopped the car at a red light and looked at him again. “I can’t complain at all about my upbringing. I lived in a happy home, and though he's never been around often, my dad has always been wonderful.”

He smiled. “I’d say you turned out great.”

“Thanks.” His eyes were warm, but there was something saucy in his expression, like he was checking her out. She shifted in her seat, feeling awkward under his sexy stare. When the light changed, she tried to change the subject. “So tell me about your family. Do you have brothers and sisters?”

For the rest of the way to the restaurant, Will detailed a short history of his parents’ fairy tale romance and his life growing up with four brothers and sisters. To Abby, it sounded like a happy family with normal tensions that were bound to occur with that many children living under one roof of limited means. Will didn’t care if it was normal or not; he seemed to have had his fill of one of his brothers.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Abby spoke to the hostess in pitch-perfect Japanese.

Will chuckled. “I’d gladly trade my brother, Eric, to have grown-up overseas.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Sometimes I do,” he grumbled.

When the hostess seated them, Abby said, “Then I would’ve taken your brother and learned Japanese in a classroom.”

“No way.”

“Why not?”

“I mean there’s no way I’d let my brother anywhere near you. He’d immediately hit on you.”

“Not if I was his sister …”

“That’s probably the only way he wouldn’t.”

The waiter came, and Abby quickly ordered for them both. Afterward, Will said, “So you really wanted a sibling closer to your age, not just older stepbrothers?”

“When I was younger, I thought about it sometimes.” She bit the inside of her cheek because the perfect opportunity had arisen. She’d found the segue that made what she had to say easier. Fiddling with her chopsticks, she said, “Now I really wish I had at least one sibling.”

“Why is that? At this age, you may not even live in the same city. You’d never see them.”

She sighed and blurted out her plight. “Because then I wouldn’t be the only person in the world taking care of my mom.”

Will’s face softened as his brow furrowed. Reaching over to take her hand in his, he said, “I’m so sorry, Abby. I didn’t know you were alone. What does she have?”

“Alzheimer’s.” She swallowed. It was a bitter word for her.

“Alzheimer’s? How old is she?”

“She’s fifty-two. It’s early-onset Alzheimer’s. It’s rare, but it does happen.”

“That’s horrible. When did it come on?”

“In her early forties, she started getting really forgetful. It was annoying more than anything else. Then seven years ago, Chuck died, and things went downhill. They say a severe emotional trauma can speed up Alzheimer’s, and we think it did for my mom.”
“How is she doing now?”

“Not good. She’s been in a nursing facility for a couple of years.”

“And you’re all alone dealing with this?” His tone was angry. “Where are your grandparents? Aunts? Uncles? Stepbrothers? Even your father?”

“My dad helps me with a few of the legal things, but my grandpa died when I was sixteen, and my grandma and Aunt Maureen both live in Florida. They come here for a few weeks about three times a year.” She shook her head. “To be honest, their trips are now pretty useless because my mom’s memory is so far gone. The last time my grandma visited, she was here for two weeks, and my mom barely spoke. The only time she did she called her ‘Nana,’ the name my mom called
her
grandmother.”

“Does she know who you are?”

“Occasionally.” Abby lowered her head as she accepted the truth she hated. “Actually, it’s been a while since she has. She’s completely out of it.”

Will was quiet, seeming to take it all in.

Breaking the heavy silence, Abby looked him in the eye and summed up her situation. “It sucks.”

“Yeah … I’d say so.” He shook his head in disbelief. “And yet you’re working, you’re in school,
and
taking care of her?”

“It’s good to keep busy. It’s not like taking care of her is a full-time job any more. I visit her almost every day and manage her affairs, but that’s it. The rest of the time I’m in school or at work. I’ll be done with school at the end of this semester, and until I sell the house, I need to make money.” She sighed. “Even though selling it would make my life a ton easier, I’ve been putting it off. I had some stupid hope …”

“God, Abby. I don’t know how you do it.”

“You just do.” She sighed.

The waiter interrupted by placing two bowls of miso soup before them, and quiet dominated the table as they sipped their soup from the ladle-like spoons. Will studied her as he placed the spoon in his bowl. “You’re very impressive.”

“I’m just doing what anyone would do in this situation.”

“Yeah, but you’re doing it really well, and you’re not crazy.”

She pointed her empty spoon toward him and smiled. “You don’t know that.”

“Whatever. I’m in politics. I’m a good judge of crazy, and you’re not crazy.” He chuckled.

“Sometimes I feel like I am.” Wanting some more levity in the conversation, she asked, “If I’m crazy, do I have a chance in politics?”

“You don’t have to be crazy to be in politics, though there are a lot of crazy people.
Besides
,
I already said you could make it in politics.” He leaned back in his chair and eyed her warily. “I’d be terrified to run against you.”

“You’re just saying that.”

“I mean it. You’re smart and have a lot of depth.” He moved in closer again. “You’re too pretty for words.”

The compliment left her speechless.

Taking her hand again, he said, “I’ve been trying to find the right word that accurately describes the green of your eyes. Maybe marine?”

“Marine like the military or marine like the ocean?”

“Like the ocean.” He rolled his eyes and gave her hand a teasing squeeze. “Your eyes do not look like camo.”

For the rest of dinner they joked and teased. Abby was happy for the reprieve from heavy conversation, and she kept things light by teaching him how to use chopsticks. He was so bad at it she moved behind him, wrapped her arms around him, and placed his hand in the proper position. “See. Like this,” she said and moved their hands together to demonstrate. “You’re an intelligent guy. You should be able to do it.”

Will looked first right, then left at her arms encircling him. “If this is the way you’re going to teach me, I have no incentive to improve.”

“Come on,” she said and swatted his arm.

“Just saying …”

After the meal, they walked back to her car, and he announced, “So show me some sights.”

“What do you want to see?”

“I don’t know … some beaches outside of
Waikiki
. What about the
North
Shore
I hear about?”

“Too far of a drive this late.”

“Well, wherever we can go that’s farther out of town.”

“Okay. We’ll just drive along the coast and head windward.”

As they drove out of the city, he asked her about the geography of the island. She explained both the geology and what the ancient legends had to say. When they neared Koko Head Crater, she felt inspired. “See that old volcano there?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty.”

“In Hawaiian legend, it’s a vagina.” She laughed.

The effect on Will was immediate. Raising an eyebrow, he said, “Really? That’s interesting.”

“Yeah, a goddess was about to be raped by an evil god, so her sister took her own vagina and threw it over there to distract him.”

“Did it work?”

“Supposedly.” She smirked. “But I think she permanently lost her vagina.”

“That seems like something you’d want to keep,” he said, his face mischievous.

“Uh … yeah.” She glanced at him quickly, but his expression caused her to look away. Despite her tries, she couldn’t ignore her intense attraction to him, and the coy mood in the car caused her to take the flirt to the next level. “I’d miss mine.”

He stared her down, and his lips twitched. “I don’t think I can respond to that without being very uncongressional.”

She nodded and smiled. “That’s right. You’re supposed to be a gentleman.”

“That’s what we call each other on the House floor. I’m the gentleman from
Ohio
.”

“Yeah, I heard that watching C-SPAN.” She chuckled. “I wouldn’t want you to do anything ungentlemanly.”

“That’s too bad.”

She took a sharp breath as his remark ignited something inside her that had long been buried. Over the last twenty-four hours, the thought of sex with Will had entered her mind more than once, but she’d immediately dismissed it. Now, the sex vibe reverberated in the car, forcing her to address the issue. Her gaze shifted to him for only a second. His body, the angles of his cheekbones, and his stare made the decision for her.
What the hell. Why not?
There had to be some reason she’d stayed on the pill long after she’d broken up with Jesse. She pointed to a rock with ocean spewing high out of it. “That rock is called Blowhole. It’s like a geyser when the water comes out. Want to see it?”