Karma (21 page)

He glanced over at the sparkling water where Kelly and Faith were in bikinis, relaxing on floats and talking quietly. Liza was nowhere to be found, and disappointment didn’t begin to cover how Dare was feeling.

“Are you going to ask where she is or are you just going to keep watching the door and sulking?” Nash asked, laughing as he tossed Ethan a bottle of water and then did the same for Dare.

Nash twisted the top and took a long, cool drink. Instead of cursing at his brother, he groaned and said, “Okay, I’ll bite. Where’s Liza?”

“She called and told Faith she’d be late. She had to stop at an antiques shop first.” Ethan took a long swig of water.

“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Nash grinned.

Dare flicked him with the end of a wet towel like they’d used to do when they were kids.

“Don’t make me throw you into the pool,” Nash muttered.

“Do it and the women will drown you.” Ethan grinned.

Dare flung himself into a lounge chair that felt more like a plush recliner. “Can’t you two shut up for five minutes?”

“Ethan, can you get us some iced tea?” Faith called from the pool.

Dare raised an eyebrow as Ethan headed inside without a word of complaint. “He’s whipped.”

Nash took the chair beside him. “And you’re not?”

“I’m not married,” Dare muttered.

“Maybe you wish you were.” Before Dare could respond or haul off and hit his sibling, Nash continued. “Ever been in love, little brother?”

Dare broke into a sweat that had nothing to do with the heat of the summer sun. “What the hell kind of question is that?”

“The kind you ask your brother who’s on edge. Who’s worried about a woman he barely knew until a few short weeks ago.” Nash frowned. “Are you telling me anything about your reaction to Liza is normal? I mean normal for you.”

Dare scowled. “I’ve always been a relationship guy.”

Nash nodded. “You have. And in those relationships, you’ve never hovered.”

“I’m not hovering.”

“You can’t leave her alone.”

“I haven’t seen or spoken to her in four days,” he muttered.

“And I bet you’ve thought about her for every hour, minute, and second of that time.”

Dare jumped to his feet. “Fuck you.”

“If you’d gotten any in the last four days, you might not be in this sucky mood,” Ethan said, joining them.

A glance over his shoulder told Dare he’d brought out a big pitcher of iced tea, three large acrylic cups and ice for the women. Dare shook his head, about to storm out and get some air that didn’t include his brothers, when the door to the house opened and Liza stepped outside.

Suddenly the stifling air around him eased and Dare began to breathe easier.

He glanced at Nash. His brother grinned. Dare flipped him off and turned to Liza, pretending the word
love
wasn’t floating around his brain, put there by his good-for-nothing sibling.

Ignoring his brothers’ stares, he headed to greet Liza.

Liza wore a white sheer cover-up beneath which he caught sight of a hot pink bikini and lots and lots of bare skin. It didn’t matter that he’d seen and touched every inch, his entire body tightened with need, not to mention the relief he felt at knowing she was here, with his family, and safe from the threat she didn’t believe existed.

“Hi,” he said, coming up beside her.

She glanced at him, confusion in her gaze. “What are you doing here? I thought this was a fund-raiser meeting.”

Could she at least appear happy to see him? “My brother lives here too, remember?”

“I didn’t mean…Never mind. I just didn’t expect you to be here.”

“Ethan and Nash said they’d be hanging by the pool and I’m off, so here I am.”

Her gaze traveled from his face down his bare chest, over his swim trunks, which now sported a definite bulge, to his bare feet, and back again. “I see that.” She grinned. “Actually, I see a lot.” Her strained expression relaxed, easing into a smile.

“Funny,” he muttered.

“Liza, grab a glass of iced tea and join us in the pool!” Faith called. “We’re working here.”

“Working hard,” Kelly said laughing. It sounded more like a giggle and Dare wondered what Ethan had added to their iced tea.

“You heard them. Work calls.” With a shrug, Liza strode around him.

He watched as she headed to the pool, paused by a chair, and proceeded to strip off her top, revealing a barely there two-piece bathing suit. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth.

“Easy there.” Nash patted him on the back hard enough to cause Dare to choke.

“Would you lay off,” he muttered.

“When you admit you’re so gone over her.” Nash burst out laughing.

Dare gave him the finger. Again. By now, the gesture had lost any import whatsoever. And Dare couldn’t say his brother was all wrong.

Liza hadn’t expected Dare to be here, though if she really thought about the kind of morning she’d had, she should have anticipated him. She’d spent the last couple of days trying to come to terms with what he’d told her about her brother having killed Stuart Rossman. And the obvious conclusion that her parents among other adults in the community, people in positions of importance, must have covered up the crime.

Liza had lived her life under a delusion they’d created, and as a result she’d done nothing to help Brian deal with what he’d done. The truth must have eaten away at him every waking moment. His escape into alcohol made so much more sense to her now. Though Dare saw Brian as entitled—and he was—Liza knew the boy he’d been and she’d been trying to save him as best she could for as long as she could remember. It wasn’t enough. Had never been enough.

Shaking those thoughts off, she arranged her bag, top, and towel on a spare lounge chair. In her bag were the copies of the two checks to Annabelle’s Antiques. Nothing
about her trip to see Annabelle had gone as planned. Or should she say, nothing had gone as she’d hoped. Everything about the dual checks and her brother’s possible involvement was still a puzzle, and to make matters worse Liza had inadvertently upset a very important vendor.

Eager to put the incident and the problems with her brother behind her for now, Liza accepted Faith’s wave to come into the pool. Once there, she took a chair float, complete with a cup holder on the side. She settled into the water and leaned back, feeling the hot sun on her skin and the delicious water lapping over her as she relaxed.
Heaven,
she thought.

Her house didn’t have a pool like her parents’ did and she rarely had the opportunity to lounge and just be.

“This is amazing,” she said to Faith.

“You’re welcome any time,” the other said with her usual friendliness. “And I mean that.”

Liza smiled in gratitude. “I may take you up on that.”

“We hope you do,” Kelly said. “Since I tend to be here often.”

Faith leaned in close. “And so is Dare.”

Liza smacked her hands over her ears. “I didn’t hear that. Nope, I didn’t. I thought I was here for a fund-raiser meeting.”

Kelly laughed. “You are. Faith and I just wanted to make sure you knew the lay of the land,” she said with an impish grin.

Faith must have caught Liza’s look because she said, “Okay, so on to business.”

“Why don’t I start?” Liza offered. Anything to take her mind off the half-naked Barron brother with his golden, tanned chest, staring at her from across the way.

“Okay, go.” Faith hooked an elbow on the side of the pool, lounging comfortably half in and half out of the water.

Liza noticed Ethan hadn’t taken his hungry gaze off his wife. Same for Nash, of Kelly. The testosterone in this pool
area was off the charts and even Liza was squirming in her seat.

“Well, let’s see,” she said, forcing her attention back to the business at hand. “I’ve single-handedly destroyed the center of town, which means any money I hoped would go to the youth center is now gone.”
Poof,
she thought, an invisible cloud dissolving over her head.

“Wrong.” Faith waved her hand in the air. “An anonymous donor has generously offered to pay for the repairs and replanting in town, so where the fund-raiser money goes is still up for discussion.” The other woman treated Liza to a pleased grin.

And Liza didn’t trust that smile for an instant. “You didn’t. Or should I say,
Ethan
didn’t.” Liza’s stomach twisted uncomfortably at the thought that they had paid for her mistakes.

Kelly raised an eyebrow. “Does the word ‘anonymous’ mean anything to you?” She wagged her finger in front of Liza’s face.

The chastising didn’t work and Liza expelled a long breath of air. “You didn’t…shouldn’t have…I want to donate too.” She had savings of her own and surely she could contribute to the cause even if it did put a dent in her personal funds.

“No, the check’s been written. I’m sure the town won’t need more,” Faith said. “As for the proceeds of the fund-raiser, this month’s Beautification Committee meeting is next Wednesday night at Caroline Bretton’s house. Six thirty
P.M.
Don’t be late, either of you. It’s the three of us against the old guard. I want to present a united front.”

Liza merely nodded, overwhelmed. A permanent state around anyone with the last name of Barron, it seemed.

“Now, on to the party itself,” Kelly said. “I have a copy of last year’s menu and the chef’s recommended suggestions for how to tweak things so this year is different but just as fabulous. That said, I don’t know anything about cuts of
steak or different kinds of wine. I need you to go with me to the tasting.” Kelly, whom Liza never thought of as shy, blushed at the admission.

“I’d be happy to go through it with you,” Liza said, grateful she had something positive to offer. “We could meet at the catering hall and go over things?”

Kelly nodded eagerly. “Oh, and another piece of good news. I’ve recruited a new volunteer.”

“Who?” Faith asked.

“Annie Kane.”

Faith grinned. “The more the merrier.”

“Annie…Do I know her?” Liza asked. The name sounded familiar.

“Maybe. She was a year or so behind us in school. And she’s Nash’s ex-wife,” Faith said.

Liza nearly tipped out of her chair. “Whoa.” Her gaze darted to the men who were engaged in serious conversation and for once not paying attention to the women.

“It’s okay. Kelly and Annie are very good friends,” Faith said.

“Huh.”

“I can read your mind, but I swear those two are more like brother and sister than exes.” Kelly leaned her arms on Liza’s float and let herself hang from the end. “Annie’s with Joe Lockhart and has been for the last, oh, I don’t know, six or eight months? Believe me when I tell you, there’s nothing for me to be jealous of.”

Liza nodded, and though she believed Kelly, she didn’t understand. “You’re a better woman than I am,” Liza said, and immediately regretted the outburst.

She was admitting too much to these women whom she didn’t know well. And yet they made it so easy for her to talk to them. They accepted her in a carefree way she hadn’t experienced on an everyday basis. Just like Dare did when he wasn’t choking on her brother’s very existence. But it was that acceptance that made her feel so…proprietary. As a
result, she definitely didn’t think she could be close friends with any woman Dare had been intimate with let alone married to. The jealousy factor would be off the chart. And Liza had never once been jealous about any of the men she’d been with in her past.

Uh-oh.

She turned toward Dare and found him watching her intently. He met her gaze and she flushed hotter than she was before.

“Is it me or did the temperature just spike?” Kelly asked, laughing. “Come on now, Liza. Business first, then you can find Dare and…whatever it is you two want to do.”

“Hey!” Liza splashed water at Kelly, who merely laughed.

“I just call ’em like I see ’em.”

“And then she wonders where Tess gets it from,” Faith muttered.

Speaking of the teenager…“Where is Tess?” Liza asked.

“She’s at her friend Michelle’s.” Faith glanced at her watch. “Actually Michelle’s mother should be dropping Tess off soon.”

“So let’s finish up fund-raiser talk. Once my sister gets home, we’ll never stay on topic,” Kelly said.

“As if we’re staying on topic now?” Faith asked, but she didn’t seem too concerned. “Okay, so there’s four of us to face the committee and push our agenda. Kelly, will you ask Annie to be at the meeting Tuesday night?”

Kelly nodded. “I’m sure she will as long as she’s feeling up to it.”

Liza tilted her head. “Is she sick?”

Kelly hesitated before answering. “Annie has MS.” She paused once more. “But she’s very open about her condition, so I don’t think she’ll mind that I told you.”

Liza’s head was spinning with all the information she’d learned in such a short time.

“Okay, now as for the smaller but equally important
details.” Faith held up one hand. “The band is set, the decorator is working with me, you guys are handling the food and drinks. Invitations?” She ticked each item off her fingers.

“Coming back from the printer this week,” Kelly said.

“And with that, business is concluded.” Faith held up her glass and took a drink. “Meeting adjourned.”

Faith and Kelly eased their way out of the pool and Liza followed, grabbing the towel she’d brought with her, wrapping it around her waist and tucking in the end to hold it in place.

Before Dare could waylay her, she walked up to Ethan, wanting to have a word. He was the oldest. With his dark hair and deep brown eyes, he was the most similar to Dare in looks, but Dare’s hair was shorter, his build tighter and more defined. And where Ethan still possessed the bad-boy persona he’d perfected in high school, Dare, the cop, projected a completely different kind of aura. Competent, strong, in control. Everything about him, from his good looks to his character, drew her in.

Ethan still intimidated her a little, but obviously he’d come a long way and Liza was the last person to judge anyone for their past. “Ethan?”

The man turned to face her. “Liza.” He greeted her with what for him passed as a warm smile.

“I just wanted to thank you for your donation to fix the center median in town.” Liza had no doubt he was the anonymous donor. If I can contribute or help…” Liza trailed off, her point made.