Perfect Kiss (24 page)

What Shelby neglected to tell the ladies was that the station put out that calendar as a fundraiser for the city each year. It didn’t have anything to do with whether or not the models were calendar-worthy. Hope Falls was a small community that boasted its own fire and police station. Even with the tourism, it was still expensive to maintain, so the town held about a half dozen fundraising events throughout the year.

“Alright, see you tomorrow night.” Shelby waved from the entrance after she’d poured the girls into a cab. He could hear the girls shouting goodbye as the taxi pulled out of the parking lot.

When she turned around, Levi couldn’t help himself from asking, “Girlfriend, huh?”

Shelby shrugged with a little grin. “You looked out of your depth. Thought I’d throw you a life preserver.”

He knew she was joking around, making light of the situation, and didn’t really understand the power of her words. But her being his
girlfriend
would’ve been more of a life preserver than she’d ever know.

“Out of my depth, huh?” Levi was so happy that she was talking to him that he didn’t want to burst the bubble they were currently floating in the center of by telling her how referring to herself, as his, had made him feel.

“Oh, yeah. You didn’t stand a chance with those two. They were not going to give you up without a fight,” she stated matter-of-factly while she started organizing her credit card receipts.

“You don’t think I could have handled them?” In the past, Levi might have hooked up with his fair share of women, but the ratio of women he’d turned down compared to those he’d taken up on their offers had to be at least twenty to one.

A broad smile spread across her face as her cheeks flushed. “Oh I
know
you could have handled yourself. Believe me, after last night and this morning, there is not a doubt in my mind that you could
handle
anything that
came
your way.”

He smiled at her double entendre and even though he knew that it was ridiculous, pride swelled in his chest while something else swelled in his pants. He didn’t need his ego stroked. Levi was very confident in his abilities to please a woman, but it sure as hell didn’t hurt to get a ringing endorsement from the only woman whose opinion actually mattered. Not that he’d been fishing for a compliment. He hadn’t meant that at all. He’d been referring to handling the job of rejecting their advances, not the task of accepting them.

He was about to tell her that when the phone rang. He almost ignored it, figuring it was just someone who had misplaced a phone or wallet. The bar got “lost item” calls at least once a week, and it was usually right around this time of the night. As much as he didn’t want to interrupt his and Shelby’s conversation, he knew that the right thing to do was to answer the phone. No matter what was going on in his personal life, he still had a business to run.

Soon, it would be two businesses.

Levi picked the phone up. “JT’s Roadhouse.”

A man’s voice came over the other end of the line. “Hi. Can I speak to Shelby?”

Hell no.
As much as Levi wanted to tell this guy to kick rocks, he didn’t actually have the right to do that. So, going against every male instinct he had, he said, “Hold on.” Then, covering the phone as he handed it to her, he said quietly, “Apparently, I’m not the only one with admirers.”

Shelby grinned larger, and he felt the zing of the connection that always existed between the two of them. He also saw the spark that had been missing in her baby blues since this afternoon.

“Hello,” she said into the receiver.

Levi was planning on listening, covertly of course, to her conversation but his eavesdropping plans were thwarted when the front door of the bar opened.

“We’re clos—” he started to say before he was struck speechless. “Holy shit! What are you doing here?”

His cousin, Adam, who he hadn’t seen since he’d gotten out of the military six years ago and started working for the government, was standing in the doorway with a duffel bag over his shoulder. “After I got your voicemail I got the next flight to Sac and drove straight here.”

Other than his brothers and Uncle JT, Adam was pretty much the only family Levi had. Levi’s father and Adam’s mother were brother and sister. His mother had a lot of issues his entire life, starting with the fact that she’d never known who his father was. Adam had been placed in foster care at the age of fourteen. Levi had only been sixteen at the time. He’d tried to find him the day he’d turned eighteen but hadn’t gotten anywhere. And nine months later, when he’d taken custody of his brothers, he’d asked their social worker for help locating his cousin, but she hadn’t been able to do much to find him. They were out of touch until Adam aged out of the system a year later and joined the Army when he was eighteen.

“It’s so good to see you, man!” Levi crossed the bar and gave his cousin a hug. Stepping back, he shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re really here.”

“I’m glad you called.”

Growing up, Adam had always been good with numbers and electronically inclined. He’d loved video games. Not just playing them, but figuring out cheat codes and how to game any system put in front of him. He had always been able to take anything electronic apart and put it back together with new and improved enhancements.

Once he’d joined the military, he’d taken his skills to the next level. Code breaking, decrypting, and things he never talked about. Then, when he got out, he was immediately employed. All Levi knew was that he worked for the government in “IT.” Levi had always suspected that his cousin was in the CIA, but he might have just been watching too many spy movies.

When his father had shown up, Levi had called Adam to see if he could find out anything about what Charlie Dorsey was up to. He might not have known much about what his cousin’s day job consisted of, but he did know that the information Adam could dig up made your average background checks look like child’s play.

“Hi.” Adam lifted his hand, looking past Levi’s shoulder.

“Oh, right.” Levi had been so shocked that he’d forgotten introductions. Turning back, he saw that Shelby was staring at Adam. Levi felt a tinge of jealousy but it evaporated instantly when she shook her head and blinked several times, looking like she was just joining the conversation. “This is my cousin, Adam Dorsey. Adam, this is Shelby Kellan.”

“Hi.” Shelby smiled warmly, and Levi was happy to note without an ounce of flirtation. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Adam had always been a skinny kid growing up, but once he’d joined the military he’d filled out. In fact, the last time he’d seen Adam they’d been at Lucky’s first professional MMA fight and several people had mistaken his cousin for one of the fighters.

“You, too.” Adam lifted the strap on his shoulder higher.

“Hey, why don’t you drop that upstairs and come down and we’ll all have a beer,” Levi offered, suddenly wanting his cousin to get to know the woman he’d fallen in love with.

“Actually, I’m pretty tired and I’m finished up here.” Shelby lifted the envelope she’d cashed out in. “If it’s all right, I think I’m going to call it a night and leave you boys to it.”

“Sure.” Levi nodded. He knew she hadn’t gotten any sleep, thanks to him, and that today had been traumatic, again thanks to him. But he had a gut feeling that that wasn’t the only reason she was bailing. “I’ll walk you back.”

“No. You don’t have to do that. I’m fine,” Shelby insisted before she untied her apron and hightailed it out the back.

After tossing his keys to his cousin, he was halfway across the bar, chasing after Shelby before he said over his shoulder, “The apartment’s up those stairs.”

Adam nodded, holding up the keys he’d caught.

Levi caught up with Shelby just as she was unlocking the front door to the cabin. “Hey, are you sure you’re okay?”

When she turned around, he could see that she was trying to hide whatever was bothering her so he wouldn’t pick up on it. In a good-natured tone, Shelby slowly replied, “For the hundredth time. Yes, Levi. I. Am. Fine.” Then she lifted up on her toes, kissed him lightly, and stepped inside the cabin. “I’m going to lunch with Uncle Henry tomorrow, but I’ll be in tomorrow night. Kensie called in sick.”

“Already? It’s only her second week.”

“It’s so hard to find good help these days,” she smiled before shutting the door.

As Levi stood on the porch of his cabin, he couldn’t bring himself to leave. He and Shelby hadn’t talked about what had happened with Charlie, so he had no idea if she was
really
okay.

“Levi, if you don’t go home now, I’m going to leave my window open again while I apply lotion all over my body and your cousin might get quite a show!” she threatened through the door.

“You’re not funny, Shelby,” Levi said as he turned to leave. Just the thought of Adam or any man seeing Shelby naked made him crazy.

“Yes, I am. I’m hilarious. Goodnight, Levi!”

“Goodnight, Shelby.”

He felt like he was in an episode of
The Waltons
. Well, maybe a
Red Shoes Diary
version of it.

Chapter 22

‡

S
helby winced at the sharp sting that she felt in her chest. Her emotions were rising to the surface of the murky waters they’d been lurking under and she was doing her best to float above them. The last thing that she wanted to do was break down in front of her uncle, especially in the middle of Sue Ann’s Café. But she knew that she had to push through the anger, fear, and anxiety that drudging up the past was causing.

Taking a deep breath she continued, “Then it happened again and I called the police. His friends showed up and they all laughed about it. It was a joke to them. I thought about leaving, but something stopped me. I don’t know if I was just scared or if it was my pride. I couldn’t really believe it was happening to
me
. I was so embarrassed. And I stayed. After that, it got worse each time. The night I left, I just had this feeling that, if I didn’t get out then, I might not get out at all.”

“I’m so glad you did. And that you came here,” Uncle Henry spoke quietly. Up until now, he had been completely silent while she talked. Shelby noticed the pain from what he’d just heard written on his face.

Sighing, she was a little surprised that mixed in with all of the negative emotions this talk had resurrected, she also felt a great deal of relief. Maybe talking about things really did help. “Yeah. After a quick trip to the hospital in San Diego and two weeks of recovery in Los Angeles, Hope Falls was my next stop.”

There were things she’d left out of the story—like how she’d found out in the emergency room that she’d been pregnant and lost the baby, which had been a shock at the time so she hadn’t really thought about
how
it had happened considering the fact that she and Kevin
always
used protection. But, now that she’d had time to grieve her loss, the “how” question kept popping up in her brain.

She hadn’t filled her uncle in on the fact that Kevin had hijacked her bank account and put a tracker on her phone, which was why she now had a new one. And she’d specifically remained mum about the fun new development that Kevin had tracked her down in Hope Falls and called the Roadhouse last night.

Her ex hadn’t been threatening; he’d just said that he missed her. But he always started out nice before things quickly deteriorated into name-calling, outlandish accusations, and violent threats he usually followed through on. She hadn’t said anything before hanging up the phone last night. Even though, in the back of her mind, she’d known she hadn’t heard the last of Kevin, hearing his voice again had still caught her off guard. She’d been kind of shell-shocked. Which was why it had taken her a minute to realize she was meeting Levi’s cousin. He seemed like a nice guy, and she’d felt bad that she’d turned down Levi’s invitation to have drinks with them, but she’d needed to be by herself.

She hoped that Adam hadn’t taken it personally. She doubted it. He didn’t look like the kind of guy who had a fragile ego. He was no Levi, but good golly Miss Molly, he was
hawt
. Seriously, she didn’t know what was in the Dorsey DNA, but if they could bottle that stuff, they’d be millionaires.

“Hello there, young lady.”

As if summoned by her thoughts of Dorsey DNA, Charlie stepped up to the secluded corner table at Sue Ann’s café she and Uncle Henry were sitting at.

“Hi,” she said, trying to be as generically pleasant as possible. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the large black eye he was rocking, courtesy of Levi.

Maybe it should have upset her—violence was violence. But in her book, when someone asks you to leave their property, gives you several chances to do so before threatening to call the police, and you attempt to take the phone out of their hands when they pick it up, you’re kind of pushing your luck.

“Hello. I’m Henry Walker, Shelby’s uncle.” Henry stood, looking extra protective, probably due to all the feelings she’d just inspired in him.

Levi’s father shook her uncle’s hand. “Charlie Dorsey. Nice to meet you.”

Her uncle’s brow knitted. “Dorsey? Are you by any chance related to—”

“Levi’s my son,” Charlie said with a somberness that Shelby hadn’t seen in his eyes yesterday. “Which is why I stopped by the table. I don’t mean to interrupt your lunch, young lady. But I just wanted to say that we got off on the wrong foot, and I want to apologize for yesterday. I…” Charlie’s shoulders hung as he searched for what he wanted to say. “I went about that the wrong way. Old habits and patterns die hard, I’m afraid. It was my fault, and I’m very sorry.”

Shelby didn’t really think that
she
should be the one Charlie was apologizing to. Still, she nodded, not knowing what else to do. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

She was waiting for him to ask her to tell his son something, pass information along, and basically try to get to Levi through her. From what Levi had told her and called the man to his face, he was a con artist and a liar, so Shelby was bracing herself for whatever Charlie’s next play was going to be.