LITMIR.BIZ

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couldn’t help it. She was sitting with a man who had known firsthand the secrets of the Kavanaugh house. Things that Natalie had wondered about incessantly were common knowledge to Liam.

      Something sparked in his eyes when he noticed her curi-osity…her eagerness.

      “So this is the part where it’s handy to have an inside man for your investigator?” he asked softly.

      “It’s not bizarre that I would want to know what you know.”

      His nostrils flared slightly as he studied her, but then he sighed and glanced toward the lake. The sunlight reflecting off the water seemed to make his eyes even more electric blue than usual.

      “True. But your interest makes me uncomfortable. People tend to keep family stuff close. Until Mari Itani came back to town a year ago, we hardly ever mentioned the crash amongst ourselves. Hell, my sister Deidre took off after the crash and hasn’t been back to Harbor Town since, let alone sat around for chats about our father getting bombed one night and killing himself and three other people.”

      Guilt seeped into her awareness. She wasn’t the only one who carried open wounds. For a few seconds, she wasn’t sure what to say.

      “You wonder if I’ve asked you to unlock Pandora’s box,” she said quietly after a moment.

      His gaze narrowed on her, and Natalie realized she’d been correct in what she’d said. This was the source of the conflict she sensed in him.

      “My mother told us when we were young that people might make snide comments about Dad being mixed up in fraud soon after the accident. She was right. Kids can be cruel. They overhear their parents saying stuff, and they might not understand the content, but they get the tone. My mom prepared us by explaining that the investigation at Langford had showed no wrongdoing. Until you asked me to look into matters officially, I had no way of proving what my mother told us, though. Now I can. I’ve seen the records.” He flashed a hard look before he took a sip of his tea. “Turns out that my mother was right all along. My father didn’t have a meltdown on that night because he thought he was going to be exposed as a crook.”

      “Do you really think I’m disappointed because you didn’t discover some dirt on your father?” she asked incredulously.

      His teeth flashed white in his tanned face, but he hardly looked amused. “It would have been a convenient story for you. Something to hang your hat on.”

      “I told you I was interested in the truth, whatever that may be,” she countered. “I’m not your enemy, Liam. I’d like to think we’re on the same side.”

      “It might seem like we’re on the same side until I uncover something that makes my father look worse than he already does. Did you ever think about that when you cooked up this little scheme?”

      She sat rigid in her chair. His voice had been quiet, but she sensed his volatility.

      “I didn’t do this to take your memories of your father away from you. If it’s true that you discover something about him that you don’t like in this process, I’m sorry. More sorry than you know. But if that were the case, it wouldn’t be me that changed the way you thought of your father. It would have been him, Liam. And you…because you were honest enough to look for the truth.”

      His stare burned all the way down to her heart, but she didn’t back down.

      “I hired you for several different reasons,” she continued in a hushed tone, “but the main one was that you search for the truth at all costs. That’s the conclusion I came to after I spoke with Mari and after I read all those articles about your undercover work that exposed all those corrupt cops.”

      He abruptly collapsed back in his chair, the palpable tension in his muscles dissipating. He exhaled heavily.

      “I hope you made a good decision,” he said.

      “I did. Besides, has it ever occurred to you that the opposite might occur?”

      His drawn brows told her he wasn’t following.

      “You might uncover something that makes you understand your father better than ever before. You might gain an even clearer picture of Derry Kavanaugh. Perhaps you’ll be able to love your father more…not less.”

      Something flashed in his eyes that she couldn’t interpret. For a few seconds, only the sounds of the waves hitting the beach and the birds twittering in the trees reached her ears.

      “How long have you danced?” he asked abruptly, taking her by surprise.

      “What?”

      A lopsided grin tilted his mouth. “How long have you danced?” he repeated slowly. “It’s pretty obvious you’ve been doing it a long time. You’re very talented.” His gaze turned warm. “I had no idea accountants could be so…flexible.”

      She blushed. Damn him. His was turning the focus of the conversation onto her to keep it off himself. He constantly made her feel like an awkward adolescent. And he did it without effort. She sipped her tea and glanced out at the lake, squinting behind her sunglasses.

      “I told you no one was meant to see that. It’s not very kind of you to keep bringing it up,” she said coolly.

      He looked genuinely confused by her statement. “I’m not being unkind, I’m just…fascinated.”

      She turned to him, her lips parted. “Fascinated? By what?”

      “By you. Does that surprise you?”

      “Yes,” she said quickly.

      He laughed after a second. She couldn’t imagine why he seemed so bewildered when she was the one who was utterly baffled.

      “So…how long? Have you danced?” he clarified when she just continued to gape at him.

      “I started ballet when I was eight years old,” she said.

      “You’re good enough to do it professionally. Don’t you want to?” he asked matter-of-factly.

      She was the one to laugh this time. “Forgive me for saying so, but I don’t think you’re much of an expert.” When he quirked his eyebrows at her, she laughed some more. “I like to dance for fun. I still take lessons. It’s a hobby, but I think it’d be a monumental mistake to quit my day job.”

      His shrug seemed to say he’d let her have her way because he didn’t want to ruffle her feathers any more than he already had. Natalie decided that it was imperative to bring this conversation back to professional matters.

      “Liam—” She paused when he tensed. His steady gaze unnerved her. “What…why are you looking at me like that?” she mumbled incredulously.

      “It’s nice…the way you say my name. So, where were you going when I called you?” he asked. Natalie blinked. Had he really just said he liked the sound of her saying his name with so much heat, and then switched the topic as casually as if he was making a comment about the weather?

      “I was on my way to my brother’s. I was going to make him dinner, if he was available.”

      “Why don’t you let me make you dinner instead? I grill a mean steak and make a mediocre salad.”

      “That’s not necessary—”

      “I know it’s not necessary. I want to. Why are you so surprised by that?”

      “It’ll take more than Liam Kavanaugh offering to cook a meal to surprise me,” she shot back in the midst of her rising confusion.

      Her breath caught when he leaned forward and examined her through a narrowed gaze.

      “You’re not being honest,” he murmured, his light tone belying his X-raying gaze. “You’re surprised that I want to have dinner with you. Why would you be surprised that a man would want to have dinner with a beautiful woman, Natalie?”

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