“I knew her brother. Meri and I were friends in college. We go way back.”
“Interesting. You never came to D.C.,” Andrew said easily. “I know all of Meredith’s friends there.”
“Sounds like you keep a close watch on her.”
“I care about her.”
“Apparently not enough that you mind a six-month absence,” Jack told him. “You haven’t met all of Meri’s friends here.”
“I already know them.”
“You don’t know me.”
“You’re the past.”
Jack’s gaze was steady. “Not as much as you might think. Meri and I have a history together.”
Meri rolled her eyes. It was as though they were a couple of dogs and she were the favorite tree they both wanted to pee on. While she was sure Jack was more than capable of winning the contest, she was surprised he would bother to play. She also hadn’t expected Andrew to get drawn in. Since when had he become competitive?
“There’s a little too much testosterone in here for me,” she said as she stepped back. “You two boys have fun.”
Meri made her way to Betina’s room and found her friend typing on her laptop.
“Girl emergency,” Meri said as she closed the bedroom door and sat on the edge of the bed. “How could he be here?”
“Andrew?”
Meri nodded. “I had no idea. We’ve been staying in touch via e-mail and we’ve talked a little on the phone, but there was no warning. He just showed up. How could he do that?”
“He got on a plane and flew here. It’s romantic. Does it feel romantic to you?”
“I don’t know,” Meri admitted, still unclear how she felt. “It’s been weeks and weeks. I thought he was going to propose and I thought maybe I would say yes. Shouldn’t I be excited that he’s here? Shouldn’t I be dancing in the streets?”
“We don’t have much in the way of streets, but maybe if you danced in the driveway, it would be enough.”
Meri started to laugh, then sucked in a breath as she suddenly fought tears. “I’m so confused.”
“You slept with Jack. That was bound to change things.”
“It was supposed to make them more clear. I was supposed to be healed.”
“Maybe the problem is you were never broken.”
Meri nodded slowly. Maybe that was the problem. She’d always thought there was something wrong with her and that it could be traced back to Jack’s painful rejection. But what if that had just been a normal part of growing up and, because of her freakishness, she hadn’t been able to see it? What if she’d made it too big a deal?
“You don’t think I needed closure with Jack?” Meri asked. “You don’t think getting revenge on him will move me to a higher plane?”
Betina sighed. “I don’t think anything negative like revenge is ever healthy. You’ve felt emotionally stalled and unable to commit. Was that about what Jack did or was it simply that you needed more time to integrate who you were with who you wanted to be? Being book-smart doesn’t help you grow up any faster or better. Sometimes it just gets in the way.”
“I figured that out a while ago,” Meri grumbled. “You’d think I could deal with it by now.” She drew in a deep breath. “I was so sure that revenge was the right way to go. I knew that if I could just make him want me, then walk away, I’d be happy forever.”
“Maybe that’s still true.”
Meri wasn’t sure. “Like you said-it’s not healthy to be so negative.”
“But it is done,” Betina reminded her. “Deal with what you have now. Closure. So on to Andrew-if that’s where you want to go.”
An interesting idea. The only problem was Meri wasn’t sure what she thought about anything anymore.
“I need to clear my head. I’m going to run. Could you get the group started without me?”
Betina grinned. “I love it when you leave me in charge.”
Later that morning, Jack went looking for Meri. She wasn’t in the dining room with her team, although Betina had told him she was in the house somewhere. He checked out his bathroom, but no beautiful, naked women waited for him. Damn. There were days a guy couldn’t cut a break. Then he saw something move on the balcony and stepped out to find her sitting on a chair, staring out at the view.
She looked up as he joined her. “I was going to use the telescope, but it’s kind of hard to see the stars with all the sunshine getting in the way.”
He glanced at the bright blue sky. “I can see where that’s a problem.”
“I thought about spying on our neighbors-you know, catch someone sunbathing nude. But I just can’t seem to get into it.”
Her big eyes were dark and troubled. The corner of her mouth drooped. She looked sad and uncomfortable, which was so far from her normal bouncy self that he found himself saying, “You want to talk about it?”
She shrugged. “I’m confused. And before you ask why, I’m not going to tell you.”
“Makes it hard to help if I don’t know what’s wrong.”
“Maybe you’re the problem.”
“Am I?”
She sighed. “Not really. A little, but it’s mostly me.”
He took the chair next to hers and stared out at the lake. It was huge, stretching for miles. “Did you know Lake Tahoe is nearly a mile deep?”
The droopy corner turned up. “Someone’s been reading the chamber of commerce brochure.”
“I got bored.”
She looked at him. “Why aren’t you married?”
The question made him shrug. “No one’s ever asked.”
“Oh, right. Because you’re so eager to say yes?”
“Probably not. I’m not the marrying kind.”
Now she smiled for real. “Sure you are. You’re rich and single. What was it Jane Austen said? Something about any single man of good fortune must be in search of a wife? That’s you. Don’t you want to get married?”
“I never much thought about it. My work keeps me busy.”
“Meaning, if you have too much time to think, you take on another job.”
How had she figured that out? “Sometimes.”
He liked to stay busy, involved with his business. He had some guys he hung out with occasionally. That was enough.
“No one gets close?” she asked.
“No.”
“Because of Hunter?”
He stretched out his legs in front of him. “Just because we slept together doesn’t mean I’m going to tell you everything I’m thinking.”
“Okay. Is it because of Hunter?”
He glanced at her. “You’re annoying.”
“So I’ve been told. Do I need to ask again?”
“I should hire you to do interrogations. And, yes, some of it is because of Hunter.”
“People die, Jack.”
“I know. I lost my brother when he was still a kid. It changed everything.”
He hadn’t meant to say that, to tell her the truth. But now that he had, he found he didn’t mind her knowing.
“It was like with Hunter,” he said quietly. “He got sick and then he died. We’d been close and it hurt like hell that he was gone.”
The difference was he hadn’t kept his brother from going to the doctor. When Hunter had first noticed the dark spot on his shoulder, Jack had teased him about being a wimp for wanting to get it checked out. So Hunter had waited. What would have happened if the melanoma had been caught before it had spread?
