“If you throw up, I’m taking the bill out of your allowance,” he warned.
Sonny almost choked on her vegetables. What would be next? Hari-kari over dessert? Carly For tune was a walking, talking teenage nightmare. “I’ll go with you,” she said quickly, putting her napkin on the table.
“He’s only joking. I never puke.”
Ben gave his head a slight shake, indicating that Carly was lying. Sonny couldn’t conceive of a man who would be so nonchalant about his daughter’s eating disorder, but when she studied him closely, she realized he was at the end of his rope. As she rose to follow Carly, he leaned forward, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose in a way that was positively heartbreaking.
No wonder he didn’t go out. Carly sapped the energy from the room like a tsunami, sucking up everything in its wake.
“You may as well forget it,” the girl said moments later as she emerged from a stall.
“Forget what?”
“Bagging the bachelor,” she replied, performing a mini-toilette at the sink. “My dad isn’t interested.”
“Who said I was?”
Carly’s eyes met hers in the restroom mirror. “Give it up. He’s hot.”
Sonny conceded the point with a nod. “Don’t you want him to be happy?”
“He is happy. He has surfing and me.”
“What about you? Don’t you want a boyfriend?”
“No,” Carly said, lifting her chin. “I’m going to be an independent woman.”
Sonny smiled. “Okay.”
“Okay what?”
“I’ll leave him alone, if it means that much to you.”
Carly looked suspicious. She wanted an argument, not an agreement. “Fine,” she said anyway, whipping her long black hair over one shoulder.
“I’m sorry about Carly,” Ben said again, leaning back against the seawall at the crux of some craggy rock formations at Windansea Beach.
“Don’t be. You aren’t responsible for her every action.”
He looked out at the water, his expression somber. “Now you’re thinking you should have let her take her chances out there, right?”
The Pacific was as stormy and unpredictable as it had been the previous evening, a formidable hash of blue and white, like the soapy surface of a giant washing machine sloshing back and forth. Sonny got a disturbing image of Carly’s lifeless form, laying facedown on the foam-specked surface, dark hair floating around her head.
“I was a teenager once. Not too long ago,” she added, in deference to the role she was supposed to be playing. Ben was awfully young for a man with a sixteen-year-old daughter, but she knew he wouldn’t be interested in an immature girl, fueled by hormones and emotion. He had more than enough drama with Carly.
“Were you? I have trouble picturing you giggling or throwing tantrums.”
“No. I misbehaved in other ways.”
“Let me guess. You got into fights.”
Her pulse accelerated. “What makes you say that?”
His dark eyes flicked over her. “There’s something about you, a violence, lying just below the surface. I wouldn’t turn my back on you.”
“Jesus,” she said with a shaky laugh, running her fingers through her hair. “Don’t romanticize it. Just say what you think.”
He shrugged easily. “If I’m wrong, tell me. I don’t mean to insult you. Perhaps violence isn’t the right word. Maybe it’s strength, or passion.”
She didn’t bother to tell him that he’d been right the first time. Nor did she need a diagram to understand his interest in her. “I don’t want to be your next challenge, Ben. Like some big wave for you to conquer. Another cheap thrill.”
He was silent for a moment, weighing her words. “I didn’t think you knew-”
“Who you were? Why, because I didn’t fall all over myself to go out with you? Not every girl is impressed by the size of your wallet, or your stick, surfer boy.” She poked at his chest, and was rewarded when annoyance flashed across his face. “By the way, you’re wrong. I didn’t fight. I was promiscuous.”
There. Let him chew on that.
“I don’t believe you,” he said after a pause. “Tell me some dirty stories, to prove it.” He tried for a sly smile, but his eyes were heavy and intense.
She looked away. “I’m sure yours would put mine to shame.”
He only nodded, guilty as charged. “Carly always rakes me over the coals for getting her mother pregnant when we were seventeen. I can’t believe she’ll be that age soon. God forbid she follows in my footsteps. Or attempts to outdo me in debauchery, which would be a challenge.”
Sonny took pity on him. “She told me she wasn’t looking for a boyfriend.”
He brightened. “Really? That may be true, for now. But she does flirt with my friends.”
She shook her head, not envying his position. “Maybe you
“I know I’ve indulged her too often,” he said with a sigh. “She’s always been difficult, and I’ve usually been… gone.”
Sonny looked out at the dark, stormy Pacific. The evening had turned blustery, and it was time for her to go. “I told her I would leave you alone.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s not ready to share you.”
“Let me worry about Carly. She’s important to me-hell, she’s everything to me, but I can’t let her dictate my life forever. I’ll take you out again, just us.”
“No.”
“Fuck.”
His frustration was matched by her own. She’d never felt this drawn to someone. They had nothing in common, besides an obvious mutual attraction and a history of youthful indiscretions, which had most certainly taken a greater toll on her than him. It had been her experience that a man could engage in any number of illicit encounters and walk away with a clear conscience and a spring in his step.
Even if she could pursue an emotional relationship with him, professional ethics decreed that she maintain a physical distance. Getting close to a subject was one thing, hopping into bed with him another.
She cursed Grant for putting her in this precarious situation. “Ben, it’s not Carly. I can’t get involved with anyone right now.”
He looked perturbed, and impatient. “Is it because of that guy on the phone? Your boss?”
“Kind of.”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you in love with him?”
“Of course not,” she said with a scowl. Grant was like family to her, and there had never been anything romantic between them.
He smiled, more confident now that he would have her. “If you aren’t involved with him, why’s he calling you at midnight?”
Like Carly, he had a habit of asking impertinent questions. Sonny wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the chill. “I work with search-and-rescue squads. Troubleshooting, helping teams work together efficiently. Sometimes he needs to reach me at odd hours.”
“Search and rescue?” He sounded impressed. “No wonder you went in after Carly.”
“I’ve had some pretty extensive water training,” she said. That, at least, was true.
“You’re a good woman to have around,” he said.
“I won’t be here long.”
Sonny knew by his reaction that she’d said the wrong thing. She’d meant the words as a polite brush-off, but he wasn’t the least bit deterred. Instead of defusing the tension, her vague time line had ratcheted it up.
Now he wanted her immediately.
Oops.
