Sara walked out of the house. Her damp hair hung loose around her shoulders, ripped denim shorts showed off her long legs and bare feet, and a large V-neck T-shirt still somehow looked sexy.
“What’s all this?” she asked, her gaze sweeping over the set table.
“Dinner is served. Have a seat.”
“Well, well. This is a nice surprise!”
He shrugged. “It’s basic enough that I can handle it.”
She laughed and dug into her meal. “Delicious,” she said when she’d finished her first taste.
“I’ll tell Mom you like her marinating,” he said with a grin.
“You are a bad boy.” She waved her fork at him in a chiding manner, laughing along with him.
“Don’t I get points for coming up with the idea?”
“That you do.” How could she resist that dimpled grin? Sara wondered.
They finished their meal in silence and, with their wineglasses, moved to the porch swing. She curled her legs beneath her and sipped from her glass, not-so-covertly watching Rafe.
He stretched an arm along the back of the seat, his fingertips grazing her shoulder. “So, tell me about your family.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Really? Why?”
He rolled his eyes. “Why do you always question me when I want to get to know you better?”
She paused, taking another sip of her wine. “It’s just that nobody has asked before.”
“Ahh. Want to know why?”
She nodded.
“Because before me, you’ve only dated men interested in one thing,” he said pointedly. “So, tell me about your family. You said they’re all cops?”
On the job, she admired his interrogation tactics. Off the job, she could do without them. “They’re all cops. My grandfather, my dad, an uncle…” She paused in thought. “My aunt was the first female cop in the family,” she said with pride.
“All divorced?”
She should have known he’d get around to that point eventually. “Yes, all divorced. Well, all but one,” she amended, thinking of her cousin.
“Then I definitely want to hear about him.”
“Her.”
His eyes opened wide. “Really, now.”
Sara let out a sigh. “Yes, really. My cousin Renata. She lives in Hoboken.”
“New Jersey.”
“Yeah. Reni said it’s easier to maintain her family life outside of Manhattan,” she said wistfully. She missed having her cousin close by. “When she lived in the city and Reni was single, we’d hang out a lot.”
“And now?”
She shrugged. “Not so much. Different cities, different lives with her married, me single. But when we were kids, we were like this.” She crossed two of her fingers together.
“And you miss hanging out with her, don’t you?” he said, his tone sympathetic.
He read her so well. “How did you know?”
“It might have something to do with how much you enjoy my crazy family.”
She couldn’t suppress a smile. “Well, I do.”
“Then why don’t you make an effort to spend more time with Renata?”
Because every time she saw her cousin with her husband and kids, Sara left depressed. In the past, she was never quite sure where the melancholy came from. But now, she realized, her sadness stemmed from watching her cousin’s happiness and the family life Sara would never have because of the choices she deliberately made.
Choices that made sense, she reminded herself.
“You’re right. I should spend more time with her,” Sara said to Rafe.
Finished with the subject, she rose and headed inside.
RAFE LET SARA GO. For whatever reason, the subject of her happily married cousin rattled her. He never meant to upset her, but he couldn’t deny being pleased that here was a chink in the armor she used to defend against happily ever after.
His cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, looked at the caller and groaned. “Hi, Aunt Vi,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Hi, honey. Rafe, he’s on the run again!”
He didn’t have to ask whom she was talking about. His head began to pound, and he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.
“Aunt Vi, I e-mailed you the picture of his car outside Jonah’s house last night. And I told him to go home and make peace with you. Didn’t he do that?”
She sniffed loudly into the phone. “I was asleep last night and this morning. But he came home from work in a mood, barely said a word through dinner. He barely ate my manicotti! And then he said he had to go out. He wouldn’t say where. He just left!”
That’s it. Rafe had had enough of Pirro’s games. “I’ll take care of it, Aunt Vi.”
A few minutes later, he and Sara were once again driving around town looking for Pirro’s car.
“Do you think he’s playing cards?” Sara asked.
“I don’t know what he’s doing, but he’s obviously hiding something, and I’m going to get to the bottom of whatever it is.”
Except this time there was no sign of Pirro’s car by any of his poker cronies’ houses, and a distinct feeling of unease settled over Rafe.
“What do you want to do now?” Sara asked.
Rafe made a U-turn and headed back toward Aunt Vi’s house. “Now we wait for him to come home and find out what’s going on once and for all.”
Thankfully, they didn’t have to wait long. Pirro’s car turned into the driveway a short time later. It wasn’t late at night, still early enough for Pirro to run any normal errand, but he’d tell his wife about one of those.
Rafe opened his car door and gestured for Sara to come along. “Last time I appealed to him man-to-man. This time we can both interrogate him,” Rafe muttered.
“Pirro!” Rafe called to the man before he could disappear into his home.
“Rafe! You startled me.” The older man’s hand flew to his chest. “What are you doing here?”
“We’re going to have a talk, and this time you aren’t going to stonewall me.”
Rafe waited for Pirro to hem and haw, or stutter while he struggled to find a believable excuse.
“You’re right,” Pirro said instead. “I can’t do this alone.”
Startled, Rafe glanced from Pirro to Sara.
She shrugged, as if to say she was equally surprised. “Do you want to go inside?” she asked, her voice gentle.
Good cop, bad cop. They played the old cliché well.