Double Jeopardy (18 page)

Greg locked his hands behind his head and squinted up at the sky. “I was pretty thick about it. It took a while before I caught on. Then I figured I’d lost her, and that did it. You know, deep in your gut, when the right woman comes along. And you know you’d be a bloody fool to let her get away.”

Ben thought that over and decided it wasn’t very helpful. “I’m just not much good at this emotional intimacy stuff,” he finally blurted. “I’m better if it’s just physical.”

Greg eyed him quizzically. “That’s not exactly late breaking news, my friend.” Greg knew about Vera, knew the reasons Ben kept relationships casual.

“The thing is, this wasn’t.”

Greg frowned. “Wasn’t what?”

“Wasn’t, uhhh, physical. Which is why I don’t know why the hell I’m feeling this way.”

“Feeling what way?”

“What’re you doing, psychoanalyzing me?” The probing was starting to get under his skin. Ben scowled and finished off his beer, realizing he was being an asshole and not caring.

“Hell, no.” Greg reached in the cooler he’d conveniently placed under the table and handed him another. “I’m trying to figure out why you’re so ticked off. It’s not the first time in your life you’ve gotten dumped. You say you’re not in love with her, and you’ve just admitted you weren’t even having sex with her, and you don’t do the emotional stuff, which means there couldn’t have been much of a connection, am I right?”

Ben refused to answer.

“By the way, Lily really liked Sera. She said, and I quote, ‘It’s about time you found yourself a grown-up lady.’”

Ben grunted. If Greg was trying to make him feel better, he wasn’t doing much of a job of it. “It wasn’t anything serious. I guess I just wanted some time to get to know her better,” he finally concluded in a sulky tone.

“So, what’s stopping you? It’s Friday, which means you can take off if you want to, and the last I heard, there were still several flights a day heading south.”

Ben opened his mouth to protest and then thought it over. He couldn’t remember what was scheduled for Monday, but at least the weekend was free.

“I don’t know where the hell she is,” he griped. “Her boss wouldn’t tell me. I can’t ask her parents. They’ll be just like her boss, wondering why she didn’t give me the address herself.”

“Where’s your imagination, Halsey? You’re not gonna let a little thing like an address stop you, are you?”

No, by God, he wasn’t. “Could you keep Grendel for me for a couple days?”

Having Stanley maul him would be hard on the dog, but it was for an excellent cause.

“Absolutely. Just drop him off on your way to the airport, Romeo.” Greg was laughing at him again, but this time Ben didn’t give a damn.

“Thanks for the beer. Gotta go. Tell my godson I’ll bring him something from L.A.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

The construction site beside St. Joe’s was a hive of activity, but Aldo Cardano was nowhere to be found. Jack Kilgallin was operating a crane and Ben had to wait until he took a break and climbed down.

“Hello, Doc.” Jack wiped his forehead with a rag and took a long swig from a water bottle. “What can I do for you?”

Ben had planned a dozen different openings on the way over. Now he scrapped all of them.

“I need to know where Sera Cardano is, and I thought maybe you could tell me.” He met the other man’s steady gaze and added, “I really need to talk to her. It’s personal, and believe me, it’s vitally important.”

“Why not ask her parents? Or Gemma?”

“I came over here to find Aldo. But he’s not around, and I don’t have time to make a dozen phone calls.”

“You in love with Sera, Doc?” It was the second time today someone had asked that, and for the second time, the words felt like a blow to Ben’s midsection.

“I don’t know.” He wondered for an instant why he hadn’t denied it outright again.

Jack studied him for what seemed like a minute.

“Gemma told me Sera’s in San Diego. She got a job she wants down there, and she had to leave right away to take it.”

“Any idea where she is exactly? A phone number, an address?”

Ben’s heart sank when Jack shook his head. “All I remember is that the movie company’s called Heartscape Productions, and the guy she’s working for is named Pasquale something or other.” Jack thought for a minute and then added, “Pasquale Young, that’s it. The name sorta stuck in my head. Who’d imagine a big-time producer with a first name like Pasquale and a last name like Young?”

“Thanks, Jack. I owe you one.” Ben jogged across Burrard, hoping against hope that Dana would still be in the office. Conscientious soul that she was, she wouldn’t have taken the afternoon off just because he had, would she? He could do this himself, but Dana would do it in half the time. The outer office door was locked, but Dana was there, busily entering data onto the computer from a stack of files.

“Dana, thank God you’re still here.”

She raised her eyebrows at him as he blurted out, “I need you to locate a man named Pasquale Young. He works for Heartscape Productions in San Diego. It’s a movie company. Tell whoever you talk to that I have to speak to him immediately. It’s a medical emergency.”

He hurried into the inner office and dialed the airline. There were no direct flights to San Diego, but a flight was leaving Vancouver at seven that evening for Los Angeles. Which would mean a long wait if he wanted to a connection to San Diego. Ben booked a seat anyhow. He could rent a car at the airport and drive to San Diego in a couple of hours.

He still didn’t know where Sera was. He went to see how Dana was making out. She had the phone pressed to her ear. “I talked to several assistants. They gave me a cell number. I’m trying that now. Hello, Mr. Young?” Dana repeated what Ben had told her and then handed over the phone.

“Dr. Ben Halsey calling, Mr. Young, from Vancouver, Canada.” Ben dredged up an officious tone, ignoring Dana’s amused expression. “It’s imperative that I get in touch with Sera Cardano immediately. I’m her sister’s physician. Do you have a phone number or address where Ms. Cardano can be reached?”

Pasquale Young was a trusting soul. In another few moments, Ben had the name of a motel.

SERA finished folding the laundry and slumped onto the bed, miserably aware that the tank top she was wearing smelled of perspiration and her shorts were crumpled and grimy. She’d had to wait for a washer, and then wait again for a dryer at the Laundromat down the street, and she felt grubby and utterly exhausted.

Outside, the midsummer air was thick, hot and unbearably muggy, in spite of the fact that the ocean was only a short distance away. The motel room was supposed to be air-conditioned, but the machine in the window wasn’t doing its job.

She should shower and go to bed. It was almost midnight and tomorrow morning she had to get up early and go looking for a furnished apartment. This place wasn’t bad. She’d chosen it because it was close to the beach, but she needed something more permanent, even if it meant living some distance from the water. When he’d hired her today, Pasquale had told her they’d be here several months at least.

Maybe when she got settled in a more permanent place, she’d start feeling better. This blackness that seemed to weigh her down was probably just a reaction to being in a strange city where she didn’t yet know anyone, she tried to tell herself. The other members of the crew had been friendly when Pasquale introduced them, but it was too soon to hope they’d invite her to join them for a pizza and a beer.

She should be thankful she’d gotten a job this fast, and she was; she’d sent Maisie a cute card that afternoon, expressing her love and her gratitude. But grateful or not, she still felt like crying most of the time. She’d never been this alone or utterly miserable in her life, and she couldn’t stop thinking of Ben.

The knock at the door scared her. She sprang to her feet and stood immobile, heart hammering, head spinning from her having jumped up so fast.

“Sera? Sera, it’s me, Ben.”

Ben?
Ben
? It couldn’t be. A sense of unreality came over her, and she wondered if she was about to faint. At last she staggered over and opened the door, and stared at him, speechless.

“Can I come in?” He sounded amused. “It’s hot and muggy out here. I’d forgotten San Diego is almost Mexico.”

“What—” She stopped and cleared her throat. “Ben. What—what are you doing here?” She stepped aside to let him in and then shut the door.

“I wanted to take you out to dinner,” he said as if that explained everything. “I guess it’s too late for that. Maybe we could find a place to have a cool drink, instead?”

“You—you came all the way to San Diego to take me out to dinner?” She stared at him, dumbfounded. “What—what about Gemma?”

“Gemma?” He looked bewildered. “What about her? She’s doing fine. She has another appointment next week.”

“You—you don’t think this is unfair, leaving her...?”

“Of course not.” He was genuinely puzzled. “She’s just fine, Sera. And I have an excellent man covering for me. If something should go wrong he’s more than capable of dealing with it. I certainly don’t anticipate any problems with your sister.”

Unless he was a consummate liar, he really didn’t know what she meant. The weight inside Sera’s heart eased somewhat. He seemed to view Gemma only as his patient. Had her sister gotten it all wrong, then? Had she misinterpreted his professional attention as personal?

It was possible. Thinking it over, Sera suddenly realized that was more than possible. Gemma had been seriously injured. She wasn’t back to normal; she wasn’t thinking straight. And Ben was here. She, Sera, wasn’t his patient. He’d come all this way— Could he have come all this way solely to see her? “Are you here on a conference or something, Ben?”

“Nope. I just wanted to see you.”

Her heart expanded, and all of a sudden she thought about how she looked—and probably smelled.

He was moving toward her, as if he was about to take her in his arms, and she panicked.

“I was just going to have a shower. I’m really sweaty. It’s so hot. I had to do the laundry. I was going to go to bed.” She drew in a deep breath and blew it out again. “I still don’t get this, Ben.”

“It’s not difficult. I needed to see you, Sera. I felt we were friends, and that fax was a shock I wasn’t ready to say goodbye like that. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye at all.”

There it was. The last of the heaviness drifted away like smoke, and for the first time in days she felt like smiling.

“But—where are you staying?”

“Here.”

She must have appeared shocked, because he shook his head and laughed, adding, “In this motel, I meant. Even I wouldn’t have been so presumptuous. I’m in unit 237.”

“How did you get here?” She knew she sounded stupid. She couldn’t seem to make her brain work properly.

“I flew to L.A. and rented a car.”

“But how did you find me?”

“I talked to Mr. Young.”

“You talked to Pasquale?”

He looked slightly abashed. “I’ll explain everything if you’ll come out for a drink. And maybe a burger or something. I’m starving. They don’t exactly give you a lot to eat on that plane.”

“I need to shower.”

“Sure, okay, I’ll go and get settled and come back for you in what, ten minutes?”

It was ten to twelve. What was she doing, going out with him at nearly midnight?

“Twenty.”

She was ready in fifteen.

He tapped at the door just as she was sliding bare feet into sandals.

He’d changed into khaki shorts and a blue cotton shirt. He, too, had taken a quick shower. He looked unbearably handsome.

“How beautiful you are in that dress, Sera.”

It was a simple pink cotton shift that ended mid- thigh. Suddenly, she felt beautiful.

He escorted her out to his rented car.

“What did you do with Grendel?”

“He’s having a sleepover with the Brulottes.”

She thought of Stanley and laughed. “Poor Grendel.”