Just a Little (5-8) (3 page)

I sighed and shook my head. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”

“He’s a man.”

“Yeah,” I wanted to get to the bottom of his—and Matt’s—strange behavior. Both of them were acting out of sorts. Their secrecy was really starting to take a toll on the people who loved them, the people who cared most about them.

“Julie,” Kara looked as though she’d just come up with an answer to solve all of our problems, “whaddya say to a little private investigating?”

“Private investigating?” I asked. “Like
spying
?”

“You want to know what Luke’s up to, right?”

“Right.”

“And Matt’s clearly not himself.”

“Clearly,” I repeated, lowering my brows. “You want to
spy
on them?”

“They’re not being honest with us,” she said, “and we deserve the truth.”

“So, we’re going to spy?” I asked again, still unsure of how I felt about her idea.

But if it meant finding out what they were up to….

“You in?” she asked.

“Oh, I’m in.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Friday, February 22

If someone would’ve told me five months ago that I’d be sitting behind bushes with binoculars, a camera, and a cell phone in hand, I might’ve just passed on the opportunity to job shadow down at the station. If I would’ve put my twenty hours in somewhere else—
anywhere else
—the remnants of the job wouldn’t have haunted me all these months later.

But I chose to take Charlie’s offer.

And I got stuck shadowing an arrogant, egotistical, pig-headed—did I mention beautiful?—officer, one who managed to make my life a living hell more often than not. Because I loved that man with every fiber of my being, I needed to know where he stood.

So there I was, on my hands and knees, spying from the bushes on the south side of town.

But I wasn’t looking for Luke;
I
was trailing Matt.

Kara and I agreed that it would look far too suspicious if Matt caught her spying on him and the same for me with Luke. We were doing each other a favor; I’d spy on her boyfriend, and she’d spy on mine.

I’d followed Matt out of the house twenty minutes ago. He said he was on his way to the bistro, but he left home going in the opposite direction of his supposed destination. It was on Frankfort Street that he stopped off at a convenience store, so I ducked behind a building and waited for him to come out. When he resurfaced, he carried a brown paper bag against his chest. With his sunglasses shading his eyes, his collar popped on his jacket, and his sneakers sloshing through yesterday’s snow, he continued down the street.

He finally turned into the Old Historic District, and I hung back a block. He disappeared into Lonnie and Grace’s flower shop, but he never came out. After twenty minutes, I ducked behind a bush and watched the door intently.

Another half-hour went by and nothing else happened. He never came back.

I pulled my phone out and sent him a text.

Me

Hey. Stopped by the bistro. Noticed you’re not here. Where’d you go?

I waited and waited for a response, but he never answered my question. I felt terrible lying to my cousin, but
he
was lying to
me
. No… two wrongs didn’t make a right, but I
had
to get to the bottom of this.

“Miss Julie,” a voice said behind me, and Detective Bruno squatted next to me. “Who’re we spying on?”

I threw him a sideways glance. “Don’t judge me,” I pointed a finger at him. “You poke your nose in people’s business every day.”

“For the community,” he said. “For the law. For justice. I have a valid excuse; what’s
yours
?”

“I think Matt’s cheating on Kara,” I said, and the words slid off my lips before I could stop them. It was only when I said it out loud that I realized how harsh the accusation sounded.

He didn’t argue. Unlike Charlie and Luke, Detective Bruno didn’t jump immediately to Matt’s defense. He simply nodded and settled in next to me.

“You have any evidence?”

“Would I be sitting behind this bush if I did?”

“Alright,” he peeked out behind the plant. “He’s in the flower shop?”

“How’d you know?”

“I’ve seen him there quite a bit lately,” he said, rubbing his chin. “Come to think of it, he was in the last three or four times I stopped by.”

“Why?” I asked. I didn’t exactly expect him to answer, but it was reassuring to know that he might have some insight. “What business does he have there?”

“Why not stop in and ask?”

“He’s not talking.”

“Talk to Grace,” he said. “She’s bound to know something.”

“I can’t,” I said. “It can’t get back to him that I’m poking around.”

“Well,” he shrugged, “you don’t have many options here, Julie.”

“What would....” I shook my head and started over. “What would you do if you were me?”

“If I were you,” he repeated, almost sounding as if he was glad he wasn’t. “If I were you and I suspected there was another girl—let me make it clear that I
don’t
think that—then I’d start with that beautiful young lady Grace hired to work the evening shifts,” Bruno said. “You could stop in. Ask her what she knows. But it’s too far-fetched. You’ve got to give your cousin some credit, Julie. He adores Kara.”

I nodded and remembered the way Luke had leaned on the counter, talking (and flirting, maybe?), laughing and smiling. Then when I saw who he was caught up in conversation with…

Anyway, like Bruno said, she was beautiful, whoever she was. The last thing I wanted was to engage with her in any way no matter how much I needed the truth.

“What do you… do you know anything about…
who is she
?” I asked, looking down at my hands.

“Are you asking for Kara, or are you asking for Julie?”

I bit my lip but didn’t say anything.

He looked into my eyes, holding my stare intently. His eyes moved quickly to my mouth, to my hands, and then he met my stare once again. He was studying me, searching for something… reading my thoughts, it seemed.

“Luke loves you, Julie.”

“I never said he didn’t.”

“But you’re questioning it. Just like you questioned his motives in the beginning.”

“Let’s agree that Luke is hard to read, okay? He makes it nearly impossible to know what’s going on in his head.”

“He’s a Reibeck; it comes with the territory.”

“Is
she
a Reibeck?” I asked. “The girl in the store? Is she family?”

“No,” he shook his head, “she’s new in town, as far as I know. She stopped by the shop one day needing a job, and Grace took pity on her.”

“Do you trust Luke?” I asked, knowing he’d never lie to me. “I mean take the
Detective
and
Officer
titles out of the equation. As a person, as your nephew, do
you
trust him?”

Bruno closed his eyes for a second and dropped his head.

“Listen, Julie,” he said softly. “Whether I trust him or not, it’s not going to change the fact that you don’t. I could tell you a million stories, give you a hundred reasons to believe he’s an honorable man, but if you’re hell-bent on believing otherwise, nothing I can say will change your mind.”

“You don’t think I trust Luke?”

“Look at you,” he brushed a twig out of my hair. “You’re sitting in a pile of day-old snow and ice, hunched behind a bush, spying on your cousin. You have Kara parked on the street outside the station waiting on Luke to get back from patrol—don’t deny it; I’ve had eyes on her all afternoon. You’re both clearly questioning the strength of your relationships. With all the love and respect in the world, Julie, you’re both clearly insecure. Mature women don’t stoop to this level.”

“But—”

“Just think about it, okay?” he continued. “Luke’s already frustrated that you’ve brought Kara in on your suspicions about Matt. How would he feel if he found out you had the same suspicions about him?”

My stomach hollowed.

“Are you going to tell him?”

“No, ma’am,” he said, “if your relationship is doomed to crash and burn, I’m not going to be the one behind the wheel.”

I let out a slow breath and nodded.

“We should probably go, huh?”

“I think that’s a good idea,” he patted me on the back. “What do you say to dinner? My treat.”

Friday, February 22| 7:00 p.m.

“You haven’t touched your food,” Bruno nudged my bowl a little closer.

“Sorry,” I put my phone aside. “I thought I’d hear from Luke after his shift.”

“No word?”

“No,” I said, picking up my spoon, “I’m not really surprised. I’m sure he’s still mad about what happened at the library yesterday.”

“Give him time,” he crammed a sausage link in his mouth. Bruno had opted for the breakfast platter: scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, and juice. I thought I’d find solace in a bowl of hot soup, but it wasn’t doing the job; I’d lost my appetite.

“Julie,” Bruno read into my expression once again, “what’s going on between Matt and Kara isn’t your problem, and it’s definitely not Luke’s.” I nodded as he leaned forward. “You guys have been through a lot together already. Nothing as trivial as this will come between you.”

I settled a little lower in my chair, closing my eyes to let the familiar sounds of the diner envelop me. I hadn’t returned to this little restaurant since the morning I clocked Lonnie Reibeck in the face for insulting Luke. I was fairly certain the only reason the manager even let me back in the building was because I was with Detective Bruno, one of the most loved and respected men in Oakland.

I hadn’t heard from Kara since I called off our amateur investigation twenty minutes earlier. Soon after I placed my food order, I sent her a quick message and told her to stand down. I hoped she’d taken the advice, but part of me wondered what she’d learned about Luke.

Just as I checked my phone for the hundredth time, waiting to hear from her or my boyfriend, Kara slid into the chair next to mine and nodded.

“Sorry I didn’t respond: I wanted to come over and feed you my report in person.”

Bruno lifted his eyebrow and gave me a
don’t take it to heart
kind of look.

“Okay?”

“Luke rolled into the station around five, disappeared inside for about ten minutes, came back out, got in his car, and drove off.”

“You didn’t follow him?” I was afraid she might have, and part of me hoped that she had.

“Of course I did,” she said, “He ended up at an apartment here in the District. This is the address.” She slid a piece of paper to me as Bruno and I leaned in to read it.

“That’s his place,” I said, relieved that she hadn’t found anything.

“I figured.”

“See, I told you there was nothing to worry about,” Bruno chimed in.

“So, what about you?” Kara ignored him. “Did you find anything on Matt?”

I looked at Bruno and watched as he subtly shook his head. He didn’t want me to tell Kara what I’d found, probably because I didn’t really know what it meant. It could’ve been innocent enough, but I still thought she deserved to know. Bruno, though, thought otherwise.

“Nothing suspicious,” I finally said, knowing it was better to take his advice to heart. What good would it do for me to worry her with something I knew so little about?

“Oh, thank God,” she placed her hand over her heart.

“You know what I think?” Bruno asked, taking another bite. A touch of syrup spilled from the corner of his lips as he chewed. He lifted his napkin, wiped his face, and sat forward. “I think you both need to go home, call your boyfriends, and talk.
Communicate
. All this sneaking around… it’s unhealthy.”

“You think
we’re
the problem?” Kara looked past him. “You think
we’re
the ones doing a bunch of unhealthy sneaking around?”

“Yes.”

“Then what do you call
that
?”

She nodded at the front of the diner. Bruno and I turned and watched as Luke held the door for a tall, beautiful brunette. She was the very same woman I’d seen him with at the flower shop late last week. She joined him at a table in the front, both of them laughing and talking, enjoying each other’s company.

“Shit,” Bruno mumbled under his breath.

“Poking holes in your theory,
Detective
,” Kara poked at the air.

Bruno watched Luke for a second and then turned back to me. “Julie,” he said, “don’t freak out, okay? Luke’s not stupid. If there was something going on, the last thing he’d do is flaunt it around town. There’s got to be more to this than what we see.”

“You know what?” I said, tears stinging my eyes. “I’ve gotta go. I forgot I had stuff to… I’ll see you guys later,” I slid out of my chair and brushed past Kara.

I pulled my hood up over my head and put my sunglasses on, rushing past Luke without a word… without confrontation… without an explanation. He was too caught up in conversation with
her
to realize that I, the girl he supposedly loved, had just walked by.

I pushed through the diner door, letting myself outside. I stood in the freezing air for a few long minutes before turning back to look inside the large glass window. Bruno and Kara still watched from their table—watching and waiting—undoubtedly expecting me to turn back and cause a scene.

My eyes fell on Luke.

His shoulders were relaxed, his eyes full of hope. He laughed and smiled, grinned and blushed. He wasn’t guarded... not even in the slightest.

He wasn’t running from this girl; he was comfortable with her.

He was…
happy
.

I pulled out my cell phone and held down the first speed dial button, letting the call ring Luke.

Moments later he leaned forward and pulled the phone from his pocket. He checked the screen, ignored the call, and then pushed it aside.

His voicemail clicked on.

Luke, leave a message.

“Hey,” I whispered after the beep. “I….”

I caught a sob in my throat as I watched him reach across the table to take the woman’s hand. A simple smirk pulled on the corner of his scarred lip, and my heart fell to my stomach.

“I’m sorry I called,” I turned my back to the window.

I couldn’t look at him anymore. I couldn’t watch them together. I couldn’t understand what was going on, what I’d somehow missed.

“I know you’re busy, and I didn’t expect you to answer. It’s okay. I just wanted to tell you that I don’t… I don’t want to do this anymore.” I swallowed hard and felt a tear slip down my cheek. “I get it; you need more from a relationship than what I can offer. Because I’m…
just a kid
,” I said, but I finally found the nerve to say what I’d been meaning to say all along. “I don’t know how to trust you anymore, Luke. I
don’t
trust you. I love you, I do, but I just don’t trust you.”