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He reached past her to open a drawer to her right, but after digging around for a few seconds, he froze. She heard him murmur something too soft to hear. He lifted out a paper and stared at it for a long moment before tucking it back in and closing the drawer. His face had gone tight with an emotion he didn’t want to let out.
“One more thing and then we can go.”
He stalked out, and as soon as he disappeared around a corner, Tessa eased open the drawer. She leaned to the right, angling her head for a better view inside, and then she saw it. An ultrasound picture. One of those 3-D ones she’d seen on the news. The baby’s face was clearly outlined in shades of gray, and that one glimpse told her what the emotion on Luke’s face had been…sadness.
Tessa felt all her fears return.
She closed the drawer and looked up at Morrison, but he was done with her. He’d said his piece. He’d made his feelings known. His fellow cops thought Luke was the father, and Tessa didn’t know what to think. The way Simone acted toward her…Luke couldn’t be the father. So why the hell did Tessa feel terrified that she was being lied to?
SHE’D BEEN QUIET since the station, and Luke was more than sorry he’d taken her there. Fucking Morrison. He was the worst of the whole lot, because he was one of those assholes who thought female cops were nothing but trouble, and anyone who worked with one must be sleeping with her, too. What a mouth-breathing caveman. Ironically, the only one who hadn’t treated him with suspicion was the other female detective in the major crimes division. She seemed content with the idea that it was nobody’s business but Simone’s. Or hell, maybe Simone had confided in her. Maybe they’d gossiped and giggled about the guy over the bathroom sink. Yeah, right. As if Simone ever giggled.
But that wasn’t Luke’s concern. His concern was the way Tessa kept worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. The way she kept staring at her water glass while they waited for their meal at her favorite diner.
“Is everything good at the brewery?” he asked.
“Yep. Everything’s great.”
“Really? I detect a lighter tone. Did you resolve the issues with that deal?”
Her smile started out small, but it soon spread to an all-out grin. Luke’s heart responded with its typical lurch.
“Actually, I think that’s going to work out.”
“Just like that?”
Her smile twitched a bit, but she nodded. “Just like that.”
“What about the sticking point? How did you smooth that over?”
“Um, we just agreed to set that aside.”
The nice thing about Tessa was that she was a terrible liar. She practically squirmed in her seat, and when the waitress approached with their plates, she leaned back with a sigh of relief. Luke let her take one bite of her omelet before he pushed again.
“So the thing that Jamie screwed up had nothing to do with the negotiations?”
She swallowed her omelet as if it were made of cement. Luke raised his eyebrows and waited.
“It didn’t… Um…” She took a sip of water. “The disagreement didn’t really have anything to do with the deal, per se.”
“I don’t understand.”
Tessa looked to the side, as if someone else were listening. “Jamie slept with Roland Kendall’s daughter.”
“Roland Kendall being the ‘Kendall’ of ‘Kendall Group’?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Christ.” Luke shook his head. Jamie had been pretty wild in college, but Luke had been under the impression that he’d calmed down slightly in later years. “How did her father find out?”
“It’s a long story. He found out and he called off the deal. I managed to talk him back into it.”
“Have you told Eric yet?”
“Nope. And I’m not going to.” She popped another bite into her mouth.
Luke set down his fork. “You’re not going to?”
“There’s no reason to.”
