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“None of the above. We lived in Shanghai for four years in my early teens. I went to the American school, but went to an after school program with Chinese kids. I had a lot of Chinese friends and I was young. It’s easy to pick up languages when you’re young.”
“Your dad’s a businessman?”
Her face closed up tight as a fist, expressionless as a porcelain doll. There wasn’t pain, there wasn’t anger, there wasn’t anything. This was the second time that had happened
Huh. He’d unexpectedly stepped into a mine field. He should step back but, all of a sudden, he was swamped with curiosity about this woman. He shouldn’t probe but at the same time, he wanted to know everything about her, about this woman who was so smart and so pretty and was the friend of two women he was fond of.
One more try.
“Or,” he said, keeping his voice casual, “maybe an academic? Or worked for a foreign company?”
He sat back, studying her face. Now that curiosity had grabbed him by the balls, he couldn’t let it go. He wanted it all, even if maybe he wasn’t going to get any intel right now.
But later. Oh yeah.
She realized not answering was going to be weird. Her lips curved, but it wasn’t a smile. She wasn’t happy.
“My, ahm, my father was in the Foreign Service. That’s why we were in Shanghai. He was Consul General.” And then that delectable mouth pursed shut again. Raul wasn’t a dummy. Part of being a good soldier was knowing when to retreat, so he retreated. He leaned back, head cocked to one side.
“Did part of that lengthy consultation over what we’re having for dinner include wine?”
She exhaled. She’d been holding her breath, waiting for him to push. He wasn’t going to push, not now. Her mouth relaxed.
“It did. I ordered a decent Napa Valley wine. A good Chardonnay. I did it without consulting you and I apologize for that, but I’m familiar with the winery and with the wine and just went ahead. I hope that’s ok.”
“Perfect. You’ll know the wines from here better than I do and I’m not a connoisseur by any means. I’m looking forward to tasting it. What else are we going to have?”
“Well, I also ordered the equivalent of some tapas—some dim sum. You’re going to get abill.”
“Perfect. At least I can start paying down my karmic debt.” Raul could have easily used his ASI company card and no one would have said anything but he really did like the thought of offering the dinner himself. He owed Felicity and Hope, but above all, it made the evening feel more like a date.
Hewantedit to be a date.
It was business, but this was also the most fun he’d had in a long time. And she was the most fascinating woman he’d met in a long time. If he’d met her outside this situation, he’d have wanted to take her out, get to know her better.
Take her to bed, oh yeah.
“Did you like living in Shanghai?” Was it her family or the city that made her uptight?
Emma smiled. Ah. So, it was family.
“Loved it. I went to the international school but like I said, afternoons I went to a local school for extracurricular activities. I’m still friends with some of the kids. Shanghai’s an amazing city. Have you been?”
He had, but that was I’d-have-to-cut-your-tongue-out-if-I-told-you classified information. And he hadn’t been there for the sights. Clandestinely trucked in during the night, the team stayed hidden for forty-eight hours and left the same way, leaving several corpses behind. “Hmm,” he answered. “Was it hard, learning Chinese?”
“You know how it is. Everything’s easy at that age.” She rolled her eyes. “Except boys. Boys were hard to deal with. They have always been exceptionally difficult.”
Whoa. That startled him. “Youhad problems withboys? Besides having to beat them off with a stick? What possible problems could you have had with boys?”
She laughed. “Oh, man, where to start? First of all, I was, um, unattractive and awkward in my teens. I had red hair and braces and I was short and hadn’t grown into my features. I was all eyes and mouth. Thank God I had my Chinese friends who considered me an alien anyway. I was so unlike anyone they knew they just took my looks in stride. I could have had two heads, for all they cared. My classmates at the international school, not so much. Also, I was a geek. Boys don’t like that.”
“Some of them do,” he said earnestly. “Man, I love Felicity and Hope. In a totally nonsexual way, of course, because otherwise Metal and Luke would skin me alive and hang me out the window on a hook.”
Emma snorted a laugh. He smiled at her. He liked making her laugh. She had a naturally serious demeanor, a small frown perpetually between her shapely dark red eyebrows, as if life were this constant puzzle. For someone like her, it probably was. Trying to figure out the underlying structures of things. For Raul,
life was pretty simple. There were good guys and bad guys. You helped the good guys and you stopped the bad guys. Sometimes permanently. You helped your friends and family. It had always been that way and always would. He didn’t much think about why the world was the way it was, just about surviving it.
He suspected Emma was the kind of person who wondered why. Certainly, Felicity and Hope were like that.
