Deadly Ties by Jaycee Clark Read Free Book Online

business delving into.
    Taylor, herself, fascinated him. She talked and laughed through the lunch. Amazingly enough, they’d actually gotten along. He learned she was the more health food type. She liked water and salads. He’d asked where in Texas they were from, telling them he’d been to the Austin area for the last year off and on while his brother’s family lived there. A conversation started up about Texas places to see and things to do. He’d enjoyed himself more than he thought he would.
    “Have you always lived here?” she asked him as they pulled up to her house, a brownstone with a low fat porch that had geraniums in little pots on it.
    “All my life.”
    “It’s different here.” Her hands lay calmly in her lap, long tapered fingers on elegant hands, short buffered nails. Taylor was built like a dancer he’d once dated, long and lithe, her movements graceful.
    “I would imagine it would be,” he said.
    “Thank you again for lunch. I wanted to treat you to lunch. After all you’ve done for us.”
    Gavin smiled at her disgruntled voice. “Call me old fashioned, but my father taught me to be a gentleman. You open doors for ladies and you pay for their food.”
    Her dimples deepened as she smiled fully at him. “Even ones who set your teeth on edge?
    I feel privileged and I’m sorry you inherited us for the day.”
    He wasn’t. “Don’t worry about it.”
    Gavin helped them get their bags and walked them to their house.
    She opened the door and let Ryan rush in. “Would you like to come in for something to drink? I don’t have a clue what we have. Probably Koolaid and who knows.” She smiled. Those

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    dimples.He’d never thought of himself as a dimple man, but maybe he was.
    “I better get going and let you get your stuff squared away,” he said.
    A moment of silence hung between them. She reached up and touched her cheek and the small movement had the anger shifting in him again. Gavin bit down at the sight of her bruised face. His fist bunched in his pocket. It looked swollen even with her shades. And he could see the shadow of it beneath her makeup. He wondered how many different colors it was. He could see the dark purple and blue hue of battered skin. What if her jaw had been cracked, or her cheekbone? Gavin started to reach out and touch her, but instead, he curved his palm around the edge of the door.
    He had been taught to cherish and protect both women and children. As a child, these were values his parents instilled in him, and later as a doctor in his field he came to believe it even more. Her lips were moving, but he hadn’t heard a word she said.
    “What?”
    She tilted her head. “Do you tune out all women or is it just my charm?”
    He smiled. “It’s just you.”
    Her sigh was enough that he felt it brush his face. “I wanted to thank you for all of this.
    Again.”“You’ve already thanked me.”
    Silence stretched between them and he watched as she licked her lip, and rubbed one bare arm, the movement causing that filmy material to stretch and glide over her torso.
    “I did, didn’t I?”
    On impulse, he said, “How about lunch later this week?”
    She tilted her head. “Call me and I’ll let you know.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Ryan stood upstairs in his room looking out the window as Gavin Kinncaid pulled away. Gavin was pretty cool. He often seemed almost rude to Taylor, but then she was rude back to him and Taylor was never rude. Even with that jerk she’d been married to, Charles. She’d always been nice to that man.
    Adults were strange sometimes.
    Ryan looked around his room, saw his space posters, and his violin.
    He ran a finger down the wooden body, huffing out a sigh. He was glad to be back home with his stuff, especially his violin.
    A honk from below drew his attention back. Ryan waved and wondered if they’d see Dr.
    Kinncaid again. The man was cool and had this deep rumbly voice and his family was neat, living in that great big house that had the