She loved his voice—deep with long, slow vowels. She remembered the huskiness when they’d danced together. Before he’d pulled away.
She shrugged. “No, it’s been fun, but now I’m ready for something different.” She gazed at Adam. “What about you? Why did you stop doing stunts?”
“I broke my back.”
He smiled but glanced away, and the finality in his tone shut down that line of conversation. Was this how the Walkers got around topics they didn’t want to talk about?
“And there’ve been no jobs to tempt you into a career path?”
“Construction suits me for now.”
There it was again. You could almost hear the big fat period at the end of his sentence. His black eyes were unfathomable, his long eyelashes shuttering them. Cressa was impressed and intrigued. He smiled easily, but his expression was strangely impassive.
Alicia cut in. “Sometimes it takes some people longer to know what they want. I must confess I was relieved when Adam gave up his horrible show. Construction is much better, even if it isn’t the ideal job. You’re both still young and have lots of time to find something you love one day.”
She smiled brightly at her son as they all took their seats at the table, but Cressa saw concern in her glance. The same as she’d seen in her own mother’s eyes.
“Yeah, people like us aren’t in a hurry to get to a final destination. We’re enjoying the journey—isn’t that right, Adam?”
Before he could answer, there was a knock on the door, and they all turned to see a man through the glass panels.
“Brian!” Cressa exclaimed. “What on earth are you doing here?”
CHAPTER FOUR
ADAM NOTICED CRESSA’S EYES widen, and she hesitated before rising to hug the man. Then they stepped apart and the guy glanced at him with curiosity before extending his hand to Alicia.
“I’m Brian McKenzie. I hope you don’t mind me intruding.” He smiled at Cressa. “I haven’t seen Cressa for a while and wanted to catch up.”
Ex-boyfriend or wannabe?
“I’m delighted you did,” said his mother. “It’s lovely to meet you. I’m Alicia.”
“And I’m Adam.” He rose and shook Brian’s hand. “Just passing, were you?”
Aroha Bay was the end of the road, thirty minutes out of Whangarimu. Brian’s rueful smile acknowledged Adam’s dig. “Not exactly. Mike and I flew in this morning and Juliet mentioned Cressa was staying here. It’s been a long time since I was up this way so I thought I’d use Cressa as an excuse to visit Northland again.”
Cressa smiled, but her shoulders were rigid and she didn’t say anything. Ex, Adam decided, and wondered why that was. Brian was good-looking in that Harvard kind of way that comes from generations of wealth interbreeding with beauty. His clothes were expensive and his manners seemed nice. All in all, he appeared the perfect package for a woman.
Adam, this isn’t easy to write, but I’m leaving you for someone else. He’s rich and successful and really nice. You’d like him. I promise he’ll make a wonderful father for Stella. You needn’t worry. Please don’t try to find us. It’s better for everyone if you let us go.
Crystal, as usual, had been wrong. He hated that unknown bastard who, all these years later, still made him feel inferior. Since then, Adam had also found it hard dealing with men who were like him—Brian, for instance.
“You’ll stay for dinner, of course,” said Alicia.
“I couldn’t impose—”
“You aren’t imposing. We’d love to have you.”
“Well, if you are sure…?” Brian looked at Cressa, who shrugged, but this time her smile appeared genuine.
“Of course. I’ll lay another place.”
Wannabe, Adam decided, noting the expression in the poor sap’s eyes. Poor, successful, rich, nice sap. Not that any of this was his business, of course. He’d woken this morning with the brain he’d misplaced somewhere in transit lodged firmly back in place. Cressa’s presence in the house needn’t be the disaster he’d foreseen last night. She’d be out all day working, and he’d be in his room at night, studying. They’d hardly run into each other at all. And mealtimes would be fine. She’d be a buffer between him and his mother, and his mother would be a buffer between him and Cressa. Simple.
He still writhed to think about Deirdre’s suit, but thank heavens he’d noticed her and been prevented from taking things too far with her daughter. Now nothing more than a dance—a close one, granted—lay between him and Cressa. If she mentioned anything, he would apologize, blaming jet lag and champagne. Which was true.
At least, it had all made sense when he’d been lying in bed with only a ceiling to stare at. Now that he had Cressa in front of him, he realized things weren’t going to be quite so easy. Her tight jeans and T-shirt showed off her curves. Her hair was in a long braid down her back and he remembered how it had felt sliding through his fingers. Outside the window, her bike sat parked next to his, and they looked pretty good together.
But if he’d required reminding that Cressa was a complication he didn’t need in his life right now, Brian’s arrival certainly helped to slap his resolve into shape. As Adam struggled to carve the chicken his mom had done her best to kill a second time, Brian produced two bottles of white wine. “I hope you like them. The wine is a new varietal.”
“Brian’s parents own a vineyard,” Cressa explained.
Why was Adam not surprised?
“None for me, thanks,” said Alicia, busy serving up the vegetables. “I don’t drink.”
Adam felt a flare of pride. It would be coming up five months since she’d stopped. Maybe Sass was right and she had changed. Then he watched the way the potatoes bounced as she tipped them into a serving bowl. Her cooking skills, it seemed, were the same as ever.
As Brian poured the wine into the other three glasses, he said with elaborate unconcern, “So, Cressa, I hear you’re seeing a French archaeologist?”
“Danish, and no, we finished a few weeks back. The French guy was a tour leader.”
“Ah. And wasn’t there a skier?”
Adam wondered why Brian would torture himself in this way but supposed it was like having a bad tooth—you just couldn’t help prodding it to see if it still hurt.
“Canadian.” Cressa smiled. “He was cool, into all that freestyle stuff. You’d have liked him, Adam.”
She certainly thought she had him pegged, he decided grimly. People always did. “I’ve never been skiing.” He’d never had the money for it.
“Really?” Both she and Brian spoke together, and exchanged equally surprised looks.
“I’m sure you’d enjoy it,” said Brian. “Cressa and I have had some wonderful times together on the slopes.”
Nice one. He might have polished manners and a vineyard, but Brian wasn’t above getting in the odd jab. It made him a bit more real. But Brian didn’t need to concern himself about Adam. For years after his divorce, Adam had kept all his relationships clean and easy and short. These days he was hanging out for something deeper, more permanent. Right at this moment, with his MCAT exam just weeks away, any sort of involvement was out of the question. Whichever way you looked at it, Cressa was a no-go zone.
They settled down to the meal. The extra setting cramped the table and the dinner was past saving, but the wine was excellent, as far as Adam could tell. His budget kept him well out of range of top wines. Alicia stuck to orange juice, and though he saw her glance