“No. Two months ago.”
“Okay. First, I’m seriously impressed that you remember how long it’s been, and second—two months! That’s got to be a record. What’s the matter with you?”
“Maybe I’m taking a break,” Ash said wryly.
“Maybe.” Thad’s voice had changed. Ash would swear his younger brother was grinning. “And maybe you’re still hung up on her.”
Ash winced. “No. I don’t get hung up.”
“There’s always a first time, even for Ashton Kendall, confirmed ladies’ man.”
“Say goodbye, Thad,” Ash muttered.
“Goodbye, Thad.”
Ash hung up and headed for his house, frowning as he replayed his and Thad’s conversation in his head. Thad had always been able to read him. There was some truth to what he’d said. Ash hadn’t dated anyone since he had broken up with Rachel. He considered his brother’s comment and his own response. Of course he didn’t get hung up. But Rachel was the singularly most irritating woman he’d ever dated. Irritating and interesting.
He shook off those thoughts and concentrated on Thad’s other irritating quality—his ability to drill down to the heart of any situation. Thad’s other question replayed in his mind, the same question that had bothered him ever since he’d heard the news.
The question no one else in the family had asked—not Devin, not Aunt Angie or Uncle Craig and not Natalie.
What if the DNA didn’t match? What if Rick Campbell was innocent?
As ASH TURNED ONTO HIS street, he saw Rachel’s car in his driveway. He looked at his watch. Six-thirty. Damn it. She got off at five. She’d had plenty of time to get here, clear out her stuff and leave.
It wasn’t like he wasn’t already haunted by the ghost of her presence in his home, in his bed—a new experience for him. One he didn’t like. Did she think seeing her in his house would land them back in the sack? At that thought, his body tightened in immediate sexual response.
No! No way. He had let her down gently and moved on, same as always. He loved women, but he wasn’t interested in settling down. Ever.
He’d heard the talk. He knew what people—and by people he meant women—said about him.
Love ’em and leave ‘em—happy. It was true. The phrase summed up his attitude toward women in a nutshell. But since Rachel, he hadn’t found anyone he was interested in enough to ask out.
For a split second he considered turning around and leaving. Give her plenty of time to clear out. He could run over to the mansion, not to see his aunt and uncle, but to check on Natalie, who had moved into the roomy guest cottage a couple of years ago. He wanted to make sure she was doing okay.
Then his stubborn streak kicked in. This was his home. He wasn’t the one who should be leaving. Rachel was. He pulled up to the curb, leaving the driveway clear behind Rachel’s car.
Stalking inside, he stopped short when he didn’t see her. Not in the living room and not in his bedroom. But what he did see took him aback.
Damn, he’d left a mess. He’d had trouble falling asleep, ordered a pizza at midnight that he’d barely touched and then finally drifted into a fitful sleep around four-thirty. He took a deep breath and wrinkled his nose at the smell of cold, stale tomato sauce and cheese. He didn’t mind cold pizza, but he liked it from the refrigerator, not sitting out all day.
He picked up the pizza box and took it into the kitchen to throw into the trash. He stopped cold. Rachel was sitting at the kitchen table, her head on her hands, asleep.
“Rach, what the hell are you doing?”
She started, then lifted her head. There was a red patch on her left cheek where it had rested on her hand. “Wha—?” She blinked. “Oh, Ash. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
Ash found himself caught by her eyes. He wasn’t sure what it was about those gold-green eyes with the reddish-brown ring around the edge of the iris, but he did know they had the power to make him think crazy thoughts—like how great it would be to fall into bed with her again, or how at thirty-three he was getting a little tired of the chase. How his flirtatious lifestyle wasn’t so much exciting these days as exhausting.
He shook his head to dislodge those thoughts that had been creeping into his mind ever since he’d cooled it between them. He had no intentions of changing anything about his lifestyle—which was why he wanted Rachel’s stuff out of here. He never brought women to his house and this was why.
Invariably, once a woman got a toe in the door, she started nesting—leaving things in his bathroom, his bedroom, sometimes even in his bed.
Plus, he didn’t like the silly twinge that squeezed his chest every time he opened his medicine cabinet and saw Rachel’s toothbrush.
“Well, you’re awake now,” he said ungraciously. “Did you get all your stuff?”
She nodded and stood, closing her eyes for a couple of seconds. She was pale as she picked up her purse. “I hope you don’t mind, I got—some water,” she said, sounding slightly out of breath.
Ash frowned. What was wrong with her? Was she upset that he’d told her to come and clear her stuff out of his house? He was the one who had a right to be upset, not her.
She stepped past him into the living room, muttering something that he didn’t catch.
“What?” he asked, following her.
She shook her head. “Nothing,” she muttered. “Nothing.” She hurried toward the door.
“Rach, wait a minute.”
She stopped without turning around.
“We never got to finish our conversation this morning.”
She turned. The red patch on her cheek stood out against her pale skin. “You call that a conversation? I’d call it an interrogation. You were really at the top of your game.”
Ash shrugged. He wasn’t happy with the way he’d acted, although for the most part, he felt like it was justified. Okay, maybe not slapping the table. “Why didn’t you give me the courtesy of letting me know you were running the DNA found on my parents’ bodies?”
“Come on, Ash,” Rachel said, sounding exasperated. “I didn’t know whose sample it was. It was a special request, with a one-day turnaround. Everything that could possibly point to a particular case had been redacted. You know how they do those things.”
“You should have known by the date,” he snapped. “How many twenty-year-old Christmas Eve murder cases do you think there have been in St. Louis?”
She leaned her head back against the front door and closed her eyes. “The date was redacted, too.”
“How about the fact that there were two victims, or—”
“Please, Ash. Even if I should have known, I didn’t,” she said, bringing her gaze to his. “Even if I had realized whose case it was, I couldn’t have told you. You know that. And this case was more sensitive than most. It was specially requested by the commissioner.”
“The commissioner?” Ash was shocked. It was the police commissioner who had granted the petition to reopen the case and have the DNA sampled, not the new D.A.?
Ash felt like he’d taken a blow to the stomach. His own boss hadn’t given him the courtesy of a heads-up. That stung.
Rachel was watching him closely. He shut his eyes for an instant, composing his thoughts and blocking the look on her face. She obviously hadn’t meant to say that much, because her lips were pressed together tightly.
“You’re