“Oh. Well, it was hard to know that at the time.”
“It was perfectly straightforward. You should have guessed.”
“I should have guessed? What about you? You acted like you were sure I was the one. I sort of just … followed along—like a dummy.” She frowned, remembering how she’d almost been in a trance. She could hardly believe that a man like this was the Randy she was waiting for. And it turned out she was right. She sighed plaintively.
“Oh, well. What’s done is done. Now we have to do our best to undo it.”
“Exactly.” He glanced down at the sleeping baby in her arms, then around the simple room. “Let’s get out of here.”
She looked down at the baby. “Are we taking him with us?”
“Well, we’re not going to leave him here.”
“No, I suppose not.” She bit her lip. This didn’t seem right, but she didn’t know what else they could do.
From the crib, she picked up a blanket and wrapped it around the baby while he picked up the diaper bag. Looking up, she sighed as her gaze traveled over the handsome man who’d brought her here. He was like a mythic figure, so tall and strong with matinee-idol looks. When something seemed too good to be true, you had to know it was likely to be so. Oh well, this had been interesting.
“So what is your name, anyway?” she asked as they looked around the apartment to make sure they weren’t forgetting anything.
“Max,” he said grimly. “Max Angeli.”
“And I’m Cari Christensen.”
He looked down at her and almost had to smile. She seemed to be able to maintain a sunny personality despite all odds against it. In contrast to what he was feeling himself, which was dour indeed. “You said that.”
“I thought you might not have caught it in the heat of the moment.”
He nodded, mouth twisting. “I wish you’d mentioned it while we were still at the club,” he said. “There you were waving at me with that damn red rose.”
“Oh!” She stopped and glared at him. “You’re not going to blame this whole catastrophe on me.”
He liked the fire in her eyes. She wasn’t his type and he would never have picked her out of a crowd, but there was something appealing about her just the same. He liked the liveliness of her reactions and he couldn’t resist teasing her a bit.
“Why not?” he said with a careless shrug. “If you’d been on your toes, this wouldn’t have happened. You made me stand up the woman I was supposed to be with. You may have killed that relationship.”
“And you messed up my date with Randy,” she reminded him, though she was beginning to realize he wasn’t really serious.
“Wasn’t it a blind date?” he asked her as they headed out of the apartment. He turned back to make sure the door was locked. “And you know what they say about love.”
“I know they say love is blind, but I think you have to give it a chance to grow before you can kill it.”
“Murderess,” he muttered, choking back a smile.
She sighed, glancing at him sideways. “You’re not exactly the Lone Ranger, my friend,” she chided, teasing him back now. “For all you know, you may have destroyed a great love affair.”
He raised a skeptical eyebrow. “You and Randy?”
“Sure. Why not?” She made a face at him. “Romeo and Juliet. Anthony and Cleopatra. Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.” She struck a pose. “The names Cari and Randy might have belonged right up there with them all.”
“All doomed to tragedy,” he noted helpfully. “If a great passion is meant to be it’ll take more than a missed connection to destroy it.”
“Perhaps.” She flashed him a smile. “And yours, too.”
His laugh was short and humorless. “C.J. and I aren’t meant for love,” he said cynically. “But we are destined to make beautiful music together.”
She looked at him with bewilderment. “How can you know that when you don’t even know who she is?”
He knew enough about C.J. to know she was meant—unfortunately—to be very important in his life. He might not know what she looked like, but he had her number, just the same. His smile was bittersweet as he shrugged, pushing open the outer door to the building for her.
“Destiny is relentless.”
“Destiny. Such a strong word.”
But all that was forgotten as she looked at what they were heading into.
“It’s starting to rain,” she said with dismay, just as they stepped outside and the door clicked shut behind them.
“Yes,” Max said, wondering what else could go wrong. Just another layer of bad luck he supposed. But this was getting monotonous.
“Where’s the car?” she asked.
“The car?”
He looked where he’d parked it. The space was empty. His first thought was—did Tito take it? But no. He glanced at the driveway. Tito’s rental car was gone. He looked back at the place where he’d left his newly minted beauty. Sure enough, it was gone, too. His heart sank. And now he knew what else could go wrong.
He swore coldly and obscenely, and she pulled the baby closer, frowning at him, even though the words were in Italian. Reaching into his pocket, he realized he’d left his mobile in the car, which had now been stolen. He swore again.
“Where’s your phone?” he asked curtly.
She shook her head. “I forgot to bring it,” she said.
He stared at her, unable to believe this string of bad luck wasn’t over yet.
“My car’s been stolen. You have no phone. I have no phone. We just locked ourselves out of the building and it’s starting to rain.”
She sighed, shoulders sagging. That was quite a litany of woes. “We’re also stuck in the middle of a rather bad neighborhood,” she reminded him, looking around at the menacing shadows.
“Not for long.” He picked up the diaper bag and glanced down the street. The lights from downtown were visible in the sky. It was quite evident which way they needed to travel. “We’re going to have to walk, at least until we can flag down a cab. Let’s go. The sooner we start out, the sooner we’ll get there.”
Cari looked down at her three-inch heels. “Okay,” she said sadly, trying to smile.
He looked down at them, too. “Those shoes aren’t made for walking,” he noted dryly.
That was certainly a fact, but her feet sure were cute in them, and what that angle did to her beautiful legs was beyond mentioning. He swallowed hard as the thought came and nestled into his senses. Raising his gaze to her clear blue eyes, he got another jolt of erotic sensation and he shook his head, trying to stave it off. This was no time to let his libido go wild.
“I could carry you,” he said gruffly, still holding her gaze with his own. “But with the baby and all …”
“You will not!” she retorted, taking a step away from him. “I can walk. Believe me, I’ve done it for years.” She started off down the street, just to prove it. “I’ll carry the baby. You get the diaper bag. It’s heavier.”
They set off into the dark neighborhood, trying to ignore the drizzle. Most of the buildings seemed to be industrial and there was no sign of life coming from any that lined the street they were hurrying down. It was downright spooky.
Max pushed all thought about