Susan Mallery - Falling for Gracie

“Sure. Make fun of me. But the truth is campaigning is all about the right information. We have to get it and use it to our advantage.”

“If you say so. You’re the expert and that’s why I pay you the big bucks.”

“Just remember that. We’re only a few weeks away from the election. Every event is crucial. Sure we’re ahead, but it wouldn’t take much to derail the whole campaign. Yardley’s a popular incumbent and people usually don’t like change.”

“I promise to remain cooperative,” Riley said. He had to win this election, and for ninety-seven million reasons Zeke knew nothing about.

Zeke took him over the schedule for the next couple of weeks. There would be a few public appearances and some ads on local cable. When Riley had approved everything, he leaned back in his chair.

“There’s just one more thing.”

“Sure. What?”

“What you do on your own time is your own business, right up until it impacts my campaign.”

Zeke frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“Your secret life. You’re disappearing at all hours and not telling your wife where you are, which is your business, but she came looking at my place because that’s where you told her you were going to be, which makes it my business.”

Zeke swallowed hard. “Look, Riley, I’m sorry but I-”

Riley cut him off with a quick shake of his head. “There’s no sorry. There’s only the campaign. I’m only going to ask you this once. Are you doing anything that could have a negative impact on my bid for mayor? Before you answer, let me remind you that Los Lobos is a small town and people finding out that the head of my campaign is screwing around on his wife would be a big negative.”

Zeke pushed to his feet. “I’m not cheating on Alexis. I would never do that. I love her.” He turned away. “It’s not that. It’s not anything that matters to you or the campaign.”

“Then what is it?”

Zeke turned back to him. “I don’t have to tell you that.”

“What if the information is a requirement of your continued employment with me?”

The other man looked him square in the eye. “Then you’re going to have to fire me because I’m not going to tell you what I’m doing. It’s not about you and it’s not about Alexis. That’s as much as I can say. Is it enough?”

Riley didn’t want to be dealing with this right now, not with the election only a few weeks away. While he could replace Zeke, he didn’t want to.

“If you’re not going to tell me, you should at least tell your wife,” Riley said. “She’s worried. Making her think you’re running around isn’t the best way to prove you love her.”

“Agreed. I’ll explain things to her.”

“By telling her what you’re doing?”

Zeke shook his head. “I can’t do that. Not yet. But it’s not bad. You have to believe me.”

Riley had learned a long time ago not to trust anyone. As much as he liked Zeke, he wasn’t going to change his rule for him.

“If whatever it is you’re doing spills over into the campaign, I won’t just fire you, I’ll do what I can to ruin you,” Riley said. “Do we understand each other?”

“Sure.” Zeke jerked his head toward the portrait on the far wall. “I know you never met your uncle, but I did. You probably don’t want to hear this, but you’re a lot like him.”

No, Riley didn’t want to know. “Thanks for sharing,” he said dryly. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

When Zeke had collected his papers and left, Riley stared at the door for a long time. He wanted to believe the problem was solved, but the tension in his gut told him otherwise. Zeke was up to something and Riley wanted to know what.

He picked up the phone and pulled a piece of paper from his shirt pocket.

“Hi, this is Gracie,” a female voice said after two rings.

Riley grinned. Whoever would have thought he would one day be calling Gracie Landon on purpose?

“It’s Riley. I talked to Zeke.”

“And?”

He outlined their conversation.

“Alexis isn’t going to be satisfied with that,” Gracie said.

“I’m not either. I’m going to follow him tonight. See where he goes.”

“I want to come with you.”

His first instinct was to say no, but then he remembered who he was dealing with. The Gracie he knew would simply follow him, which meant they would be a very conspicuous parade.

“Fine. I’ll pick you up at six-thirty. Are you back at the old house?”

“No. I’m renting a place.” She gave him the address. “This is pretty cool,” she said when he’d written it down. “I’ve never been on a stakeout before.”

“Great. This is the perfect opportunity to round out your stalker past.”

GRACIE WASN’T SURE of the correct fashion choice for a stakeout. In the movies everyone wore dark colors and drank cold coffee. She couldn’t possibly drink coffee this late-not if she wanted to sleep or even keep her belly from going up in flames. She was nervous enough. Caffeine would simply cause an overflow of acid and the resulting pain would lay her low for hours.

“Clothes first, refreshments later,” she told herself as she stood in front of the closet.

She hadn’t brought all that much up with her for her stay in Los Lobos. Most of the space in her Subaru had been crammed with baking supplies and decorating tools, not to mention her nifty cooling racks. She’d limited her clothing choices to two small suitcases. Of course when she’d made that decision she hadn’t planned on playing Bond girl sidekick to Riley’s yummy 007.

“Black,” she murmured as she sorted through jeans and other slacks. A pair of black Dockers caught her attention. Somewhere she had a black T-shirt. That should do.

She found the T-shirt in a drawer. Unfortunately it was decorated with a white silhouette of a bride and groom and proclaimed itself to be from the 2004 Bride on the Beach show she’d attended the previous summer.

Gracie ignored the unfortunate pattern and pulled it on. She studied herself in the mirror and realized her blond hair would act as a beacon. Another quick search unearthed a battered Dodgers baseball cap. The blue didn’t match the black but hey, this was a stakeout, not a fashion show. Besides, Riley was unlikely to notice what she was wearing.

Riley. Just his name made her body tense and her heart rate quadruple. She was going to have to figure out a way to counter her reaction to him. They were only together to figure out what Zeke was up to. She had a feeling that given the choice, Riley would rather spend the evening with a known mass murderer than her. Any attraction on her part was a really bad idea.

She stuffed her feet into sandals and headed for the front of the house. The light patter on the roof told her the rain promised by the local news had arrived. She picked up a windbreaker and then searched out her purse and keys.

Seconds later lights swept across the front window. He was here.

She didn’t know if she should run for cover or boldly step into the night. She settled on waiting for him to knock on her front door.

“Hi,” she said as she pulled it open, then was grateful she’d done the speaking thing before seeing him.

God, he looked good. Like her, he’d dressed all in black, but his T-shirt didn’t advertise anything beyond the chiseled muscles of his chest and the narrowness of his waist. Raindrops winked from his slicked back hair as if bragging about their close proximity to the man himself.

“Ready?” he asked as he brushed off his bare arms. “You have a coat. Good. It’s really raining.”

She found herself more than tongue-tied. She felt frozen in place, as if her feet had somehow become completely stuck to the foyer tile. She might never move again. Centuries from now archeologists would unearth her and put her still upright body in some natural history museum with a little notice beside her on the wall saying they couldn’t explain what she was doing, either.

She forced herself to breathe and then to speak. “Are we, um, taking your car?”

“I’d rather.”

It was fine with her. She didn’t feel up to driving. She doubted she was capable of much more than involuntary bodily functions at this moment. She wasn’t just overwhelmed by her attraction to Riley, but also by the unfairness of the situation. She’d been gone for so long and had gotten on with her life. Was it too much to ask that she be able to come home for a few weeks and not make a complete fool out of herself?

No answer crashed through the heavens, so she grabbed her purse and her keys, turned out the living room light and stepped into the cool, damp, night air.

Riley led his way to his car-a sleek, silver Mercedes that still smelled of new car and high-end leather. She slid onto the passenger seat and tried not to think about the fact they were going to spend the next who-knew-how-long together. Confined.

In some circles this could be considered a date. Of course in some circles she would be considered a menace to society and in desperate need of counseling.

“Why aren’t you staying at your mom’s house?” he asked.

“I thought about it, but I need the space for my work. I tend to be a night owl and a lot of people don’t appreciate noise from the kitchen at 3:00 a.m.”

He backed out of the driveway, then glanced at her. “Do I remember something about cakes?”

“Wedding cakes. They’re very fancy. I also do cakes for showers sometimes, but most people aren’t willing to pay that kind of money except for the actual wedding.”

“How much are we talking about?”

She shrugged. “I’m working on a shower cake right now. It’s fairly ornate and will serve fifty. I’m charging a thousand.”

The car swerved slightly. “Dollars?”

“I’ve found it really helpful to keep my prices in U.S. currency. It saves confusion.”

“For a cake?”

“A really good cake.”

“But still.”

She smiled. A lot of people reacted the way he did. Those who wanted something incredibly special and totally handmade were willing to pay the price.

“How many cakes do you make a year?” he asked.

“Less than a hundred. Of course wedding cakes are more expensive, but they take longer. I do okay, but I’m not getting rich. I won’t until I decide to expand, which I’m not sure I want to do. I like having total control.”

As she talked he drove through Los Lobos. “You know where Zeke lives?” she asked.

“I’ve been there a couple of times.”

“I have his license plate,” she said, digging in her purse for the information Alexis had given her.

Riley nodded at the windshield. “If this rain gets worse, we won’t be able to read it from any kind of distance.”

He pulled onto a side street and slowed. Gracie had only been by her sister’s house once since returning to town, so she had to check out numbers to figure out which one it was.

Riley turned off his lights and cruised to a stop across the street. He pointed. “That’s Zeke’s SUV.”

She peered through the windshield. “Is it black?”

“Dark blue, but in this weather, anything dark is going to look black.”

“Okay.” She leaned back in her seat. “Now what?”

Riley glanced at her. “We wait.”

She’d known that, of course. That’s what stakeouts were all about. Waiting. But thinking about it and actually doing it were two different things. Not only did Riley make her nervous, she found it really difficult to sit still. He sat there, immobilized, watching the house, while she shifted in her seat, stretched out her legs, fussed with her jacket, then tugged on her Dodger cap.

“You going to settle down anytime soon?” he asked, never taking his attention from the house.

“I’m settled. I just can’t get comfortable.” She sat up straighter in the seat. “I’ve been accused of fidgeting, but I don’t understand how people can sit there like lumps. It’s not natural. It’s-”

“There,” Riley said, cutting her off and pointing.

Sure enough Zeke hurried out of the house toward his SUV. Gracie instinctively sank down in her seat and shielded her face.

“I doubt he can see you through the rain,” Riley said dryly.

“I want to be sure,” she said. “Keep your voice down.”

Riley grinned. “You’re taking this too seriously.” He started his engine and waited until Zeke pulled out before shifting into gear and following him.

Riley might think they were safe, but Gracie stayed slumped in her seat until it became obvious Zeke was heading directly to the freeway and not trying to lose anyone.

“Where do you think he’s going?” she asked as she shifted into a more comfortable position. “And what’s he up to? If he’s not seeing another woman, the possibilities are endless.”

“Please don’t list them,” Riley said.

She glanced at him. “I wasn’t going to.”