Cat Nap полностью

Just as Sunny was lamenting her bad luck in getting invited out by her dad of all people on a night when Jane and Will were on a date, she stopped. Wait a minute! I don’t think that’s Will after all. Sunny looked more carefully at the man seated with Jane. She could only see the back of his head, but that brown hair looked darker than Will’s, and it touched the guy’s collar. As a cop, Will would never let his hair grow that long, especially since the last time she’d seen him, earlier this week, he’d been waving at her through the window of Harbor Barbers.

Yeah, that can’t be Will. The usually hard-edged reporter’s voice in the back of Sunny’s head suddenly sounded downright cheerful. Maybe Jane has found herself a new guy. Now, if only they hit it off . . .

Sunny felt even cheerier when the man reached across the table to take Jane’s hand, his thumb gently stroking her soft skin in an obvious caress.

Even better, Sunny thought.

Until Jane snatched her hand back, jumped to her feet, grabbed her wineglass, and flung the contents right in the guy’s face.

2

Jane Rigsdale stormed out of the Redbrick, her full lips compressed in a thin line, the skin tight over her strong cheekbones, her pale eyebrows pulled together, and her blue eyes looking straight ahead as she sailed right past the bar. When Sunny’s dad got angry, his blue eyes blazed. Sunny used to call it the laser-glare of death. Jane’s eyes got very faraway and cold. Her blond bombshell beauty transformed into the mask of a frozen ice goddess—perfectly matching the chilly air she stepped into outside.

Brrrr, Sunny thought. Got to remember never to get Jane really ticked off at me.

Mike sat quietly, his gaze following Jane out the door. Then he grinned, taking a more optimistic view of the goings-on. “What do you think?” he asked. “One of those speed dates?”

“I think those end with a bell ringing, not with a wine spritzer to the face.” Sunny smiled at her dad.

“You mean, like between the rounds at a prizefight? Well, that guy could sure have used a cornerman and a good towel. I hope he gets a move on. If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll get the table.”

Sunny didn’t answer as she watched the guy Mike was joking about, Jane’s victim, who now stood up from his seat, mopping his face with a napkin. The man was shorter and somewhat older than Will. But as he wryly glanced at the suddenly silent tables around him, Sunny could see that he was startlingly handsome.

If Jane’s throwing away guys like that, what the heck does she want? Sunny wondered. Even covered in wine, this guy could play Prince Charming—or at least Prince Charming’s cool uncle. She sighed, and not romantically. Sunny knew what Jane wanted. She wants Will.

A mischievous thought pushed that gloomy realization aside. Maybe I should make a play for this guy. It would only be fair. Share and share alike.

Whatever he’d said to Jane that had gotten him that wine bath, the man certainly had self-confidence; he didn’t display a shred of embarrassment even though every eye in the place was on him. He just reached into his wallet, left some money, finished drying off, pulled on a coat, and strolled out the door. Once he was gone, the murmur of whispers quickly ratcheted back up to the usual dull roar that filled the Redbrick.

As it turned out, Sunny and her dad did get the vacated table. Mike ordered his hamburger with gusto. Sunny had a salad with grilled chicken on top, drizzled with the homemade raspberry vinaigrette. As instructed, her dad also eschewed French fries for a side salad, and although his eyebrows rose longingly when the waitress mentioned blue cheese dressing, he went with the vinaigrette, too, avoiding the need for any intervention from the food police.

When their food arrived, Mike smiled broadly. He sprinkled some steak sauce on his burger, piled on the tomato and onion slices, and then replaced the top of the roll. Carefully holding his creation in both hands, he took a bite. “Perfect. Medium-rare.” He turned the conversation back to the scene they’d witnessed earlier. “A good meal and a floor show, too. What do you think that was all about between those two?”

“I have no idea,” Sunny replied. While she had a half-friendly relationship with Jane, that didn’t mean a lot of confidences got shared. “In fact, I don’t even know who that was with her. Did you recognize the man?” Besides being tapped into the local gossip network, her dad seemed to know about eighty percent of Kittery Harbor’s population by sight.

“I was thinking he looked familiar.” Mike took another bite and chewed in thoughtful silence.