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Authors: Cathie Linz

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BOOK: Bad Girls Don't
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Skye couldn’t keep living her life trying to aggravate Julia. For one thing, it was too damn easy to do. For another, it meant Skye wasn’t harnessing her own power, but was instead reacting to Julia. Or doing something to make Julia react to her.
Suddenly, it all made sense to Skye in a strange, convoluted kind of way. The paths she’d chosen in the past. The decisions she wanted to make in the future. They all hinged on Julia.
Of course. She always had been the dominant one.
Not that she’d ever admit it.
Right now, Julia was staring at Skye as if trying to figure her out. Was this how Nathan felt when Skye stared at him, trying to figure him out? Like a bug under a microscope.
Well, it was different with Nathan, of course, because there was the whole man-woman-sexual-attraction thing going on with him.
Which reminded her: Where was Julia’s bad-boy Luke? “Why are you here alone? Did your other half dump you?”
Okay, maybe not the least confrontational line to open a dialogue of reunion with her sister.
Half
sister.
“Luke went to see the sheriff about the vandalism.”
Skye’s eyes widened. “Luke went to see Nathan? Why didn’t you tell me that earlier? We’ve got to stop him.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because. He’ll talk to Nathan.”
“That was the point, yes.”
“No, he’ll
talk
to him.”
“What are you afraid Luke might tell Nathan?”
“I’m not afraid.”
“It wouldn’t kill you to admit it if you were.”
“Yes, it would,” Skye said under her breath.
“You always did hate admitting you were afraid. Remember when you used to get nightmares as a little kid? Even then, you refused to say you were scared. Instead, you insisted on sleeping in my bed, claiming it was somehow better than yours.”
“Forget about that. We have to go stop Luke from talking to Nathan.”
“I’ve learned that it’s almost impossible to stop Luke from doing something he wants to do.”
“You come with me. We have to convince him.”
Skye rushed out of the community center, not changing out of the leggings and cropped T-shirt she wore in class, her coin-adorned chiffon hip scarf jingling. Julia rushed after her.
When they reached the station, guard-dog Celeste was there, barring the way to Nathan’s office. “The sheriff is busy at the moment.”
“Oh, okay. We’ll wait,” Julia said.
“No, we won’t.” Skye grabbed her by the hand and yanked her past a furious Celeste.
“You can’t go in there!” Celeste protested.
Skye ignored her and walked in to find Luke and Nathan shooting the breeze like a couple of good ol’ boys.
“Hello, ladies. You must be Julia.” Nathan stood and came over to greet her.
“Sure, be nice to her,” Skye muttered in disgust. “After all, she’s the
good
sister. You never get up when
I
come barging into your office.”
“Ever think there might be a physical reason for that?” Luke said lazily. “Maybe the guy is trying to hide the fact you turn him on. Why the shocked expression, Skye? This from the woman who as soon as she met me demanded to know if I was having sex with her sister?”
“I . . . I . . .” Skye sputtered. Temporarily unable to voice her opinion, she opted for walking over to Luke and smacking his arm as hard as she could before hugging him. “Welcome back.”
“Sure, hug him. After all, he’s the
bad
boy,” Julia said. “You never gave
me
a hug.”
“I could have told you that you’d never turn her into a bad girl,” Skye informed Luke.
“I don’t know.” His gaze fell on Julia with enough heat that even Skye could feel it. “She’s bad in all the best possible ways.”
Julia blushed. Then she surprised Skye by walking up to Luke and kissing him. Her sister had never been one for public displays of affection before.
Skye’s eyes met Nathan’s as she remembered every kiss they’d shared, each hotter than the one before. Would the day ever come when Nathan would kiss her in front of an audience instead of beneath the bleachers or behind closed doors?
“Get a room, you guys,” she finally told her sister and Luke.
Julia broke away from Luke with a laugh, but he kept his arms looped around her waist.
“So, Luke, what were you and Nathan talking about when we walked in?” Skye tried to sound casual.
“The stubbornness of a Wright woman.”
“Oh, please.” Skye rolled her eyes. “We are not stubborn.”
“Well,
I’m
not,” Julia said. “But you are.”
“Yeah, right. This from the woman who refused to give up her Pop-Tarts.”
Luke just grinned. “Nathan and I have decided you’re
both
stubborn, each in your own adorable way.”
Skye narrowed her eyes at him. “That ranks right up there on the sexist-meter with the idiotic phrase ‘You’re so cute when you’re mad.’ ” She paused a moment before adding, “Of course, maybe my half sister isn’t bothered by that. I mean, after all, she put her life on hold to follow her man around the country because that’s what he wanted.”
“It’s what
I
wanted,” Julia said. “Which you would have known if you’d bothered to come see me before I left.”
“If you recall, we weren’t exactly on the best of terms back then.”
Julia ignored Skye’s words and focused her attention on Nathan. “So, are you and my sister seeing each other?”
“Yeah, we’re seeing each other. In fact, we’re
looking
at each other right now,” Skye drawled.
“She’s part of an investigative case I’m working on,” Nathan said.
Julia nodded. “Luke told me about the sabotage incidents at the theater.”
Nathan’s cop face returned. “There was a fire the night before last.”
“Angel told me. She also told me that you’ve moved in with Skye to protect her.”
“It’s a temporary measure, until we catch the perpetrator.”
“I’ve already offered Nathan my law enforcement expertise, such as it is,” Luke said. “Not that a burnt-out former FBI Special Agent might provide that much assistance.”
“Yes, you would,” Julia said loyally.
“So what else did you and Nathan talk about?” Skye asked Luke.
“The Steelers.”
“And the White Sox,” Nathan added.
“What did you think we were going to talk about?” Luke asked. “Afraid I was going to ask the lawman here what his intentions are regarding you?”
Skye gave a short laugh. “Like you’re in any position to be asking that. You haven’t even stated your own intentions about Julia.”
“Oh, I plan on marrying her,” Luke stated confidently. “I just haven’t decided when.”
Julia looked stunned.
Skye gave Luke a you-poor-s.o.b. look. “Even I, rebel that I am, know that you’re supposed to
ask
the woman first. And by the expression on Julia’s face, I’m guessing you skipped that critical step. Bad move, Luke. You’re screwed now.”
“She knew. Right? You knew, Julia.”
“How was I supposed to know?” she retorted. “You never mentioned a word about getting married until just now.”
“Yeah, but you’re a traditional woman. You must have been thinking of marriage.”
“No, not really. And what do you mean, I’m ‘traditional’? You say that as if it were some sort of bad trait.”
“See what I meant about Wright women being stubborn?” Luke said in a knowing aside to Nathan, who wisely kept his mouth shut.
Skye just stood back and watched as Julia, who was slow to anger but did have a temper, began a major melt-down. “It’s not a matter of being stubborn. It’s a matter of respecting my feelings! Or don’t they matter to you, Luke? Was Skye right? Am I just the little woman dutifully following behind my man? Is that all I am to you?”
Luke, belatedly realizing he was in deep shit, tried to pull Julia into his arms.
She shoved him away. “Don’t touch me! We’re arguing. You can’t distract me by kissing me. That’s not going to work!”
Skye grinned at Luke. “Only back in town a few hours, and already you’ve messed up.”
“This is your fault,” he said.
“Don’t you dare blame my sister!” Julia was getting angrier by the second. “It’s not her fault that you’re impossible sometimes.”
“Only sometimes?” Skye said, before Nathan gently but firmly clapped his hand over her mouth.
It didn’t stay there long, because Skye stomped hard on his foot and bent his little finger backward in a self-defense move Nathan instantly recognized.
The moment he released her, she pivoted to angrily jab her index finger in the middle of his chest. “Don’t you ever do that again! Do not
ever
manhandle me or try to shut me up! I have the right to speak. So does my sister. So do women all around the world! Come on, Julia.”
Skye and Julia paused by the door, looking over their shoulders at the two men before saying in unison and with equal irritation, “Idiots.”
They then marched out of the office together, leaving the men shaking their heads in bewilderment.
 
 
Skye and Julia held a postmortem in the back booth at Angelo’s Pizza.
“I can’t believe the way they treated us,” Julia said.
“I can’t believe how good this pizza is,” Skye replied. “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had a greasy pizza like this? Years and years.”
“For a bad girl, you sure do eat healthy.”
“Your body is a temple, and you should honor it by only allowing pure foods to enter.”
“Yeah, yeah. So are you going to eat that last piece or not?”
“It’s mine!” Skye growled, grabbing it and stuffing it into her mouth.
“That sheriff must really be something if he drove you to eat pizza,” Julia remarked. “Tell me about him.”
“He’s anal-retentive.”
“Cute, though.”
“
Cute
is for kittens and teddy bears. He’s hot and sexy. But I don’t care how sexy Studly Do-Right is.” Skye took another drink of her beer. “We have nothing in common.”
“Neither did Luke and I when we first got together.”
“Yeah, and look how good you two are doing.”
Julia sighed. “Why do men have to be so . . . ?”
“Malelike?”
“Their brains are wired differently.”
“Yeah, they’re wired to their penises.”
“Skye!” Julia looked around in horror, but no one seemed to be paying them any attention.
“What? You want me to use euphemistic phrases instead of the real thing?”
“I’d like you to use a little decorum.”
“That word isn’t in my vocabulary.”
Julia rolled her eyes. “Neither is common sense. What on Earth possessed you to buy a dilapidated movie theater?”
“It’s a palace of dreams.”
“That’s something Angel would say. A palace of dreams, huh? Talk about using euphemistic phrases . . .”
“You haven’t even seen the theater,” Skye protested.
“I saw it when we rode into town.”
“On the back of your bad boyfriend’s Harley. Not that you have what it takes to be a biker babe.”
“How would you know? You haven’t seen or talked to me in over six months.”
“You could have called me. The phone works both ways.”
“I didn’t know if you’d talk to me,” Julia said.
“Same here,” Skye admitted.
“You never did say why you were in such a hurry to stop Luke from talking to Nathan.”
“I panicked, okay?”
“Really? Wow. That’s a big step for you. To admit you panicked. You never do that.”
“Never panic?”
“Never admit to it. So what were you panicked about?”
“I didn’t know what Luke might tell Nathan about me.”
“And you care what Nathan thinks. But you should know that Luke would never say anything bad about you.”
No, but Luke saw past Skye’s defenses, and he might reveal the fact that she wasn’t as tough as she made out. She didn’t want Nathan to know that. She was already too vulnerable where he was concerned.
“You’re in love with him,” Julia murmured softly.
“No way.”
“Yes way.”
“Then I’m not only bad, I’m really,
really
stupid, because Nathan still loves his dead wife. Shit.” Skye bent forward until her forehead thumped the edge of the table. “I’m totally screwed.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Stop
that!” Julia ordered. “Sit up and take a deep breath. Come on, where’s that Skye attitude? Since when has being screwed ever stopped you from going after what you want?”
“Since I met him. Well, not right at first.” Skye straightened up and looked around, suddenly nervous. “We can’t talk more here. Someone might overhear us.”
“Okay, now I’m seriously worried. Who are you, and what have you done with my sister?”
“
Half
sister,” Skye said unsteadily.
Julia reached across the table and grabbed her hand. “You’ve been my sister for a quarter of a century,” she said fiercely. “Biology isn’t changing that now.”
“Okay, that’s it.” Skye furiously blinked back tears. “If we’re going to get sappy, we need to do it in private. We can’t go to my place. Nathan will be there.”
“And we can’t go to my place in Serenity Falls, because Violet will be there.”
“I’ve got an idea . . .”
 
 
Half an hour later, Skye turned her rusty Toyota into a pull-off along the two-lane highway leading out of town. The mid-September night was warm and clear. The sky, away from the lights of Rock Creek, was filled with stars, reminding her of the Tivoli’s glistening celestial ceiling.
She grabbed an old quilt from the backseat and placed it and her huge Peruvian tote on the hood of the car. A minute later, she and Julia were sitting with their backs propped against the windshield, just like they’d done as kids. They’d made a quick stop at Gas4Less on the way out of town to pick up comfort food—Pop-Tarts for Julia and pumpkin seeds for Skye.
BOOK: Bad Girls Don't
2.74Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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