“You don’t have to be so chivalrous, Donovan,” she said, waving away his attempt to excuse her behavior. “I was a brat. I’m surprised you didn’t toss me into the river.” A smile played at the corners of her full lips. “Especially when I crashed that intimate little New Year’s Eve party you and Nate had planned with those two hot Air France flight attendants.”
“I thought about it a time or two,” Donovan was surprised to hear himself saying. He was always more circumspect, having learned to carefully weigh his words when he was a Portland patrolman because cops with runaway mouths weren’t very likely to rise through the ranks. And they damn well didn’t get invited to join the elite FBI. Which had been another of the reasons he’d gone along with Nate and Tess’s idea to come to the island. He’d hoped that the bright, tropical sunshine might burn off the fog dulling his brain.
Lani didn’t appear to take offense. “What a relief to know that the outspoken Donovan Quinn I remember so well is lurking somewhere inside that funeral suit. I was afraid rubbing elbows with all those politicians and cable news talking heads might have ruined you.”
“I haven’t changed that much,” he insisted, knowing it to be another lie. Sometimes lately, he found himself wondering if the rookie cop who had crawled through those dark and threatening shadows in that warehouse so many years ago even existed any longer. “I’m still just a cop.”
“You’re a detective who could well end up chief of the department,” Lani corrected. “Nate told me all about you tracking down that Cascades Killer. And he also mentioned, when he and Tess were down here for Thanksgiving, that you’d nearly gotten killed while working to keep a Russian mobster in prison.”
“I wasn’t injured that badly. Some glass in my eye, bumps and bruises. And a sprained ankle.” Which was taking its own sweet time getting back to full strength. “And it never would’ve happened if I’d just moved faster.”
She tilted her head. “Gracious, I had no idea being a detective required superpowers capable of outrunning an SUV.”
She still had a smart mouth. As he found himself wondering if it would taste as good as it looked, Donovan firmly reminded himself that this was his best friend’s sister. Still, one thing Nate hadn’t embellished was the beauty of at least one of the island’s women.
She picked up her hammer and slid it into a loop on the tool belt she wore low on her hips. “Why don’t I come down so we can continue this conversation without you getting a crick in your neck?”
As he steadied the ladder, Donovan decided watching Nate’s sister’s butt, as she deftly backed down the aluminum steps, was definitely off-limits.
“You’re not in the market for a wife, by any chance, are you?” she asked as she reached the ground. She yanked the elastic band from around the knot, allowing a cloud of sunset hair to tumble over her bare shoulders. When she took off the oversized sunglasses, he found himself drowning in her mermaid-green eyes.
“Absolutely not.” Realizing how that swift rejection might have sounded, he backtracked. “It’s just that my life is complicated, and in flux right now and I don’t believe I could give a relationship the time and energy…”
Hell, if he’d stumbled around for words that badly during all those Cascades Killer’s press conferences, the FBI never would have come calling. His only excuse, as lame as it admittedly might be, was that it had been a very long time since he’d been with a woman capable of muddling his thoughts and tangling his tongue.
“Don’t panic,” she said, gilt lights sparkling in those remarkable eyes. “I was merely curious about whether or not you were in on Nate’s devious plot.”
“Plot?” He rubbed the spot between his brows where a headache had begun to throb.
“My brother has been threatening to marry me off,” she said conversationally. As she bent to pick up one of the pieces of luggage, the cutoff jeans rode up enticingly, momentarily capturing his attention with the backs of smooth, tanned thighs. “He obviously sent you down here as bait.”
“I seriously doubt he’d do that,” Donovan objected. “Here, let me take those.”
“I’ve got them,” she said as she headed toward the door. “You bring the large bag and that other case. Which, please tell me isn’t a computer.”
“It’s a new laptop. I figured I’d use the peace and quiet to get some work done.”
“You came here to work?” Lani’s incredulous expression suggested that he’d confessed to plans to settle beneath the banyan tree in the front yard and spend his holiday vacation watching Internet porn.
“Something wrong with that?”
“Everyone’s entitled to his own idiosyncrasies, I suppose.” She stopped and glanced back over her shoulder to give him a slow, appraising look. “Nate’s told me all about you, Donovan.”