“A lot of reasons.”
Vague. Too vague. Lucy knew exactly why she wanted to be a cop, she just didn’t want to share with Max. Max didn’t like that, so she pushed. “Because of Justin’s murder?”
“Partly.”
That was the truth. And Lucy knew why she was a cop, she just didn’t want to tell Max and she didn’t want to lie, either. Interesting.
“You graduated from Georgetown.”
“I did.”
“I went to Columbia. Two West Coast girls moving east. How’d you like it?”
“It was … fine.”
“You were on the swim team in college.”
Lucy frowned and looked at her nearly empty plate.
“You knew I looked you up. When I found out you graduated from Georgetown, I googled your name and Georgetown. Came up with a long list of medals you won. Why does that bother you? I’d think you’d be proud of your accomplishments.”
“I am,” Lucy said but she wasn’t looking at Max. She finished her wine. “I don’t suppose you like dessert?”
This was an impossible conversation. Max was never going to learn anything about Lucy if the girl didn’t talk. Even if Lucy asked questions of Max, it would give her insight. “I love dessert,” Max said.
“Great. You want to know something about me? I love chocolate. Madly in love with chocolate. Sean makes the most amazing hot chocolate. Probably why I fell in love with him. That and he always makes sure my favorite double chocolate ice cream is in the freezer.”
The waiter cleared the plates and they ordered dessert and coffee.
Max was resigned to the fact that Lucy was never going to reveal anything more about herself than she wanted.
Her cell phone vibrated. She glanced at the number and frowned, sent it to voice mail.
Nick. She rubbed her eyes. She needed to figure this out, because never in her life had she been so torn about breaking up with someone.
“Is everything okay?” Lucy asked.
She probably meant was everything okay with the case, but Max decided to just spill it. If she was blunt, maybe Lucy would share something—anything. Max felt like she was going through information withdrawal.
“Boyfriend. We have a fundamental disagreement about something and I don’t know that I can live with it.”
“He’s in New York?”
“No, northern California. He’s a detective, I met him last year when I was working a cold case in my hometown. He’s everything I love in a man—good-looking, smart, amazing in bed.”
Lucy averted her eyes, just a bit. Was she blushing? At the mention of sex? Really, that was odd. But interesting.
“But he has an ex-wife and a son. The ex uses her son as a pawn and has Nick twisted into knots. Nick won’t talk to me about it.”
“He could want to spare you the details. Relationships are complicated.”
“It’s not that—trust me. He wants to keep that part of his life separate. I thought I could live with it … but I can’t. Like you said, I’m blunt. I say what I think. I can’t bite my tongue when a manipulative ex-wife uses a child to get her way. And Nick is letting her get away with it. They have joint custody and she’d been fighting in court to gain full custody so she can leave the state with her boyfriend. So far, Nick has a continuance—only because she and her boyfriend aren’t married. But now apparently they’re getting married. And then Nick will be screwed. And my gut is telling me this marriage is a farce—that she’s doing it solely to gain full custody. And the only reason for that would be to screw Nick. I mean if she doesn’t care about this guy, that means she wants to move to force Nick to leave his job and move again. She did it before—her excuse being to be closer to her family. Nick left his job and followed.”
“It sounds like he shares a lot.”
“No, I learned nearly everything from David, my assistant. David has a manipulative ex—this one an ex-girlfriend who’s the mother of his daughter, they never married so David has even fewer rights than Nick—and he and Nick talk more about Nick’s problems than me and Nick.”
“That bothers you.”
“Wouldn’t it bother you if Sean refused to talk about something important to him? Maybe something about his personal life or his family, but he didn’t want you involved at all? Told you it’s an off-limits subject?”
Something flashed across Lucy’s face, then it was gone. Had she and Sean had growing pains? Were they going through something now? Recently? Max’s instincts hummed.
Lucy said, “We have no off-limit subjects.”
Max didn’t believe it. “None?” she said flatly.
“There was a time when both Sean and I would try to keep … secrets, for lack of a better word. I had a case last year that deeply affected me. I developed insomnia, but I kept telling Sean I was fine, that nothing was wrong, but it got to the point where I lied to him about it. Point-blank. And he knew I lied. I’m not a good liar, but I didn’t want to talk about it because I didn’t want to address the fundamental problem.”
Max waited for Lucy to elaborate on what her fundamental problem was, but she didn’t. Instead, she said, “Sean’s done the same thing, ostensibly to spare me emotional pain. It took time, but we worked through all that. We couldn’t possibly have gotten married if we didn’t have complete trust and honesty between us. It’s not who we are. But I’m certainly not one to give relationship advice. I was lucky Sean came into my life when he did. You might consider that Nick is trying to protect you or maybe doesn’t share for reasons even he doesn’t fully understand.”
Max considered what Lucy said, not only about what Nick may or may not be thinking, but that Lucy said more about herself in that one comment than she had in the last two days Max had spent with her.
“Nick knows I’m not a woman who wants or needs to be protected—I’m a big girl, my self-confidence is stronger than most. I’ve asked him to tell me what’s going on, and he won’t. He won’t even elaborate on why he won’t discuss it, other than the subject is off-limits. And it’s driving me crazy.”
“Is it driving you crazy because you’re worried about him and what he’s going through, or because you can’t stand being kept in the dark about anything?”
Max opened then closed her mouth. When had the conversation turned around from her digging for information to Lucy psychoanalyzing her?
“I tried a shrink for ten minutes. It didn’t go over well,” Max said drolly. She finished her wine. The waiter delivered their desserts and coffee.
Lucy took a bite of the chocolate concoction she ordered, the special of the day. “Oh, my God, this is amazing,” Lucy said. “Take a bite.”
Max did and concurred, though she wouldn’t be able to eat more, it was far too rich for her taste.