THE HEART TEACHES BEST (REAL ROMANCE COLLECTION Book 2) Read online

  She gave him one more squeeze. “You, too. And keep up the good work at school.” She sighed contentedly as she sat down. “Good kid,” she commented to Cooper.

  “Seemed like it.” He observed her flushed face and distracted but satisfied expression. “Things like that make it all worth it, don’t they? I mean, putting up with all the bullshit and heartache.”

  She looked at him, seeming surprised by the statement. “Yes,” she murmured.

  “It’s like that with police work, too. When things work out all right—which, grant it, they seldom do— it’s all worth it.”

  Laney nodded, chewing on the pizza that had suddenly become tasteless. She found it hard to swallow. He reminded her of why they were here. She had been able to forget for a few happy minutes, but now she remembered. This wasn’t some kind of fun…”date,” for lack of a better word. He was here as a police officer. He was only being kind because he felt sorry for her.

  She didn’t look up. “You need to talk to me about Sydney.” It came out as more of a statement than a question.

  “Yes.” He again placed his hand over hers and this time she didn’t withdraw it, seeing it strictly as an act of comfort, as she was certain it was intended, instead of something more. “Whenever you’re ready.”

  She nodded, looking up and taking a deep breath. “What do you need to know?”

  He hesitated. “You said you were meeting her at Phat Jack’s that night.”

  She nodded again, tearing a piece of pizza crust into little pieces as she talked. “She called and asked me to come out. Told me she had something to tell me.”

  “Do you have any idea what it was?”

  “No. She was being very secretive.”

  “Did you have a sense about whether it was a good thing or a bad thing?”

  “I don’t know. I was just so glad to hear from her. She’d been gone for a couple of weeks.”

  Cooper took a notebook out and started jotting down notes. “Where had she been?”

  “I’m not sure. She said she was doing research, so I went over to her place to bring in the mail, water the plants, take care of the pool...”

  “Do you still have a key to her place?”

  She nodded. “I never had the chance to give it back to her.”

  He closed his notebook. “It would be very helpful to look around her place.”

  “I’ll take you there now.”

  He looked surprised. “Let me call my partner, Aidan, and let him know. You have sauce on the side of your mouth, by the way.” Before she could react, he reached over and touched her lip, running his fingertip around her mouth before rubbing the sauce off with his thumb. She froze for a minute, her heart pounding. He smiled at her with lazy satisfaction and she felt her cheeks warm. “I’ll settle up with Mike. Be right back.”

  Cooper stepped up to the bar where the young pub owner was trying to be unobtrusive as he watched the food critic eat. His focus changed as Cooper approached. “Hey, Coop, thank you for introducing me to Laney.” Mike looked pointedly over his shoulder back to the table and he turned, too. The sun was haloing Laney’s hair as it poured through the window. She was reaching under the table for her purse and her curtain of hair shimmered down her arm. “She’s something.”

  Cooper leaned back against the bar, his body sighing in response. He shook his head and spoke out of the corner of his mouth. “You’re out of your league, Zimmerman.”

  “And you’re not?” he countered.

  Perhaps feeling their eyes on her, Laney turned to look in their direction. Both men waved at her. She waved back, a look of confusion on her face.

  “She’s crazy about me,” Cooper said easily.

  “Yeah, right.”

  He turned back to him with a grin. “See ya, Mike.”

  He sauntered over and pulled Laney’s chair out for her. As they turned to leave, he placed a proprietary hand on the small of her back, winking at Mike, who shook his head with a smile.

  Chapter Six

  Cooper was behind the wheel of Laney’s sports car again as she gave him directions to Sydney’s house up in the hills. He tried to draw Laney out, but she was quiet. As they pulled up the long, curved driveway, he whistled. The house was a white, adobe-like complex with a red-tile roof, and it was huge.

  Laney smiled. “Syd’s taste was a little…ostentatious, don’t you think?”

  He smiled as he switched the engine off. “Maybe a little.”

  Laney unlocked the door to the house, but hesitated before opening it. “This feels sort of strange.”

  “We could come back at another time, or I could do this myself.”

  “No,” she said solemnly, and opened the door.

  If he was impressed with the outside, he was astounded by the inside. The room went on forever to a wall of windows overlooking the Pacific. It was decorated tastefully in a Santa Fe theme, with luxurious white carpeting giving way to red accent rugs and Indian statuary. Awed, he crossed the room to look out the window. The back of the house was terraced with multiple decks and a pool with an infinity edge, seeming to fall off the cliff into the ocean below. A straight bridge crossed the pool to an island entertainment area with couches and a massive grill set-up. A tiled fire pit was surrounded by comfortable furniture and he spied a bar on the far side of the pool. Man, I could really enjoy myself here.

  “Maybe I should write a romance novel,” he said out loud. He looked at her. And I know right where I’d start.

  Laney smiled, laying the keys on the coffee table. “I hate to burst your bubble, but Syd bought this place before she published her first book, with money she inherited from my father’s estate.”

  “Ahh. It’s tough when you’re not the firstborn.”

  “No. I inherited as much as she did,” Laney said, running her hand over the back of a hand-painted horse statue. “I chose to spend it in a different way.”

  Cooper was curious about how she’d spent it, but he figured it would be rude to ask. He crossed the room until he stood on the opposite side of the horse from her. “Is it hard being in here?”

  “A little,” she answered, her voice breaking to betray her.

  “Come here,” he said softly, ducking under the horse’s neck and coming around to her side. He held his arms open.

  Laney stood, uncertain at first, but stepped into the circle of his arms, sliding hers around his waist and laying her head down on his chest.

  As he wrapped his arms around her, he couldn’t help but notice how right it seemed, how well she fit next to him. She smelled fantastic, a fragrance that made him think of a fresh, summer peach imbued with sweet sunshine. He closed his eyes and breathed her in.

  Her muffled voice came from his chest, “I’m okay.”

  But I’m not, he thought, give me a second. Reluctantly he let her go.

  “I’m sorry,” Laney mumbled.

  “Don’t say that, Laney!” he responded, with a sharpness he didn’t intend. Her mouth dropped open. He switched gears to cover his own puzzlement. “I need to see anything which may give me a clue as to why someone would want to kill your sister. Personal papers, a palm pilot, laptop…”

  “Her office is this way.”

  Cooper sighed. He was going to have to do a better job of controlling the emotions she seemed to bring out in him. He followed, trying not to watch the rhythmic sway of her hips, but thinking he had never seen anyone move in such a tantalizing way before. It was natural and graceful and he had to shake his head to rid himself of the fantasies it brought on. When she glanced back to see if he was following, he wished like hell he could get inside that pretty little head of hers. What was it, besides the obvious, which drew him to her like a beacon light? He knew part of it was the vulnerability he sensed in her. It appealed to whatever it was inside him that called him to be a cop, a deep-seeded need to protect the good and innocent. But there was more to it than that. He felt a companionable ease around her. He simply enjoyed being with her.

/>   She stopped at a set of French doors opening into a cozy office, although he thought it could be called a library. Books lined both side walls from floor to ceiling, with twin ladders on tracks, which could move the length of the shelving. The far wall had a recessed, arched window, surrounded by the familiar whitewashed adobe walls. On either side of the window, behind a large mission-style desk, hung enormous posters of two of Sydney Essex’s book covers. Facing the desk were two, large red chairs. He spotted a laptop open on the desk.

  “This is my favorite room.” Laney sank into one of the red chairs, curling her legs up under her.

  “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” he said with a grin, moving the mouse to wake the laptop. He sat down in the large, red chair behind the desk and began to read.

  After a while, she got up and roamed around the room, pulling books off the shelves and paging through them restlessly, or picking up knickknacks to study, and then replacing them.

  He found himself getting caught up in the story in front of him, so much so he wasn’t aware of Laney’s closeness until her voice was in his ear.

  “Did you find something?”

  Again, her sweet fragrance enveloped him and he had to steady himself before answering. “I can see why your sister sold a lot of books. It’s very interesting. It seems like it’s a story about a businessman who has two families in separate cities, neither of which knows about the other.”

  “Hmm.” She bent down next to him, scanning the page. She was so close, her creamy skin was inches from his. He felt gripped with momentary paralysis.

  “Does it mean anything?” She turned and almost swallowed her last word. She froze, their eyes locked. Her eyes strayed to his lips, and then moved all over his face. Her breath came more quickly through her parted lips.

  He wanted her, no need to deny it. He wanted to possess her unlike any woman he had ever met. He reminded himself he had known her for less than twenty-four hours, but it didn’t matter, the pull between them was indisputable. He saw it in her eyes right before she pulled away.

  “M-maybe I should look somewhere else.”

  Cooper remained frozen as she flew from the room, but groaned as the doors closed behind her, pushing the laptop away and laying his head down on the cool wood of the desk. He was startled when the phone rang in his pocket. In slow motion he pulled it out.

  “Cooper Sullivan,” he answered with a sigh.

  “Coop, it’s Aidan.”

  “Oh, geez, Aidan. I forgot to call you. I’m at Sydney Essex’s house.” As he spoke, he reflexively opened a leather bound planner on the desk. It opened with a paper clip to the night of the murder. Written in big, bold letters he read, “TELL LANEY!” As Aidan interrupted him, he picked up a pen and started underlining Laney’s name without thought.

  “And how’d you get into there?”

  “Laney had a key.”

  “Laney? Oh, I see, the cute sister, right?”

  He set down the pen. “Yeah, so?”

  “So—” He could hear Aidan smiling into the phone. “—stay out of the bedroom, would ya? She lost her sister. She’s vulnerable.”

  “What kind of loser do you think I am? I’m not trying to seduce her in her murdered sister’s house!”

  “But you are trying to seduce her.”

  “Shut up, Aidan. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “All right. All right. Calm down. I didn’t mean to insult your sensibilities, for God’s sake. Have you found anything?”

  “No. Not yet.”

  “Well, keep me informed.”

  “Hey, Aidan,” he interjected before his partner could hang up. He hesitated, wondering if he should bring up her name again, but decided to take the chance. “When you ran financials, what did Laney Essex’s show?”

  “Nothing, man. She inherited two-point-five million five years ago when her father died, but she has given most of it away. She tends to donate to children’s funds, you know, literacy programs, community centers, gave a big chunk to her alma mater...”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  “Sure. See ya tonight.”

  Cooper hung up, staring off into space for a minute. Laney Essex was an interesting person, all right, and he thought it would be fun to discover more about her, on a very personal level.

  Pulling himself back into the moment, he began searching through desk drawers. At first, he found nothing more than copies of electric bills and receipts for furniture. All of the drawers had locks on them, but were unlocked, until he tried the bottom one. Wondering if Laney would know where a key would be, he got up to search for her.

  Chapter Seven

  He found her by the pool. She had dark sunglasses on, but somehow he sensed she had been crying.

  “Hey. You okay?” He sat down in the chair next to hers.

  As confirmation of his suspicions, she brushed at something on her cheek. “It’s weird being here. Going through her things. Sydney was always very possessive of her belongings.” After a beat, the corners of her lips tugged upwards. “One time…she had this teal sweater…it looked better on me than it did on her—” Cooper had no doubt. “—but she wouldn’t let me wear it. So, I borrowed it one night, without permission. But, it was like she had radar or something! Whenever I wore something of hers, she seemed to know. When I got home, I tried to sneak in through the back, but she was waiting for me out by the pool. Scared the living daylights out of me.” She chuckled, remembering. “She was mad. We got into a tussle, and she literally ripped the sweater off me. I’m standing there in my bra and jeans—” Cooper did his best not to visualize this. “—feeling humiliated, and I went nuts. Started flailing at her and tried to drag her into the pool, and—” Laney broke off, laughter rolling up, making it too hard to finish her sentence.

  “You both fell in,” Cooper guessed.

  “Yeah. And then my dad comes out, and when he sees me in my bra, he starts screaming that he told us there would be no skinny-dipping in the pool.” She chuckled. “If he only knew.”

  “What? You did skinny-dip?”

  “Once or twice,” she said slyly. She paused, lost in thought, but then sighed. “That’s why it feels weird. Sydney wouldn’t like me pawing through her stuff.”

  “So you guys didn’t get along?”

  “Actually, she was my best friend. As adults. But growing up…growing up it was a different story. When I was little, my dad was my champion, defending me against Mom’s verbal attacks, which were frequent. But after he died, Sydney took on that role for me. It’s time I did that for myself. I’m twenty-three, about time I grow up.”

  “I don’t know. You did a pretty good job of standing up to your mom today.”

  “Yeah.” She thought about it. “Maybe I did.” They sat in silence for several minutes, the sun shining down on them with benevolence. “So, did you find anything?”

  “I found a locked drawer. Do you have any idea where your sister would have kept a key?”

  “No. Not really.”

  “People tend to keep them near the locked object—but I’ve searched the office pretty thoroughly so I don’t think it’s there—or somewhere with other valuables, somewhere personal to them, somewhere they consider safe.” He gave her a keen look.

  “Her bedroom?”

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  She stood, seeming rejuvenated. “Let’s go then.”

  * * *

  Sydney’s bedroom was, well, Sydney. It was expansive, with a raised, windowed area at the back of the house that provided room for a couch and chairs and a small table. Near it, French doors led to a wide terrace. In the middle of the enormous bedroom was a huge canopied bed, its four posts carved like tree trunks. The comforter looked like true leopard skin, and Cooper wondered for a minute whether the pelts had been snuck into the country illegally. The wall behind the bed was a beautiful painted rain forest, with trees, vines and paths that snaked their way through the foliage. To the right was a shor
t hallway to a master bathroom with walk-in closets on either side, hidden behind mirrored doors. The master bathtub was a work of art, the sides covered in bamboo, surrounded by tropical plants, some flowering and dropping their petals into the water, and the piece de resistance, a waterfall that came, miraculously, out of the wall, cascading into the tub.

  Cooper was impressed by the engineering, but Laney seemed to find it a bit disconcerting to hear the noise of the waterfall in the empty house. She sat down on the edge of the tub, and stuck her hand in the water as it flowed out of the wall. She spread her fingers wide, or brought them together under the stream, watching how the path of the water changed.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked quietly, but even so, she jumped. He was sitting close to her on the edge of the tub, too.

  “Oh…I don’t know.” He watched as her face shifted and changed with her thoughts as she continued to play with the water. “That’s not true. I was thinking about the day Sydney had this installed. She was so thrilled...” Her voice trailed off.

  Cooper came and squatted down in front of her. “Hey,” he said, trying to get her to raise her eyes. “Laney.” He reached up and touched the side of her face again, her skin so incredibly soft under his hand. “If this is too hard...”

  She shook her head, and a teardrop flew from her eye. Then she closed her eyes and leaned into his hand for a minute, a gesture that stopped his heart. When she opened them again, he saw the pain there, and the resolve. “No. I want to help.” She stood with such suddenness he almost lost his balance. “I’ll start on the dresser.”

  He rose and watched her walk away, wishing, illogically, that he could take this all away from her, and remembering with chagrin Aidan’s warning not to take her into the bedroom.

  As she started opening drawers, he entered the hallway and chose the closet to the left. He pulled down an obscene amount of plastic boxes with shoes in them, never discovered anything more. Then, when he was reaching back into the farthest corner of the shelves that hung above the clothes bar, his fingers found a stack of books. Pulling one down, he saw it was actually a photo album. Page after page showed pictures of two little girls, here dressed in matching Easter dresses, here, older, with braces and Band-Aids on knees. Often the girls’ heads were bent together, with bright smiles for the camera. He would have thought they were twins had he not recognized one was Sydney and the other one, Laney. So absorbed was he in the photographs, he didn’t hear her enter behind him.