Bad Cop Page 4

  Here it comes, Vance thought.

  “What the hell is going on with you and Pinks?” Brooks asked, throwing his thumb behind him.

  “Pinks?”

  “Pinks! You know, Lolly’s milquetoast.”

  “His name is Davis. Why are you calling him Pinks?”

  Brooks shrugged. “The guy had pink shorts on the other night and he’s wearing a pink shirt now.”

  Vance grinned over his beer. “Pinks it is. Where’s Lolly?”

  “With Darcy. Probably telling my sister all kinds of stuff that I’d prefer be kept between the two of us. They’ll be here soon. It’s bad enough I’ve got to get used to Darcy being in our social circle. Care to fill me in on why I have to be subjected to Lolly’s ex as well?”

  “What are you whining about? Looked like you were going to lean in and kiss him on the cheek. I expected you to take a swing at him, not shake his damn hand.”

  “Hey. The guy was trying to talk Lolly out of dating you. That gave us a bond.”

  “Yeah, well, Pinks is cool. I’ve hired him as a summer intern.”

  “Intern? Isn’t that code for slave labor?”

  “Exactly. Between being a cop, a coach, your campaign manager, and now part owner of EEI, Inc., I need an extra set of hands.”

  “But the guy lives in Raleigh. If you needed an intern, you should have hired someone here in Henderson,” Brooks insisted.

  “The guy showed up on my doorstep at eight o’clock this morning. Your fault by the way.”

  “How the hell is it my fault?”

  “Apparently you told him to channel his inner Vance Evans. So he’s come to the source and wants me to turn nice, safe, and boring Pinks into Casanova. But don’t worry. I've talked to him, and he’s not going to try to win Lolly back.”

  “You’re damn right about that. Lolly is off the market.”

  “That’s what I told him.”

  “That’s what I’m telling you.”

  “Which is another reason I’ve hired Pinks. Now that you’ve got Lolly handcuffed, Pinks is gonna fill the void,” Vance explained.

  “You planning to make him your new tennis partner?”

  “Pinks,” Vance yelled toward the end of the pool. “You play tennis?”

  “Tennis is my middle name,” Davis yelled back while applying suntan lotion to Titty Titty.

  “There you go. My new tennis partner.”

  “So you’re serious about this. This Pinks thing is for real?” Brooks asked.

  “You think Lolly’s going to be pissed?”

  “Because the guy she shook loose three months ago is your new sidekick? God, I hope so.”

  “I’ll talk to her,” Vance said.

  “Yeah, and when you do, you’ll keep both hands tucked into your back pockets. There will be no more touching, fondling, or kissing Lolly.”

  “You, buddy, are not the boss of me.”

  “I’m the Chief when it comes to Lolly.”

  “Jesus. What are you worried about? She chose you—the Good Cop. Surprise, surprise. And it’s not like Lolly is all I ever think about—or you know, shows up in my sex dreams or anything.”

  “Fucking A. Duncan James!” Brooks yelled. While Duncan crawled out of the pool and dripped his way over to the two of them, Brooks gave Vance a serious glare. “We are getting this thing handled once and for all. I am not kidding.”

  Annabelle Devine, with her long red curls and her hourglass figure clad in a skimpy white bikini and a floral sarong tied low over her hips, sashayed over and handed her beau a towel. She kissed Duncan on the lips and then turned to give Brooks a kiss on the cheek in greeting.

  Duncan dried his face and hands, running the towel over his hair, chest, and body. It was hard not to notice Annabelle licking her lips.

  “What’s up?” Duncan asked, smiling at Annabelle and bringing her in for a wet hug.

  “Could the two of you keep your hands off each other for one cotton pickin’ moment?” Vance growled.

  “Jealous?” Duncan teased.

  “Yes,” Vance admitted.

  “Which brings me to why I’ve called you all here,” Brooks began. “As you are well aware, the only reason Vance is not sporting a black eye after all his tennis court shenanigans two days ago is because Annabelle did such a fine job raking all his character defects over the coals that I thought a bruised ego would suffice. A bruised ego and his promise to contact Piper Beaumont in the next ten days. Actually, we are now down to seven.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Vance protested.

  “Not even he can help you now,” Brooks assured him. “Duncan, can you set this up?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Annabelle, will you accompany Vance so he doesn’t get cold feet?”

  “I’d be happy to.”

  “Vance?” Brooks questioned, raising a menacing eyebrow.

  Dear God. Why did he ever bring this up? Piper Beaumont was not going to know him from Adam, and he’d just look like a goddamn fool and ruin the one memory of his childhood he relished.

  Vance sighed heavily, squeezing his eyes together, knowing there was no way out. If he were in Brooks’ shoes, he’d be demanding the same damn thing. Still, he needed to extract some form of payment. “I’ll do it as long as you promise to sit down with me this week and make a plan to run for mayor.”

  “Done. Let's get a beer.”

  After planting a quick kiss on Annabelle, Duncan turned and cannonballed into the pool. Brooks and Vance headed toward the bar.

  “By the way,” Vance said. “This Pinks thing? It gets worse.”

  “How could it get any worse?”

  “The dude plays lacrosse.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Brooks cursed. “That sport is like a plague of locusts eating up all the athletes who should be playing baseball.”

  “Don’t I know it.”

  ***

  Lolly, Darcy, and Lewis watched the party from the kitchen, as the girls arranged cupcakes on a pretty tray before taking them out to the food table. As the scene with Brooks, Duncan, Annabelle, and Vance unfolded across the pool, they all stopped what they were doing and watched.

  “What's going on out there?” Darcy asked. “Is that my imagination or is Vance looking a little freaked out.”

  “They are probably discussing Piper,” Lolly said, intrigued.

  “Who’s Piper?” Lewis asked.

  “She’s that girl,” Lolly said as she watched. “The one from fourth grade.”

  “What?” Darcy said, pulling on Lolly’s arm.

  “Oh,” Lolly looked between two bewildered faces. “Okay. But you did not hear this from me,” she said, huddling them closer. “Although, of course, Lewis, Vance would tell you this himself—if you were around more. Hey,” she said all bright eyed and happy. “Why don’t you two seriously think about moving back to Henderson after your wedding?”

  “Stop,” Darcy said. “You are starting to sound like my brother.”

  Lolly laughed. “I guess I do,” she agreed. “Brooks finally has me buying into the town revival thing,” she said with a smile. “Now that I’m committed to him and to a new business here after I get my master’s, I want my best friend to move back home. Pleeeeease,” she begged.

  “We’ll think about it,” Lewis said.

  “No, we won’t,” Darcy argued.

  “We will if she’ll tell us more about the girl from fourth grade,” Lewis cajoled.

  “Oh. Okay,” Darcy said. “Tell us about what is freaking Vance out and we’ll…consider it as a very slight, probably-not-gonna-happen possibility.”

  Lolly frowned.

  “It took me all my life to get out of this town,” Darcy complained. “Do not ask me to come back and watch you and everybody else continue to fawn over my brother.”

  “He’s going to be mayor some day.”

  “Of course he will.” Darcy rolled her eyes. “Which is why Lewis is moving his business out of New York and back here to Podunk over m
y dead body.”

  “Darce—” Lewis tried to cut in.

  “It would be so great for Henderson,” Lolly cried.

  “Oh My God, Brooks has brainwashed you already,” Darcy cried in horror. “You were my friend first,” she insisted. “You may not throw all of Brooks’ Hero of Henderson crap on me just because he gave you an orgasm.”

  “Oh, God—” Lewis gasped.

  Lolly opened her mouth to retort and then slammed it shut and smiled. “Several. Several really good orgasms,” she said through a slow grin.

  “Enough!” Lewis said, clasping his ears. “You two really need to stop discussing this stuff while I’m standing here. In fact, I’m sure Brooks would agree with me. We don’t want you discussing this stuff at all.”

  “Oh, like you guys never compare notes,” Darcy said.

  “No,” Lewis said, his eyes growing so big they made his nerdy-boy glasses look small. “We do not. You are his little sister, for God’s sake. The guy is having a hard enough time dealing with us being engaged. Trust me. We do not discuss…anything.” Lewis took a deep breath. “Now please, for the love of God, tell me about Vance so I can go out there and get a beer.”

  Lolly grinned an apology, feeling sorry for Lewis. “I’m sorry. My fault for getting off topic. Here’s the story. Back when Vance and Brooks were asking me to help with their good cop, bad cop images, Brooks got Vance to realize that he didn’t really like women—which was sort of a shock because…you know, the guy is a notorious playboy, and women seem to love him all the more for it. But he seemed kind of desperate to stop all that and asked me to be his friend—to help him figure out what else there was to appreciate about women. Well, as much as I wanted to help him, I’m not a psychologist, and I said as much. That was when he told Brooks and me the story about his mother leaving when he was ten.”

  “His mother left when he was ten? Just up and left?” Darcy asked.

  “Apparently she took up with another man, left, and never looked back. Vance and his dad were in a state of shock. Mr. Evans was so devastated that he couldn’t talk about it. So—oh my God, I will never forget Vance telling us this—the two of them would sit on the front porch together, every night. In silence. Looking into the horizon. Longing for her to come back.”

  “Poor kid,” Lewis said. “I mean, I knew his parents were divorced when we met in high school, but I figured it was, you know, normal. Not abandonment.”

  “From the way Vance told the story, I’m pretty sure it was shock-and-awe abandonment.” Lolly nodded, wide-eyed.

  They all turned their heads and stared out the window at Vance.

  “So what about this girl?” Darcy asked.

  “Well, Vance said that no one at school was talking about it either. Not his teacher or the principal or the mothers who helped out in the classroom. He said his whole world had picked up and walked out and no one was acknowledging it. Everyone acted like there was nothing wrong. Like he was fine. He felt invisible.”

  “I’ll bet,” Lewis said.

  “Well, Piper Beaumont, this girl in his class, noticed something was wrong. She took Vance by the hand one day, and he turned to her and told her everything.

  “And then she did the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard of. She told Vance that she would be sad if her mother left, so she would share his sadness with him. So they took turns being sad. Vance would go and play and be happy for a while, while Piper sat and held vigil for his mother. And then Piper would play while Vance was sad.”

  “How sweet,” Darcy breathed.

  “Vance told us it worked. It made him feel like someone cared. Like someone was there for him. Every day he would tell Piper how he felt, and she would listen. He was able to feel better when Piper was around.”

  Darcy clapped a hand against her chest, her eyes misting up. “Damn it. Now I’ve got to like stupid Vance,” she said.

  “What do you mean?” Lewis questioned. “You don’t like Vance?”

  Darcy waved a hand. “You know, he was Brooks’ friend and was just annoying.”

  “I was Brooks’ friend!”

  “Yes, but you weren’t a hot, muscle-bound athlete dripping sex everywhere you went.”

  “What the—?”

  “What I mean is, you were brilliant and interesting and had those cute glasses and lanky arms and you nodded at me when you walked by on your way to the refrigerator,” she said in a dreamy kind of way. “Vance was testosterone on a stick. You were my hero of Henderson.”

  Lewis pushed his glasses back up on his nose as he looked down at Darcy and smiled. “Well,” he said, “okay, then.” He looked up at Lolly. “Carry on.”

  “So,” Lolly said, noticing that the two of them were still gaga-ing over one another, “the summer break came and Vance thought about Piper every day. He couldn’t wait to go back to school to see her, and then….” Lolly trailed off.

  “Then what?” Darcy asked, snapping her attention away from Lewis.

  “School started and she was gone. Her family had moved out of town over the summer.”

  “Oh, no,” whispered Darcy, clearly horrified.

  “Yeah,” Lolly agreed. “First his mother and then his lifeline.”

  “That could leave a guy with some issues,” Lewis said.

  “Yeah. Brooks figured Vance was either trying to punish all women for his mother leaving him, or he was too afraid to let himself want more than sex. Either way, after hearing that story, it all made sense. And made me want to help him.”

  “Which you did,” Lewis said. “That man’s been living like a monk for months. Frankly, having known the guy since high school, this change is a little disconcerting.”

  Lolly and Darcy laughed. “I know, right?” Lolly said. “He really wants to change. In fact,” she said, brightening, “he used his cop expertise and Google and found out that Piper is a lawyer in Raleigh. So he had Duncan track her down. Only….”

  “He got sidetracked with you,” Darcy said.

  “A little,” Lolly admitted. “So he didn’t follow through with an introduction. Probably got nervous about stirring it all up again. But I think what we all just saw out there was Brooks forcing the issue.”

  “Can’t blame him,” Lewis said. “Now that I know Darcy thought Vance was hot, muscled, and—what did you say? Testosterone on a stick? I say let’s get those two reintroduced. Fast.”

  Chapter Five

  Vance stood with his back to the makeshift bar at one end of the pool and watched the beginnings of a slow summer sunset creep over the scene. There was so much more to celebrate here then what met the eye. Certainly there were toasts to the future of Evans and Evans, and clearly his dad was overjoyed that the two of them were now going to be in business together. Which frankly blew Vance away. It would have never occurred to him that his father was interested in doing business together. But over the last several months his father had been staying in town during the week, something he’d never done before, and…well, obviously Genevra had everything to do with the dramatic change. Because Hale Evans had spent the day actually playing with him and his friends. Playing. In the pool. Like he was a freaking teenager, for God’s sake. Vance grinned at the thought. And the guy was funny. Really funny. And he was easy to talk to, which God knows had not always been the case.

  The love of a good woman, Vance thought shaking his head. It made all the difference where his father was concerned.

  He wondered how fast he should move out of the pool house to give the newlyweds some room. Although Abuela didn’t seem to be too worried about that. After all, the house was huge, and Genevra had been here regularly since they’d finally announced their affair. Nah, he didn’t need to be in any big hurry to pack up and move out. Which was a good thing…because he had nowhere to go.

  And didn't that just throw cold water all over this happy little gathering.

  “You’re only lonely because you’re standing over here,” came a voice from behind him.

  Vance
had to smirk. It was Harry the damn Bartender. The one who could see all and knew all. He turned and looked the guy over. Dark hair, probably Pinks’ age, a compelling smile that reeled you in, and shiny brown eyes that glistened from behind as if that was where his super powers were coming from. Vance threw up his hands in surrender.

  “I’m not even going to ask,” he vowed. “I’m not going to bother to ask how you do what you do and know what you know.”

  “It is a mystery, sir,” Harry said as he smiled and offered up one of his infamous tequila shots.

  “Like your shots, right? You think tequila solves everything, don’t you? Hangovers, first date jitters—”

  “And love triangles,” Harry interjected, pushing the shot glass closer.

  Vance felt himself blink. And blink again.

  “Goddamn it, Harry,” he cursed, taking the salt shaker held out to him as he licked the spot between his thumb and index finger. “Doesn’t a guy get to have any secrets around you?” he said, taking the shot glass, downing the tequila, and sucking on the lime wedge Harry had produced out of thin air.

  “What secret?” Harry protested. “Mr. Bennett—Good Cop. You, sir—Bad Cop. Miss DuVal—caught in the middle. It’s been the top gossip in Henderson since the tennis court debacle last Friday. I am here tonight to do one thing and one thing only.”

  “Yeah? What’s that?”

  “Assure you that all is well.”

  “All is well?” Vance scoffed.

  “All is well,” Harry soothed. “All is exactly as it should be. Miss DuVal has made her choice—which has freed you up to look elsewhere.”

  “Freed me up.” Vance said dryly. “To look elsewhere for what, exactly?”

  Harry’s brow furrowed as he folded his arms over his chest, taking a stance that shot one message and one message only out of those crazy crystal eyes. You are either in denial or simply a dumbass. And neither is going to get you where you want to go.

  “Isn’t it time to waltz that tray of cupcakes around?” Vance suggested.

  Harry’s smile broke long and broad. “As long as you got the message, sir,” he said before hoisting the cupcake tray like the expert waiter he was and strolling off.