From Temptation to Twins(23)
Noah didn’t elaborate.
“On purpose?” It was the first question that popped into Caleb’s mind.
“Not really.”
“And you expect me to let you anywhere near Jules and Melissa?”
“I don’t think it has anything to do with you.” Noah’s gaze was level, his manner straightforward. He didn’t seem to have the slightest inclination to cover up or apologize.
The attitude gave Caleb pause. He supposed there were a lot of ways to accidentally kill someone—from a car accident to a hunting accident to a fistfight gone bad.
Noah had gotten off with two years less a day in the county jail. And he’d been paroled for good behavior after only nine months. Upon reflection, the sentence strongly suggested mitigating circumstances.
“Are we going to have a problem?” Noah asked Caleb in an undertone.
“Was it a car accident?”
“No.”
“Was there a weapon involved?”
Noah curled his fists. “No.”
Seeing the unconscious gesture, Caleb was going with a fistfight gone bad.
“What did he do?” Caleb asked Noah.
A muscle twitched next to Noah’s left eye. “Something unforgivable.”
Caleb found he was inclined to accept the vague explanation. He had no cause to throw Noah out of the house. And that meant his time alone with Melissa was up, and he hadn’t made any meaningful progress.
* * *
It was late. But Jules wasn’t letting this one slide.
She pressed hard on the doorbell next to Caleb’s tall cedar door. The Watford mansion was made of stone and reclaimed wood, with huge panes of glass soaring two stories high. The roof was a peak on the ocean side, and a four-car garage stretched out the back. Soft orange light shone through the windows.
Caleb opened the door.
“I can’t believe you would sink that low.” She didn’t wait for an invitation, but marched passed him into the interior.
“How low did I sink?”
“Melissa is barely out of surgery.”
“That was five days ago.” He closed the door behind him.
“That’s your excuse?”
“My excuse for what?”
“To badger her.” Jules struggled to ignore the magnificence around her.
Caleb’s house was something out of a magazine. The entry room was open and soaring. The finishing was finely polished redwood. The sconce lights gleamed as if they were plated in real gold. And she didn’t dare speculate on the price of the abstract oil paintings along the stairway or the jade sculptures on the console table.
Caleb folded his arms over his chest, looking completely at home in the opulence. “That wasn’t badgering. There was no badgering.”
“You tried to get her to change her mind.”
“No.”
She couldn’t believe he’d said it. “You’re going to lie to me?”
“I tried to get her to change your mind.”
His answer momentarily threw her.
He moved closer to her. “I haven’t made any secret of intending to convince you we should work together.”
“She’s in pain.” Her initial anger wearing off, Jules noticed the inlaid maple floor.
Crown molding accented a swooping ceiling, and the hallway led to a great room furnished with smooth leather and more fine wood. She didn’t know what she’d expected, but it wasn’t this.
“She told me she was fine,” he said.
“She’s not fine.” Jules returned her attention to Caleb. “You took advantage of an injured woman for your own selfish desires.”
“When you say it like that, it sounds creepy.”
“It was creepy. Don’t go to her. You want a fight? Pick me.”
“I tried. You weren’t home. She was. Did she talk to you about Noah?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“I’m serious. Did she tell you he stopped by earlier?”
“Yes,” Jules lied. This was the first she was hearing about Noah. But she didn’t want Caleb to get the impression she and Melissa kept things from each other.
“You want a drink?”
“No, I don’t want a drink. This is not a social call.”
“Well, do you want to come in?” He gestured down the hallway to the living room. “Or would you rather stand here and fight in the foyer?”
Jules hated it, but her curiosity was piqued. She was curious about the rest of the house. She was curious about the view, and about the kitchen. His kitchen had to be so much better than hers.
She was also inappropriately curious about the rooms upstairs and, for a split second, she glanced that way.
“I can give you a tour of the house,” he said.
“Not necessary.”