Sympathetic Magic(61)

“Oh. One of your golf friends?”

It would be so easy to lie. All he’d have to do was say yes, and then they could go on as if nothing had happened. But he hated lying. His mother’s lying to herself and everyone around her had sucked her into a marriage and a family she really didn’t want, and Lucas had been forced to deal with the consequences ever since. And what good would his relationship with Margot be if he lied to her from the very beginning?

“No,” he said at last. “He’s a private investigator.”

“Really?” Then her gaze sharpened, as if she’d begun to put two and two together in her head. “What would you need with a private investigator?”

“I — ” His mouth was dry, and the words wanted to stick in his throat. Somehow he made himself force them out. “I asked him to find out a thing or two about you. Mostly that you weren’t seeing anyone.”

The longest, most hideous silence he’d ever heard. She stood there, dark eyes boring into him, as if she’d never seen him before, as if they hadn’t just spent the most rapturous night of his entire life together. Finally, “You what?”

“Margot, I know it was stupid, but I had no one to ask. It was harmless. Really.”

“You think hiring a private investigator to dig up dirt on me is harmless?”

“It wasn’t digging up dirt. I just needed to know that you were…available.” God, the words were coming out of his mouth, but they just kept sounding worse and worse. At least, that was how it felt to him, and if he thought that way, he could only imagine what Margot must be thinking. Her elegant brows were drawn together, her eyes, which had been so filled with laughter a minute ago, now colder than the snow piled up against the house.

“You couldn’t ask Angela? You two seem pretty friendly!”

“I thought about it, but she was so busy with the wedding that I decided not to bother her. And there wasn’t anyone else I could ask. It’s just — I couldn’t stop thinking about you, Margot. I tried to tell myself I shouldn’t, but it wasn’t that easy.”

She didn’t reply, only continued to stare at him, arms crossed over her breasts. A protective gesture, and one he hated to see.

“Would you rather I had lied to you?” he asked then, his tone hardening.

“No,” she said. “I’d rather you’d not done something so stupid in the first place.” Her eyes seemed to glitter, and he realized it wasn’t from anger, but from unshed tears. She swallowed. “I think I’d better go.”

Stepping away from the couch, she headed toward the doorway, and Lucas knew all he had to do was block it, just stand there so she couldn’t go anywhere at all, would have to stay and hash this out with him. Something inside told him this would be the very worst thing of all to do, so he stepped out of the way, let her pass him in a waft of soft perfume and cold, cold anger.

And then she was gone.



* * *



Somehow she managed to keep it together as she went upstairs and packed her things, then waited in icy silence for Lucas to open the garage door so she could back her car out. Thank the Goddess that he’d cleared the driveway, because otherwise she probably would’ve stomped out of there on foot if she had to.

What the hell had he been thinking? A private investigator? Really?

Once or twice he’d attempted to make an apology, but she’d shut him down with a frigid stare. She didn’t want to talk about this. She only wanted to go home, so she could put this entire episode behind her and forget that it had ever happened.

Never mind that until Lucas’ startling revelation, she’d been happier than she’d been in…forever. Had Clay ever made her feel remotely that good?

She really didn’t want to answer that question.

Although the freeway had been plowed, it was still icy and treacherous enough. In a way, Margot was glad of that. It forced her to concentrate on the road, and not what had just happened between Lucas and her. The Subaru had all-wheel drive, so it wasn’t as if she’d had to break out the snow chains or anything, but she still white-knuckled it out of Flagstaff and down past Mountainaire and Munds Park, until at last she dropped to an elevation where there was little evidence of the storm at all, save a few patches of snow here and there in the shadow of a rocky outcropping.

Thinking some music might help fill the throbbing silence that pounded against her ears, she jacked her iPhone into the car stereo and flipped to her favorite ’90s mix. That didn’t last long, though. A two songs, and then there was Green Day mocking her.

…I hope you had the time of your life….