“How would you know?” Coop yelled back.
“I read your book, that’s how.”
His words took the weight out of Coop’s argument, catching him off guard. “You did?”
His father nodded. “And though the procedural and the tension are good—better than good—there’s a fire lacking everywhere else, because you’re giving it a halfhearted effort.”
Lexie’s comments came back to him, but he couldn’t focus on what she’d said. Not with his father’s criticism bouncing around his head.
“Give me a break,” Coop muttered.
“The hell I will!” Jack stood, walking toward his son. “I always tell it like it is and now’s no different. You aren’t giving it your all. This way you can fail and not be as devastated. Same as Lexie. If you don’t invest your heart, you can’t be hurt again. Afraid of failure,” he said, nodding his head.
Son of a bitch. “I didn’t come here for this.”
“Tune me out. It won’t make the truth go away.”
Coop started for the door.
“When you get to the station, ask for Ed. You remember him, big guy. Stuck on desk duty after a gunshot hit a nerve in his leg. I’ll make sure he lets you into the file room.”
“Thanks,” Coop muttered and stalked out, slamming the door behind him.
EVER SINCE SHE WAS a little girl and her grandmother rescued her from skating practice hell and took her to state parks, Lexie had learned to pick up and run. As an adult, “Have laptop will travel” was her motto and when she was upset, she either took off on a trip or buried herself in work.
This morning she chose the latter and stayed in Coop’s apartment to do it. Much as she wanted to be furious with him for leaving, she couldn’t be angry. If he’d found the Web sites, he was probably upset and needed to be alone and sort things through. She just planned to be here when he returned.
When her cell phone rang, she grabbed it fast without looking at the number, hoping it was Coop. “Hello?”
“Alexis?”
At the sound of her given name and her father’s authoritarian voice, Lexie’s stomach cramped—as it always did when he spoke. “Hi, Dad.”
“How are you? Or, should I ask, where are you?”
She rolled her eyes at the deliberate jab. “You know I’m in town. I checked in last week.”
“I thought perhaps the urge to leave had struck.”
She clenched the phone tighter in her hand. “I told you I’m here until Grandma’s birthday.”
He cleared his throat. “Yes. And will we have to wait until then to see you?”
Lexie had seen her parents when she’d returned to town the month before. Her father was right. They were due for a visit.
“Is that your way of saying you miss me?” she asked hopefully.
“It would be nice of you to stop by. Which is part of why I’m calling. Your grandmother is acting odd, even for her.”
So he’d noticed it, too, Lexie thought.
“Your mother was hoping you’d bring her by for dinner this Saturday night.”
A formal dinner at her parents’ home. Just the stifling thought had Lexie’s flight mechanism kicking into overdrive. “Did you ask Grandma if she’s free?”
“When I do talk to her, she’s been ridiculously hard to pin down to a day or a time. And sometimes she doesn’t even answer her phone when we call.”
Because she checks her Caller ID, Lexie thought, stifling an inappropriate laugh. Her father’s ways wore on both Lexie and Charlotte, but they both knew his concern, however awkwardly expressed, was genuine.
“I’ll talk to her and get back to you,” Lexie promised.
“One last thing. Your grandmother mentioned that you’ve been seeing a nice gentleman.”
Lexie closed her eyes and swallowed back a curse that would cause her father’s already thinning hair to fall out completely. “I doubt she used those exact words.”
To her surprise, her father laughed. “You’re right about that. At any rate, it would make your mother and me happy if you brought him along.”
No doubt because they hoped that a steady relationship meant Lexie would curb her wandering ways. Last time, they’d picked the man and Drew had been the result.
“I’m sure Coop’s busy,” she lied, not wanting to subject herself or him to dinner at her parents’.
At that moment, the sound of the key in the lock caught her attention. She turned to see Coop letting himself inside.
He strode in and stopped short, surprised to see her settled on his couch, her laptop and papers spread out around her.
She waved and pointed to the phone, turning her attention back to her father. “Yes, I’ll mention it to him, but it’s not like we’re serious. There’s really no need—”
“Just do your best, Alexis.”
Lexie sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Okay, let us know. Your mother needs time to prepare.”
“I will, Dad. ’Bye.” She ended the connection and let out her first real breath of air since taking the call.
Coop sat across from her on his favorite club chair. He wore faded jeans and a navy NYPD shirt. And his posture was stiff, his expression unyielding.
Lexie stopped breathing all over again.
“What was that all about?” he asked.
She bit the inside of her cheek. “My father invited us to dinner Saturday night.”
“Us?”
She nodded. “Grandma told them about you and they’d like to meet you.”
“And you told them there’s no need to bother.” He set his jaw, but she caught the hurt flash across his face before he quickly masked it.
Lexie swallowed hard. “Because—”
“It’s not like we’re serious.” He used her own words, tossing them back at her.
She swallowed harder. “Trust me, I was just trying to protect you. You really don’t want to be subjected to a dinner where my father expresses his disapproval of my lifestyle choices and my mother keeps saying she wishes I could be more like my sister, Margaret. And, before you ask, no, they don’t call her Meg, Meggie, Peg or anything else.”
She thought she caught a glimmer of understanding in his eyes. A second later it was gone. “Does a reporter not meet their high expectations?”
Lexie laughed at his assumption, which couldn’t be further from the truth. This wasn’t about Coop. “I already told you, I don’t meet their expectations. You’re smart, successful, and you seem to act like a normal person. I’m sure they’ll love you.”