Strong and Sexy (Sky High Air #2)(37)

“Uh.”

“Kidding,” Reena said. “Jeez, I’m kidding. Look, are you coming or what?”

“I’ll meet you in there.”

“Suit yourself.”

Dani looked at her cell phone, saw the missed call from Shayne, felt her heart squeeze, and put the phone in her pocket. She had work to get to.

Inside the zoo, Dani found no boogeymen, no dead bodies, nothing out of place. Just the elephants in their habitat, waiting patiently for her to observe them with their new addition—Bebo—the four-month-old baby fresh from the nursery.

So that’s what she did, she settled in to watch and record. As the hours passed, she decided that yesterday and all that had happened had been some really strange episode of The Twilight Zone. An episode she didn’t want to repeat. So when her cell rang again later, and then again, she ignored it, her gaze glued to the elephants, especially Bebo nuzzling her two-ton mama Ellie for milk.

So sweet, so simple. In the past, Ellie had pushed away the babies but today, when it was her baby, she nuzzled back in a show of unconditional love.

Dani watched, enraptured, awed. Touched.

All her life she’d been pushing people away instead of nuzzling, wanting, needing, to be independent. But now as she sat there, gaze glued to the beauty of mama and baby bonding, she couldn’t justify her actions. She’d hidden behind her independent excuse so long it no longer even made any sense.

But if a stubborn mammal like Ellie had changed, didn’t that mean she could as well?



Shayne flew his client to Santa Barbara, and while that client—a television producer—attempted to talk a reclusive actor into signing on a new sitcom, Shayne had a few hours to spare. Normally he’d have not wasted a single moment of that time, getting out on the waves ASAP, surfing as long as he could.

But instead he stood on the tarmac, the ocean pounding the shore in perfect five-footers, the wind rippling his hair, and tried calling Dani.

Again.

When he got no answer, he called Patrick, who also had absolutely no answer. “You’re a cop,” Shayne told him. “A detective. A big, badass detective. You’re supposed to know all.”

“Look, some things can’t be explained. Stop worrying about this, Shayne.”

“Stop worrying about this? The woman I was with last night was shot at!”

“Maybe you should give up the whole party-life thing, and this shit wouldn’t happen.”

Shayne grated his teeth. “I don’t do the whole party-life thing anymore.” Ah, hell. Who was he kidding? Patrick wasn’t going to believe him. “If anything comes up, call me.”

“I said I would.”

Shayne resisted the urge to pick a fight—see that, Mom, progress—and did end up surfing, hoping it’d clear his head, but his mind remained a hundred miles away, back in Los Angeles with Dani, wondering what the hell she was doing and if she was safe.

After he flew the producer back to Burbank, Shayne stood in Sky High’s lobby, getting a soda from the vending machine and once again calling Dani.

Still no answer.

He walked to the front counter, listening to Dani’s voice mail message for the tenth time as he flipped through the messages Maddie had left for him. “Damn it.”

“Flight go okay?” This from Noah, who waltzed in the front door with an easy grin on his face. The grin of a man who’d gotten lucky very recently.

Shayne had been wearing a grin like that earlier. Much earlier.

But the smile had faded in the light of day. He’d always wondered how in the hell Noah could settle down with one woman. In fact, just the thought of it boggled. But now he could admit there might be something to the notion. “You’re still smiling.”

“Am I?”

“I’d think you’d be tired of having sex with the same woman.”

Noah laughed and patted Shayne’s shoulder with mock sympathy. “Dude.”

“Seriously.”

“Seriously?” Noah laughed again. “Sleeping with the same woman is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. No more wondering if she likes me, if she’s going to go out with me, if she’s going out with someone else. No more waking alone on a Sunday and having no one around, just to hang with.”

“You had me.”

“Okay, no one to cuddle with.”

“You want to cuddle? I can cuddle.”

“Have you seen Bailey, by any chance?”

Yes, yes, Shayne had. She was a leggy, gorgeous blonde. A former model, in fact. Extremely cuddle-able.

“Trust me, it’s all good,” Noah assured him.

“There’s got to be a way to get all the good stuff without the ball and chain.”

“You mean the ring.”

“I mean the ring,” Shayne confirmed.

“It’s hard to explain, but the ring is like the icing on the cake.” Noah grinned. “It’s the best part.”

This was news to Shayne, who’d spent years cultivating his carefree playboy reputation. Dani had known this about him. She’d known there wouldn’t be icing on the cake. It’s why she’d held back, why she didn’t want to date him, and he respected that. He did. But suddenly he wanted icing on his damn cake, too.

Brody came down the hall, commandeered Shayne’s soda, and drank deeply.