Vindicate (Recovered Innocence #1)(27)

“So, cosmetology school?” I ask her.

“What?”

“You told that realtor you were in cosmetology school.”

“Oh, yeah.” She shrugs. “I had to tell her something.”

“Is that something you want to do?”

“Maybe someday.”

“Have you looked into it?”

“No. Even if I had the time, I don’t have the money.”

“Do you do your own hair?”

She nods. “And some of my friends’ hair too.”

“You must be very good if they’re willing to let you work on them without going to school.”

One of her shoulders goes up. “I haven’t melted off anybody’s hair yet.”

“Would you cut mine?”

“I could.”

“I’d pay you. I mean, I pay a lady now. I may as well pay you instead.”

She shakes her head. “You don’t have to pay me.”

“Do your friends pay you?”

“Or we trade.”

“So then why won’t you take my money?”

“With you it would be more like a trade. You got Beau to agree to talk about Cassandra. I owe you about twenty haircuts for that.”

Now I’m the one who’s embarrassed. “I didn’t do that to get something in return.”

“If you want me to cut your hair you’re going to have to let me do it for trade.”

“How about for dates?”

“Leo…” she starts.

I’ve taken it too far, but hey, it was worth a shot. “Just kidding.”

She looks at me for a moment like she’s trying to figure out if I really am joking or not. I’m not. Despite how disastrous this date’s been, I want to take her out again.

Somehow we manage to finish dinner and dessert without me pissing her off again and now I’m standing on her front porch with her. The moon is huge and low in the sky, hanging over us like a lantern. Cora by Moonlight. That’s what I’ll call this moment. I lean in for a kiss, but she stops me with a hand on my chest.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” she says.

Yes, it is. It’s a damn good idea. “Why?”

“Look, I like you—”

“Oh, hell.” No good conversation ever starts that way.

“No, I mean it. I do like—”

I silence her with a kiss, backing her up against her front door. I pour everything I have in me into this kiss. I want her to know all the things I can’t say before she shuts the door on me, on the possibility of us. She kisses me back and I take advantage, using every ounce of skill I have to get her to change her mind. I want her to want me the way I want her.

Her arms wind around my neck and she brings me closer, threading her hands through my hair. It’s all I can do not to push things further than I know she’s ready for. I want to touch her. Everywhere. I want her to touch me. Bringing her tight against me, I use my mouth and tongue to say the things I can’t. The little sound she makes as she moves against me drives me crazy. If she keeps this up I’m going to break the promise I made to myself to go slowly with her. She’s not ready for everything I want to do to her.

I pull back with little nips and kisses along her jaw. She tilts her head, giving me more.

“Go out with me again,” I whisper, then bite her earlobe.

She makes a noise that I can’t quite make out.

I lick around the shell of her ear. “Cora,” I coax. “Go out with me again.”

“Yes,” she moans.

For a moment I’m struck with the image of her beneath me saying that over and over again. I put one hand on the door behind her, then the other, because if I don’t get my hands off her I’m not going to be able to stop.

I give her a hard kiss and push away from her, separating us and unwinding her arms from around my neck.

“Good night, Bluebird.” I open her door and guide her inside.

She blinks at me for a moment, then slowly closes the door. I make myself walk back to my car and climb inside. That girl is going to kill me. I force myself to start the car and pull away from the curb. You’ll see her tomorrow, I tell myself. And I did get the promise of another date out of her. Even after nearly blowing it with my comments about her brother.

The whole way home, what Cora said about prosecutor misconduct rolls around in my brain. I can’t get it out of my head. Somehow I have to prove to her that not all prosecutors are in it to close cases at any cost, including the DA who got the conviction on her brother. If I can somehow get ahold of the DA’s case notes and copies of her files, I can show her that Beau’s conviction was an unintentional mistake. He truly was a dolphin in the fish net.





Chapter 13


Cora


I don’t know how Leo does it. From the outside he looks like a total slacker. But somehow he manages to pull things off that I never could. Like getting Beau to open up to him and actually agreeing to talk on the phone. Beau hates talking on the phone. Even before he went to prison he had a thing about telephones. He’d say what he needed to say and then end the call. Sometimes in the middle of the other person’s sentence. Used to drive my mom nuts. The only person he ever spent any real time with on the phone was Cassandra.