Wired (Buchanan-Renard #13)(41)

“Then I know you’ll like this place,” he assured her.

“Where is it?” she asked.

“You’ll see,” he said with a sly grin.

Curious, she relented. “Okay.”

She sat back and closed her eyes, letting the day’s work fade to the back of her mind. She didn’t want to think about it or anything else right now.

A half hour later, Liam turned toward the Charles River and pulled into a small parking lot. Coming around the car, he opened her door, took her hand, and led her down a path to an area shaded by large trees. A green wooden park bench sat before a cluster of tall forsythia bushes, and in front of it a long grassy area sloped down to the river.

Pointing to the bench, he said, “Have a seat and I’ll be right back.”

Allison was a little puzzled, but she trusted Liam and did what he said. After a few moments of sitting on the bench and watching the river, she felt an increasing calm, as though her worries were flowing away with the current. In the distance she could see people walking and biking along the river path, some exerting themselves for exercise, others simply enjoying an evening stroll. A row team out for practice drifted past in their long, sleek boat, the smooth, rhythmic strokes gliding them across the water. The entire scene was hypnotic, and once she allowed it to take over, the noise and commotion of the city faded into the background.

A few minutes later, Liam appeared carrying two cans of soda in one hand and two hot dogs wrapped in foil in the other. “I hope you like mustard,” he said as he handed her a can and a hot dog.

“Of course,” she said, smiling. When he had taken his seat beside her and opened the wrapper for a big bite of his hot dog, she remarked, “You were right. I do like this place.”

He popped the tab on his soda. “My favorite spot in Boston,” he said, taking a big swig.

They sat quietly enjoying the view and eating their hot dogs. When they were finished, Liam stretched his long legs in front of him and folded his hands behind his head. Sitting there with him in this place of perfect tranquillity, Allison felt stress-free for the first time in days. She didn’t want to talk about or even think about problems, so she asked Liam to tell her about some of the places he’d been assigned. He began with London and worked his way around the globe. Each city or country he mentioned seemed to have a story attached to it, and each story was either heartwarming or hilariously funny. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. When he smiled, she felt a little catch in her pulse. The more he talked, the more she wanted to hear. Contrary to her initial assessment of him, she could see he had a wonderful sense of humor.

She especially liked the fact that he didn’t have any trouble making fun of himself. Eventually their conversation turned to other topics, and they discovered a number of mutual interests, everything from baseball to ocean life.

When Liam told her about a near miss with a shark, she rubbed the goose bumps on her arms and asked, “How could you ever get into the water knowing that some of the most dangerous predators are right there, waiting for a snack?”

Liam laughed. “And I’m the snack?”

“Yes. Haven’t you ever seen Shark Week on television? Guess where some of the most dangerous sharks are.”

“Australia.”

“That’s right.”

“I grew up swimming in the ocean.”

“Is that how you learned to swim? In the ocean?” She sounded appalled. “I can’t imagine . . . with all those waves and undercurrents. It can be very dangerous.”

“We had a pool in our backyard, and that’s where I learned. My father taught me. I was three or four. How old were you when you learned to swim?”

“Around seventeen, I guess. Giovanni taught me.”

“The guy you model for? How did that happen?”

“We were on a photo shoot. It was a beautiful location with this infinity pool that seemed to drop off the side of the world. I was modeling a bathing suit, and Giovanni wanted to get some shots of me coming out of the water.” She laughed as she added, “I didn’t want to disappoint him.”

“So you jumped into the water?”

“And almost drowned. Giovanni had to come in after me. He pushed the photo shoot to the next day, and right then and there he gave me my first lesson.”

“You must have shocked the hell out of him.”

She laughed again. “Oh yes, I did.”

Liam could tell she was having a good time. So was he, he realized.

“Here’s a question,” he said nonchalantly as he reached for her empty can and wrapper. “Swim in the ocean where you know there’s a great white, or walk across a lawn where you know there’s a poisonous snake—which do you choose?”

She drummed her fingertips on the park bench while she thought about it. “Swim,” she finally said.

“My brother and I played that game all the time. Drove our parents nuts.”

“What was it like, growing up in Australia?” she asked.

He described his family and their home on the Australian coast with its aquamarine waters and white sand beaches. It sounded like an idyllic childhood. He clearly was very close to his family, especially his younger brother. The two boys had been daredevils, and from some of the escapades he told her about, she suspected they had given their parents some sleepless nights. Allison was captivated by his stories and the way his eyes crinkled at the corners just before he was about to tell of some mischievous prank. She still couldn’t figure him out, but she was definitely intrigued. His sense of adventure and the need to do something that mattered had obviously led him to the work he was doing now. By comparison, she was a boring nerd. While she hid in her room writing code, he was out in the world experiencing life.