Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (Cactus Creek #3)(34)

“Yes, it’s a thing. But I’ve never been in the hot seat for it before. Gabe has probably gone through it the most, and then Max. I’m sure Caine probably went through it a lot before I moved there, but I’ve only ever seen it happen to Gabe and Max.” She used her key to let them in the house, half-surprised that her brothers weren’t in the foyer ready to pounce.

“Wait a sec.” Hudson tilted his head, puzzled. “Are you saying the hot seat for the Inquisition isn’t reserved for me?”

“An understandable misassumption,” called out Gabe from the stairwell, grinning ear to ear. “The guest of honor is always just that—a guest. Mom would have our heads if we grilled a guest at dinner. Now the person currently dating the guest, however... He—or she as in tonight’s festivities—is fair game.”

Lia groaned. While she didn’t have anything to hide, as she had seen many a time in the past, the boys didn’t exactly follow any rules during the Inquisition. “Let’s get this over with,” she muttered, following Gabe over to the family room.

The sound of video game gunfire announced at least Max was already there, probably testing out some exclusive new game that hadn’t hit the market yet.

Ten to one odds, all three brothers had gone out of their way to be in attendance tonight.

Gabe’s eyes were positively dancing. “Caine’s just grabbing a beer.”

Sibling torment did always turn the punk into a psychic.

“He even cancelled his plans for tonight specifically so he could stop by.”

Of course he did. What ever would they do without their resident snoop? Though the guest of honor was never grilled at dinner, the guys always made sure to use some of the info Caine managed to dig up on ‘em to make both the Spencer in the hot seat and their guest squirm via ‘innocent’ dinner conversation.

When Caine materialized with a beer in hand at the other end of the hall, Lia immediately headed over to get some answers. “Tell me you didn’t go interrogating Hudson’s last three girlfriends.”

A classic Caine move she wouldn’t put past him.

“Three?” returned Caine with an incredulous frown before taking a swig of beer. “I barely survived one. I think that Fiona chick ended up getting more dirt on me, than I did on her,” he complained with a slightly awed, mostly sympathetic look at Hudson. “That chick is straight-up nuts.”

Behind her, she heard Hudson stifle a chuckle. “I’m familiar with her work.”

Lia turned to flash a curious glance Hudson’s way. “I thought you dated Fiona back in high school.”

“I did.”

She slid her bewilderment back to Caine. “Why in the world did you dig that far back?”

Caine shrugged. “Apparently he’s only ever been serious about one woman. At least according to his old commanding officer and a few other folks I talked to. They all said the rest of the women were just casual dates, the occasional hook-up, that sort of thing. So I had to go that far back because other than that one woman, Fiona was the only one I could find.”

Her eyes swung back to Hudson in surprise. He looked…amused. Now curious beyond saving, she bit her lip, wanting to ask but knowing she really shouldn’t be encouraging Caine in this way.

When Hudson broke his gaze away to take the beer Gabe was offering him, Lia broke down and asked Caine semi-casually, “So did you get a chance to interview that one woman?”

Caine revealed his two deep dimples. “What do you think tonight is for?”



*



THE GUYS PROCEEDED to give Hudson the tencent tour of the house, and Lia trailed behind, processing Caine’s little grenade of information as if she were translating an alien language.

The tour finally ended in the family room. And when her brothers dropped down onto the sectional to listen to Max rattle-off all his brutal critiques of the video game, directed at whatever marketing exec was on the listening end of his Bluetooth, Lia pulled Hudson back out to the hallway.

She didn’t even know where to begin.

Hudson’s dove gray eyes crinkled at the corners. “Sweetheart, don’t overthink what Caine told you earlier.”

“Are you saying it’s true?”

He deliberately skirted around the question with another amused eye twinkle. “You mean that thing about Fiona? Yeah. It’s not that weird. You haven’t had an actual relationship with anyone since high school either.”

Touché.

“That doesn’t mean I haven’t dated,” he continued with a shrug. “But I wasn’t ever in one place for very long. I was constantly on extended deployments and on-call missions. And the rare couple of years I wasn’t, I’d offered to take on most of the duties that required travel to relieve some of that burden off my buddies with families. Basically, I just never wanted to start something serious unless I knew I could follow-through.”

She gazed up at him, floored. How to ask the question without getting her own stupid hopes up? “So why does your CO think you’re serious about me?”

He cupped her face affectionately. “Because I am.”

“But our expiration date…”

“—Is still there, sweetie,” he supplied gently, but with obvious regret. “I’m still going back to California in a few months. I...have to.”