Hot Item (Hot Zone 3)

She dialed his cell phone next and left the same message on his voice mail.

Then she settled in to wait.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

RILEY SAT in his ex-wife’s kitchen, something that had become a habit this past week.

“Riley, you’ve been here every night since the story broke. I appreciate it. Ted appreciates it. Lizzie appreciates it. But, frankly, you’re driving me insane!” Lisa said, but despite the laughter, the seriousness in her tone spoke volumes.

Riley didn’t really want to spend his time here, either, but he had no desire to go home to his empty apartment, and he sure as hell had no desire to head back to the gym and listen to the talk and the snickers behind his back.

Lisa looked around, obviously making sure their daughter wasn’t around before speaking. “Has it been that bad for you?” she asked.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big boy and I can handle gossip.”

“But?” she prodded.

“But it sucks doing it alone,” he admitted.

Lisa’s eyes opened wide. “It’s finally happened, hasn’t it?” She pulled out a kitchen chair opposite Riley’s and sat down. Perching her chin in her hands, she developed a huge grin on her face. “You’ve finally met the one woman who doesn’t fall into your lap at the snap of your fingers!”

He winced. “Do you think you could stop looking so damn happy about it?”

“I’m sorry.” She wiped the smile from her face. “It’s just that I never thought I’d see the day. So what’s going wrong?”

He shrugged. “Other than everything?”

“If she isn’t standing by you during this mess, you really don’t need her in your life, Riley.” Lisa spoke bluntly with obvious concern.

“What if she’s standing by me only during this mess?” He voiced the concern that had been dogging him since the scandal of his parentage had erupted.

Sophie had called him almost immediately after the news hit the papers. He hadn’t returned her calls. The problem was, he didn’t want her in his life only when there was something wrong. Only because she pitied him or thought he needed her to confide in. He wanted her to come around on her own because she couldn’t imagine being without him.

“Before the news hit, I had one foot out the door to see her, literally,” Riley explained. “I was finished giving her time and space to miss me. I was going to see her to lay it on the line. To tell her that I loved her and that if she loved me it was time to put a way her insecurities and take that leap of faith.” He flexed and unflexed his fists, frustration still boiling inside him.

Lisa rose and walked to the refrigerator, pulling out a long-necked bottle. She pried off the top with an opener and slid the bottle over to him. “Have a beer. We keep it around just in case you stop by,” she said, laughing. “You seem like you could use one right now.”

“Thanks.”

“So you changed your mind about seeing Sophie. Why?” Lisa asked.

Although it struck Riley that this was the first serious conversation he and his ex-wife had had in years about anything other than their daughter, he appreciated the insight of someone with a successful marriage.

“At first I had to deal with the fallout of the news. By then, Sophie had left messages for me at home and on my cell. And it dawned on me that I hadn’t heard from her since our trip to Mississippi. But as soon as a crisis struck, boom! There she was, calling me.”

Lisa wrinkled her nose. “And this is a bad thing?” she asked, obviously confused.

He nodded. “You have to know Sophie. In a crisis, she steams into control mode. She knows exactly what to do, what to say and how to act, in order to take charge and make sure that all’s right in her world. As soon as the problem is over, she crawls back into her self-protective shell and won’t come out.”

“Sounds like she needs you more than you need her. And if you don’t mind my saying so, that giving-her-space thing? It’s more something a man would appreciate than a woman,” Lisa said.

He pinched the bridge of h

is nose, feeling a headache coming on and treating it with a long swig of beer. “I think she needs to be shaken up a bit,” he muttered, not knowing how else to get through to the beautiful, stubborn woman.

He couldn’t believe after all the years of women coming easily to him, the one woman he wanted in his life for good, he couldn’t figure out how to keep. If this were a damn football game, he’d have a playbook. For all Sophie’s rules, there were none on how to reach her.

The doorbell rang and before Lisa could respond, Lizzie’s footsteps sounded, padding down the stairs. “I got it, I got it,” she called, alerting the neighborhood.