The Gentrys: Cal

“It was in all the papers.”

“I don’t read newspapers much.” Bella shifted in her seat the same way he had. “It’s hard to get delivery in places with no roads.” She’d said it with a straight face, but her eyes danced with mischievous lights.

Cal could scarcely believe it. She’d made a joke. He’d been convinced that, as erotic as he might find her, she was all commitment and deadly serious. His efforts to charm Bella might just turn out to be fun after all.

His blood began to stir again, liquefying his brain. He fought the sexual urges. But he was sure she would want him as much as he wanted her—sooner or later. He’d never met a woman yet that he couldn’t charm into his bed. It was just a matter of time.

“Well, if you’d read any newspapers or magazines, you’d know that I had a reputation as the most expert driver on the circuit. The lucky one who’d never caused a crash.” He laughed at the memory of his own foolish pride and stood.

It had suddenly occurred to him that he wanted to see what it would take to shake Bella’s composure. He’d had some extremely sensual ideas involving that very thing earlier. But at this moment he just wanted to see her taken aback some—without scaring her off in the process. Underneath her calm exterior lay a hot-blooded woman, and Cal wanted a small preview of what awaited him.

“But that was before I smashed the family minivan into a truck,” he continued with a drawl. “A crazy crash on a public freeway managed to put me into the hospital and to kill Kaydie’s mother…my wife.” He turned away to go and retrieve something for Bella to wear, but added over his shoulder, “You’ve hooked up with a murderer, sweetheart. How’s that for stepping out of a hot spot and into a fire?”

Bella sat poised in silence. Cal thought she was hot as ice. But a cold flame burned intensely in her eyes.

She showed no reaction to his words, amazing Cal enough to stop him where he stood. Hadn’t she heard him? He was positive there were fiery passions just below the surface of her serene outer shell. He’d seen the signs of it before in her eyes and had been more than a little intrigued.

But he guessed it didn’t take her long to figure out that he’d been testing her. “I see,” she calmly said. “That is a shame.”

The words were spoken in such a deadpan way that Cal grew irritated at her serene demeanor, even knowing that she was deliberately teasing him in return for his obnoxious behavior. “Doesn’t it bother you that you’re sitting in the same house with a murderer?” he probed.

Bella let herself smile at the odd gringo. “I am not totally ignorant of U.S. laws, señor. I went to nursing school in Houston. If you were truly at fault, you would be facing charges somewhere.” He was quite the examiner, this injured race-car driver, but she knew she could hold up under his scrutiny. “I’m not some silly young girl who will believe everything you tell me and then fall all over one of your smiles.”

He scrunched up his forehead and frowned. “Well, it’s true the police didn’t charge me…but I was at fault just the same.” Cal looked frustrated and tired. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go get you those sweats to wear. I’ll be right back.”

She had seen by the barely hidden anguish in his eyes that he did feel guilt for something. When he came back carrying the clothes, she decided to ask more about it—even if it just seemed like she was being nosy.

“Please tell me what happened,” she asked, and at the same time took the bundle from his arms.

Cal sat back down and propped his elbow on the table, while rubbing the other hand across his forehead. “Well, since I brought it up, I guess I at least owe you an explanation. I was driving Jasmine…my wife…and Kaydie back from a doctor’s appointment.”

He hesitated, watching her closely as she carefully set the clothes down on the table. “At that exact moment, the Fort Worth police were chasing a bank robbery suspect on the same interstate highway. I never noticed the lights or heard the sirens, but suddenly a speeding pickup swerved into our lane from behind.

“I turned the wheel the minute I caught sight of the truck in the right-hand mirror but it was too little and too late. The truck rammed directly into our passenger door with enough force to lift the van off the ground and push it across the median and into the oncoming lanes.”

Bella was struck by the pain in his voice and the pictures of terror that his words had conjured in her mind. “I’m so sorry. But this was certainly no fault of yours.”

He shook his head. “I’m a professional driver, for God’s sake. I should’ve heard the sirens. If I’d had just a few seconds’ warning, I could’ve taken some evasive action that might have saved lives.”

She could hear and see his torment as he berated himself for failing to do the impossible. “How many were hurt in this incident?”

Cal hung his head. “My…wife…and the driver of the suspect’s truck were killed instantly. An innocent motorist coming toward us from the other direction and I ended up in the hospital,” he told her. “It could have been much worse, I suppose.”

“And Kaydie? What happened to your daughter?”

“She wasn’t injured at all.” He looked over to the baby’s sleeping form and blinked once. “I had insisted on keeping her behind me in the car and in a specially made cocoon-type infant seat. Jasmine used to complain about how much time it took to strap her in before we could go anywhere. And she was always griping about how she couldn’t reach Kaydie if she started crying.”

“So your actions did save your child’s life. I think you should commend yourself for being careful rather than chiding yourself for your misfortune.”

Cal jerked up from the table and limped to the side of his daughter’s crib. “You don’t understand.”

Yes, Bella believed there was something more behind his guilt that she didn’t understand. Something more he’d left unsaid. But she wasn’t going to push him for answers that he obviously didn’t want to give. Maybe he couldn’t even admit them to himself.

She stood, moving closer to his side. “Why do you race cars, Cal?” Perhaps if she changed the subject he could put his troubles aside for a while.

He glanced at her, and she saw the clouds of hurt and self-hate slowly disappear as they lifted from his eyes. “It’s an adrenaline addiction, I guess,” he said with a shrug.

“Hmm. It sounds a little superficial to me. Sort of a rich man’s game. Is that all you want from life?”

“I don’t think of it as a game, and I don’t believe it’s about the money or the fans…although both are nice benefits. Racers like living on the edge, taking risks and feeling alive. I guess that description fits me to a T.”

She glanced down at the sleeping baby’s face and saw peace—exactly the opposite from what the father’s words had described. Then she gazed at Cal, who had turned to look at his daughter. She was happy to see the love for his child radiating across his face, making him seem more appealing than ever.

As he’d spoken of his racing profession, he’d certainly given off high-voltage and combustible animal magnetism. Now as he looked at Kaydie, she found that his charm had finally managed to turn her insides into melted ice cream. His loving response to his child was breaking down her defenses.

Bella surprised herself by also noticing the warm electric currents arcing from his bare skin and zinging through her flesh, straight to her spine. She’d believed she’d stopped feeling these kinds of lustful things many years ago.

But she had to admit that she was definitely noticing them with this man. All her carefully constructed walls seemed about to crumble around her. Was it possible that she did still shelter a hope deep in her heart that someone somewhere would love her one day? Or was this simply an urgent erotic need, unlike any she’d ever known before?

“Maybe that description fits me, as well,” she told him as she ordered her body back under her control. “I take my own kind of risks to do my job on the border.” She didn’t mention that taking risks was no big deal for someone like her who had no family and no love to care whether she stayed safe or not.