A Risk Worth Taking

She stuck her fists on hips and eyeballed him. “Damn straight it is,” she said. “My bike’s back at the motel, but if you’re here tomorrow…”

She watched a smile slowly spread across his face. “Do you always pick on bikes twice your size?” he asked.

“Well, you know what they say.” She put on a leer and waggled her brows. “It’s not the size that counts…”

He laughed and stuck out his hand. “I’m Adam Walker. Pleased to meet you.”

She took his hand. It was large and warm. “Hi, Adam. Actually, we’re family now.” His eyebrows rose. “I’m Jake’s cousin Cressida, but everyone calls me Cressa.”

ADAM FOUND IT HARD not to stare into her wide, gray-green eyes. She had the most direct gaze he’d ever seen in a woman, and her thick, dark hair fell to her ass. Her nose, long, strong and slightly hooked, dominated her face, lending her an imperious air. Right now she was blatantly checking him out.

“Cressida? As in Troilus and Cressida?”

“That’s the one.”

He frowned. “Strange play. I can’t recall much of it apart from the dragging of the corpse at the end. I enjoyed that bit. Except, that wasn’t Troilus, was it?”

She did a double take. “It was Hector, but I’m impressed. You’ve actually seen the play? It’s not one of Shakespeare’s better known ones.”

“Way back when. I was only about fourteen then. Wasn’t she kind of a bad apple?”

“That’s me.”

There was something almost wolfish in her grin, and he found himself grinning back. Then he became aware he was still holding on to her hand. She hadn’t been in a hurry to claim it back, either. With some regret, Adam let it go. He was in New Zealand only to give his sister away and keep an eye on their mom while Sass was honeymooning. There was no room for flirting. All his time and energy during the next month had to be for studying.

He leaned against the bike as she asked, “How come you went to see the play at that age? Were you studying it at school?”

A gust of wind lifted her hair like a dark cloud around her. The impatient way she tucked it behind her ear suggested she had no idea how sexy it looked.

“My mom’s an English teacher. She dragged me to every Shakespeare performance within a hundred miles of where we lived.”

“Tell me about it! My dad’s an actor. My little sister’s first words were—” she put on a baby’s lisp “—’Ith thith a dagger I thee before me?’”

He laughed and she joined in. Not that her performance had been that funny, but a weird energy fizzed between them and laughter was a way to express it or release it. Or something. Hell, must be jet lag heightening his senses and jumbling his thoughts this way.

“So where did the bike come from?”

“A rental. I picked it up at the airport once I found out no plane or bus would get me here in time.”

She was only about five foot four, but she gave the impression of being taller. She had a nice body—compact, curvy and toned.

“Hey, Adam!” Hearing his name shouted, he glanced away to find his brother-in-law gesticulating from the beach. Adam waved, then turned back to her. “Sorry, Cressa, gotta go. Time for photos. It was real nice meeting you.”

She raised a hand in farewell. “See you later, cuzzie bro.”

He’d begun to leave, but he stopped and looked back over his shoulder. “‘Cuzzie bro’?”

She smiled. “It’s a term we use in New Zealand for a loose family connection. You’re one of us now.”

As he walked away, Adam didn’t know whether that warmed or alarmed him.

CHAPTER TWO

OVER THE NEXT HOUR, Sass and Jake introduced Adam to all their guests and he became quite giddy, repeating the same conversations again and again. Yeah, a great flight. Yeah, a little jet-lagged. No, finding the place had been easy—the bike had a GPS. Yeah, the New Zealand roads were pretty different from the long straight Texas roads, but he’d had a great ride up. The country sure was pretty. He’d be here a month. No, he didn’t see himself getting bored stuck out in Aroha Bay—what a beautiful spot.

The Kiwis were all very friendly, but he couldn’t find Cressa, and tiredness was kicking in fast. He hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep on the flight, squeezed into economy, with his legs folded up around his ears. The continual glasses of champagne now being pressed into his hand weren’t helping, either, as the reality of what he’d committed himself to began to sink in. Galahad instincts had kept him buoyed on the flight over, but here, standing on the beach at the end of a dead-end road, he was beginning to realize it would be just him and Mom for four weeks. For nine years everyone in the Walker family had led their own, very dissimilar lives. What the hell would living under the same roof again be like?

Even worse, what if Mom wanted to “talk”? Such an awful lot had gone unsaid over the years that, in his opinion, would be best left unsaid. The past was a place he didn’t like to visit, even as a tourist. Unfortunately, one of the big drawbacks with women was they usually insisted on talking things out. Mom used to cope by using denial and drink, but now that she was sober….

The one quality all the Walkers had perfected over the years, however, was the art of making everything seem fine, so Adam put his doubts aside as he laughed and chatted and took photos and gave his mom and sis hugs, and everyone smiled to meet such a happy family.

At one point, Sass pulled him behind a big tree where no one could see them.

“Oh, Adam, I can’t tell you what this means to me.”

He was alarmed to notice tears well. “Hey, don’t cry about it. I’m happy to hang out here and make sure Mom is okay. How’s she doing?”

Sass smiled. “She’s been great these past couple of months. Staying with us in New Zealand has helped. All her old routines are broken, and as you can tell—” she motioned toward the waters of the bay, which were turning silver-blue in the late-afternoon sun “—there aren’t any stores around to buy alcohol.”

“Great. Well, I’ll hold fort for the next month. I know you’ll be away for five weeks, but I gotta be back by then. Mom’ll just have to go it alone for a few days.”

Sass hugged him. “She’ll be fine. I’m so sorry I twisted your arm into flying over, but when the cottage came up in Australia—”

“Yeah, I know. Right on the most perfect surf beach where the boys can learn to surf bigger waves. You’ve already explained several times. Although why the hell you’re taking Jake’s bad boys with you—but hey, it’s your honeymoon.”

She laughed. “What can I say? Surfers are crazy and I simply couldn’t disappoint them all.”

“No worries. I’m here now. It’ll be fine.”

He sounded confident, but Sass, damn it, was on to him in a flash. “What is it?” she asked.

“Nothing. Jeez, Sass, nothing. Well, nothing major. I just sorta wonder what Mom and I will find to talk about, that’s all.”

Sass gazed at him for a second. Her voice was gentle as she said, “It’s different now that she’s sober. She’s the mom I remember from when I was a little girl. You were probably too young to recall.”

“Yeah?” Adam considered this. At least, he tried to. Jet lag and champagne were not conducive to thinking much at all. “Well, good.” Sass was eyeing him thoughtfully, which worried him. “Look, we’ll be just fine. I wasn’t thinking straight for a minute. Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay,” she said in that tone he knew meant she was already sorting out solutions. He’d been on the receiving end of her solutions too often in the past.

“I mean it, Sass. Leave it.”

She gave him that smile he recognized all too well. Talk on. I’m not listening. But before he could make a stronger protest, Sass squeezed his arm. “I’d better get back to my guests.”

As they stepped around the tree and Sass disappeared to socialize, luck shone down on him. There was Cressa, standing in a group of people, her back to him. Even though no one else had yet noticed him, something made Cressa turn slowly around, and their eyes met.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi.” She had the most amazing smile. “Come over and meet my family.”