Page 3 of Close Pursuit

Hey. A full sentence out of him! Pressing the rare conversational opening, she asked quickly, “Where did you grow up?”

Another shrug.

He’d done that a lot in the short time they’d known each other. Whenever he didn’t want to talk about something, he ignored her or shrugged her off. She’d been putting up with it for nearly a week, but if she had to put up with it formonths, she was definitely going to become resentful and bitchy with him. Sooner rather than later.

“Here’s the thing, Alex. It’s not polite to blow me off like that. If you want, I’ll never tell another living soul anything you say to me out here. But I’m a social person. I’m going to lose my mind if I’ve got no one to talk with for the entire summer.”

He frowned, seeming to weigh her words. It was clear he didn’t like the idea of being chatty with her, but at length he sighed and said, “My family moved around a lot when I was young. Mostly, we lived far from cities or other people, so my mom didn’t much care if we boys wandered. My father encouraged it. He believed in…toughening us up.”

Whoa. A world of bitterness was packed into that last comment.

Alex continued, “My brothers and I figured out how to build shelters using whatever was available. Does that answer our question?”

“Yes. Thank you,” she said quietly, acknowledging his effort to converse. She pressed her luck, asking, “How many brothers do you have?”

“Two that I know about.”

“That you know about?” she echoed, surprised.

He started to shrug but stopped his shoulder mid-lift. He exhaled audibly. “My father likes women.”

“How does your mother feel about that?”

“She left him. Although it’s more accurate to say she stayed in Russia my Father, brothers, and I came to the States.”

“She let him take her children?”

“She had no choice.”

“Why’s that?” Katie blurted.

“Do you ever stop asking questions?” he responded wryly.

“Not really. I’m naturally curious.”

“Some might call it being nosy.”

She scowled. “Fine. I’m nosy. But I can keep a secret and I’m no gossip.”

His shoulder started to move, but she wagged her finger at him and said in her best threatening nurse voice, “If you shrug at me one more time, I’m going to ask you questions nonstop all summer.”

He came suspiciously close to smiling before he resumed his poker face.

So. There was a human being with feelings under his robotic façade, after all. Good to know. Now to draw out that human and get him to relax around her.

She said casually, “Tell me about your brothers.”

“They’re both older than me. One by six months and one by two years.”

She frowned. “Six months? The math on that doesn’t math unless you were ridiculously premature.”

“Or unless my father had a mistress and I hadn’t gotten around to saying they’re my half-brothers.”

“Oh.” She didn’t know what to say in response to a mistress. Her parents were devoted to each other and would never dream of getting involved with anyone else. What must it have been like, growing up in a family where his parents weren’t close? Or maybe they had marital problems serious enough to send one or both of them outside the relationship in search of…what? Companionship? Sex? Love?

“Hark. I managed to silence Katie McCloud.”

She shot him a grin. “Not for long. I was just thinking. Anyway, now it’s your turn to ask me something. That’s how conversations work, you know.”

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