Page 63 of The Banned Books Club

He was tempted to call his father. He didn’t care how late it was. Evan was still twisting the truth; he’d said Gia had attackedhimat the drive-through. Maybe he thought going on the offensive would make him appear innocent—that showing others he still felt strongly enough about his reputation to continue to fight Gia’s accusations would finally convince his skeptics.

But he was making Cormac angry. While his trust in his father’s side of the story crumbled, his trust in Gia’s grew stronger. Her insistence that he stay out of the fight solidified his belief in her basic goodness. If she were the one lying, she’d encourage him to stand up for her. And who better than Evan Hart’s own son?

Gia, the true victim in this situation, seemed to care more about what might happen to him as a consequence of getting involved than his own father, who’d bent his ear and complained for close to two decades.

Evan’s selfishness was becoming more and more apparent.

Cormac went to the window to see if the light in Gia’s room had gone on. He expected her to be getting ready for bed. But when he saw no light, he looked more closely at the pool and spotted her sitting in the hot tub.

He checked his watch. It was nearly one. Even if he called his father, Evan probably wouldn’t pick up. Chances were he’d be drunk if he did. But Cormac was too wound up to sleep and saw no point in going to bed only to toss and turn for the next few hours.

With a sigh, he peered out the window again. Then he put on his swim trunks, grabbed a couple of beers and went out the back door and through the gate between the houses.

Gia looked up when she heard him coming.

“Would you mind some company?” he asked, lifting the beers to show he had a peace offering and hesitating politely before approaching her.

“Not at all.” Her smile was genuine and natural—and therefore easy to return. It was nice to feel she was receptive to his presence and no longer tensed up or watched him with distrust.

He walked over and handed her one of the beers. “Here you go.”

“Thank you.” She popped the top and took a long drink.

After opening his own can, he got in and sat opposite her. “Do you always stay up this late?”

“It’s an hour earlier in Idaho,” she replied with a shrug.

“That’s right. But still, it’s getting late.”

“I’ve had a lot on my mind since I got here.”

“No doubt. I’m sorry about what you’re going through with your mom and...and everything else. It also can’t be easy to leave your business behind.”

The steam was causing water to bead on her face, arms and bare shoulders, making her skin look dewy and moist. Although she had her hair pulled up, small tendrils clung to her neck and forehead. “Fortunately, the business is in good hands. My partner knows what he’s doing.”

She obviously had a great deal of respect for the man she was in business with. Was there more than business between them? “Are you two...seeing each other?”

She chuckled. “No. Eric’s happily married, with a young daughter.”

He took a drink of his beer. “If my father hadn’t done what he did in high school, do you think you would’ve settled here like so many of us?”

“There’s a good chance of it. When I dropped out of college to head to Alaska, it was sort of a fluke. I’d met some other students who worked on fishing boats there during the summer and made some good money, so I went with them when they left in the spring. I just didn’t come back, like they did, in the fall.”

“How’d you like it?”

“Loved it. There’s no place like Alaska.”

“It didn’t get lonely—not even during the winter?”

“Not really. At the time, I needed the peace, the quiet, the space. Those years were very therapeutic for me.”

“So what took you to Coeur d’Alene?”

She told him how excited she’d been to learn to fly, how her current business partner had once been her flight instructor, how she’d pushed Eric to start a business with her and how they’d ended up in Coeur d’Alene because he’d just met the woman who was now his wife on the internet, and she was from there. “Did you always want to be a veterinarian?” she asked.

“Pretty much,” he replied. “I’ve always loved animals, knew I wanted to contribute to the community in some way. Growing up, the old movies where doctors made house calls made a big impression on me.”

“You make house calls?”

---