Page 4 of By The Book
“What are we… Dad, you said the apartment was free. That you weren’t renting it out this summer.”
“Changed my mind. That’s Denz,” her father said, pointing at the man drying in the afternoon sun.
“We’ve met,” she said, feeling flushed from the fact she could smell the scent of his clean skin, something musky with a touch of sandalwood.
“You should’ve called,” her father said, shuffling his sandaled feet and squinting up at her. “Apartment’s taken.”
“Yeah, I see that. Surprise,” she said, forcing a grin. “You’re right, I should’ve called. But I didn’t and…now we’re here. Is it, um, okay if we stay in the house with you?”
“That’s fine,” her father said.
Claire opened her mouth only to close it again. Obviously reminding her father that she’d told him theywerecoming to visit as soon as they could that summer wouldn’t do her any good now.
“I should get dressed. Leave the bags and I’ll help you,” the man said.
She gripped the key in her hand so tightly that the edges dug into her skin, but she managed a smile. “None needed. Thanks.”
That said, she ignored the man in all his towel-wearing gorgeousness and snagged the bag she’d dropped while trying to open the door before trudging back down the rickety staircase to where her father and son waited. After a round of painfully awkward hugs, Big Tom, as her mother had always called him once Tommy had come along, gathered up the bags she’d set down and turned toward the house.
“I thought you’d decided not to rent the apartment anymore after having so much trouble with the last tenant,” she murmured.
“Didn’t plan to but Denz isn’t like that guy.”
“Oh? Where did you meet him?”
“Fishing. I helped him reel in a shark last weekend.”
She stopped walking and stared at her father’s shoulders. “But you did a background check, right? A credit check?Anykind of check?”
Her father paused with his hand on the back door and shot her a look over his shoulder. “Denz is good people and we have a short-term lease. That’s all I need to know.”
Tom entered the house and kept going, and Claire paused to allow Tommy to enter in front of her.
She turned to stare up at the apartment door in time to see it close.
The man sported a gunshot wound.
The question was why?
Chapter 3
Denz watched as Claire Simmons practically sprinted down the rickety stairs after her father. Sensing he was being studied, he turned and found the kid staring up at him, a deep frown on the boy’s glowering face.
Denz raised an eyebrow in the kid’s direction, which the boy ignored. The trio moved toward the back of Tom’s one-level home, their voices so low Denz couldn’t hear what was being said.
He stepped back into the apartment and shut the door, wincing when he bumped his shoulder against the narrow doorframe. He needed to check around and find a trainer familiar with PT for such injuries, something he’d promised his doc he’d do the moment he’d arrived.
He’d put it off, thinking the exercises he did on his own would be enough, but obviously that wasn’t the case given the way his shoulder had stiffened up after fishing off the pier. Maybe he had briefly wrangled a shark, but four days later, he was still paying for it. Not a good sign.
He walked toward the small bedroom.
The sixty-something man had noticed Denz struggling to fish one-handed and helped reel in the four-foot shark. They’d celebrated over lunch at the nearby diner, and they discovered both worked within the Wilmington film industry. That’s when Tom mentioned having an apartment to rent.
Denz got dressed and left the apartment in time to see Claire walking toward her Jeep. He met her at the rear of the vehicle and silently offered a hand, which she eyed like a snake.
“Thanks. But I have it.”
“Just being polite, seeing as how I apparently took your apartment.”
