Forever Blue. Suzanne Brockmann

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СКАЧАТЬ He just bought a new car, and the honeymoon plans he’s made are extravagant…. It’s not financial worries that have himd own, that’s for sure.”

      Her eyes were bright with tears, but Blue still felt nothing. Nothing more than brotherly concern for Gerry’s future wife. She looked as if she was going to say more, so he waited.

      “I just wonder…”

      If she were Lucy, she would have spit out whatever was bugging her the moment they’d begun to dance. Lucy was straightforward and to the point. She said what was on her mind. It was refreshing, Blue realized. He liked it much better than Jenny Lee’s approach, where every tiny piece of information had to be wheedled out of her.

      “What is it, Jenny Lee?” he asked. “Just tell me.”

      She couldn’t look him in the eye, embarrassment making her blush. “I just can’t help but wonder if I haven’t made a colossal mistake by inviting you here,” she whispered.

      * * *

      Ten minutes stretched into fifteen, and all Lucy’s doubts and reservations grew bigger and bigger.

      What was she doing? Now that she was taking the time to think about it, the incredible power of the passion she felt from Blue’s kisses scared her to death.

      What if she did something really stupid? What if she fell in love with this guy?

      Fell in love? Lord help her, she was already halfway over the edge. Could she really have sex with Blue, keeping the physical and emotional totally separate? Or would the physical intimacy send her into a tailspin from which she could never pull free?

      Where was he? What was taking him so long?

      Lucy had no questions, no doubts, when she gazed into Blue’s eyes. She could move in no other direction but ahead. It was only when he wasn’t around that she started to back away.

      She opened the French doors and went back into the country club. Blue had probably gotten into some deep discussion with Gerry and couldn’t get free. And she—she needed a drink, something with a kick to give her the courage to keep from running away.

      Halfway to the bar, she saw him.

      Blue was out on the dance floor, with Jenny Lee Beaumont in his arms.

      Didn’t it figure.

      Lucy turned away, too disgusted with her own self to feel angry at Blue. Blue and Jenny Lee, ancient history? Lucy had almost believed it. That made her as big a fool as Blue.

      She had to get away from here, fast, so she headed for the doors to the corridor. She was nearly there when the shouting started.

      Lucy turned back, her police officer’s training not allowing her to run from sounds of trouble. What she saw made her heart sink.

      Gerry, his face livid, was standing in the middle of the dance floor, between Blue and Jenny. And even though he’d lowered his voice, he pushed at Blue repeatedly, clearly upset and angry.

      Lucy could see from Blue’s stance and from the way he held both hands in the air, palms out and facing his stepbrother, that he had no intention of letting this argument become violent. But Jenny was in tears, and Gerry pushed Blue harder and harder with every sentence he spoke. Lucy moved closer, wondering whether she should step in even though she wasn’t on duty. Not that she’d had much luck settling this afternoon’s disturbance….

      The room was silent. Even the band had stopped playing. Sheldon Bradley, the chief of police, moved quickly to Gerry’s side, and Lucy was glad. He had far more experience than she did, in addition to being one of Gerry’s friends.

      “I want him out of here.” Gerry’s voice started to get louder again. “Who the hell gave him permission to dance with Jenny Lee anyway?”

      Was his speech slurred? He sounded funny, as if he were…

      “Gerry, you’re drunk,” Jenny Lee said.

      “It was your idea to invite him,” Gerry shot back harshly, turning to berate his fiancée. “Stepbrother or not, I didn’t think it was right to invite one of your ex-lovers to my wedding. But maybe you had some other kind of reason to want him here…?”

      “When you sober up, brother,” Blue drawled softly, “you’re going to feel like a real idiot.”

      “Stay the hell out of my life,” Gerry said, his eyes wild. “You’re not my brother. I don’t want you hanging around. I didn’t when we were kids, and I sure as hell don’t now.”

      The flash of pain that appeared in Blue’s eyes left so quickly that Lucy was sure she was the only one who’d seen it. But she had seen it. Gerry’s bitter words had hurt Blue deeply.

      “Come on now, boys.” Chief Bradley tried to step between the two men.

      “Besides, Jenny Lee is mine now.” Gerry glared past Bradley at Blue. “You had your chance. You can’t have her.”

      “She’s not going to be yours too much longer if you keep this up,” Blue said evenly, quietly.

      “Is that some kind of threat? Because if that was some kind of a threat, I’m gonna…” Gerry swung at Blue.

      Blue caught his hand effortlessly, stopping his stepbrother’s punch midswing.

      “Now, come on,” the police chief said, “is this any way for brothers to treat each other?”

      “He’s not my brother.” Gerry pulled his hand free from Blue’s. “If my old man hadn’t felt guilty for picking up and bedding Blue’s white-trash mama—”

      Blue reacted so quickly that Lucy didn’t even see his movement. One moment he was standing several feet away from Gerry, and the next he had backed his stepbrother up against a support pillar and was holding on to the taller man by the lapels of his expensive tuxedo.

      Chief Bradley looked as if he were thinking twice about getting on the wrong side of Blue. Still, he stepped forward. “Here now, boys. Let’s not—”

      Blue ignored Bradley, glaring into Gerry’s eyes. “That time you went too far,” he said softly. “I don’t give a damn what you say about me, but you keep my mother out of this.”

      “Blue,” the police chief said. “Son, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

      “You so much as breathe her name again,” Blue continued, “and there’ll be hell to pay, you understand me?”

      Gerry nodded, finally silenced.

      Chief Bradley wasn’t used to being ignored. “Blue McCoy, I’m going to have to ask you to unhand your brother.”

      But Blue didn’t move. “You apologize to Jenny Lee, and then you go on home and sober up,” he said to Gerry, still in that same low, dangerous voice.

      Gerry seemed to wilt, to sag, his arms going around Blue in an odd kind of embrace. He may have said something, whispered something in Blue’s ear, but he spoke so softly Lucy couldn’t hear it.

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