Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Hours later, Kaia was working her way through her second glass of wine after a delicious dinner of ribs and salad.
But as she looked around the table at her brother, Emmalyn, and Hunter, she didn't feel the sense of contentment she usually felt when surrounded by friends who felt like family.
Instead, her gaze kept drifting to the apartment across the courtyard.
She wished Jax would have stayed for at least a drink or come out for some barbecue, but his need to stay detached was clearly strong.
As her gaze moved to Hunter, she impulsively asked, "What made you want to hang out with us?"
He looked at her in surprise. "Where did that come from?"
"She's wondering why Jax Ridley, our mysterious stranger, is keeping his distance," Emmalyn put in.
"He wasn't keeping his distance earlier," Ben commented.
"Forget I asked," she said quickly.
"I didn't really have a choice," Hunter said, answering her question.
"Not after Olivia got dropped off at my door.
She forced me to deal with the present instead of the past, and Em did the rest," he added, giving his fiancée a loving look.
"When I finally took part, I realized that hiding out in my pain wasn't really accomplishing anything.
But my situation was probably vastly different than whatever is going on with the guy living in my old apartment. "
"How would we know?" Emmalyn asked. "Unless you finally want to tell us how you and Jax happened to get gelato today, Kaia."
She'd been trying to avoid answering that question all evening. "Jax needed to get out of his apartment because Javier had to work on some plumbing. I was heading downtown, so we took a ride together."
"And he told you nothing?" Emmalyn asked. "How is that possible?"
"Trust me, I tried to get him to open up. But to be honest, one of his rules for agreeing to go with me was no personal questions."
"Maybe you should have thought twice about getting in his car," Ben said sharply. "I should look into this guy."
"No, don't do that. Josie vouches for him, and she has asked us to respect his privacy. That's what we should do."
"I still can't believe you followed any rules," Ben added. "That would be a first."
She made a face at her brother. "I follow rules every day."
"Not ones you don't agree with."
"Sometimes, even then. Not that it's always easy.
Anyway, it wasn't just about taking a drive and getting gelato.
I told you all before that Jax and I ran into each other when one of my patients walked in front of his car.
His name is Walter Cobb. He was looking for a red door, and Josie told Jax that she thought there was a nightclub a long time ago that had such a door.
One thing led to another, and we figured out the bookstore is in the same location.
Unfortunately, the owner wasn't there to confirm that it used to be the club with the red door, so we'll have to see what we can find out tomorrow. "
"So, you're going to see him tomorrow," Emmalyn said.
"If we're both available, then, yes."
"I still don't get why you're doing this, Kaia," Ben said, a frown on his lips. "It sounds like you're meddling in the life of one of your patients. Haven't you been warned before about getting too involved in calls?"
"That's not relevant," she muttered.
"Isn't it?" he challenged.
"What are you trying to do?" Emmalyn asked. "Even if you find this former nightclub, what will that mean for this man?"
"It will give Walter an answer to a question that is making him wander around the streets at night. Maybe the resolution will give him some calm."
"It could be a good thing then," Emmalyn said.
"It's a bad idea," Ben put in. "It's not your business, Kaia. And because you've treated him, you're putting yourself in a risky position."
"I'm doing this off duty."
Ben didn't look convinced. "You should be careful, not that you ever are, so I'm probably wasting my breath."
"You get involved, too," she said pointedly.
"When I do, it's usually a mistake."
"I know what I'm doing."
He made his typical exasperated brother face and got to his feet. "I don't know why I waste my breath. You're going to do what you want to do."
"Stubbornness runs in the family," she reminded him.
"You are right about that. I'm going to clean up the barbecue."
"I'll help," Hunter said, following Ben to his feet.
"Now that we're alone…" Emmalyn began. "I'm far more interested in your relationship with Jax Ridley than I am with your interest in Walter Cobb. You obviously spent some time with Jax today, so what's the real scoop? You must have learned something about him."
"Not really. He was deliberately vague about anything that got personal." She paused. "But he's nicer than I thought. When he smiles, he looks a lot warmer, more reachable, and it feels like the real Jax is inside that rough, cold exterior."
"We have to be able to find out something about him."
"He's not on the Internet. I looked online."
"So you did try to find out more," Emmalyn said with a smug smile.
"My attempt was unsuccessful. He definitely has a story of some sort. But I have no idea what it is."
"You like him, don't you?"
"I wouldn't go that far. I'm intrigued. He's a puzzle, and I like puzzles."
"And he's not bad to look at," Emmalyn put in.
"He is attractive. But he's so hard to read; I can't get a bead on his actual personality. I'm hoping he'll go with me to the bookstore tomorrow, but we'll see. He was noncommittal when I asked him about it."
"I bet he'll go. I think he's intrigued by you, too. You're the only one who's been able to get him to talk at all."
"We just ended up in a situation where he couldn't ignore me."
"That was Friday night," Emmalyn said. "Not today. Not tomorrow."
"Stop matchmaking."
"Fine. I'll shut up…for now. But I'll be interested to hear what happens tomorrow."
An unexpected tingle ran down her spine. She was curious, too, and she wanted to say it was because she might get answers for Walter, but her anticipation had far more to do with Jax. She was going to keep that fact to herself.
Monday morning, Jax got up after a restless night, feeling a mix of emotions, reminding him of how much easier the past two months had been when he'd completely checked out of life.
And there was no real reason for him to have checked back in except an old man who'd walked in front of his car and a beautiful redhead he couldn't seem to stop thinking about.
But that wasn't completely true, he realized as the fifth text from his former agent came in. His old life was also trying to butt into his current situation. Clay had been texting and calling him all morning. It was ridiculous.
He picked up his phone and called him back. "What the hell do you want?" he asked when Clay picked up. "I told you on Saturday that I'm not interested in anything related to my former life. What do you not understand about that?"
"Look, I understand how you feel."
"No, you don't, Clay. No one except me could possibly understand how I feel."
"I've known you and Wren for a long time," Clay reminded him.
"I was there from the beginning. I was there for you both when no one else was.
I'm still the best friend you have. I've given you time and space, but there are things you really need to think about now. Your future is hanging in the balance."
"I don't have a future in music. That's gone."
"It might not be if you would just start talking to us."
"What exactly do you want me to know?"
"I'm sending you something in email, and I want you to promise to read it."
He was fairly sure he knew what that email was about. "If the email is from Wren, I'm not interested. You can tell her and her publicist to stop calling me, too. I've done enough. It's finished. I'm not going to change my mind."
"I hope that's not true," Clay said. "It's just an email. Read it. Take a day to think about it, and we'll talk after that."
Clay didn't give him the pleasure of hanging up first.
As he stared at his phone, his finger hovered over the mail icon, but he decided not to do that now. He had to meet Kaia, and whatever was in that email could wait.
Grabbing his keys, he headed out the door, happy to find the courtyard empty on a Monday morning. The quiet was a welcome break from the raucous and tempting sounds of laughter and music that he'd had to shut out most of Sunday evening. Thankfully, his fellow tenants now seemed to be at work.
Kaia was leaning against his car wearing a short sundress that showed off her tanned and lightly freckled shoulders, sexy curves, and shapely legs, and his heart skipped a beat.
When she flashed him a smile that lit up her brown eyes, she felt warm and alive, like a tantalizing fire he just had to get close to.
But he couldn't get close, he reminded himself, feeling somewhat desperate at that thought.
He couldn't open himself up like that. It was just too damn painful and not worth it.
"Hi," she said. "You're right on time."
"I always am," he said gruffly, clearing his throat at the end of his sentence.
"Me, too. I have a hard time with people who are late. And an even harder time not expressing my irritation."
He appreciated her candor. "I can believe that. You like to say what you think."
"It gets me into trouble sometimes." She walked around to the passenger side of his car as they got inside. "You seem to be very skilled at keeping your thoughts to yourself," she added as she fastened her seat belt.
"Words can be taken out of context, easily misconstrued, or slanted," he said, then immediately stopped, feeling like he'd just revealed too much. Judging by her thoughtful expression, he definitely had.
Looking away, he started the car and pulled out of the lot, thankful she didn't press him on his cryptic answer.
"I looked up Reina Chapman and her older sister Anita," Kaia said instead, pulling out her phone. "I took some notes."
"What did you learn?"
"As you mentioned, there wasn't a lot on Reina, but Anita had more press.
" Glancing down at her phone, Kaia continued.
"Anita was married and divorced twice. She had two children, one with each spouse, Ella and Vincent.
Anita died at the age of seventy-two ten years ago.
Her obituary listed her survivors, her children, her grandchildren, and also her sister, Reina, her brother-in-law, James, and two nieces, whom I assume to be Reina's children, but there were no names listed. "
"You got more than I did."
"Unfortunately, I couldn’t find out whether Reina was still alive. But I did track down one of Anita's children, Ella Morena. She's listed as the owner of an antiques shop in San Diego. We might be able to track Reina down through her."
"I'm impressed. Maybe you should have been a detective like your brother."
"I do like the challenge of a good puzzle." Kaia turned in her seat. "What if we could not only find the red door for Walter, but we could also find Reina?"
"Slow down," he said, seeing the passionate enthusiasm in her eyes. "You're getting too far ahead."
"Am I? He's trying to find a message from a lost love."
"You're writing a love story based on a few words from a man who doesn't always make sense," he said, feeling a need to anchor her more closely to reality. "A lot of this could be a fantasy in his mind."
"I don't think he made it up."
"We still need to go slow. Let's find out if the bookstore really was the Starlight Lounge, and we'll take it from there. Reina might no longer be alive. And that might be difficult for Walter to hear."
"That's true. But living with uncertainty is worse than knowing what happened, even if what happened was bad.
I find the most stressful times of my life are when I'm not sure which way to go or what's going to happen.
Once I make a decision, or one is made for me, it's easier to deal with the facts, with what's real. "
Her words echoed inside his head, hitting harder than expected. She was right and uncertainty was where he'd spent the past several months. Maybe he needed to make some decisions, too. Walter wasn't the only one who needed to get beyond the past and move forward.
"But I know that I need to be careful," Kaia continued. "Because this is Walter's story, and I have to respect that. I'll put the brakes on temporarily, but you should know that I do like to go fast."
He couldn't help but laugh. "Are you always this honest?"
"Pretty much," she said with a shrug.
He liked her candid self-awareness and also her willingness to admit she could push too hard or move too fast. Those were rare qualities. Most of the people in his life had an appalling lack of self-awareness.
He'd always had the opposite problem. He'd been very self-aware but completely blind when it came to other people. Hopefully, he wouldn't make that mistake again.
"Was there anything else you learned about Anita?" he asked, thinking that was a safer topic than wondering just how fast Kaia might go with someone she was attracted to.
"Mostly just about her career as an artist," Kaia answered.
"Nothing really personal. It seemed that she stopped performing in her forties, which was a long time ago.
" She straightened as they turned down the block where the bookstore was located.
"I hope the owner is in. I really want to get some answers today. "