14th Deadly Sin

CHAPTER 36

CINDY LEFT THE Chronicle Building and caught a cab the second she stuck out her hand—a lucky break at rush hour. She gave the driver the address of Quince, a terrific restaurant in the Jackson Square area. Then she sat back in the seat and thought about how mysterious Richie had seemed when he called and asked her to meet him for dinner. She hadn’t been able to get anything out of him, but he was at a crime scene and unable to talk.

Still, she wondered what he wasn’t saying.

She flashed back, as she always did, to their recent past: how they’d been wonderfully, fabulously engaged when their opposing issues had caught up to them and overwhelmed the magic of their living-together love affair.

They’d broken up, and bad times had followed for each of them in different ways. And then circumstances had thrown them back together and they’d connected on an even deeper level.

Now they were living together again, and Cindy was afraid.

Not by the closeness and the magic, but because she could see Rich loving her and them so much that he would want them to repledge their commitment and he would propose marriage again. Which, sadly, would bring them exactly back to their main point of conflict: Richie wanting kids. Which he wanted many of and soon. And Cindy figuring there was time for all that—later.

Take the last three weeks, for example.

She’d been working a hideous story about a man who’d killed his wife, mother-in-law, and two small sons. She had researched, written, and polished her five-thousand-word piece and had gotten it into Tyler’s in-box three minutes before closing today. Tomorrow she was taking off for a ten-day book tour.

And her book was a tremendous source of pleasure. Not just that she’d been a big part of solving a terrible crime, but that she’d written a book-length work that had been published and was, if not exactly catching fire, performing well. Her editor had asked her to sketch out new book ideas for the publisher. Which was holy freakin’ wow. A lot of great things were coming true, things she’d worked toward for years. Years!

But at the same time, she didn’t want to lose Richie. She loved him so much, had missed him so much, loved coming home and getting into his lap and holding him while they breathed and hugged out the tension of the day.

Oh, please, Richie, please don’t push this. Please don’t try to close the deal.

“This where you wanted to go, miss?” the driver asked.

“Yes. Totally. Thank you.”

Cindy paid the driver and went inside the restaurant. The maître d’, a man named Arnold, took her to the more private back room, a very pleasant space with exposed-brick walls and Venetian glass chandeliers and aromas of wonderful house specialties floating on the air.

She took her seat, ordered a double Scotch, and had made progress with her stiff drink by the time Arnold brought Richie to their table. Her lover bent to kiss her and swung down into his chair, cool air from the street coming off him along with the smells of detergent and shampoo. He just looked great.

“Umm,” he said, pointing to her glass of Scotch. “What’s the occasion?”

She shrugged. “I was kind of in a mad lather all day. Got my pages in to Tyler on time. And now I’m thinking ahead to tomorrow …”

“I know. Almost two weeks away from home. That’s why I wanted to have dinner at our favorite place. Have a little us time.”

“Yeah?”

“Sure. Because, shit, Cindy. I miss you already.”

Cindy pushed the glass away and took Richie’s hands.

“You’re the best guy I’ve ever known, ever. Ever.”

He pulled her toward him and kissed her—with meaning.

“God, Richie,” she said when the kiss ended. “I’m gonna miss you, too.”