Her bright blue eyes widened, her humor returning as her blush faded. “Oh, my gosh, we haven’t actually met, have we? I’m Shelby. Shelby Bell. It’s very nice to meet you, Aaron.”
“Bell as in Bell Resort and Marina?”
She nodded. “My paternal great-grandfather built a little bait shop on the river back in the early 1940s. They owned some land on what would become the banks of Lake Livingston when the river was dammed to form a reservoir in the late sixties. My grandfather started Bell Resort with a small marina, bait shop and a few campsites in 1970, and now it’s a family-run business. My grandparents have two sons—my dad, Carl Jr., and my uncle, Bryan. Both sons and their wives work in the resort. My brother, Steven, and I have jobs there, along with our cousins, Hannah and Maggie. My youngest sister, Lori, is still in college. She hasn’t decided yet if she’s going into the family resort or if she wants to do something else. Our parents and grandparents always say they want the kids to follow their own dreams, do whatever they want, but there’s still a lot of pressure to stick with the family and keep the resort running. I think poor Steven feels that obligation the most.”
Aaron couldn’t help wincing a little. ?
??I’m familiar with family pressure.”
“Oh, right. The D’Alessandro-Walker Agency. That’s how we met Andrew, of course. My cousin’s evil ex-husband, Wade Cavender, had been embezzling from the resort for a couple years, and then the bastard had the nerve to try to sue us for a ton of settlement money he wasn’t due—extortion, really—and Andrew helped us find proof it was all a scam. He turned over evidence of the embezzlement to the police, which is why Wade is currently in jail, which is exactly where he deserves to be. His sentence wasn’t nearly long enough, but I don’t think he’ll mess with us again when he gets out.”
She’d given him a lot of information to process at once. “Um—”
She shook her head quickly. “But maybe you know all that, since I’m sure the case is on file at the D’Alessandro-Walker Agency. It’s a family-run business, too, right?”
Since she’d given him the history of her family business, he figured he owed her the same. “The agency was founded by my uncle Tony D’Alessandro, who took on my dad and his twin as partners in the business before I was even born. Several of my cousins, as well as my brother, work for the agency.”
Her brows drew downward in what might have been a slight frown of disappointment. “You’re not an investigator?”
Now was the time when he should tell her that not only was he not a dashing P.I. like the twin she and her family seemed to idolize, but he was currently unemployed. Again. He cleared his throat. “Like you, I grew up in the family business.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie. He’d worked in the offices of Dee-Dub, as the agency was familiarly known within the family, during his teen years, breaking away after high school to pursue his own goals. It just happened that none of his experiments had led yet to a career in which he wanted to spend the foreseeable future. He knew it wasn’t the investigation and security field.
Shelby’s face lit up again and he was selfishly glad he’d prevaricated. “So maybe while you’re staying with us, you could still take a look at Terrence Landon?” she asked hopefully. “You know, just to sort of get an impression of whether he’s as shady as I think he is?”
He couldn’t stand to see disappointment on her face a second time, especially when he knew what Andrew would do in his shoes. “I’m not promising anything, but I guess I could take a discreet look at the guy while I’m here. That doesn’t mean I’ll agree with your suspicions. Or that I’ll even see enough to form a proper opinion of my own.”
She waved off his warnings with one hand. “Of course,” she said. “Maybe there’s nothing to it at all. But I’d feel better if at least someone took me seriously enough to just get a good look at the guy.”
Aaron leaned back in his plastic chair and studied her thoughtfully. If he was reading her correctly, this was something else they seemed to have in common. Being the family oddballs, the ones over whom all the others shook their heads and clucked their tongues. Even as he wondered what he was getting himself into, he shrugged. “Sure. I’ll check him out.”
This time she was the one who reached across the table. She caught both his hands in hers and squeezed. “Thank you, Aaron.”
Oh, man. He could be in big trouble, he thought with a hard swallow. Something told him Andrew was not going to like this at all. As for Shelby—would she still look at him with such glowing eyes when she found out that he’d just promised something he was in no way qualified to deliver?
And speaking of his brother, just how had Shelby gazed at him?
“Um, you and Andrew...”
She seemed to follow his line of thought easily enough. She laughed again, and every cell in his body responded to the sound. “Me and Andrew? No way. I liked him, of course—the whole family liked him. But as for the two of us—just no sparks, you know?”
Watching her gather their empty cups to toss into the waste can, Aaron wondered if she would say the same thing about him in a few days. As for himself, sparks were already flying. He hoped his impulsiveness didn’t get him burned but good this time.
* * *
After extracting a promise from Aaron that he would say nothing about her request of him, Shelby drove away from the station, where she’d come to get away from the resort for a little while. Whenever she needed a break from family and chores, she headed to town for a cherry freeze. She’d never expected to be followed home this time by Andrew Walker’s identical twin brother.
Every time she thought of the way she’d thrown herself at him, she felt her face warm again. And not only from embarrassment. Remembering how his arms had gone obligingly around her, drawing her against that very fine, fit body, she felt a wave of heat climb from somewhere deep inside her all the way to her cheeks. Funny, she’d hugged Andrew when he’d left last year, standing in line with the rest of the family to do so, but she didn’t remember having a reaction anything like this! Was it because there had been so many other people around? Because she had considered herself in a relationship with Pete then, tenuous as it had been? Or because there was some fundamental difference between Aaron and Andrew other than the way they wore their hair?
She couldn’t wait to see how the rest of the family reacted to meeting him.
Turning off the two-lane highway onto the resort’s entrance road, she drove the short distance to the gate booth. The family employed teenagers and senior citizens in part-time positions at the booth. Overnight guests of the resort were issued passes to allow them entrance, but day users of the boat launch, picnic or swimming areas were charged five dollars’ admission per vehicle.
She spoke through her open car window to the seventysomething man currently working the booth. “The man in the car behind me is a guest, Mac. Wave him on through, okay?”
“Will do, Shelby.”
The paved road forked just beyond the gate. Staying straight led to the campground—forty RV and camper sites with concrete pads and electric and water hookups, and a central unpaved area for more basic tent-camping enthusiasts. Half of the RV slots were waterfront sites, while the others were shaded by trees, within view and easy walking distance of the lake. Shelby turned right, driving past the boat-and-trailer parking lot toward the large L-shaped building that housed the offices, marina, a diner and a convenience store offering food and camping and fishing supplies. Behind the boat-trailer parking lot was a grassy compound holding a large pavilion, charcoal grills, tennis and basketball courts, and a children’s playground. The pavilion was often rented out for family and high school reunions, corporate and church functions, and birthday parties. Even a few weddings had taken place there.