“I heard about your accident yesterday,” Eric commented. “How are you feeling today?”
“Like I got hit by a Buick,” Geoff answered wryly. “I’ve got some fresh-squeezed orange juice in my office. Want a glass? Or I could have someone bring you a cup of coffee.”
The quickness with which Eric accepted reinforced Geoff’s suspicion that he was in for a brotherly interrogation. “Orange juice sounds good, thanks. CeCe’s the coffee fanatic in our family.”
“CeCe?”
Eric shrugged as he followed Geoff into the spacious office. “I’ve called her that since I was a toddler. She raised me, you know. Our mother was always away at one job or another and Cecilia, who’s eleven years older, was my substitute mom—except for the two years she was married when I was between eight and ten.”
“She still seems to have very maternal feelings toward you.” Geoff handed Eric a crystal goblet of ice-cold juice.
Eric accepted it with thanks, took a chair, then remarked as Geoff sank into his own chair, “You seem to be moving sort of stiffly today. Pretty sore, huh?”
“You can say that again.” Geoff opened a drawer in his desk, pulled out a bottle of ibuprofen, shook a couple into his palm and washed them down with orange juice.
“So how’s your bike?”
Geoff grimaced. “It’s in ICU at the Harley shop. It’s a mess, but fixable.”
“So you’re keeping it?”
“Of course I’m keeping it. I love that bike.”
“Never had one, myself. CeCe would’ve had a nervous breakdown if I’d even suggested it.”
“She does seem to have a rather marked aversion to motorcycles.”
&nb
sp; “I guess they remind her too much of her dad. Understandable, I suppose.”
Geoff leaned back in his chair, studying the younger man’s somber face. “What do you mean?”
Eric’s dark eyebrows lifted, an expression that reminded Geoff forcibly of Cecilia. The Mendoza siblings were certainly a good-looking pair. “CeCe hasn’t told you about her father?”
“No, she hasn’t really mentioned him. I know he died when she was young.”
“Yeah. He died in a freak whitewater accident. Capsized and broke his neck on a submerged boulder.”
Geoff winced as he remembered his ill-tempered comment about Cecilia being afraid he had broken his neck before he fulfilled their bargain. “I, uh, didn’t know that.”
“Apparently, he was a real daredevil. Always doing something dangerous, keeping his wife and daughter worried about him. He raced motorcycles, nearly got himself killed on them a couple of times before the kayaking accident.”
Damn it, why hadn’t she told him? This information explained so much about the way she had reacted when she heard about Geoff’s accident.
“She doesn’t like to talk about her dad. Neither did our mother. I don’t know a lot about Cecilia’s father, but I know neither one of them ever fully recovered from his death.”
Not only had Geoff unwittingly brought all those painful memories back, he’d even snarled at her when she had shown concern for him. He wished he had known all this sooner. He felt like a heel.
“So,” Eric said after draining his glass, “when are you leaving town again?”
Was that a hint? “In a week or two. The arrangements are still sort of tentative.”
Eric nodded. “I suppose you’ll be glad to get back to a big city. You must be getting pretty bored with the limited entertainment Merlyn County has to offer.”
“No, actually I haven’t been at all bored.”
“Mmm.” Eric gave him a long, measuring look. “I haven’t seen much of my sister lately. I understand she’s been spending a lot of her spare time with you. Anything I should know about?”