Blue Smoke

life, so waiting a little longer won’t hurt me.”
    “You’re a funny guy, Bowen.”
    “Yep. I can be a funny guy. I can be a serious guy, or an astute guy, or a casual guy. I am a guy of many facets. We could have dinner, and I could treat you to a few of them.”
    “Maybe. My partner ran you.”
    “Ran me where?”
    This time she laughed, stretched out her legs companionably. “Did a background check on you.”
    “No shit?” He looked fascinated rather than insulted. “Wow. Did I pass?”
    “Apparently.” Her forehead creased as she studied him. “Why aren’t you annoyed? I was annoyed.”

    “I don’t know. I guess it’s sort of interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever been run before.”
    “I have a big, noisy, irritating, often interfering, overprotective family. They’re the center of my life, even when I don’t want them to be.”
    “I’m the only child of a broken home. Feel my pain.”
    “You’re not in pain.”
    “Nope. Doesn’t mean I’m scared of your family either. I just want to touch you.” He ran a hand up her arm, over her shoulder, then brought her face around so their eyes met. “You may not be what I’ve got in my head, but it’s been there so long. I just want to find out.”
    “Relationships don’t stick to me. Maybe more accurately, I don’t stick to them. Have you considered how irritating it would be to end up living next door to each other if we end up hating each other?”
    “One of us would have to move. But in the meantime.” He reached behind him to open the front door, set the empty beer bottle inside. “Want to take a walk? I hear there’s a really good Italian place a few blocks away. We could grab a meal.”
    “All right.” She braced her hands on her knees and hoped she wasn’t making a mistake. “All right, let’s take a walk.”

15
    Reena walked the baby around Xander and An’s living room in their doll-sized apartment. Their packing-up process had already begun.
    She’d moved out of the apartment over Sirico’s, and now her brother and his little family would move in.
    The windows—both of them—were wide open so she could hear the traffic, and the shouts of kids playing in a nearby park.
    The baby had already burped, but Reena wasn’t ready to put him down yet. “So we’ve had dinner at Sirico’s. Twice. Sat out on his steps a couple of times. He drew up a design for a dining room table for me. It’s great. In fact, it’s perfect. I don’t know what to make of him.”
    “More to the point.” An continued to fold baby clothes. “Why haven’t you made him?”
    “Nice talk, Mommy.”
    “At the moment, due to childbirth, child rearing, work and preparing to move, my sex life is at a low ebb. I’ve got to get my thrills somewhere. How’s he in the kissing department?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “You haven’t kissed him?” An tossed down a onesie and clutched at her chest. “You moved in, what, three weeks ago? You’re breaking my heart.”
    “He works, I work.” Reena shrugged. “Even though we live next door, we don’t see each other every day. Maybe we’re making a pointnot to see each other every day. He hasn’t made a move. Neither have I. We’re sort of . . .” She twirled a finger in the air. “Circling it. I keep expecting him to. And I think he expects I’m expecting so he lays back, which keeps me just a little off balance. I have to admire that.”
    “Okay, you admire him, you’ve spent time with him, so you must enjoy him. You still have a pulse so you find him attractive. But you’re not jumping him.”
    “No.” Reena eased Dillon back so she could look into his face. “What’s wrong with me?”
    “Scares you a little, doesn’t he?”
    “I fear no man.” Could, would, not allow herself to. “Not even this one, who I believe has just filled his diaper admirably. Go to Mama, sweetie pie.”
    An took the baby, carried him to the bedroom the three of them currently shared. She laid him on the changing table. “I think he scares you a little,” she continued. “Xander scared me a little at first. He was so cute and funny, and he’s such a damn good doctor. I wanted to bite him in the throat. Then after we started seeing each other, I was really scared to meet your family. I had this image in my head. Sort of Sopranos—without the blood and murder and crime.”
    “Good to know.”
    “But the big family, the Italian family. How would a nice Chinese girl like me fit in with his