In what seemed like slow motion, Genevieve batted her eyelashes at him. The desire rose in him so fast that Lucio had to adjust his trousers, a move that HeatherLynn didn’t much like. He reassured the little dog in his lap with a pat to her head.
“Go on, Rox,” Teeny said, raising his wine glass. “I’m on the edge of my seat over here waiting to hear about your choice of footwear.”
“Right,” Roxanne said, nodding seriously. “It’s gotta be some type of thigh-high animal-hide boot, you know? It needs to be laced up the front.”
“Sounds like Pocahontas on steroids,” Bea said.
Teeny’s laugh was so loud the whole pack of sleeping dogs raised their heads to make sure all was well. It wasn’t until that moment that Lucio realized the evening had been spent in the company of six dogs of varying breeds and temperaments, ranging in size from Rick’s huge mutt, Chen, to little Señorita Chiquita in his lap. Then there was Rick’s small yappy terrier mix, Tara, and Roxanne’s muzzled brown dog, who looked like she wanted to relax but didn’t know how, growling at poor clueless Chen for no reason at all. Rounding out the canine crowd was Josie’s fun-loving Genghis, and Bea’s Martina, a sleek and intelligent animal with better manners than most of the humans he’d run across.
Truth be told, Lucio had never been interested in socializing with dogs—unless they were pulling his sled through the tundra. The only purpose for this particular pack of canines was the joy they brought to their humans. He had to admit the arrangement wasn’t bad.
“You’re just jealous,” Roxanne reprimanded Bea, laughing. “My idea puts yours to shame.”
Bea waved a hand through the air, then casually scratched Martina behind her ears. “Mine’s more practical. More people can relate to it.”
Lucio had to agree. Bea had asked for a photo of dog and owner on the tennis court, Martina photographed in midair, jumping over the net to catch a tennis ball in her mouth. Lucio thought it sounded fun, and knew the perfect setting would be Rick’s tennis courts, right here on the estate, at sunset.
“Besides,” Bea continued. “Where are you going to find an Amazon Woman outfit on short notice?”
“I know where,” Josh said matter-of-factly. “Our drama club rents from this costume warehouse in the city—they have everything, I’m telling you. Batgirl. Nefertiti. Slutty nurses.”
Lucio started laughing before anyone else, mostly because of the horrified look on Genevieve’s face.
“Dear God,” she said under her breath.
“Sorry, Mom, but you can’t protect us from the world.” Josh shoved another taquito into his mouth and swallowed it whole. “That freaky stuff is everywhere in society today—especially in San Francisco. But don’t worry, we know how to keep it in perspective.”
“You just have to trust our judgment,” Jason added with a reassuring nod.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Genevieve said, trying to smile over clenched teeth.
Josh finished wiping his mouth on a napkin. “I can give you the name of the place,” he said to Lucio. “I’ll even volunteer to do all the costuming for the photo shoots. I’ve worked backstage at our school’s theater productions for years!”
“Wonderful,” Lucio said, reaching across to give Josh a high five.
“And I’ll do the rest of the Web site design and get it listed with search engines,” Jason said. “Once we get some sample portraits we’ll be ready to go online. I’m working on the MySpace and Facebook sites, too.”
“Great!” Lucio high-fived Jason, as well.
“As soon as your posters are ready, I’ll make sure they’re up at all the stores,” Rick said.
“My thanks to you, as always,” Lucio said, bowing as deeply as he could manage with a small dog in his lap.
“My pleasure.”
“We have our idea, too,” Josie said from her nest under Rick’s arm. She looked quickly to Rick, who nodded for her to do the honors. Josie sat forward on the love seat.
“Rick and I are on the Harley, right?” When everyone started to chuckle, she smiled. “We’ve decided to go totally over-the-top with the black leather stuff. Chains, shades, and tattoos. Well, mine will be fake.”
Teeny laughed.
“And the three dogs—they’ll be dressed exactly like us. Little helmets, sunglasses, vests, the whole deal.”
Bea shook her head. “Good luck pulling that off.”
Rick gestured to the haphazard pile of dogs on the porch floor near his feet. “Our pack is pretty mellow. They spend all day running the property, so with Lucio’s expertise I think they’ll be able to sit still long enough to get the shot.”
Lucio nodded in approval. So far, the ideas from the group had been outstanding. But no one had even inquired about Genevieve’s pose with HeatherLynn, and Lucio was itching to make the big reveal.
He was about to toot his own horn when Bea, bless her, barged in. “How about your shoot, Ginger? How did it go?”
Genevieve gave Lucio a sheepish smile. “I’ll let you be the judge.”
“You brought it?” Josie said, scooting to the edge of the love seat.
“Mm-hmm,” Genevieve said. “Be right back.”
Lucio watched as she rose from her wicker chair and headed for the front door of the ranch house. He couldn’t help himself—he admired her tall elegance, the sweet indentations at the back of her legs, her soft heels, the swish of her lovely ass. Lucio felt Rick’s eyes boring into the side of his head, and knew he’d been caught.
He turned, nodding ever so slightly to Rick, hoping his friend would see that he was pleading guilty to being crazy about Genevieve.
Rick’s eyes got big and he dropped his jaw. “Damn,” he whispered, shaking his head.
“What?” Josie asked her husband.
“That was incredibly fast,” Rick said. When he noticed the strange looks from the crowd, he amended his comment. “The photo,” he said. “What I meant was that Lucio sure got that picture together fast.”
“Everyone ready?” Genevieve stood before the group on the front porch, the blank side of the large poster board visible between her shapely, long legs. The only sound was the slap! of the screen door as it closed behind her. Everyone was frozen in quiet anticipation.
Genevieve flashed her eyes at Lucio for the go-ahead. “Whenever you wish,” he said, smiling at her.
“Ta-da!” She whipped the horizontal eleven-by-seventeen glossy blowup from behind her back, flipping it so the image was on display for all to see.
Lucio was thrilled. The reaction was precisely what he’d hoped for. There were a few seconds of complete silence, followed by dropping jaws, then an outburst of laughter, surprise, and squeals of delight.
Bea was on her feet. “Look at you, girl!” she said, laughing. She then made a few whoop-whoop-whoop sounds while pumping her fist through the air.
“Awesome, Mom!” Josh called out. “And look at HeatherLynn’s little beehive! It’s perfect!”
It really was, Lucio had to admit to himself, smiling. Somewhere in the stream of treats and titillating talk, he’d captured one single perfect image: HeatherLynn’s face pointed right at the camera, her little pink tongue licking her lips, while Genevieve lay stretched out on her side, all long and languid curves, a few sand grains stuck to the glistening pink of her flat belly, her eyes simmering with the kind of overt sexuality the original 1960s TV Ginger could never have gotten away with.
Everyone got to their feet and crowded around the print. Teeny took it from Genevieve’s hands and held it in the middle of the huddling group. “Unbelievable,” he breathed. “Wow! Ginger—you’re amazing!”
Josie looked up from the image, her eyes huge. “Good God, Garrison,” she whispered. “I think you missed your calling!”
Rick nodded slowly. “Nice, man,” he said to Lucio, chuckling in shock. “Real nice.”
“You sure you want this on the Internet?” Roxie asked, her brow furrowed. “You don’t know who might see it.
I mean—” Her eyes darted to Josh and Jason, then back to Genevieve. “It might attract the attention of one of those ‘he was a quiet man and mostly kept to himself’ serial killers prowling the Web for his next victim!”
Lucio laughed, as always, amused at Roxie’s worst-possible-scenario view of anything related to man-woman relationships.
“Well,” Josie said, sitting back down. “You’ve set the bar pretty high, Ginger. The rest of us have our work cut out for us.”
“You’re going to make a ton of money, Lucio,” Bea said, walking over to slap him on the back. The affectionate tap nearly caused him to spill his wine all over HeatherLynn, who was still asleep in his lap. “Every dog owner I know is going to want one of these. I hope you’re ready for the demand you’re going to unleash.”
Lucio looked around at his crowd of friends and raised his glass in thanks. “Thanks to all of you, I most certainly am.”
“I owe you one, Genghis,” Lucio mumbled, watching as the fun-loving Labradoodle ran off with the last intact shuttlecock on Samhain Ranch. Blessedly, the badminton tournament had come to a standstill.
“I’ll check in the barn again,” Teeny said with a great sigh. “I swear there’s some more in there somewhere.”
“Have mercy on me, Teeny,” Lucio whispered in his teammate’s ear. “Come up empty-handed, I beg of you!”
Teeny laughed as he jogged off to the barn.
“We’re gonna take you down, sucka!” Joshua said, making theatrically threatening hand gestures from the opposite side of the net.
“Yeah,” Bea called out, laughing. “Is that all you got for us, pretty boy?”
Lucio chuckled as he wiped the sweat off his brow.
“You are a far better woman than I, Bea. I need a break.”
She laughed again, giving her teenage teammate a victorious high five.
Smiling, Lucio strolled across the lawn to the shaded stone wall, where he ditched the badminton racket. He surveyed the ranch for any sign of Genevieve. Josie and Jason were still on the front porch, talking about her trip to the North Pole. Rick and Roxie had taken the horses out for a ride. Teeny was running toward the barn. Lucio was puzzled. Granted, it was a huge property, but Genevieve was nowhere to be seen.
He decided to try to find her. Lucio took a path through the gardens, remembering that first night they’d spoken, when he’d advised her that he’d be no good for her and, with a trembling hand, she’d given him her card. It was just two months ago, but it seemed like another lifetime.
He’d been filled with self-pity that night, ruminating over how he was nothing without his career. It made Lucio smile to think how drastically his perception had changed. Now, he knew how much he had missed when his career was his only passion. He walked farther, noticing the tall gardenias to his right, recalling how Genevieve’s shoulder had brushed against the flowers as she approached him, sending their scent into the evening air. He reached toward the flowers, cradled a single blossom in his hand and inhaled. It was a fragrance he’d always associate with her. He picked the bloom to take along with him, sure that Rick and Josie wouldn’t mind.
Lucio continued his stroll through the gardens, stopping long enough to nibble on a few ripe raspberries before he turned onto the crushed-stone path that would eventually take him to the pool and tennis courts. This entire area of the ranch was bordered by a row of tall, flowering hedges that filled the air with a light, intoxicating perfume.
He stopped in mid-stride. In a thick carpet of grass in the shade of the hedges, Genevieve was curled up, asleep, HeatherLynn in the crook of her knees. The dog heard Lucio approach and her tail began to wag, but Lucio put his finger to his lips, knowing she’d understand. Silently, he drew near, then lowered himself to the grass right next to Genevieve. He tucked the hollyhock blossom into HealtherLynn’s pink leather collar, then gently adjusted Genevieve so that her head rested in his lap.
Lucio didn’t speak. He didn’t move. He fought back the desire to touch her silky hair in exchange for the pleasure of watching her sleep. HeatherLynn stretched and yawned, then toddled off across the lawn, flower in her hair, swinging her little fancy dog butt. Lucio chuckled to himself.
He looked up to the evening sky and could hardly believe where he found himself—the woman, the boys, the dog, good friends, the city of San Francisco. It was shocking to think that just two months ago, none of these things were as important to him as clearing his name and getting his Geographica contract reinstated. Everything had changed the night Genevieve Garrison fainted in his arms. Ironically, now that he’d taken steps to clear his name and put the blame where it belonged, it didn’t seem all that important anymore.
She stirred. Her lips parted and she absently rubbed the tip of her nose, still not fully awake. Lucio leaned down. “Te amo, Genevieve,” he whispered, just before he kissed her tenderly.
She kissed him back, which meant she’d either been awake to hear his profession of love or had woken up in mid-kiss, oblivious to his confession. Lucio realized that either way was all right with him. There was nothing he wanted to keep secret. He loved her. That was a fact.
“Please don’t tell me I fainted again,” Genevieve whispered.
“And the kiss was merely my attempt to revive you, Señora Garrison.”
She giggled, adjusting her head on his lap. She brought a hand up to softly stroke his thigh. “You really did, you know. You revived me.”
“Hmm, that is a nice way to see it. Very romantic.”
“Extremely.”
Lucio allowed his hand to play in her hair. He noticed that she felt warm to the touch. “Are you feeling all right, bonita?”
“Sure, just tired. I came out here to sit a minute and was lulled to sleep by the perfume of the bushes—isn’t it glorious?”
“It is.”
“Lucio?”
“Hmm?”
“I heard what you said.”
Lucio’s heart began to thump wildly. He had never told a woman he loved her—and actually meant it. Early on, he told women he loved them as a matter of strategy. He’d told Alma to see if it would convince her to take off her panties. It worked like a charm, and within three months she was his child bride. Lucio told a few girls he encountered early in his career that he loved them. He’d said it to Sylvie, knowing that he was an insincere cad. It was shameful to recall. He told Sylvie he loved her, and then he left. The cowardly act ate away at his soul for years, but at least it cured him of ever doing it again. And if there were just one mistake he could take back—in a lifetime of them—hurting Sylvie would be it.
But with Genevieve, it was so different. Lucio was a grown man. He had known many women. But he had never known a woman who made him laugh like Genevieve, made him look forward to each regular day like Genevieve, made him a slave to his passion like Genevieve. It was a curious thing, this love he had for her, because it had given Lucio permission to simply be. With this lovely woman at his side, he was able to fully experience the present moment, instead of plotting his next move, his next trip, his next challenge.
Genevieve sat up, her hair falling across her face as she climbed up to sit fully on his lap. He put his arms around her waist as she wrapped hers around his neck.
“I love you, too, Lucio,” she whispered. “I love you with all my heart.”
He nodded, swallowing back a surge of emotion he’d not expected and didn’t know how to handle. It would not do for him to cry, of course. He had not cried since his mother’s death.
“Then it’s official,” he said. “We love each other.”
“It’s been official for a while now,” Ginger said, a touch of humor in her voice.
“It has?”
“Sure. Roxie, Bea, and Josie figured it out a couple weeks ago.”
Lucio chuckled. “And Rick figured it out today, on the porch. He caught me staring at you.”
“And if Rick knows, then Teeny does.”
“And how about your boys?” Lucio asked. ?
??Do they know?”
Genevieve unlocked her arms from his neck and straightened, looking down into Lucio’s eyes. Her face was so beautiful. It was the center of his world.
“Of course they do, silly,” she said, smiling. “Even HeatherLynn knows.”
Lucio laughed. “How could she not, after your photo shoot?”
Genevieve laughed. It was a heartfelt and joyful sound. And as she laughed, every glorious wrinkle, every lovely furrow, every one of her crow’s-feet came to life on her face.
Lucio grinned. He’d seen so much of the world—the frozen cathedral of Mount Everest, the impenetrable tangle of life along the Amazon, the awe-inspiring mystery of Machu Picchu—and all of it had stirred his soul, most certainly. But it wasn’t until right then that he’d discovered his favorite spot on earth, the place that afforded him the single most spectacular view available on the planet.
It was the happy face of the woman he loved.
CHAPTER 16
“Sit, sit. Coffee?”
“No, thanks.” Lucio took one of the chairs in the sitting room of Sydney Frankel’s downtown office, a little annoyed that his agent had insisted he take time to visit him in person. He’d told Lucio he had an “intriguing idea” to discuss with him.
“Am I getting the Erskine? Did they change their minds?” had been Lucio’s first question.
“No, unfortunately. Their decision to rescind the award was final.”
“But why? Didn’t they care that we had proof that Ilsa Knauss set me up?” Lucio was dumbfounded. “¿Hostia! What do they want from me?”
“I’m sorry,” Sydney said, looking down. “Their decision was final. They’ll be announcing the new winner any day.”
Lucio fell back into the leather chair in Sydney’s office, crossing his legs, though he knew he’d never be comfortable. He was too angry to be comfortable.
“It is unfair,” Lucio said, shaking his head. “That is my award.”
Sydney nodded. “There is always next year.”
Lucio looked away, staring out the window. “Any word on who’s getting it?”
Sydney sighed softly. “The rumor is Kieran O’Shaunessey, but it’s not official.”