Lex tilted her head toward the far table. “Now be a good girl and go home to Papa.”

Mimi turned to George and leaned her face in close. “I hope I see you sometime?”

He gave a confident movie-star impression. “You just might.”

She sashayed away.

Lex regarded George with a neutral face and burning eyes. His smile faltered.

Over his shoulder, she spotted the waitress approaching. She snapped up a hand. “I need a box.” Lex glanced at George’s untouched crab. He’d been too busy spewing out pheromones. “He will too.”

The waitress nodded and hurried away.

George blinked in astonishment. “You didn’t like the crab?”

“I’m not hungry.”

He seemed deaf to her clipped tone. “That’s good. Lower calorie intake will definitely – ”

She couldn’t believe him. “Do yourself a favor and stop talking.”

He halted mid-sentence, his mouth open, but recovered quickly.

“Ah… Lex, your brother and I are good friends.”

Another lowering suspicion shot tension down her spine. “And?”

“You see him pretty often, right?”

She pressed her mouth together and regarded him with a narrowed gaze.

“Can you ask him to pay you back for my half of tonight’s dinner? I, uh… I’m out of cash.”

NINE

Richard was so dead. He was deader than dead.

Lex jammed her key into the lock and pushed her way into the house. She’d like to indulge in a good slamming, banging, crashing fit, but Dad was sleep -

“Hey, Lex.”

“Dad? Why are you still up?” Lex closed the door and dropped her bag on the couch.

He struggled to sit up in the recliner. “How’d your date go?”

Lex glowered at the Styrofoam boxes. “I got leftovers.” And she didn’t have anything better she could say about it.

He sighed. “I hoped he might be a nice guy.”

Lex froze on her way to the kitchen. Dad hadn’t even paid attention to her love life when she’d been fantasizing over ’N Sync. “Why?”

He shrugged, a floppy up-and-down motion with his shoulders, letting his arms hang down.

It usually meant he was hiding something.

“Why the sudden interest, Dad?” Lex thrust every ounce of steel into her voice so he wouldn’t avoid her question.

He peeked sidelong at her. Lex crossed her arms.

“Well, I’m going to bed.” He hoisted himself up from the recliner.

Lex slid into the doorway to the hall and blocked it with her body.

She set her mouth in a firm line and glared.

It didn’t always work, but it did tonight. He seemed to sag as he stood there. “Grandma called.”

Lex closed her eyes and resisted the urge to bang her head against the doorframe. “About?”

“Complaining you weren’t dating enough. Not making enough of an effort.” He wouldn’t look at her.

“What else?”

He didn’t answer for a long moment. Lex wondered what else Grandma had put into his ear that he wasn’t telling her. Finally he sighed. “Do you think you could try to find a nice boy to date? Just to make Grandma happy.”

The words struck like a blow from a sword into her gut. A spasm tightened her stomach, then disappeared. She inhaled a shallow breath.

Dad never asked anything of her. Never. He let her find her own way, do her own thing. He made her stand her ground against Richard, he let her choose whatever interested her in college.

This was like the warrior on his knees.

“Yeah, Dad. I’ll find somebody.” The words sounded strong and sure despite working around the tightness in her throat. “I’ll make sure he’s a Suns fan.”

Dad smiled like his old self. Lex moved aside so he could shuffle off to bed.

“Oh, Lex.” His voice echoed down the small hallway. “Mr.

Tomoyoshi called. He said to tell you he’s sorry, but he can’t sponsor the girls’ team.”

What?! Lex turned to stare at her father. Did she hear the wrong thing? “He said no?”

Dad nodded. “Why’d you ask him? Isn’t Grandma sponsoring your team?”

“Ah…” Lex’s mind scrambled. “She might not after Mariko’s wedding. So, I’m asking people just in case.” Oh no! What if Grandma found out? “But don’t say anything, okay, Dad? Grandma didn’t say for sure she wouldn’t do it, and she’d be hurt I was looking.”

Her father nodded and headed back down the hallway with a yawn.

Well, Lex would have to be satisfied with that. She didn’t even want to consider what would happen if Grandma found out.

She’d have already talked to Robyn if she hadn’t been late… Yeah, yeah. Story of her life.

Her grass doubles match now over, Lex gulped water from her Nalgene bottle and looked around for Robyn. She’d just seen her…

“Good game, Lex.” Kin-Mun, her doubles partner, toasted her with his own water bottle and swiped at the sweat pouring down his face.

“You too.” They’d committed to this tournament weeks ago, and Lex had worried that there would be awkwardness because of their almost-date. She had discovered that her initial feelings of complete devastation – okay, maybe it hadn’t been that dramatic – had dissipated as quickly and completely as water on a hot hibachi grill, but she wasn’t sure how Kin-Mun would feel.

She shouldn’t have even wasted the neurons. She didn’t understand how, but Kin-Mun chose to pretend nothing had happened, and they’d played together as fluidly as usual. They’d returned to their competitive, easy-going, platonic relationship with unbelievable ease. Lex supposed that was a good thing. Kin-Mun was the best doubles partner she’d played with yet.

“You were on fire.” Kin-Mun grinned.

Yeah, she felt on fire right now despite the cool temperature. She fished her towel out of her bag and tried to stop Niagara Falls from pouring down her forehead. “Have you seen Robyn?”

“I saw her at registration earlier.”

“I arrived at the tournament late, so I couldn’t talk to her before we started. Where is she now?”

Kin-Mun used his extra inches of height to scan the grass tournament grounds. “Far side, near court three, talking to Jill.”

Lex hoofed it over to court three. Robyn knew practically everyone who played volleyball – she would know whom Lex could approach about sponsoring the girls’ team. Lex hoped she could broach the touchy topic of money with Robyn alone and with tact, for a change.

Robyn smiled and waved hello at Lex but didn’t pause her conversation with Jill. Sounded like something to do with the Nikkei Volleyball League that put on this grass tournament. Lex shifted to one foot, ready to wait.

“Lex!”

Her least-favorite person at the moment approached, sticking out from the T-shirt-clad crowd in his stylish jeans and some designer shirt that made him look muscular. Lex felt mad enough and powerful enough to take Richard down, right there in the middle of the park. She opened her mouth to lash into him when she saw he’d brought a human shield – an okay-looking guy, Richard’s age and probably single. Had Richard talked to Dad? Did he know he was in the doghouse?

Lex gave him a feral smile. “Richard. My most favorite, chaaah-ming brother.”

He froze, hand still lifted in a welcoming wave. “What have I done now?”

“George, you doofus.”

Richard had the grace to wince. “I told him not to do anything stupid.”

“Oh, you mean like open his mouth?”

Richard’s smile became pained. “Uh… Lex, I came up because I wanted to introduce you to my friend, Aiden.” He gestured to the non-descript guy hanging back behind him.

Aiden held out his hand, light eyes intense on Lex’s face. “Hi.”

She returned his brief, firm handshake, and a quiver raced up her arm and down to her toes. Must be nerves. “Hi.”

She wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be civil to another of Richard’s friends. She peeked over at Robyn – still deep in conversation with Jill.