"I think it might have been a club a long time ago, but I don't know if the door was red. You need to talk to Ellen; she owns the building. She works most days."
"Her clerk said she'd be in tomorrow."
"Then she's your best bet."
"Thanks," she said as she paid for the gelato, waving off Jax's offer of a twenty-dollar bill.
They headed outside to a table on the patio. "Looks like we might be right about the club being in the basement," she said as they sat down.
He nodded as he spooned up some gelato and took a bite.
"Well?" she asked impatiently. "Do you like it?"
"Very good. Both flavors. Excellent choices. I don't think I've had black cherry before."
She was probably happier than she should be that she'd picked something he liked. "Now that you know you can trust me with your gelato order, maybe you can tell me something else about yourself."
"We made a deal, Kaia."
"I know. But your reluctance to talk about yourself makes me more curious, not less. Tell me something, anything. It could be small. Your favorite color, your first car, what you like to eat for breakfast. How hard could that be?"
He took several more bites of gelato, then said, "I like a dark forest green, and I often eat eggs for breakfast. Happy?"
"Not really, but thanks for sharing," she said dryly.
"My first car was a beat-up old truck. It felt like a Ferrari to me."
Now they were getting somewhere. "Did you buy it yourself?"
"Inherited it from my grandfather. And that's all I'm saying about that."
"We were just getting started."
"Why do you care who I am?" he challenged.
"You're my neighbor, my partner in investigating a long-ago nightclub, so it would be nice to know more about you."
"My life story is not that interesting. And we're not partners investigating a crime."
"I didn't say crime. I think it's an unrequited love story. And I doubt your story is boring. If it were, you'd be happy to share. Trust me, I've listened to a lot of men tell me the most boring stories about their lives that you could ever imagine. I dated a dentist once, and let's just say I know more about flossing than I ever wanted to know."
His blue eyes sparkled and as he fought back a smile, she felt her stomach clench. He really was a very attractive man, especially when he wasn't trying so hard to look cold and disinterested.
"I can't believe the men you've met are that boring," he said.
"Most guys are far more interested in talking about themselves than getting to know me. They ask very few questions."
"Maybe that's because you're the one asking too many questions."
"I really didn’t ask about floss."
This time a small laugh escaped his lips. "Fair enough. So, what is your story?"
"You want me to share while you stay silent?"
"You just said no one has been interested in getting to know you or asking questions. But if you don't want to talk, that's fine. We can stick to our rules."
"That's a clever turn of the tables, trapped by my own words." She thought about it for a moment, then said, "I'm the middle child. I have an older brother, Ben. He's a detective and lives at Ocean Shores. You might have run into him at some point."
