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eyes meeting his. “I promised him I’d get his company back. I knew in order to do that, I was going to need all the education and experience I could get.”
    He sat there for a moment, too stunned to speak. He had always known that she was on some sort of mission to take over the company, but he had never imagined that it was an instruction that had come from Howard Lawrence himself.
    â€œBut I still play tennis,” she said. “At least, as much as I can. I’ve even fantasized about investing in a tennis camp one day. Either on my own or through Lawrence…and now we’re back on business.” She grinned apologetically and shrugged. “I’m not very good at this small talk, am I?” Without giving him a chance to answer, she asked, “What are you doing for Christmas?”
    â€œI’m sure I’ll be working,” he said. He wanted to question Lessa more about her promise to her father, but now was not the time. Not with Sabrina lurking about. He had to take advantage of Lessa’s question to steer the conversation back to neutral ground.
    â€œAt the office?”
    â€œNo. I usually visit one of the resorts,” he said.
    â€œNot exactly Norman Rockwell.”
    â€œNorman Rockwell?”
    â€œThe big family sitting around the table while the father carves the turkey. My aunt is always apologizing for my lack of family. She blames herself for not having children. She’d like nothing better than the big family gathering, crammed with kids and noise.”
    â€œWell, if noise is what you’re looking for, you’d lovemy family get-togethers. Deafening.” He smiled and said, “My brother and sister aren’t too bad, but I have a big extended family. Lots of cousins, nieces and nephews. Family dinners are pretty crazy. “
    â€œYour brother and sister are married?”
    â€œThey’ve both been married and divorced. In fact, my sister is about to get married again.”
    She took a sip of her wine. “So you’re the only one who has never been married?”
    â€œOr divorced, as the case may be. I’m the anomaly. They can’t quite figure me out. So every time we all get together the big discussion is usually about who they are going to fix me up with.”
    â€œBut you hardly need help finding dates.”
    â€œApparently they don’t like my choices.”
    â€œYou’ve brought a lot of girlfriends home?”
    â€œI’ve only made that mistake a couple of times.” He shook his head. “Disasters. But then again, they all loved Karen.” All these years later, it was still difficult to talk about her.
    â€œKaren?”
    â€œI was engaged a long time ago.”
    Conversation died and the room seemed to go quiet. So much for neutral ground. Why had he mentioned Karen? He never spoke of her. Most people at the office had no idea he’d ever been engaged.
    â€œAnd what happened? No, let me guess. You stood her up at the altar in front of three hundred guests.”
    â€œNo.” Let it go, he warned himself. Switch the subject. But for some reason, he couldn’t. It was the way she was looking at him, so certain that her impression of him as a cold, uncaring bastard was correct. “She died.”
    She sat still, stunned.
    â€œI was still in grad school. I was studying, so I asked her to come to my apartment after work. She was half a block away when a drunk driver hit her. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment. To pick up the phone and hear a stranger tell me that she wasn’t coming home…that she was never coming home.”
    â€œI’m so sorry.”
    He expected her to glance away, to do what most people did when they found out. To make some off-the-cuff comment and attempt to change the subject, but she didn’t. She looked straight at him and said, “I can’t imagine anything more awful. You must miss her.”
    â€œWe