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Authors: Jane Toombs
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blue?”
“Never thought about it. What’s that have to do with my wanting to haul you back in my arms and kiss you senseless?”
“More than you think. The exact shade of youreyes and what to do about this—this unreasonable attraction are both questions I can’t find an answer to.” She turned away from him, putting temptation behind her, and began walking toward town.
He followed her. As they reached the wooden sidewalk, he said, “Still friends?”
“We’re certainly not enemies.” She heard the tartness in her voice with a smidgen of dismay. It wouldn’t be wise to start blaming David when they were both guilty. Lust was a perfectly normal human condition, not wrong if two people harmed no one by giving into it.
The problem for her was that she’d decided to be his secret shrink. How in the world could she accomplish that if they became involved in an affair? Since she wasn’t officially his therapist, though, and he had no notion she was even his covert one, it actually wasn’t a professional therapist-patient association where sexual involvement of any kind was an emphatic no-no.
Still, she felt she had to give up one thing or the other. Should she forget trying to help him, even though she believed he was in denial about the past, and plunge headlong into an affair, or should she retreat to a precarious friendship and try to help him? How could she ever reach a decision?
“Hungry?” he asked. “The food’s not bad in there.”
She glanced around, saw they were walking past an old-time casino called the Bucket of Blood and shook her head. “Not yet. The cone filled me up.”She meant to stop there, but more words spilled out. “You tasted minty.”
“And you tasted like maple-nut.” He grinned at her, took her hand and, holding it, swung their joined hands between them as they continued along the wooden sidewalk.
Unaccountably, her spirits lifted. She might not have made a decision, but that could wait until tomorrow. She and David still had the rest of the day to spend together and she was going to do her best to enjoy it. Who knows, maybe by some miracle they could manage to be just friends.
Her inner voice whispered Yeah, and maybe you’ll look up tomorrow and see turtles flying in the thermals with the hawks.
Chapter Five
D avid spent Sunday, Monday and Tuesday trying to convince himself he didn’t want to get entangled with any woman, no matter how hot he was for Amy. Apparently she felt the same because he didn’t catch so much as a glimpse of her while he worked in Aunt Gert’s yard.
On Wednesday morning, when he parked his pickup in front of his aunt’s place, she hailed him from the front porch. “Amy tells me she’s moving to your apartment complex this weekend. I hope you’re planning to help her with the move.”
News to him that she’d called Tom and agreed to take the apartment. He’d figured she might back out. “Amy hasn’t asked me,” he said.
“Don’t be an idiot. Of course not. She probablyhas some peculiar notion about not bothering you. You need to offer.”
He shrugged. “Okay, tell her I’ve offered.”
Aunt Gert gave him an approving nod. “Plan to have breakfast here with us at nine on Saturday.”
“Thanks, I will.”
There wasn’t a sign of Amy all that day. When he got home that evening, he found a manila envelope in the mail with no return address and an Albuquerque postmark. Inside was a page clipped from the Albuquerque Journal with a write-up of Iris Fenton and Brent Murdock’s June wedding—an elaborate affair, Iris in a white bridal gown, Murdock in a tux. An unsigned note tucked in with it had “So what about this?” scrawled across it in what David felt almost sure was the same handwriting as the anonymous note he’d gotten before he left New Mexico.
It didn’t surprise him Murdock had married Iris. His ex-wife was a past master—or was it mistress?—at getting exactly what she wanted, never mind running roughshod
“Never thought about it. What’s that have to do with my wanting to haul you back in my arms and kiss you senseless?”
“More than you think. The exact shade of youreyes and what to do about this—this unreasonable attraction are both questions I can’t find an answer to.” She turned away from him, putting temptation behind her, and began walking toward town.
He followed her. As they reached the wooden sidewalk, he said, “Still friends?”
“We’re certainly not enemies.” She heard the tartness in her voice with a smidgen of dismay. It wouldn’t be wise to start blaming David when they were both guilty. Lust was a perfectly normal human condition, not wrong if two people harmed no one by giving into it.
The problem for her was that she’d decided to be his secret shrink. How in the world could she accomplish that if they became involved in an affair? Since she wasn’t officially his therapist, though, and he had no notion she was even his covert one, it actually wasn’t a professional therapist-patient association where sexual involvement of any kind was an emphatic no-no.
Still, she felt she had to give up one thing or the other. Should she forget trying to help him, even though she believed he was in denial about the past, and plunge headlong into an affair, or should she retreat to a precarious friendship and try to help him? How could she ever reach a decision?
“Hungry?” he asked. “The food’s not bad in there.”
She glanced around, saw they were walking past an old-time casino called the Bucket of Blood and shook her head. “Not yet. The cone filled me up.”She meant to stop there, but more words spilled out. “You tasted minty.”
“And you tasted like maple-nut.” He grinned at her, took her hand and, holding it, swung their joined hands between them as they continued along the wooden sidewalk.
Unaccountably, her spirits lifted. She might not have made a decision, but that could wait until tomorrow. She and David still had the rest of the day to spend together and she was going to do her best to enjoy it. Who knows, maybe by some miracle they could manage to be just friends.
Her inner voice whispered Yeah, and maybe you’ll look up tomorrow and see turtles flying in the thermals with the hawks.
Chapter Five
D avid spent Sunday, Monday and Tuesday trying to convince himself he didn’t want to get entangled with any woman, no matter how hot he was for Amy. Apparently she felt the same because he didn’t catch so much as a glimpse of her while he worked in Aunt Gert’s yard.
On Wednesday morning, when he parked his pickup in front of his aunt’s place, she hailed him from the front porch. “Amy tells me she’s moving to your apartment complex this weekend. I hope you’re planning to help her with the move.”
News to him that she’d called Tom and agreed to take the apartment. He’d figured she might back out. “Amy hasn’t asked me,” he said.
“Don’t be an idiot. Of course not. She probablyhas some peculiar notion about not bothering you. You need to offer.”
He shrugged. “Okay, tell her I’ve offered.”
Aunt Gert gave him an approving nod. “Plan to have breakfast here with us at nine on Saturday.”
“Thanks, I will.”
There wasn’t a sign of Amy all that day. When he got home that evening, he found a manila envelope in the mail with no return address and an Albuquerque postmark. Inside was a page clipped from the Albuquerque Journal with a write-up of Iris Fenton and Brent Murdock’s June wedding—an elaborate affair, Iris in a white bridal gown, Murdock in a tux. An unsigned note tucked in with it had “So what about this?” scrawled across it in what David felt almost sure was the same handwriting as the anonymous note he’d gotten before he left New Mexico.
It didn’t surprise him Murdock had married Iris. His ex-wife was a past master—or was it mistress?—at getting exactly what she wanted, never mind running roughshod
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