And then he looked at Callie and he was sure of it.
Crazy. That was the only word for it. He was crazy. Just being here went against every rule and every plan he’d made for himself.
He hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. He told himself it was because she represented such possibilities. Looking at her, he knew it was more than that. And now he knew something else.
The efficient, no-nonsense Callie he was used to at work fascinated and intrigued him. But there was another Callie. This one had sleepy eyes and a thoroughly kissable mouth and hair that glowed like a wild, golden cloud around her pretty face. No makeup. Bare feet. Lovely breasts that were emphasized by the way the cloth of her sweatshirt draped across them.
And suddenly he felt something he hadn’t felt for a long, long time. Deep, hungry, carnal desire.
He looked away quickly. Wow. This was no good. He didn’t want to feel sexually attracted, not like this. He needed distance so as to keep control.
“Hey,” he said, nodding to her and looking stormy on purpose. “I had a hell of a time finding you.”
“Really?” She shrugged nonchalantly. “And here I didn’t even know I was lost.”
“Oh, you were lost all right. At least to me. The employee card I used had your old address.”
She looked incredulous. “So you went to Buckaroo Court, looking for me?”
“Yeah.” He made a face. “Not exactly the garden spot of Dallas, is it?”
She sighed. “Not exactly. Which is why I moved over here as soon as I could.”
He nodded, and she frowned.
“And someone told you my new address?”
“Yes.” One dark eyebrow rose. “A semidelightful gentleman named Butch. He was throwing soapy water on his motorcycle in the driveway but kindly took a break to give me your whereabouts.”
“The so-called manager.” She shuddered. “More like the game warden.” Giving him a wise look, she added, “How much did he stick you for?”
“A cool twenty got me the information. I thought it was a bargain.”
She winced, eyes sparkling. “Yikes. I guess I’m going cheap these days.”
He shrugged. “I got a discount after I roughed him up a little.”
She gasped, then didn’t know whether to take him seriously or not. “You didn’t!”
He gave her a half smile, not ready to satisfy her curiosity. “Enough about Butch. He’s not very interesting anyway. I brought you your orchid.” He held up a brown paper bag and peeled back enough to show her a flower peeking from inside.
“So I see,” she said, looking at it warily, then shifting to look up into his eyes. “What do you want for it?”
He gave her a pained look. “See, that’s exactly why I brought it to you. I decided you were right. It wasn’t fair to hold your orchid as bait to draw you back. I ought to have enough faith in you to assume you’ll do the right thing without having to be coerced.”
“Thank you.” She snatched up her plant, hugged it to her chest, then looked at him gingerly. “But you see, that’s where you make your big mistake. Now that I’ve got my plant…”
“You’ll be so grateful, you’ll probably come early and camp on my doorstep,” he said, but his expression was cynical.
And she suppressed a smile. “Dream on.”
She peeked inside the bag. The orchid looked as though it enjoyed car trips. That was a relief. Her orchid was no longer held hostage.
Setting it down on the tiled window ledge alongside two others, she turned back to Grant. His lower lip looked even more swollen from this side and she could see evidence of stitches, though they were just about invisible. At least he’d let his sister take care of his injury.
“What happened to your important meetings?” she asked.
“I’ll make them. I only stopped by for a moment.”
Tina brought out coffee and doughnuts on a plate, prattling with small talk all the while. Callie and Grant sat cautiously on the couch, eyeing each other like two gunslingers meeting at the corral, each waiting for the other to move toward the doughnuts first.
Watching them, Tina grinned, then scooped up her baby, who was sucking on a red lollipop, and turned back to say goodbye.
“We’re going to the park,” she explained.
“Oh, don’t go!” Callie cried fervently.
But Tina merely gave her a wink. “We’ll be back soon.”
Callie hardly noticed the wink, because she was caught up in watching Grant’s reaction to Molly. He took one look at her and recoiled as though something had stung him. It was quickly apparent that he wanted to be as far away from the baby as he could get.
Tina didn’t seem to notice, and neither did Molly. The little girl gazed at him intently, then her chubby arms shot out as though asking him to take her from her mom.
“Da Da!” she cried, her eyes lighting up.
“No, honey,” Tina said, laughing. “That’s not your da da.”
Turning, she looked back over her shoulder at Callie.
“More’s the pity,” she muttered with a significant look. And then the two of them were out the door.
Grant reached out and took a piece of doughnut in his hand, then popped it into his mouth.
“So you live here with Tina,” he noted, reaching for his coffee next.
“And Molly,” Callie said. “Our little angel.”
He winced and avoided her gaze. At a glance, the little girl had looked just like Lisa. And thinking about Lisa was the one thing that rendered him helpless. He didn’t want to hear about Molly, or anything else that reminded him of his own baby.
“What does Tina do?”
She gave him a suspicious sideways look. “Why do you want to know?”
“I’m interested in you and your life.”
She turned to frown at him. “Why?”
He shrugged in exasperation. “Weren’t you the one telling me that you and your fellow workers were real human beings with real lives and not chess pieces? I’m trying to learn to be a better boss. I’m empathizing.”
For a moment, he thought she was going to laugh in his face.
“Right,” she said skeptically. “Okay, Mr. Sensitive, empathize this. Tina is a wonderful person. My best friend. She’s had some bad luck and hard knocks, and right now she’s in and out of remission of her cancer and trying to raise her baby on her own.”
“That’s insane,” he interjected coolly. “A woman with that sort of health danger has no business having a child.”
Her eyes widened and she looked at him as though he were a freak. “Sometimes these things are beyond our control.”
“Nothing’s ever beyond control.”
“Oh brother.” She rose from the couch and picked up her coffee cup. “You’re so wrong. I’ve been on a runaway roller coaster for years and I still haven’t found the brakes on the darn thing.”
“Maybe I can help you with that,” he said softly.
She stared at him and he stared right back. She tried so hard to keep a mask of quiet competence in place, but he was beginning to see through it. She wasn’t as good at hiding as she thought.