“What an exciting life you lead.” She was using a tiny file on what looked to be a ring held in a padded vise. She had put a black cloth around it to catch the gold shavings. “So far, the excitement here in Edilean beats everything I’ve done. Between your brother , who’s going to come after me with a shotgun when he remembers where he saw me, your sherif f wanting me to rescue injured tourists, and Joe belittling me because I don’ t know what an orbital router is, my dad is looking pretty good.” Kim laughed. “Orbital sander . A router is something else.” “ Et tu, Brute?” T ravis said as he put his hand to his heart. “Just ke eping you straight,” she said, smiling. He was looking at the papers and folders on the desk. “Speaking of straight, what is all this?” Kim groaned. “Money . Accounts. The bane of my life. I used to have a part-time secretary who put it all in the computer for me, but she got married and quit.” “Pregnant yet?” T ravis asked. “That seems to be the main occupation of this town. Y ou guys should invest in cable TV .” “You should try not watching TV ,” Kim retorted. “It’ s a lot of fun.” “You’ll have to show me sometime,” he said softly . Startled, Kim looked at him, but he had pulled the folders onto his lap and was reading the labels. “Mind if I look inside these? I know some about financial or ganization.” “If you don’ t mind seeing how much I make, and how much I spend on everything from groceries to diamonds, go ahead.” Kim tried to sound light, but she was actually holding her breath. Never before had she allowed a man other than her father to see her finances. Her success was what had ended her romantic relationships. But Travis was dif ferent. They were friends . She nearly choked on the thought. “Did you say something?” he asked. “No, nothing.” “Have these receipts been entered into some system?” “Not for weeks. My accountant is going to scalp me.” “Do you mind?” T ravis asked as he nodded at her computer . Kim shrugged. He could look if he wanted to. She listened as he settled into the chair and started going through the folders. She heard the click of
the keys, and now and then looked up, seeing him bent over the papers. She was sure that if anyone knew what she was doing she’d be told she was a fool for letting a man she hadn’ t seen since she was a child look at her accounting charts, but whatever else she had to say about T ravis, she trusted him. It was nearly two hours since T ravis had returned and they were in the kitchen together . He’d gone into her accounting software—but had insisted that she type in her password—and looked at the way her secretary had set it up. He asked if he could consolidate the accounts, and she’d said yes. After that he’d asked some questions about companies and about a few receipts, but for the most part they were quiet. All in all, it had been very pleasant working with him in the room. As they had when they were children, they just seemed to naturally meld together . “I can’t believe you drove all the way into W illiamsbur g and got barbeque,” Kim said as she pulled the package out of the fridge. As often happened, she hadn’ t thought aloud about dinner . She’d been surprised, and pleased, when T ravis said he’d brought food home. She’d smiled at his use of the word home . It sounded almost as though he lived there too. “Joe told me about a back road, so it didn’ t take long,” he said, and they looked at each other and laughed. “I went the speed limit and used asphalt.” He glanced at the clock. It was late. “You and Mr . Layton seem to have hit it of f well.” Travis took his time answering as he put coleslaw on plates and took them to the table. “He knows who my mother is.” “You’re kidding!” Kim said. “No, he saw the resemblance right away . But he made me swear not to let her know that he’d figured it out.” “And I guess she doesn’ t want you to tell either .” “Precisely . I have been placed in the middle of my mother and him,” Travis said as he looked at her across the table. He’d liked being in her workroom—but he’d always enjoyed the outdoors and he wanted to see it day or night. The converted garage was too closed-in for him. “Joe has no
use for that big room at the end of his store. It has windows that look out into the forest. He says Jecca will never use it and I understand why . He greatly admires her ability to reassemble electrical tools and he’d put her to work.” Reaching over , Kim removed a foam pellet clinging to the back of his shirt. “I feel like I have those things crawling all over me. Could you—?” He held out the back of the neck of his shirt. Standing, she put her hand on his collar but she didn’ t touch him. She glanced down his shirt but saw only sun-bronzed skin. And muscles. “Nothing,” she said. “Sure? I itch in places. I should have taken a shower first, but I saw your light on and I wanted to see you.” He took her hand in his and kissed her fingertips. “Oops, sorry ,” he said and released her . “You’re soon to be married so you’re a ‘no touch.’” Frowning, Kim sat back down. “Hardly that. I haven’ t been asked, much less said yes.” “So you really like this guy?” “He’s nice,” Kim said, but she didn’ t want to talk about Dave. “What are your plans for tomorrow?” “According to Joe, I’m to be his slave. Kim, if you want that shop that’ s supposed to be Jecca’ s I can get it for you. I’ll get Joe to give it to you as a wedding gift. Free rent for at least three months, and very reasonable the rest of the time.” “My garage is fine and why would he give me a gift for his wedding?” “Not his wedding. Y ours. To Dave. He’ s a man and he’ll want a place to put his car . Or one of those catering vans. He is going to move in with you, isn’t he? I can’t imagine that he earns enough to buy a house like this one. But then what you made last year was substantial. Congratulations! Y ou are truly a success.” What he was saying was wonderful. T ruly great. But, somehow , it was upsetting her . She hadn’ t thought of the fact that Dave came with a lot of equipment. He owned five big vans and he had enormous pieces of cookware. He lived in a small apartment and rented a commercial kitchen. But still, he did some cooking at his house. One Sunday afternoon she’d gone to pick him up and had ended up helping him make four gallons of
tuna salad. Her clothes had smelled so bad she’d had to soak them before putting them in the washer . “Dave and I haven’ t discussed anything like that,” Kim said. “The truth is that it’s only Carla who’ s saying that I’m about to receive a marriage proposal, but then she looks at all men as marriage material. She even suggested that the two of you—” “Me?!” T ravis’s eyes were wide. “Me and Carla? She is cute. Think she’d go out with me?” Kim looked at T ravis in speculation and suddenly had the feeling that she was being manipulated, but she wasn’ t sure how . “Are you up to something?” “Just trying to be your friend is all. I enjoy your company and I want to help out around here so you don’ t throw me out. Edilean is scary .” Kim couldn’ t help laughing. “It will be when my brother remembers where he saw you! I couldn’ t understand why you were standing there with your hand over your face. Did you really come close to killing him?” “Yes,” he said. “I don’ t know why my heart didn’ t stop. There I was in Morocco, trying my best to beat Jake Jones’ s time, Ernie my mechanic was with me, and he had the map out. I went around a corner and there’ s this guy crossing the street with a donkey so covered in boxes the poor thing was bowlegged.” “That sounds like Reede,” Kim said. Travis got up and pantomimed being behind the wheel of his car . “Before I hit that curve, there were Moroccans on the sides shouting at us in Arabic. I don’t know about you, but my Arabic consists of la and shukran — no and thanks . How was I to know they were telling us that a crazy American doctor was meandering across the raceway?” “You were the only car?” “Hell no! I was eating Jake’ s dust every two miles. He’d done something to the fuel injection system but I didn’ t know what. Every time I got near him, he’d upshift and spew rocks at us. My windshield was a mass of scars.” Travis bent forward, his hands on the wheel. “So there I am, yelling at Ernie—no sound absorption in a race car—about what the hell the Arabs were shouting at us and he’ s telling me that if I don’ t slow down the transmission is going to fall out when bam! There’ s this man.” “With a donkey ,” Kim said.
“Which froze. The donkey had sense enough to know danger when he saw it.” “But my brother didn’ t.” “You’re right on that! He looked at a car coming at him doing at least a hundred and twenty and—” “You’d slowed down for the curve,” Kim said solemnly . “Yeah, I did,” T ravis said and seemed pleased at her understanding. “If your brother had any fear at all, I didn’ t see it. He just frowned at me like I was an annoyance, then turned back to pull on the donkey’ s rope.” “When was this?” “2005.” “Oh heavens!” Kim said. “That wasn’ t too long after Reede’ s long-term girlfriend dropped him. He was probably still in that stage of not caring whether he lived or died.” “Like I’d feel if you told me to get out of your life and never come back,” Travis said, then quickly went on with his story . “When I yelled, Ernie looked up from his map and screamed like a girl. I turned the wheel as hard as I could, braked until my ankle felt like it was cracking, and we nearly turned over .” Kim was blinking at his statement about how he’d feel if she told him to go away . “I guess . . .” she began. “Your brother stood there and watched the whole thing. For seconds we looked into each other ’s eyes; we had a clear view of one another . It was one of those moments when the world seems to stand still. The donkey collapsed from sheer terror , and that’ s when the boxes it was carrying hit the ground and broke.” “And Reede—” “By the time I got the car headed back toward him, he was in a rage and shouting at us.” T ravis put his hand over his heart. “I swear this is true, but I wanted to stop and see about the donkey . I didn’ t know the contents of the boxes were important. It was Ernie who said, ‘Good God! He’ s an American. Don’ t stop or he’ll have us arrested. Go! Go! Floor it and go !’ I did.” “Did you win the race?” “Of course not. The transmission fell out about fifty miles down the road. We were so far from anywhere we had to be helicoptered out.”
Kim looked at him as he sat back down. She couldn’ t help remembering the boy who’d ridden her bicycle. “I agree,” she said. “About what?” “When my brother remembers where he saw you, he’ s going to come after you with a shotgun.” “You’re no help at all,” T ravis said, smiling. “I want you to be on my side.” “I am. Reede probably knew about the race and wanted to provoke a fight. At that time, he had so much anger inside him about his girlfriend dumping him, he probably wanted to get it out.” Travis sobered. “He came very close to getting himself killed.” She smiled. “Thanks for taking care of my brother . Thank you for not hitting him and thank you for r eplacing his supplies. If you weren’ t so good at handling a car , all three of you—and the donkey—could have been killed.” For a moment they looked at each other and again Kim felt drawn to him. It was as if his body called to hers, as though some electrical char ge ran from her to him and back again. She could feel the pull, the tingle, the desire that passed between them. Of its own will, her body took a st ep toward him. She wanted him to put his arms around her and kiss her . She saw him look at her lips and his eyes grew darker , warmer , hot even. But in the next second, he turned away and the moment was gone. “It’ s late,” he murmured, “and Joe . . . I’ll see you tomorrow .” In an instant he had left the house. Kim sat down on a chair . She felt like a balloon that had its knot untied. Deflated. W orse, she felt defeated. When T ravis got inside the guesthouse, he was shaking. He knew he’d never wanted a woman as much as he did Kim, but the problem was that he cared about her . He didn’ t want to hurt her , didn’t want— He sat down on the side of the bed and punched Penny’ s number . “Did I wake you?” he asked. She hesitated. Never before had T ravis been concerned about his secretary’ s sle eping habits. “No,” she said, lying.
“Did you find out anything about the caterer?” “Just his name, but I sent my son to Edilean to see what he could find out.” “What’s your son look like?” “What does that matter?” Penny asked. “There’ s a girl, Carla, who works for Kim, and she’ s after any half- decent-looking man who comes in the store. She knows something about a missing sapphire ring. I think it’ s connected to the caterer and I want to find out about it. Can your son handle that?” “Easily,” Penny said and seemed to be amused. “What else have you found out?” “Not much, just that Kim is doing quite well in her little shop.” “Enough to make this man want it?” “Yes,” Travis said. They knew a lot about what a person would do to own a lucrative business. “You don’ t think it’ s possible that this caterer is actually in love with pretty Kim?” “He may well be, but let’ s just say that if he touches her , I’ll be needing a pair of dueling pistols.” “Well, well, well,” Penny said. “How’s it coming with your relatives in Janes Creek?” “Everyone is happy for the free weekend. But I need to warn you that even your dad might not be able to af ford my uncle Bernie’ s room service bill.” “That’s all right. I’m getting used to dealing with relatives. Mom’ s new . . .” “Her what?” Penny asked. She was marveling that they were having a personal conversation that included her life. “The man she’ s planning to marry . I’ve been working for him.” “Good dental?” Penny asked, covering her surprise. Travis scof fed. “No pay , just advice. Lots of advice.” “Good or bad?” “D epends on the outcome, which I don’ t know yet. I have to come up with a reason why I should go with Kim to Maryland.” “You’re asking her permission to go?” Her surprise turned to shock. “Yes,” Travis said. “I can’ t talk anymore. Joe wants me at work at seven A. M . tomorrow . I’m attaching steel shelves to brick walls. I can hardly wait.”
“I, uh . . .” Penny didn’ t know what to say so she murmured good night and hung up. “I think I like this Edilean,” she said as she got back into bed. Oceanof PDF . com
“So what’ s it like living with him?” Carla asked Kim the next morning. “Great sex, huh? He looks like he’d be fabulous in bed. How’ s his endurance? Does he—?” “Carla!” Kim snapped. “Could you please be a bit more professional?” “Not getting any , are you? Not with an attitude like that. Saving yourself for Dave? But if you change your mind, I know this perfume you could try that might help. It—” Kim went into her of fice and shut the door . She hadn’ t seen T ravis this morning, as he’d already gone to work at Joe’ s new store. He’d left her a funny note on the kitchen counter about how he was looking forward to learning how to drill holes in brick. They should have turned the bricks on their sides. They alr eady have holes in them, he’d written, making her smile. It was nice to start the day with a laugh, but she would have liked to have seen him. Her cell rang with a number she didn’ t know. “Meet me for lunch?” T ravis asked. “Please?” Instantly , her bad mood lifted. “Where?” She refrained from saying, When? How? Should I bring food? How about a few clarity three diamonds? “How about Delmonico’ s circa 1899?” “Love it. I’ll get my corset out of storage.” “Can you put it on all by yourself?” “I may need help,” Kim said and felt her heart beating in her throat. She loved this teasing! “I would like to volunteer to help you, but at the present I am a conjoined twin. Joe has attached himself to me. Can you bear to have lunch with the