Almost Perfect

She glanced over her shoulder. The covers had slipped to his waist as well, leaving his whole gorgeous torso bare. He tucked an arm behind his head as he lowered his eyelids with promises of sensual pleasure.

Unfortunately, her gaze moved to the clock on the nightstand and she remembered all she had to do that day.

'Tempting.' She laughed. 'But I need caffeine.'

Climbing out of bed, she gathered the clothes she'd left lying on the floor and headed for the bathroom. Once there, she found a denim shirt hanging on the back of the door that would make a perfect bathrobe.

She ducked her head back into the bedroom. 'Do you mind if I borrow this?'

'No. I put it there for you.'

'Oh.' That drew her up short. He was always doing stuff like that. Stocking his refrigerator with the kind of cola she liked. Buying flavored potato chips when he liked them plain. And now a shirt for her to use as a bathrobe, when they hadn't actually discussed her staying the whole night. She'd simply fallen asleep, and he hadn't woken her.

She pulled back into the bathroom, wondering if these were all giant hints about his feelings, or if she was reading more into them than he intended. The fact that she'd mentioned her favorite flavor of ice cream and a half gallon of caramel turtle fudge had magically appeared in his freezer was not a declaration of undying love. Was it?

The question nettled her even when she stood in the kitchenette measuring coffee grounds. She heard water running in the bathroom and knew Joe would join her shortly. For all she knew, caramel turtle fudge was his favorite flavor too and it didn't mean anything.

With the coffeepot gurgling, she stared out the window, more frustrated than ever by all the unanswered questions. Maybe she was coming to terms with what she wanted, but that didn't mean Joe had. Maybe he was still thinking short term. Somehow that made her want a future with him even more.

Since the night of the art show, they'd talked a lot about plans for the boot camp, which they were both having a ball working on. They sat in his office every evening using his computer to design brochures, business cards, and even a Web site, which was going to take a lot more work to finish. But they never talked about where their relationship was going. Or what would happen when summer camp ended.

A dozen times at least, she'd started to tell him she loved him, which had seemed huge enough. Now here she stood, thinking about marriage and children and a lifetime together-God willing. Her heart swelled with the knowledge that she wanted all the things she'd rejected from him once- wanted them with a passion that made her ache to say the words aloud.

Would he believe her, though? After what he'd told her, she feared that words alone would never do it, and might even cause a setback. So, somehow, before summer camp ended, she had to find a way to show him she loved him, to make him feel secure enough about that love that when she finally said the words he would believe her.

Six weeks. Surely that would be long enough.

She was still staring out the window when Joe emerged from the bedroom.

He stopped as the sight hit him square in the chest. Morning sunlight streamed over her. She was so… Maddy, standing there barefoot with his big shirt hanging to her knees.

If he could have one wish, he decided, it would be this right here, to wake every morning for the rest of his life to find Maddy in his kitchen, bathed in sunlight.

A part of him wanted to toss his carefully laid plans out the window, to walk over there, scoop her into his arms and say, 'Marry me.' But impulse had been his undoing last time. He refused to repeat that mistake.

Drawing on patience, he headed toward her. 'Is that coffee ready?'

She glanced over her shoulder, smiling with approval as her gaze ran over his bare chest and the sweatpants that rode low on his hips. 'It just finished.'

Getting down two mugs, she poured him a cup black, then went to the fridge to poke inside. 'Do you have any cream?'

'In the door.' He congratulated himself on snagging some from the kitchen in the dining hall yesterday when he remembered she liked her coffee doctored to the max. Attention to detail had always been his strong suit.

'Great.' She backed out with the unopened carton.

He leaned a hip against the counter and took a few grateful sips of caffeine. 'So, what would you say to jogging with me this morning?'

She blinked. 'You're joking, right?'

'Not at all. I'll take it easy on you, and afterward we can take a dip in the river.'

She faced him with a hand on one hip, which hiked the shirt higher on her thigh. 'There are two problems with that idea. First, in case you haven't noticed, this body is not meant to sweat.'

'I don't know.' He grinned at her over the rim of the mug. 'We worked up a pretty good sweat last night, and I didn't hear you complaining.'

'And second,' she continued, 'I don't have time. I'm supposed to meet with Sylvia at the gallery this morning.'

'Oh? Are you taking her more art?' He frowned as he realized he hadn't seen her work on any art all week.

'No.' She turned to put the cream away. 'The prints of Sunrise Canyon arrived a couple days ago. They need me to sign them.'

He lowered his mug. 'You didn't tell me that.'

'I didn't?' She straightened. 'Oh. I thought I did.'

'You must be excited to see them.'

'I am.' She let out a nervous gust of air. 'Although it feels really weird too, dashing off to spend the day signing prints of my work.'

'It's not pretentious, Maddy. It's just part of the business.'

'I suppose.'

Since the subject made her uneasy, something he would never understand, he decided to shift the topic.

The time had come to move into Phase Two of his campaign: get Maddy to move to Santa Fe. His stomach tensed. 'You know, I've been thinking…' There, that sounded good. Nice and casual. No big deal. Just knocking ideas around in my head.

'About what?' She leaned against the counter as well, sipping from her own mug.

'Plans for the boot camp are coming along so great, we should be ready to open this winter.'

'Oh, I definitely think you could do that. You just need to get the word out and start signing people up.'

'Yeah.' The tension moved up into his throat. 'So.' He took a swallow of coffee to burn the knot away. 'What I was thinking is, you're so good with promotion…' Just spit it out, coward. He swallowed more coffee. 'What would you think about staying on a bit after summer camp ends to help Derrick and me get things going?'

She coughed into her mug, then gasped for air.

'Are you okay?' Alarmed, he rubbed her back.

'I'm fine.' She didn't look fine. She looked scared.

Oh, crap! She was going to say no. He'd miscalculated somewhere. Read the signals wrong.

'How-' She pressed a hand to her chest. 'How long would you want me to stay?'

Forever! 'It, um, depends. I know you have a life back in Austin that you probably want to get back to, so it wouldn't have to be too long. Just… a few weeks?'

Her eyes watered from her coughing fit. 'I can manage a few weeks.'

'Really?' Relief swamped him so fast his knees went weak. 'That would be… great.'

'So…' When she turned away to put her mug in the sink, he saw her hands shake. Was she crying? Why would she be crying? 'I, um, I guess I better shower and get dressed if I'm going into town.'

'Hang on.' He slipped a hand around her arm as she started toward the bedroom.

Before he could ask her what was wrong, or even get a good look at her face, she slipped her arms around his neck, went up on her toes and was kissing him so deeply that tiny explosions went off in his head. Adjusting quickly, he wrapped his arms around her and tilted his head for a better angle. Her hands were in his hair as her tongue danced with his. He ran his own hands down her back, then up under the shirt-where he found her bottom