“Yet you gave all of that up to marry Caleb,” he said.
She met his gaze. “Yes. Because, in the end, he mattered more,” she said simply. “The rest…we would have done it one day, together if…” She sighed, battled against the familiar threat of tears, steadied her voice. “If things had been different.”
“You never resented him?”
“Not once,” she said honestly. “And don’t forget, I knew what I was getting into. I was raised on a ranch. This life wasn’t new to me, and it has its good points.” She glanced toward the window where tree branches were covered with blankets of sparkling snow. “Mornings like this are among them.”
“They are, aren’t they?” he said quietly, following her gaze to the pristine white scene outside.
When he turned back to her, there was a twinkle back in his eyes. “Do you know what I like about a day like today?”
“What?”
“It gives you permission to play hooky. The roads will be impassable for hours yet. Once you’ve checked to make sure the horses have fresh water and feed, the day is yours.”
She grinned at the boyish enthusiasm on his face and in his voice. “So, what do you do when you play hooky?”
“Well, now, that depends. When I’m all alone, I build a roaring fire, pick a book I haven’t had time to read and settle down in a comfortable chair.” His gaze sought hers and turned warm. “When I have a lovely companion trapped inside with me, there are all sorts of interesting possibilities.”
Heat shot through her. Anticipation made her feel all quivery inside. She swallowed hard. “Such as?”
“Now don’t go getting ideas,” he teased. “I’m not easy. I won’t be taken advantage of, just because we’re locked away here all alone.”
She chuckled and the tension was broken. “You’re outrageous, you know that, don’t you?”
“I do try. Now, seriously, what are our options? Scrabble? Cards?”
“I have a shelf filled with good books,” she offered.
“Oh, no, that would be fine if we didn’t have each other. Since we do, we need something we can do together.” His gaze locked on hers. “Now, there you go again, getting ideas.”
“I am not,” she insisted, but she could feel a blush creeping up her cheeks. How could he joke so easily about an attraction that she was desperate to ignore? Perhaps because he’d had more practice at casual flirtations, while she’d had none.
“Okay, then, how about…” He paused, then said, “A jigsaw puzzle?”
She stared at him, astounded. How could he have known that she had a dozen of them stacked in a cupboard for days just like this one? Had he guessed? Or had he been snooping? Surely she hadn’t mentioned it.
“Does that appeal to you at all?” he asked, his expression totally innocent. “Do you have any around?”
“Quite a few,” she admitted. “But are you sure you want to do that? It seems, I don’t know…a little tame, maybe?” Caleb had certainly never been interested in doing one with her. He’d considered it a waste of time to put something together, only to take it apart again. He was too practical for that.
Grady winked. “You’ve never done a puzzle with me. How about this? I’ll go check on the horses. You clear things up in here and get us set up with the most complicated, challenging puzzle you have. I’ll bring in some more wood for the fire when I come back.”
She nodded. “Sounds like a plan,” she agreed, already anticipating the lazy morning ahead. Even the company was surprisingly appealing. Grady continued to startle her with his unexpected insight into her personality and what would make her happy. Was that because he was incredibly sensitive and intuitive, or because he was devious and clever? For the next few hours, maybe it didn’t even matter.
An hour later they were in front of a blazing fire. The damp wood was popping and snapping as it caught. Karen had chosen two puzzles, one a detailed country scene with only five hundred pieces, the other a wickedly difficult thousand-piece image of hundreds of tropical fish. She left it to Grady to decide.
“The fish,” he said at once. He brought paper and pen to the table.
“What are those for?”
“To keep score, of course.”
“You keep score when you put a puzzle together?”
“I told you it was more of a challenge when I did it. Are you game?”
Her competitive spirit kicked in. “Absolutely.” She’d put this puzzle together once before. She knew exactly where some of the trickiest sections were and what to watch for. “How are you scoring? Total number of pieces we each put together?”
“Exactly. We have one hour.”
She looked up from her assessment of the pieces spread across the table. “An hour?”
He grinned. “After that, if it’s necessary, we work together to finish it. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” she said, and solemnly held out her hand.
Grady’s clasp was warm and brief—his attention was already totally focused on the puzzle. Before she’d even had a chance to catch her breath, he’d snapped his first two pieces together.
Karen forced her concentration back to the puzzle. She found two linking pieces of her own, then a third. Within a few minutes she had the bottom right corner of the puzzle coming together nicely.
She glanced across the table and saw that Grady was at work on the top left section, his brow furrowed, his gaze intent. His total absorption was endearing somehow. It made her wonder if he would be that totally absorbed when he was making love.
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, her cheeks burned. No more of that, she chided herself, forcing her gaze back to the puzzle. It would play havoc with her concentration.
As it turned out, it already had. Though she tried to get back into it, all the
