“Except that you’ve realized that the pain is actually a gorgeous, sexy man,” Gina guessed, clearly not buying her disclaimer.
Karen sighed. “Yes, well, there is that.”
“And that maybe you wouldn’t mind getting to know him a lot better,” Gina continued. “At least if there weren’t all these obstacles in the way.”
“But the obstacles are real,” Karen said despondently. “Caleb, his parents, the ranch—how can I overlook any of that just because I’ve been feeling a little lonely and Grady has filled a void in my life?”
Gina stood up. “I’m getting you a glass of wine. No, a whole bottle of wine.”
Karen regarded her with alarm. “I can’t drink and drive all the way back to the ranch.”
“You’re not going to. You’re going to drink and walk to my place and spend the night.” Gina walked off toward the bar before Karen could protest.
While Gina was gone, the rest of her words sank in. When she returned, Karen studied her intently, then asked, “Since when do you have a place in Winding River?”
Gina winced. “You caught that, did you? Since I agreed to stick around and help Tony out. I couldn’t keep crashing at my parents’ place, so I rented an apartment here in town.”
“For how long?”
Gina shrugged. “Yet to be determined,” she said, casting a look across the dining room to a table by the window. The man who’d been hanging around off and on since the reunion was sitting there with an empty wineglass and a stack of paperwork. He looked as if he’d set up a permanent office right there. At the moment he was the only other customer.
“Do you want to tell me who he is and what’s going on?” Karen asked, studying her friend’s face with concern.
“Nope,” Gina said.
Alarm rose as another thought occurred to her. “He’s not stalking you, is he?”
“Not the way you mean,” Gina said wryly. “Drink your wine. I’m going to fix your dinner. Forget spaghetti. This will make your mouth water. It will transport you straight to a trattoria in Rome.”
Karen noticed that, on her way across the room, Gina paused to splash a little wine into the man’s glass, though she carefully avoided his gaze, ignored whatever he said and kept right on going toward the kitchen, where the waitress was no doubt filing her nails.
Interesting, Karen thought. And troubling. Gina had never been known for her reticence. In fact, her bubbling enthusiasm and firsthand knowledge of Italian cuisine, combined with her innovative technique in the kitchen, had made her the perfect candidate for running a successful New York restaurant. She wasn’t bubbling now, though. At least not with the mysterious stranger.
And in all these months there had been no mention of that New York bistro or who was running it in her absence. Direct questions had been ignored or evaded, which was very unlike the candid Gina of old.
Another mystery, Karen concluded with a sigh. Her life seemed filled with them lately. And Grady was the biggest one of all. Had he been insulted, even hurt, by her cavalier dismissal that day? Had he simply given up the fight? As incredible as that might be, it was a possibility.
Maybe he was simply away on a sudden trip. She knew he had a ranch, but he also had other business interests. Perhaps he’d had to go to Cheyenne or Denver or who knew where else he might have his finger in some corporate pie. Maybe this disappearing act had nothing to do with her at all.
She sighed at the thought. More troubling than his disappearance was her reaction to it. She missed him, dammit. As Gina had guessed, Karen had gotten used to Grady’s company, exasperating as it was at times.
“It was just a habit,” she muttered. Like anything else that was bad for her, it could be broken.
“Deep thoughts?” a familiar male voice inquired behind her.
Her head snapped around, her gaze clashed with Grady’s, the wine she held with suddenly trembling fingers splashed on the table.
“Where have you been?” she asked before she could bite back the words. Even she recognized they were a stark contrast to her previous greetings demanding to know why he was there.
“Miss me?” he asked, a devilish twinkle in his eyes.
“No more than I would a swarm of bees,” she retorted.
He slid into the seat opposite her, taking note of the second glass of wine. “Where’s your date?”
“I’m here alone.”
“Good. Then I’ll join you,” he said, taking a sip from the untouched extra glass Gina had left for herself.
Karen frowned, annoyed by his presumption and by her own eagerness to have him stay. “Grady, you can’t just waltz in here and invite yourself to have dinner with me.”
“Why not?”
“Just because.”
“Because it’s going to stir up more talk?” he asked, regarding her with a pointed look.
“That, too,” she agreed.
“And what else?”
“Maybe I don’t want to have dinner with you.”
“Maybe?” he teased. “Let me know when you decide, then we’ll discuss it. Until then, I’ll just sit here and enjoy the wine and the vision of a beautiful woman sitting across the table from me.”
“I don’t want you here,” she said with more conviction. “And you know perfectly well why it’s a bad idea.”
He studied her thoughtfully, then shook his head. “Yes, you do want me here. You just feel compelled to deny it. You’re tough enough to stand up to a little idle gossip.”
“If you believe that, then why did you leave the house when I asked you to?”
“Because my being there had clearly upset you and because I was way too tempted to kiss you senseless to make you forget that inconvenient conscience of yours.”
“And now?”
“You’re here. I happened by. I consider that fate.” He smiled, then turned his attention to the menu. “What are you having?”
Because she knew from experience there was little point in arguing, she gave up. Besides, the truth was, she was so happy to see him, so
