“That’s a technique for avoiding gunfire. It has nothing to do with evading a direct question from a female who’s staring you straight in the eye and all but daring you to lie. I swear that’s almost as intimidating as facing down the enemy. It creeps me out.”
“You need to toughen up, big guy. Come back over here for breakfast and I’ll give you some tips,” she suggested. “Besides, I owe you a decent meal.”
“Not your fault that I never got that pasta,” he reminded her. “And the sandwich I made myself later was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.”
“So, you didn’t starve,” she agreed. “But that was hours ago and you know what they say—breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you don’t have it with me, you’ll have to sit across the table from Jenny and Kelsey. Now you tell me which of us is less likely to give you grief.”
Seth laughed. “Definitely a valid point,” he said, but he didn’t sound a hundred percent convinced.
“What’s worrying you now?” Abby asked.
“If I take off again this morning, don’t you think it’ll just cause more speculation?”
“It might, which is exactly why I’ll be coaching you on the best way to head off these inquiries.”
She hesitated, then made what she considered to be the perfect, devious suggestion guaranteed to get him to her place. “Or,” she began innocently, “I could send Hannah over to help you out. I’ll bet she taught some of her clients how to get around tough questions. And she certainly has plenty of experience at evading Jenny’s prying.”
“I think Hannah will have enough tough questions of her own for me,” Seth said. “Let’s leave her out of it. Give me a half hour and I’ll be there. Make the coffee very, very strong.”
“Done,” she said at once, satisfied with her progress in learning which buttons to push.
As soon as she’d hung up, she showered, pulled on clean clothes and headed for the kitchen, wondering what she’d find after Seth’s late-night snack attack.
To her surprise, the kitchen was spotless. The dishes had been washed and put away. The counters were clean and the coffeepot had been filled to a level that promised Seth’s desired strength. It was already plugged in, which made her wonder if he’d intended to come back this morning all along.
She found herself grinning as she flipped the switch to turn on the coffeemaker.
She searched the kitchen until she discovered her mother’s old waffle iron in the back of the pantry. Then she made the batter for waffles while it heated. She set the table, poured the juice and was on her second cup of coffee when Seth arrived. He had a handful of daisies in his hand. She laughed when she saw the roots still clinging to some of them.
“Please tell me you did not yank those out of Jenny’s garden,” she said.
He shrugged. “I figured she’d give me a pass this once. She’s a big fan of the romantic gesture.”
“Good luck with that. She’s also very protective of her flower beds.”
Seth chuckled. “And that’s why these didn’t come out of the flower beds. I yanked them out of a container on the steps, then hid the container.”
Abby stared at him. “You didn’t.”
“I did,” he confirmed, looking pleased with his own ingenuity.
“In that case I’m very glad I decided to fix you waffles this morning,” she said. “You deserve a really fabulous last meal.”
Seth looked vaguely alarmed by her comment, then shrugged it off. “She loves me,” he insisted.
“I sure hope you’re right.”
“What about you?” he asked, holding out the flowers. “Do these get me points with you?”
“You don’t need any more points with me,” she told him, moving closer. “You had me the day you rescued me and let me kiss you.”
“Yeah, I was pretty much lost that day, too,” he said, setting the daisies in the sink and looping his arms around her waist.
“Seriously?” she asked, surprised by the admission.
“Come on. There was a beautiful, sexy, half-drowned woman in my arms and she was kissing the stuffing out of me. It would have taken a much tougher man than I am to resist.”
She leaned back and met his gaze. “So you did kiss me back? I didn’t imagine that?”
“Afraid so,” he said. “Do you think less of me now for taking advantage of you in such a vulnerable moment?”
“I think we can agree that whatever happened was mutual,” she said, relieved to know that she hadn’t made a complete fool of herself that morning. She grinned. “And maybe we should never speak of it again.”
“I don’t know,” he protested. “I sure don’t want to forget those moments.”
“I doubt that’s an option,” she conceded. “But I’d like to think we can keep on topping that morning.”
Seth laughed. “Now there’s a goal I can definitely get behind.”
Abby nodded, pleased. Every goal they shared brought them one step closer to an intimacy that might have the potential to last. At least that’s what she increasingly found herself hoping.
20
When his cell phone rang, Seth had just returned home after taking a patient to the hospital over on the mainland. He answered without bothering to check the caller ID.
“Hey, Seth,” Laura’s ex-husband said. “How are you?”
“I’m doing okay, Jason. How about you?” he asked cautiously. Though he and Jason had remained in touch after the divorce, it wasn’t as if they were pals. There had to be something going on for him to be calling now. “Is everything okay?”
“Have you spoken to Laura recently?”
“More than I’ve wanted to, frankly,” he replied.
Jason’s chuckle suggested he was in the same place. “Did she mention that she wants us to get back together?”
“She did,” Seth admitted. Even though he thought he knew the answer, he asked, “How do you feel about that?”
“I love her, man, but I can’t go back there,” Jason replied wearily. “I’m still trying to clean up the financial mess we were in before the divorce.”
“I’m
