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But she wasn't thinking about what she said. She was thinking that if she married Ben,
she would be the one to relocate. A law degree was more transportable than a
construction firm. There was a test she'd have to take to be accepted into the Colorado
State Bar, but after all those years of proving herself to her father, she was good at tests.
Her specialty would transfer toColoradoeasily  likeFlorida, most ofColorado's land-
ownership records went back only to the late nineteenth century, which made it simpler
to research titles.
It was cold here most of the year. Too cold to go barefoot.
And that would be a pathetic reason to turn a man down. Wouldn't it?
He waved a hand in front of her face. "You still in there?"
"Sorry." She grimaced. "I'm getting spacey. Must be time for me to go to bed." She
stood.
The swing creaked as her weight left it. Somewhere in the distance a dog
barked.Duncanwas standing so close, right in front of her. This close to him, she could
smell themalty , brash scent of beer.
He didn't move.
Her heart began to pound, heavy and slow. She searched his face in the darkness and
found only the suggestion of eyes meeting hers. Her fingertips tingled. A little shiver
shook every drop of sleep from her cells. He was going to kiss her&
He spoke, quiet and dispassionate. "We'd better not indulge in any more late-night tête-à-
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têtes."
Gwen thudded back into reality, landing hard, with a vague stir of nausea. "I don't know
what you're talking about." When she moved forward on icy feet, he fell back. She had
the front door open when he spoke again.
"Yes, you do."
She hesitated for a second in the doorway,then hurried inside without turning around, her
heart pounding and pounding in her chest.
* * *
The swing was still warm from Gwen's body whenDuncansat in it. He shoved it into
motion with his foot, then sat and rocked.
Hard to believe he'd actually played Dear Abby to his brother's woman. She thought he'd
showed restraint by not offering advice. His mouth twisted bitterly. Oh, yeah, he'd
restrained himself. But not that way.
Gwen was rich and vulnerable and the mother of Ben's child. She was everything he had
no business wanting. But dammit, she was also smart and funny, so determined to do the
right thing, and so wryly unsure what that might be.
She stirred him.
Duncanknew it was time to leave Highpoint. He had an apartment near the base; he
could bunk there while he figured out what he was going to do with his life. He needed to
get out of here before he did something unforgivable.
Chapter 9
«^»
For the next three days, Gwen was courted. On Thursday Ben brought her flowers, a
cheerful bouquet of daisies and freesia. On Friday he took her and Zach out for pizza and
a movie. He was paying attention now.
And he touched her. Not constantly, and not in an implicitly sexual way. In aclaiming
way. He was announcing his intentions, and he wanted them made public. He ruffled her
hair at the pizza parlor and introduced her and Zach to the owner, whom he'd gone to
school with. He helped her in and out of his truck as if she'd turned feeble. Standing in
line at the movies, he chatted with several people  with his hand resting at the small of
her back.
But an announcement was as far as he went. Arm, shoulder, back  he touched her, but
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he didn't kiss her, didn't do anything Zach couldn't see. Even when Zach wasn't there.
No, once they were alone, with their son tucked up in bed, she and Ben talked. And that
was all. They discussed the construction business and the law, and of course they talked
about Zach.
They didn't talk about cancer. She'd deliberately introduced the subject once, mentioning
the way she'd cut back on her work hours while undergoing radiation. Ben had looked
determined and said she'd gone through hell, and thank God it was over.
Radiation was over, yes. She didn't know how to tell him that she still lived with cancer
everyday, that the changes it had made in her life, in her body and in her sense of self
hadn't ended when the treatments did.
After that, she stopped bringing it up.
Duncanwent out every night. Once he went to the bar; other nights he went running. Ben
looked worried whenDuncanran at night, but he didn't nag.
She didn't think he knewDuncansometimes ran in the middle of the night, too. She'd
heard him leave a couple of times after everyone was in bed and should have been asleep.
Duncan. Oh, God, what was wrong with her? She kept thinking about another late-night
conversation that had been more intimate than any she'd had with Ben. On the front
porch, with Ben's brother.
That Saturday Gwen sat at the kitchen table, frowning irritably at the blinking cursor on
her laptop's screen. Out back, Ben and Duncan were playing touch football with Zach and
the twins, men against the boys. The boys had been winning the last time she checked. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]