Carolina Moon

thrust into her. One hard, long stroke after another while those long-lidded witch eyes of hers went to smoke.
    “It’s sturdy.” She gave the headboard a little shake, and his stomach pitched and knotted.
    “Damn well better be.”
    “You did a good job, and I was rude. Thank you, and I’m sorry.”
    “You’re welcome and forget it.” He handed her the glass, then reached up to tug the chain of the ceiling fan. “It’s warm in here.” He wanted to bite that spot just under her left ear where her jaw began its curve.
    Because his voice was clipped, she suffered another pang of guilt. “I really was rude, Cade. I’m not very good with people.”
    “Not good with people? And you’re going to open a shop where you’ll deal with them every day?”
    “That’s customers,” she said. “I’m very good with customers. I’m positively gracious with customers.”
    “So …” He moved in until he stood just on the other side of the frame. “If I buy something from you, you’ll be friendly.”
    She didn’t have to read his thoughts when she could read his eyes. “Not that friendly.” Nimbly, she sidestepped him and moved out of the room.
    “I could be a very good customer.”
    “You’re trying to frazzle me again.”
    “I am frazzling you again. Tory.” He laid a hand on her shoulder. “Stop that,” he said mildly when she stiffened. He set his glass on the floor, then turned her to face him. “There, that didn’t hurt a bit, did it?”
    He had gentle hands. It had been a long time, a very long time, since she’d felt a gentle touch from a man. “I’m not interested in flirtations.”
    “I am, but we can compromise for now. Let’s try to be friends.”
    “I’m not a good friend.”
    “I am. Now, why don’t we get the rest of your bed in here so you can get a decent night’s sleep tonight.”
    She let him get nearly to the door. She’d told herself she wouldn’t speak of it. Not to him. Not to anyone, until she was ready. Until she was strong and she was sure. But it was bubbling up inside her.
    “Cade. You never asked. Not then, not now. You’ve never once asked how I knew.” Her palms went damp as he turned, so she clutched them to her elbows. “You’ve never asked how I knew where to find her. How I knew what had happened.”
    “I didn’t have to ask.”
    Her words rushed out now, popping like overwound springs. “Some people think I was with her, even though I said I wasn’t. That I ran away and left her. That I just left her—”
    “That’s not what I think.”
    “And the ones who believed me, believed that I saw the way I said I did, they stepped back from me, kept their children away from me. They stopped looking me in the eye.”
    “I looked you in the eye, Tory. Then and now.”
    She had to take a breath to settle herself. “Why? If you can believe I have that inside me, why didn’t you step back? Why are you coming around here now? Do you expect me to tell you the future? Because I can’t. Or give you some stock tips? Because I won’t.”
    Her face was flushed, he noted, her eyes dark and alive with ripe and ready emotions. One of those emotions, one that prickled through the surface of all the others, was anger.
    He wouldn’t play to it, or to what he believed were her expectations. “I prefer living each day as it comes, thanks all the same. And I’ve got a broker to take care of my portfolio. Did it ever occur to you that I’m coming around here now because I like the look of you?”
    “No.”
    “Then you are the first and only female without vanity I’ve had occasion to meet. Wouldn’t hurt to get yourself some. Now …” He cocked his head. “Do you want to get this mattress in here, or astound and amaze me by telling me what I had for lunch this afternoon?”
    Her mouth opened as he walked out the door. Had he actually made a joke about it? People made fun of her, or rolled their eyes. Or backed cautiously away. Some came begging for her to solve all their problems and unhappiness. But no one, in her experience, made a casual joke.
    She rolled the tension out of her shoulders, then walked outside to help him carry in the mattress.
    They worked in silence now, her stewing, and his mind elsewhere. When the bed was in place, Cade polished off his tea, took the glass into the kitchen, then headed out.
    “You should be able to handle it from here. I’m a bit behind schedule.”
    Oh no you don’t, she thought, and rushed after him. “I