Return to You

she loved Rick for a reason.
    Michael nodded, his hands jammed into his
pockets. "Likewise," he said curtly.
    Olivia tried not to beam too brightly.
    "I have to go." Michael jerked his chin at
Rick and Rick responded with the same. It was a guy thing Olivia
had never quite understood, kind of like air guitar.
    "It was good seeing you. Maybe we can talk
again on your next trip up," she said sweetly as he made his way
out.
    Michael looked over his shoulder. "I'm going
to be in town for a while."
    "Really?" The smile dissolved from her face,
and she dropped her arm from Rick's waist.
    "I'm shooting a movie up here, so I'll be
around for the next couple months." He stared at her. "We're
shooting at your grandmother's farm."
    " What ?" Her voice sounded squeaky even
to her own ears.
    "Yeah, so I'll see you around." He turned
and walked out, quietly closing the door behind him.
    "Aw hell." She slammed her fist on the
table.

Chapter Three
     
     
    "Ow!" she cried, shaking her hand.
    Rick took it, kissing it before wrapping it
in the warmth of both his. "I didn't know you had these violent
tendencies, Olivia."
    "It's a side of me I just tapped into." She
looked out the window and saw Michael cross the street. He was
headed for Grounds for Thought, her friend Eve's bookstore
coffeehouse.
    She mumbled a curse. That
was where she hung
out.
    "Want to tell me what that was all
about?"
    She glanced up at Rick. Another few inches
and Rick would be freakish, basketball-player height. "That was
about settling old scores."
    He grinned. "I see. And was vengeance
sweet?"
    "I think I got a dozen cavities as a
result."
    He laughed. She thought—not for the first
time—that the crinkling at the corners of his eyes was sexy.
    Hell, everything about him was sexy. From
his lean body to his molten chocolate voice. He dressed stylishly,
was educated, and carried a gun. A woman would have to have one
foot in the grave not to find him irresistible.
    Olivia checked where she was standing.
    "I finished some business up the street and
thought I'd stop by to see if you're free for lunch."
    "Working on a big case?"
    "Oh, yeah. This old lady wants me to find
her lost dog."
    She grinned. "I'm jealous. The life of a
private investigator is so exciting."
    He tweaked a lock of hair. "So are you
coming to lunch or not? It's my turn to buy."
    "Can't today. Sorry." She gestured to the
heavy velvet curtains that hid her backroom. "I have to put out new
stock that just arrived."
    He brightened the way most men would if you
offered them a brand new Ferrari. "New underwear? Need help putting
it out?"
    "You are sick." She shoved him
playfully.
    "Take pity on me. This is the closest I've
come to women's underwear in a long time."
    "Like you couldn't score if you wanted
to."
    He shrugged. "I haven't run across many in
interesting candidates of late. Eve just married Treat, the lucky
bastard, and you're hung up on that guy who was just in here."
    Her hackles rose. "What do you mean by
that?"
    He looked at her shrewdly, as if all her
secrets were written on her wide forehead. "Exactly what I
said."
    The man was entirely too observant. No
wonder he did so well as a PI. "You're wrong," she said, not sure
whether that was a lie or not. "Michael and I may have been
together high school, but it was over eons ago."
    "Right. I could tell that by the way the
electrons were zipping between you two."
    "And there are plenty of women around you
can date."
    "Name one."
    "Gwendolyn Pierce."
    He roared in laughter, clutching his
washboard abs, which could reduce a grown woman to babbling
incoherently they were so fine. She knew. She'd seen them up front
and personal.
    She propped her hands on her hips. "What's
so funny about Gwen? She's a lovely woman."
    "Gwendolyn? Gwendolyn Pierce?" He gawked at
her, laughter temporarily forgotten in lieu of incredulity. "The
woman who sells decorated squash for exorbitant prices?"
    "She doesn't sell squash. She sells gourd
art." Olivia had been leery of Gwen's idea for a store at first
too. Gourd art? But then Gwen showed her some of her pieces, and
Olivia was a convert. She and Eve had even helped Gwen launch her
store, Outta My Gourd, just few doors down from her. It'd been open
only a month and already it was a success. "Have you even taken a
look at her work? It's amazing."
    "She gives me the creeps."
    "What?" Olivia poked him in his ribs just to
cop a feel of his fabulous abs. She may not be interested in him,
but that didn't mean she