Summer in Eclipse Bay

about it, sure."
    "Well?" she demanded.
    "It probably got started because I've never left Carson with a sitter overnight. But it doesn't follow that I never have any nights to myself. Carson stays with family once in a while. He's with his grandfather and his great-grandfather and Lillian and Gabe at the moment. Leaving me free to do as I please at night."
    "So, does that mean that you
do
sometimes spend the entire night with a woman with whom you're romantically involved?" Gail asked with disconcerting interest.
    "Guys don't get
romantically
involved."
    "What do they get?"
    "Involved, period."
    "Oh, sure, I knew that. So, do you sometimes spend the entire night with women with whom you're
involved, period?"
    "You know, I didn't come here to discuss my love life with a woman who has Very Big Hair."
    "That was a low blow." Gail patted the rigid outer layer of her voluminous hairdo. "I was only carrying out my assignment."
    "Yeah." Nick went toward the door. "Too bad you didn't learn anything useful about that damned painting."
    Gail straightened her shoulders and held her chin high. "In the long run, I feel that I discovered something infinitely more important."
    "Such as?"
    "The name of the woman who broke the curse on Hardhearted Harte."
    He went out onto the sidewalk and slammed the door closed.
    Twenty minutes later he stood on the bluff above the small, crescent-shaped beach, looking down. She was sitting on a rock, knees drawn up under a long, geranium-red skirt, her face hidden beneath the wide brim of a big straw hat. The now-familiar flicker of intense awareness crackled through him, tightening his belly and heating his blood.
    It was a deeply sensual feeling, but he could not slap the label
great sex
on this and let it go at that. He had known that from the beginning.
    He watched her there in the sunlight, her skirt fluttering a little in the breeze, her gracefully rounded arms wrapped around her knees, and he finally understood.
    This strange, bone-deep sensation that he always experienced when he thought about her or when he was in her vicinity wasn't merely desire or anticipation. It was a sense of connection. In some manner that he knew he would probably never fully comprehend, he was linked to her now.
    He had never known this particular kind of bond, he realized. Perhaps it would have developed eventually with Amelia if they had had more time and if he had not screwed things up by quitting Harte Investments and if she had not turned to an old lover when the chips were down.
    No. It would never have been like this with Amelia. It could never be like this with anyone else.
    Maybe the rumors were right. Maybe he had been under some kind of curse.
    But what was the point of being freed if he lost the lady who had the magic touch?
    She turned slightly, obviously aware that someone was on the bluff behind her. The straw brim of the hat tilted at an angle and he caught a glimpse of her face. She had on a pair of dark glasses. He could not read her expression but he got the distinct impression that she was not overly thrilled to see him. She was certainly not waving.
    He found the path that led to the beach and went down it swiftly. Tiny pebbles scattered before him.
    When he got to the bottom he walked toward Octavia feeling as if he were walking toward his destiny. She did not take off her sunglasses. It occurred to him that he was still wearing his, too. Neither of them could tell what the other was thinking, he realized.
    "Are you all right?" he asked.
    "Yes."
    "Gail was worried about you. She said you'd left the shop in a hurry."
    "There's nothing to be concerned about. I just wanted to get away for a while. I need to think."
    He sat down beside her on the broad, sun-warmed rock. Close enough to be intensely conscious of her nearness; not quite touching. A curious kind of panic started to gnaw at his insides. She really was upset. He was not sure how to deal with it.
    "I'm sorry the three of us gave you so much grief this morning," he said. "We were just teasing you."
    "I know."
    "I realize these past few days have been rough on you. You're not accustomed to being the subject of local gossip."
    "It's not that."
    "People were bound to talk after it got out that we were seeing each other," he said. "But the gossip will fade when folks get used to the idea."
    "I don't particularly care what people think of our relationship."
    That did not sound good, he thought. He turned his head to get a better look at her