THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

that look, the desperate drive to keep someone alive. Had Trish’s new business happened as a result of her drinking? Something Zane encouraged to keep his sister busy and away from a bottle?
    Angel understood wanting to fix someone, thinking that if you tried hard enough and came up with all the right ideas, it would stop the person you loved from destroying her life.
    But alcoholism had to be cured from the inside out and that took the person with the problem wanting to make the change.
    Zane wouldn’t want to hear that, especially from a stranger so Angel offered, “Trish has the personality for a people business.”
    He paused and answered slowly, a bit cranky. “She’s definitely a social butterfly.”
    Where was that edge in his voice coming from? “Lucky for her that you travel and can find things for her store like the birdhouse.”
    “Yeah, but that’s not anything of value. Everyone carries that kind of crap in home decorating shops. Trish should be an estate appraiser. That’s what she studied to do. Loves all that old stuff.”  He seemed to have wandered off in thought, brooding about something.
    “It must be nice to for her to be self-employed and close enough to pop in.”  Angel smiled, trying for something positive to lift his spirits.
    A longer pause, then Zane said, “But what you’re really saying is that you’re surprised to see her here in the middle of the day when she has a business to run.” 
    Well, that was stupid. Now she’d ticked him off. She remembered the days of being on edge whenever someone mentioned her mother. Always expecting to be criticized because her mother was a drunk. Zane could be just as hypersensitive about his sister. “I didn’t mean it to sound that way. I like Trish. She seems very sweet.”
    One thing she’d say about Zane was that his anger flared and dissipated with the same speed.
    He lifted a hand and rubbed his chin. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I get a little uptight when it comes to Trish. Her life hasn’t been easy.”  He stared off into the distance. “My parents gave me every opportunity, but by the time Trish accidentally came along, they were tired of child rearing – what little they’d been interested in to begin with. I took off and she got the leftovers.”
    Angel couldn’t stop the next words from falling out of her mouth because she’d drilled one mantra into her own head daily for years.
    “Hard knocks make you a stronger person. From the sound of it, your sister is probably pretty tough.”  Seeing a family side of Zane piqued her interest to know more about the man who’d opened his home to her. “What do you mean by leftovers? You said you took off. Where’d you go?”  
    Even as he sheathed his face in a calm expression, pain trickled into his eyes. “I went into the Air Force when she turned nine. My parents pawned her off on friends and relatives so they could...” He paused to make air quotes. “‘Enjoy their life.’ Almost like they knew they’d die in a car crash before they reached fifty.”
    “I’m sorry, Zane.”
    He lifted his head as if hearing his name drew him. Standing away from the wall, he moved forward, slowly consuming her personal space.
    She should back away and make her boundaries clear.
    But she didn’t. The only reason to withdraw would be out of fear and she wasn’t afraid of him.
    She’d lived her life in tiny moments for a long time and didn’t want this one to end. Not yet. Probably exhaustion talking, but she wasn’t up for arguing.
    When he stood in front of her, Zane bent his head forward, focusing all that intense scrutiny on her. A formidable power swirled around him. He was rugged and confident and sexy as hell. Mere inches separated his face from hers. That urge was back. The one that had her holding her breath, wishing he’d follow through on the offer in his eyes. Just a kiss.
    Where would be the harm?
    But she couldn’t instigate it.
    She had so little experience with men she’d make a fool of herself.
    He asked in low voice, “Now that we’ve cleared up Trish’s history, what’s yours ... Angel ?”
    When he said her name like that, as if it were a pet name, his voice reached inside her and stroked her heart.
    She couldn’t breathe for fighting this wild craving he brought on. A tornado churned behind the dark eyes drilling straight into her soul. Balmy ocean air ruffled his T-shirt and lifted fine hairs across her face.
    He used a finger to