The Sometime Bride

in—”
    And here he’d actually been feeling sorry for her. Had been entertaining these ridiculous thoughts. Ideas that he and this fellow lovelorn soul might actually have something in common. Or maybe he’d just been deluding himself to keep his mind off his raging heartache.
    Mike pushed back abruptly from the table. “Enjoy the rest of your stay,” he said, dabbing his mouth with his napkin.
    “Wait!” Carrie said, leaning forward across the table and attempting to grab his arm. But it was too late. He’d already laid a ten dollar bill on the table and walked away.

    Carrie tipped the waitress, then hurriedly made her way out the front door. Bright sunlight spun gold through lilac bushes lining the cobblestone walk in front of her. Overhead, morning birds called out in song as the fragrance of early summer laced the air.
    This was absurd! Carrie didn’t even know where in the inn he’d been staying, much less what kind of car he drove. For all she knew, he’d already gone!
    Carrie looked down in a cold sweat at the two rings nestled in her damp palm. She hadn’t even wanted one, and now she’d been saddled with two of them! One from a man she thought she’d known but actually didn’t know at all. The other from a virtual stranger!
    Carrie raced down the path, then halted where it met the gravel drive. Off to the left and down at the bottom of the grassy hill, lay the gazebo—and the swimming area.
    Of course, she thought, squaring her shoulders and taking off in that direction.

    Mike sat at the end of the chaise lounge, knowing it was more than just Alexia. His failings at romance had an awful lot to do with himself. Hadn’t he just proven that back at the inn ten minutes ago? Fifteen minutes with a woman who didn’t know him from Adam and she’d already pitched him straight into that flaming barbeque pit.
    Well, fine, maybe monogamy wasn’t all it was cracked up to be anyway. Just because he’d always thought he’d wanted a wife and family didn’t necessarily mean that was in his cards. And every good poker player knew when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em. Maybe, at thirty-eight, it was time Mike cashed in his chips. He’d always yearned to do something different. Move to the Caymans, maybe, and open up that dive shop he’d always dreamed about.
    Before, with gold-digging Alexia, he’d been reluctant to leave his “stable” job in real estate and pursue something more daring. Now, he had nothing in the world to stop him.
    “Thought I’d find you down here.”
    Mike looked up in surprise to find Carrie standing radiant in the sunlight.
    “I believe I have something of yours,” she said, walking toward him and turning over his solitaire in her hand.
    Mike stood. “That was awfully nice of you. But you didn’t have to. Particularly after the way I—”
    She gave him the soft smile he’d always known her capable of. “Didn’t mean to offend you—or imply that you, personally, were any kind of jerk. That’s just…uh, been my own unfortunate experience.”
    “Yeah, well, unfortunately, my experience with women hasn’t run much better.”
    A cool morning breeze lifted off the water and fanned Carrie’s long skirt around her legs. “We’re a real pair, aren’t we?” she asked, bending down to smooth out the clingy material that Mike kind of wished she’d left in place. It had been doing a spectacular job at emphasizing the curves of her luscious legs.
    “A couple of losers, you mean?” he asked, wrinkling his brow. “Now, I don’t think I’d go as far to say that.”
    “Losers, absolutely not,” Carrie said, coming over and sitting in a nearby chair. “Just down on our luck a bit at the moment.”
    “I’ll say,” Mike said, pulling up another chair and sitting beside her. “Worked a good long time to buy that ring. That last house, especially, was a bear to sell. But I knew if I didn’t have the commission—”
    “You’re in real estate?” she asked, looking amused.
    “What’s so surprising about that?”
    “Oh nothing, really,” she said, pursing her lips and looking toward the pool. “Just somehow I envisioned you in a line of work a little more—physical.”
    Mike spurted a laugh. “Lifeguard, you mean?” He pondered the notion of giving her mouth-to-mouth as she turned her very kissable lips toward his. Lips that had no business looking so damn inviting on such a downright disastrous morning.
    Carrie shrugged two silky white shoulders