Wild Invitation

life within her.”
    “A breach of privacy, wouldn’t you say?” Kimberly raised an eyebrow.
    Zach shrugged. “It’s simply another sense. Ours just happens to be keener in that area—no different from an M-Psy being able to see inside the body, or you yourself being able to tell her condition because you know the subtle physical signs.”
    Annie bit the inside of her cheek to keep from interfering. Caro took the chance to whisper, “Oh, he’s good. Wherever did you find Mr. Scrumptious?”
    Annie threw her a quelling look. “Where’s Aman?”
    “My darling husband is driving back from a meeting in Tahoe. He’ll probably make it in time for dessert.” She smiled. “I know what
you’re
having for dessert.”
    Annie felt Zach’s hand move on her waist. It was obvious he’d heard Caro’s outrageous prediction, and that he liked the idea. However, when she looked up, it was to find his attentionnot on her, but on someone else—a stranger her mother had just waved over.
    “This is Professor Jeremy Markson,” she was saying. “This is Annie’s…friend, Zach Quinn.”
    Given that her own temper was close to igniting, Annie figured Zach would blow this time—he’d been blunt in saying he didn’t share. But, to her surprise, he remained completely relaxed.
    “Markson.” Zach inclined his head in masculine acknowledgment. “What’s your field, professor?”
    “Molecular physics,” Markson said. “It’s a fascinating subject. Do you know anything about it?”
    Arrogant twerp, Annie thought. “No, I don’t, Professor,” she said before Zach could respond. “Perhaps you’d care to enlighten me.”
    The professor blinked, as if he hadn’t expected her to speak. “Well, I—”
    “Tell them about your latest project,” her mother encouraged, shooting daggers at Annie.
    Markson nodded, and off he went. Annie’s eyes began to glaze over after the first few minutes. “That’s so interesting,” she said, when he paused for breath. “Do you work with my father?”
    “Yes.” He beamed.
    “Where
is
Dad?” Annie asked, deliberately changing the focus of the conversation.
    Her mother waved a hand. “You know your father. He’s probably lost in research.” The words were light, but Annie heard the hurt Kimberly had never quite stopped feeling. “He promised he’d try to be here by the time dinner was served.”
    Which meant, Annie knew, that they’d be lucky if they saw him tonight. “What’s on the menu?” she asked with a smile, hating that bruised pain in her mother’s eyes.
    Kimberly brightened. “I made your favorite vegetable dish for an entrée.” Her words were sincere, her love open. “Don’t start, Caro,” she said, when Caroline opened her mouth. “I made your favorite pie, too.”
    “That’s why you’re my bestest aunt.”
    Thankfully, the conversation stayed light and easy from then on. They were about to move into the dining room whenwonder of wonders, her father walked in. Erik Kildaire was dressed in the rumpled clothing of a man for whom looks mattered little, but he seemed to be with them today, rather than in his head.
    Her mother’s face lit up from within, and Annie smiled. “It’s good to see you, Dad,” she said, accepting her father’s enthusiastic kiss on the cheek. Love swelled in her heart, but it was a love that had learned to be cautious. She’d never had the tangled relationship with her father that she had with her mother, but that was probably because he’d never been around to argue with her. A different kind of hurt altogether.
    “And who’s this?” he asked, looking Zach up and down while sliding one arm around her mother’s waist.
    Annie made the introductions, but her father’s reaction was not what she’d expected.
    “Zach Quinn,” he muttered. “That’s familiar. Zach Quinn. Zach—” The fog cleared. “The same Zachary Quinn who published a study on the wildcat population of Yosemite last year?”
    Beside her, Zach nodded. “I’m surprised you recognized my name.”
    “Not my department,” her father acknowledged, “but my good friend Ted—Professor Ingram—was very excited by it. Said it was the best doctoral thesis he’d seen his entire tenure.”
    Zach had a
Ph.D.
?
    Annie could’ve kicked him for keeping that from her, especially when her mother shot her a look of accusation. Thankfully, her dad said something at that moment and drew her mom away, leaving Zach and Annie alone for the first time since