15 Valentine Place. Pamela Bauer
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pleasant kind.”
“Why not? She’s hot and she’s smart. What more could a man want? And she can still beat me at chess.”
Dylan agreed with his brother about her being hot but kept his opinion to himself. “She may be your type, but she’s definitely not mine,” he told Garret, wanting to dispel any notion Garret had that he was interested in the woman.
“I’m glad to hear that, because she’s taken.” There was no mistaking the warning in his brother’s voice.
“By you?” Dylan asked with a sly smile.
“No, but she does date a very good friend of mine.”
“Well, your friend has nothing to worry about from me. Even if I were looking for a woman—which I’m not—I wouldn’t be looking in Madeline’s direction. If anything, I’ll be doing my best to avoid her as much as possible.”
He stared at him in amazement. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard anyone say that about Maddie. It might be a good idea if you didn’t share your opinion of her with Mom. She regards Maddie as the daughter she never had.”
“So I’ve noticed.”
“You sound as if you disapprove.”
“I’m just worried about Mom, that’s all. I’d hate to see her be taken advantage of by anyone.”
Garret laughed. “You don’t need to worry about that with Maddie.”
“You sound awfully confident.”
“That’s because I am.” He’d already finished his lunch and shoved aside his plate, resting on his elbows as he asked, “Have you met Krystal?”
Dylan shrugged. “Other than a brief introduction, we haven’t talked,” he answered honestly. “Why?”
Just then Garret pushed his lab coat aside to reach for the beeper on his waist. “I’m being paged. I have to go.” He quickly drained the remains of his coffee and was about to load his dishes back on the tray when Dylan stopped him.
“I’ll get them. You go attend to your emergency.”
Garret smiled. “Thanks.” Before he left he said, “I’ll try to stop by the house tonight, but if I don’t, I’ll see you in the morning before you go into surgery.”
Dylan nodded.
As he walked out of the cafeteria, he called over his shoulder, “Don’t worry about a thing. Pete’s the best.”
Dylan hadn’t been thinking about his upcoming surgery. He was thinking about Maddie.
As he climbed into his father’s car, he noticed the plastic water jugs in the back seat of the car. He didn’t have to give them to Maddie. He could fill the jugs himself and leave without even seeing her.
There were only two problems. One was that he didn’t want to stand in line to fill water jugs. The second was, he wanted to see her.
MADDIE NOTICED Dylan the minute he entered the store. He wore khaki slacks and a dark brown leather aviator jacket. Despite the below-zero windchill, his head was bare, his sun-streaked hair in disarray from the wind. Just as it had last night, when she first saw him, her heart skipped a beat.
“I’d like half a pound of baby Swiss cheese,” a customer said, drawing her attention back to the deli case in front of her.
Maddie lifted the cheese from the refrigerated case and slid the block onto the slicer, aware that Dylan was headed in her direction. Before she had finished the woman’s order, he was at the deli counter.
She could feel his eyes on her as she worked. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t keep from sneaking a peek at him. He looked like a surfer who’d taken the wrong flight and ended up in the land of snow and ice instead of sunshine and beaches.
When her customer left, she had no choice but to give her attention to him. “What can I do for you?” she asked, trying to keep her voice level, which wasn’t easy considering the way her breath wanted to catch in her throat.
“Mom asked me to drop these off.” He held up the plastic jugs. “Said you’d know what to do with them.”
When she took them from him, their fingers touched. His were cold, hers warm, which she figured accounted for the tiny shiver she felt. “Thanks.”
“Mom never bought water when we were growing up,” he commented. “We drank it straight from the tap.”
“No one realized the problems with lead pipes back then,” she responded, setting the jugs on the floor behind her.
“So this is where you work,” he said, giving a cursory glance around the store.
She spread her arms. “This is it.”
“The store’s changed quite a bit since I was a kid.” She didn’t comment, but waited for him to speak again. He turned his attention to the food in the refrigerated case. “Why don’t you give me one of those small cartons of coleslaw.”
She reached for a half-pint container and filled it with coleslaw. Her movements were sharp as she slapped a couple of spoonfuls into the cup. She could feel his eyes on her and she hurried so he could take his purchase and leave.
As she set the carton on the counter, she asked, “Anything else?”
“Yes. I’d like to start over.” His eyes were a warm brown and the message in them made her uncomfortable.
It said, “I’m a man and you’re an attractive woman.” She didn’t want to see that kind of look in his eyes. He was her landlady’s son and that was how she planned to regard him. “You don’t want the coleslaw?” she asked, deliberately misunderstanding him.
“I’m not talking about the coleslaw. I’m talking about last night. There’s no point in pretending it didn’t happen, Maddie. If we’re going to live under the same roof for the next month or so, don’t you think it would be a good idea if we made a fresh start?” The words were delivered with the ease of a man who was no stranger to negotiation and compromise.
She knew that to do anything but agree would be ill-mannered. “All right. I’m willing to forget about last night.”
“What about fourteen years ago? Can you forget about that, too?”
She frowned. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You didn’t like me very much back then, either.” He didn’t look offended by the statement, but rather amused.
She folded her arms across her chest. “That’s not the best way to make a new beginning—by bringing up the past.” She didn’t see any need to correct him regarding the feelings she’d had for him as a fourteen-year-old.
“We’re not exactly strangers, Maddie.”
She didn’t need him to tell her that. The minute she’d seen him last night, memories of that summer had come flooding back. She knew more about Dylan Donovan than she cared to admit.
“How do you suggest we make a new beginning?” he asked. Again there was that interest in his eye that had the nerves in Maddie’s body rising to alarm status.
“Maybe we say we both misunderstood each other last night and just start over,” she suggested.
He stared at her, those penetrating brown eyes making her want to squirm. She didn’t. She stood her ground, arms folded, chin up, meeting his eyes squarely. She was twenty-eight, not fourteen. She didn’t need to run and hide from any man.
“I can do that,” he told her with a grin that made her stomach do a funny little flutter.
“Good. Then we start over,” she stated evenly.
“We start over,” he repeated.
She