by Judy Duarte
“Is that enough to hold her over until breakfast?” Kieran asked.
“It might be.”
Dana had to force herself to finish her own single slice, but she didn’t mention that to Kieran. She’d hate for him to think she was complaining about the meal he’d provided her.
“Actually,” he said, “I’ve been known to eat almost an entire pizza by myself, but this one tastes like C-R-A-P.”
At that, Dana broke into a grin. “That might be one reason she didn’t finish. Should we offer her something else? If you have some fresh fruit or yogurt, we can tempt her with something more appealing.”
“Good idea,” he said. “You stay here, kick back and relax. I’ll see what I can rustle up.”
The children’s movie wasn’t all that bad. In fact, it was somewhat entertaining, but Dana got to her feet anyway. “Let me help.”
“Are you sure you want to?”
She gave him a wink. “You bet.”
Several minutes later, they’d prepared a fruit, cheese and cracker platter.
“Maybe I’d better spread some peanut butter on a few of these crackers,” Kieran said. “Earlier today, during lunch, Rosie informed me that mouse cheese tastes yucky and that she only likes the square kind.”
Dana tilted her head. “What did she mean by that?”
“I wondered the same thing, so I asked.” Kieran laughed. “She said the cartoon mice eat cheese that has holes in it. So I came to an easy conclusion. She prefers American over Swiss.”
“Well, what do you know? There’s something new to learn every day.”
“That’s true, especially when there’s a three-year-old around. But I catch on quickly. Now I have American cheese on my new grocery list, along with raisins and Oreos, although she informed me she only likes the ‘white stuff inside’ and not the cookie part.”
“That’s important to note,” Dana said, as she finished slicing an apple to add to the platter, which was now filled with healthy munchies and adorned with both green and red grapes. “What do you think? Is this enough?”
Kieran made his way to where she stood, close enough for her to catch a taunting whiff of his woodsy aftershave. “That’s perfect. We make a great team.”
Did they? She liked the sound of that.
“And after the day we’ve had,” he added, giving her a nudge with his elbow, “and the movie we’re committed to finish, I’d like to have a glass of wine. How about you? I promise it’ll come out of a bottle, rather than a box.”
“That sounds good to me.”
She watched as he opened the stainless-steel refrigerator door, pulled out a chilled chardonnay and placed it on the countertop. She again marveled at the way he moved through the kitchen, like a man comfortable being a host. Or, more accurately, like a bachelor who’d perfected the fine art of seduction.
And why wouldn’t a rich, handsome single manlike Kieran have those romantic moves down to a science?
Of course, giving Dana a glass of wine after an evening like this wasn’t about romance or seduction. Still, if she were to ever be on the receiving end of Kieran Fortune’s sexual attention, she’d be charmed to the core. And making love with him would be as natural as...falling into bed.
Now there was an amazing and completely unlikely image she wasn’t going to dwell on.
After opening the bottle with a fancy corkscrew, Kieran removed two crystal goblets from the glass-door cupboard and filled them halfway.
He handed one to Dana, then lifted his in a toast. “To my trusty teammate, who happens to be a very good sport.”
Her heart fluttered, as if they had actually become a team, but that’s as far as it would go. She knew better than to let anything Kieran said go to her head. So she tamped down the little rush, determined to offer him a lighthearted toast of her own.
She clinked her glass against his, the resonating ring validating the glasses were crystal, and said, “To Cowboy Fred’s search for a new chef.”
At that, Kieran chuckled. “You’ve got that right. And to make matters worse, there’s a great Italian restaurant close to my office that serves an awesome gourmet pizza—and for less than Fred charges for week-old marinara and stale cheese on top of baked cardboard.”
Now it was Dana’s turn to laugh. Then she reached for a grape, pulled it off the small cluster and popped it into her mouth.
“Come on,” Kieran said. “Let’s take this to Rosie and give her something healthier to eat for dinner.”
They’d no more than returned to the living room when they spotted Rosie stretched out on the floor, her eyes closed in slumber, her lips parted.
“Is she asleep?” Dana asked.
“It looks that way.” Kieran set both his wineglass and the platter on the coffee table. “She should eat something, but...she’s got to be exhausted. Maybe it would be best to let her sleep. If she wakes up hungry, I can give her something to eat then.”
He stooped and picked up the child, then straightened, holding her close to his chest, gazing at her as if she was a fragile princess. She might be tiny and precious, but she’d battled a dragon today.
“I’ll be right back,” Kieran said. Then he carried Rosie out of the living room and down the hall.
Dana glanced at the platter of cheese and fruit as well as Kieran’s glass of wine. Then she looked at her own. A nervous flutter erupted in her tummy.
With Rosie now out of the room, they would be alone. What in the world would they talk about?
That romantic spark she’d felt while bumping elbows with him in the kitchen flickered again, warming her cheeks and sending her heart in a tail-chasing circle. She tried her best to put the fire out, to tamp it down, just as she’d done before.
But this time, watching Kieran walk away, all tall, buff and handsome, his sexy swagger on, she just couldn’t shake whatever he’d stirred inside her.
* * *
When Kieran returned to the living room, he found Dana seated on the sofa, rather than on the floor where they’d sat before. That made sense. There was no point in having a big, family-style evening when Rosie was sound asleep.
He looked at his new Bang & Olufsen television screen, where the animated movie continued to play, and reached for the remote, which rested on the lamp table. “I assume it’s okay if I turn this off.”
“That’s fine by me.” Dana offered him a shy smile, then studied the wine in her crystal goblet as if she’d never seen anything like it before.
He felt a little awkward, too. But he shook it off and took a seat on the sofa, one cushion away from her. Then he picked up his wineglass, which he’d left on the coffee table just moments ago. “It looks like we’ll have the food to ourselves.”
Dana bent forward and snatched a piece of cheese and a rice cracker from the platter. As she did, the lamplight splashed on her bent head in such a way that it lit up threads of gold in her auburn strands, causing her silky hair to shimmer and glisten like it was about to catch fire. He could only imagine what it would look like if she wore it hanging loose.
Kieran hadn’t expected to notice something like that, let alone comment, but a question rolled off his tongue before he could give it a second thought. “Is there a reason you keep your hair pulled up most of the time?”
Dana gazed up at him, the cheese and cracker half raised to her mouth. Her lips parted as if the question had completely caught her off guard. But then, why wouldn’t it take her aback? Kieran hadn’t intended to ask her something so personal, even if he’d wondered about it more than once in the last few weeks.
“It’s just a habit, I guess. I always put it up when I’m at work because it tends to get into my face whenever I’m bent over a book or a journal. But I...” She didn’t finish what she was about to add.
The way she eyed him, carefully and cautiousl
y, made him scamper to find an excuse or an explanation for asking such a question in the first place.
“It’s a pretty color,” he admitted, “and I’d think...” Oh, for cripe’s sake. Good job, man. Now you’ve made things worse.
Where did he go from here? If she were a classy, beautiful woman seated alone in a swanky bar, sipping champagne and wearing a coquettish grin, he’d have no trouble knowing just what to do and say right now. And he wouldn’t even consider changing the subject. But this was different.
Dana was different.
And in her own way, even with her hair pulled up and dressed in casual clothes, she seemed just as appealing as any woman he might meet in a bar. In fact, if she would consider letting her hair down and slipping into a slinky black dress...
Oh, hell. She didn’t even need to go to that length. As it was, he found her pretty damn intriguing.
And there lay the crux of the problem. Under other circumstances, Kieran would have made a romantic move by now. But he couldn’t very well do that when she’d been Zach’s girlfriend. Guys didn’t do things like that to each other.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
Hell, yes. Even with her hair pulled up like a prim librarian and with a blood stain on her blouse, she’d caught his eye and his full attention. And he found her way more attractive than he should.
“No,” he said, doing his damnedest to shake the sudden attraction and to pull himself together. “There’s nothing wrong. My mind was just wandering back in time, back to when Zach was alive. The two of you came to a cocktail party here. And you wore your hair down that evening. It hung nearly to your waist and was so sleek and shiny. The color was even more striking. I didn’t tell you then, but I commented about it later to Zach.”
“He liked me to wear it long and loose, but...” She bit down on her bottom lip, as if trying to hold back whatever she’d been about to say.
But that was okay. In fact, it was almost a relief to know they’d both gotten caught up in a topic that needed to be redirected—and quickly. If he didn’t get off this verbal merry-go-round, he could end up saying something really stupid, something that gave Dana the wrong idea.
“Unlike Zach,” he said, grasping at straws, “I’ve always been attracted to blondes.”
The second the words rolled off his tongue, heat flooded his face, and his breathing stopped.
How was that for failing miserably in his attempt to fix things?
Trying to recover, he added, “But I do like the color and think you should wear it down more often.”
Oh, hell. Great recovery. That thoughtless attempt just threw him back into the quagmire he’d tried to escape.
“Thank you,” she said. Then she reached for her glass and took another sip of wine.
So no harm, no foul?
Hopefully, they were back on the right track. He wasn’t about to put the moves on his late friend’s girlfriend, especially when he desperately needed her friendship.
He’d only screw things up by revealing his attraction to her. Besides, sexual partners were a dime a dozen as far as Kieran was concerned.
Yet for some reason, at least tonight, Dana appeared to be one in a million.
Chapter Five
Dana had no idea what Kieran meant by first complimenting her, then slamming her with the fact that he preferred blondes over redheads.
She’d been so dazed by his first comment that she’d caught her breath. She’d almost believed that he found her pretty, and she could have sworn that something sparked between them. She’d inadvertently lifted her hand and fingered the neatly woven strands.
Then, just when she’d thought he was going to say something romantic, he seemed to have realized his error. His smile faded, and his expression froze, making him look like a deer in the headlights. Or in this case, a bachelor in the headlights. He quickly recovered, although awkwardly, and changed the subject.
Apparently her initial instinct had been wrong. He hadn’t meant to lead her to believe he was actually interested in her, and she felt like a fool.
But what did she know about men like Kieran? Other than Zach, who’d felt more like a friend than a date, she’d only had one real boyfriend, and that relationship hadn’t lasted very long.
It had taken a few years of college for her to shed her teenage insecurities, something she blamed on losing her parents so young and being a foster kid. But now she celebrated the fact that she was unique and valuable in her own right, something Monica Flores, the young librarian who’d befriended her, had helped her see. And she wasn’t about to slip back into those old, bad habits again.
In an attempt to take control of her tender feelings, she reached for her wineglass, pretending to be completely unaffected by anything Kieran had said. But instead of taking a ladylike sip, she took a rather large gulp, choked and sputtered.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Talk about uncomfortable moments. “Yes.” She covered her mouth and coughed several times. “I’m...fine.”
And she was. Kieran was probably afraid that Dana had taken his comment wrong. And maybe she had, but only for a moment. She knew better than to imagine he’d meant anything flirtatious.
Over the years, she’d gotten a lot of compliments on her hair. When she was a little girl, whether at the market or shopping in a department store with her mother, people would stop them all the time and comment about the color. Of course, most of them had been sweet, little old ladies. So her ego hadn’t taken that big of a hit now. At least, not one that would be lasting.
Actually, she almost felt sorry for Kieran. He might be uneasy because of what he’d said and afraid of how she might have taken it. But she hadn’t gotten the wrong idea. There was no way she’d ever assume that she could just waltz right into his world and easily fit in with the women who ran in his crowd.
“You know,” she said, getting to her feet, “I’ve got to get going. I just realized I put something in my Crock-Pot early this morning.”
It was the truth. Well, in a way, it was. He didn’t have to know she’d already taken it out.
“I’m sorry if I made you uneasy,” he said, rising quickly. “You really do have beautiful hair and probably should wear it down more often. But I don’t want you to think I was hitting on you. I only mentioned my attraction to blondes because... Well, it was completely out of line. And it wasn’t true.”
She laughed, hoping her attempt to feign an unaffected, don’t-give-it-a-second-thought attitude sounded real to him and not canned. “I knew you weren’t being flirtatious.”
At that, his expression softened, and his posture eased. “Good, because I’d really like your help with Rosie, and I’d hate to think you might feel uncomfortable around me.”
So there you had it. He needed her to be a part of Team Rosie and nothing more. Dana was fine with that. Really. After all, Zach’s little girl and her well-being were all that mattered. And Dana had never expected her and Kieran to be anything other than friends.
Still, as she gathered her purse and headed for the door, a wave of disappointment swept over her, threatening to flood every step she took.
* * *
Dana and Kieran hadn’t talked since their last awkward evening, although there was more than one reason for that. She’d been especially busy at the history center for the past couple of days, working on a special project she didn’t wrap up until Friday afternoon. Then she’d met Connie and Alisha, two of her coworkers, for happy hour, followed by dinner. She hadn’t discussed Kieran with them because, while she considered them friends, she wouldn’t call them confidantes.
Finally, on Saturday morning, she decided she’d bottled up her feelings for too long. So while having a cup of English breakfast tea and a toasted bagel with cream cheese, she called Monica, who still lived in Ama
rillo and worked at the library.
Monica was everything Dana wasn’t—spunky, beautiful, stylish and petite. She also had a flawless olive complexion, expressive brown eyes and glossy, dark hair she often wore as a mass of riotous curls that bounced along her shoulders and onto her back.
At thirty-one, and six years older than Dana, Monica had easily slid into a mentor role. And before long, the two had grown incredibly close, best friends to be sure. But Monica had become the big sister Dana never had. She was also the only one in the world who understood the relationship Dana had shared with Zach, his daughter and his parents.
“Hey, girl!” Monica said. “How’s it going? Are you holding up okay?”
“I’m doing well. How about you?”
“There’ve been a few changes since we last talked. Sergio and I decided to call it quits.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Me, too. But it was a mutual decision, and it’s for the best. Most of our time was spent arguing, and I’m tired of it. I’d rather have a peaceful life.”
“So what else is new?” Dana asked.
“My abuelita moved in with my parents. She’s been doing the cooking, so I’ve been going home a lot, just to eat. And now I’ve put on about five pounds.”
“I can understand why. Your grandmother is an awesome cook.” Dana laughed and her spirits rose. She needed to talk to Monica more often than she did. “I really miss the time I used to spend at your parents’ house. How are they?”
“Working their tails off. Business at their floral shop seems to have really taken off, so that’s good.”
Dana bit down on her bottom lip. She’d never held back when sharing her thoughts, fears or dreams with Monica, but how should she word her current dilemma when she didn’t quite understand it herself?
She decided to start with the basics. “Zach’s best friend, Kieran Fortune, has custody of Rosie. So I’ve been helping him when I can.”
Silence stretched across the line for a couple of beats, then Monica, who’d apparently picked up on something in Dana’s tone, prodded her for more details. “And...?”