reached for the door handle, hesitating to see Lisa at work, fearing a humiliating rejection. Still, she’d been humiliated before and she’d survived. She was terrified that’s all she would ever do—simply survive.
Jerking up on the door’s stiff handle, she stepped out of her old sedan. As the door clicked shut behind her, she smoothed the front of the coat that had fit her so well a few months ago but flapped around her figure now. At least it was good quality. Nothing to be ashamed of there.
As she walked up to the glass-fronted doors, she reached for the handle just as a man’s hand grasped it.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” he said in the local drawl she’d longed to hear again. “Let me get that for you.”
Flustered, she looked up at the handsome dark-haired man. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t recall where she’d seen him. She stepped inside and he followed.
The moment passed as the secretary looked up and broke into a wide smile. “Why, Ben McAdams, as I live and breathe. I didn’t know you were back in town.”
“I am for now, Sandy.”
Maureen recognized the secretary, too. Her name had been Sandy Westlyn, but the nameplate on her desk said Sandy Borden. Maureen used to babysit for her and her two little brothers. She’d known the Borden family, too, but it had been so long, she couldn’t think of which one of the sons Sandy might have married.
Sandy managed to move her dazzled smile to take in Maureen’s somewhat subdued appearance and switch to being professional. “I’ll be right with you, Ben. How can I help you, ma’am?”
Maureen clenched her hands inside her coat pockets, grateful that Sandy didn’t seem to recognize her. “I’d like to see Lisa Thomas, please.”
“What a coincidence,” Ben said affably. “That’s just what I want, too.”
Maureen answered with a shaky smile, then went to a chair so she could stop the trembling in her legs. And get her bearings.
* * *
“LISA, YOU’VE GOT VISITORS.”
Sandy Borden’s voice pulled her away from the paperwork she was compiling for a new listing. She had spent an hour rereading the resort proposal, checking facts and figures. The more she read, the more excited she became at the prosperity the resort would bring to the county. She’d finally put the report away, knowing there was much work to be done before any ground-breaking could take place.
The faraway tone of her receptionist’s voice caught Lisa’s attention.
Intrigued, she closed her laptop, stood and walked to her office door. “Yes? Oh.” Her attention darted from her receptionist to the man at the front of the office.
Ben McAdams stood by the glass front door of Reston Realty. He tipped his hat and winked at Sandy. “So, how are you, beautiful? Haven’t seen you since little Derek won the roping competition at the county fair. How is he? How’s the family?”
Delighted color washed up Sandy’s face. As if she couldn’t help herself, she fluffed her hair and moistened her lips. “Oh, Ben. It’s great to see you. Everyone is fine. Little Derek is taller than you are now and he’s going to Oklahoma University in the fall.”
“Go, Sooners,” Ben said, making a fist and pumping the air. “That’s great. You must be proud of him.”
“Cliff and I both are.”
Ben tilted his head as he gave her a teasing grin. “I’m wondering, though, how he’s going to get out of the house with you two hanging on to his leg crying, ‘No, no, please don’t go.’”
Sandy laughed. “I don’t know. You’re supposed to raise kids to let them be independent, but I’m sure we’re not ready for that.”
“I’m sure you and Cliff have raised a good man. He’ll be okay.”
Lisa was so shocked to see Ben in her outer office, she could barely form words. She’d been thinking about him constantly for days, but she hadn’t contacted him about the baby because she couldn’t decide what to say—a rarity for her since she usually met problems head-on. Was it possible that her imagination had conjured him up?
Distracted, she looked around to see that someone else had come in, as well, and had taken a seat against the wall.
She glanced at the woman, then away, but her attention shot back to her, astounded.
“Huh... H-hello,” Lisa stammered.
“Hello, Lisa,” Maureen said. “Can I talk to you?”
Lisa stared at her and then at Ben, who was having a great chat with Sandy, his distinctive rumbling chuckle breaking out. That happiness would disappear the minute Lisa told him the news.
She fought a ripple of hysteria as she looked from Maureen’s solemn face to Ben’s laughing one. Maureen, who hadn’t had time for her at Aunt Violet’s funeral, wanted to talk to her now. But Lisa had to talk to Ben first. She couldn’t put it off.
“I’m...I’m so sorry. I can’t see you—at least not now. I’ve got...”
“I understand,” Maureen said, standing. “Maybe we can try again later.”
“Yes, later,” Lisa agreed, even though her excellent memory reminded her that “later” seemed to always be the time when Maureen was departing. She had to take that chance, though. When she did talk to her mother, she wanted to be able to give the conversation her full attention and she couldn’t do that until she’d dealt with Ben.
Lisa scooped her cell phone out of her pants pocket. “Do you have a phone? Can you give me your number? I’ll call you as soon as I’m free.”
Of course, there was no guarantee that Maureen would answer if she did call.
Maureen gave a nervous little smile, supplied her number and left, the door swinging silently shut behind her. She hadn’t asked for Lisa’s number.
As she tried to control her reaction to the double shock of seeing both Maureen and Ben, Lisa watched Ben charm Sandy’s socks off. She wouldn’t have been surprised to see her receptionist’s eyes suddenly turn into beating pink hearts like a love-struck cartoon character’s.
It wasn’t simply that he was handsome, with his rich, dark auburn hair, dark gray eyes, thick lashes and strong, square chin. It wasn’t only his size. He was a big man, at least six foot four, slimmed down somewhat from his days as a linebacker in the NFL, but still muscled and strong. The thing was that Ben was genuinely interested in everyone and could focus his attention on the person he was listening to as if they were the most interesting human on earth. When he listened, he leaned in from the waist, turned his head slightly and narrowed his dark gray eyes just a little, as if he wanted to block out the rest of the world and everything in it. When he smiled, deep dimples appeared, and when he laughed, he threw back his head and didn’t hold anything in.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, his voice had a rolling timbre that made everyone in any gathering stop their own conversations to turn and hear what he had to say. The Oklahoma drawl that she’d heard all around her every
