she chased boredom right out the door.
TYLER DROVE BEHIND Carlie, noting the slow, careful way she maneuvered her car. He was on the verge of laughing out loud. He shook his head, bemused. He couldn’t recall ever having such verbal skirmishes with a woman. Women didn’t react to him that way. But damned if he didn’t like it. It was fun.
For that matter, Carlie was fun.
And he’d never thought of a woman that way before. She appeared totally immune to his flirting, but it wasn’t because she was shy or withdrawn.
On the contrary. She was one of the most outspoken women he’d ever met. And intelligent. He enjoyed her company.
It was like having a pal, someone he could exchange mild insults with and still smile. But it was so utterly different with her being female. It was as if a whole new facet had been added to the relationship. It went a long way toward relieving his distraction over the mysterious—and missing—masked lady. And that in itself was a major feat.
Carlie pulled into her driveway and parked beneath a carport. Tyler pulled up to the curb out front, then he stared. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, probably a mud-colored house with a barren expanse of lawn and not a single speck of color. She took him by surprise. Again.
Her house was a small Cape Cod cottage nestled at the end of a narrow side street. A farmer’s fields were on the right side of the house, a heavily wooded area to the left. Behind and in front of the white-and-yellow wooden structure was a well-tended lawn. Daisies were blooming everywhere, and her mailbox was designed to look like a small, colorful barn.
Tyler looked around, captivated. There was a tire swing hanging from the gnarled branch of an ancient oak off the back corner of the house. A curving porch circling to the right of the front door had a rattan porch swing attached to the overhang.
“A real swinger, aren’t you?”
Carlie shrugged as she dug her key from her purse. “I’m not an idle person. I don’t like to be still, even when I’m relaxing.”
Tyler tried to imagine the classic picture of a woman superimposed with Carlie in a flowery dress, her hair loose, swaying in the breeze and humming softly while her bare feet maintained the gentle motion of the swing.
He wasn’t quite that imaginative.
The inside of her house was also a contrast, so different from the woman he was getting to know. There was little furniture, only the basic necessities. It was an eclectic mix of modern and antique, light oak and glass, chintz material and delicate doilies. There were no photographs, but there were framed prints of the most outrageous things. Each room appeared to have a theme.
The living room was spring, with a large, brass-framed picture of a bee, busily collecting pollen from a daisy. Porcelain flowers decorated each tabletop and filled one curio cabinet.
The dining room, which was minuscule, was decorated with birds. A border of them circled the room, a dainty, delicate figure sat looking over every corner, and in each plant, one peeked from between the leaves.
The kitchen was whales.
He raised his eyebrows at her in question. “How did you choose whales, may I ask?”
Carlie had been busily putting their jackets on the coat tree and checking the stew. She looked at him over her shoulder as she lifted the Crock-Pot lid. “One of the children at school gave me one, once. I said I liked it, and...” She smiled.
“They all decided to give you one?”
“Each class seems to take it into their head that I need a new collection of something. But I don’t mind. It makes for consistent Christmas presents. There are bunnies in the bathroom and cats in my bedroom.”
“What are you going to do when you run out of rooms?”
She tilted her head. “Mix and match?”
He smiled at her wit. “Can I help you set the table or something?”
“No. You can turn on the television if you like. I’m just going to heat the bread and set the table.”
Tyler wandered into the living room again. His attention was drawn to the television set and an array of DVDs sitting on top. He looked through them, and stopped when he spotted a “Work Out With the Oldies,” video. He carried it with him into the kitchen. “Whose is this?”
Carlie paused in the process of serving the stew. “Mine. Who else would it belong to?”
“You work out to the oldies?”
“I like older music. It’s more fun than this new stuff kids listen to.”
“So do you hop and jostle around in a pair of tights?”
She smirked at his expression. “You’re looking at my workout clothes.” She spread her arms in the air. The shirt raised a bit and he caught a glimpse of the pale flesh of her belly.
To his disbelief, and annoyance, he felt a brief spurt of interest. It had only been a flash, an instant of white skin, gone too quickly to really appreciate, if indeed, there had been anything there to appreciate.
With the clothes she favored, it was hard to tell for certain. But she definitely had a large bosom. He’d established that today when she was exercising, her body bouncing in all the right places. And from that prominent point, her clothes fell almost straight down, giving no hint of curves or dips and hollows.
But her arms had felt slim when he’d shaken her the other day. And when she’d come into the house, she’d kicked off her shoes, showing narrow feet and trim ankles.
It was simple curiosity, he decided, that was making him react to her. Not that he would ever consider doing anything about it. She was a schoolteacher, which was bad enough as far as dalliance went, but on top of that she was too damn prickly, and was his sister-in-law’s best friend, to boot. She was so far off the scale of available females, he knew he didn’t have to concern himself. But he did, anyway.
He’d never met a woman so dedicated to a cause, so at ease with children and so giving. She was totally disinterested in his supposed prowess, in his community standing, in his reputation. All she wanted from him was his help in achieving a worthwhile goal.
Disgruntled with his thoughts, and his overactive imagination that kept him guessing at her elusive figure, he stalked toward her and asked bluntly, “How much do you weigh?”
Carlie halted in the middle of opening a package of butter. “That’s none of your business!”
“You’re working out, so you must feel you need to lose some weight, right?”
“Wrong. I work out to keep in shape. Everybody should.” She poked him in the middle. “Don’t you?”
“Of course. But that’s different.”
“Why?”
“I go to a gym. I’m a man.”
“Well,
