accomplish that? Especially when seeing her again had done what it had done to him?
Even surrounded by her family and at a distance, he’d still felt her presence the very instant she’d walked into the living room. It had been as if the temperature had suddenly risen. As if everything were brighter. As if all the colors around him were more vivid.
And that was before he’d so much as glanced at her.
Then he’d looked up and seen her for the first time since New Year’s morning, and he’d been struck all over again by how beautiful she was in that quietly understated way of hers. With those sparkling green eyes and that wildly curly honey-brown hair shot through with streaks of gold, and those tender lips he remembered kissing until they’d grown puffy….
Damn if he hadn’t wanted to walk away from the rest of her family and go to her, take her in his arms, kiss her again the way he had that night….
Brady nicked himself with his razor, drawing blood.
“That’s what you get for thinking those kinds of things,” he told himself as he tore a corner from a tissue and pressed it to the wound.
And why the hell was he thinking about this now?
He’d already made one huge mistake with that woman and she’d let him know what she thought of him for it.
So what good did it do to be wallowing in this damn attraction to her?
No good, that’s what.
“So shake it off,” he ordered.
And that’s exactly what he was going to do.
Even though a part of him was itching to do something entirely different. To do a little courting. A little charming. A little wooing…
But that was the stupid, crazy part of him.
Because if there was one thing he’d learned in the past year—and learned the hard way—it was that no amount of tenacity or persistence, no amount of wooing or wining and dining or gift giving, could change a woman’s feelings once she’d decided she didn’t want him.
And Kate McDermot had made it more than clear the morning after their wedding that she didn’t want him. Or anything to do with him.
So he was here to visit Matt, to look at some property, to get the divorce papers signed, and that was it.
And if Kate McDermot could still rock his world just by walking into a room? Too bad.
He wasn’t giving in to the attraction. He wasn’t letting it put him in any position where he could be dealt another emotional body blow the way Claudia had done.
And if he and Kate had had one incredible night together? Obviously it hadn’t been as incredible for her as it had been for him.
So that one night was all they were ever going to have together. Because he just didn’t need any more grief.
And that’s all there was to it.
Chapter Three
“Go on in with your company,” Junebug Brimley told Kate, making a shooing motion with her hands in the direction of the door that led from the kitchen to the dining room.
Junebug was the McDermots’ housekeeper. All six feet, three hundred pounds of her.
“I want to help,” Kate informed her, trying to do what she’d decided to do to get through dinner that evening—make herself as scarce as possible by staying in the kitchen.
“Don’t need your help,” the booming-voiced woman told her bluntly. “Raised a passel of sons who ate like bears comin’ out of hibernation at every meal. I think I can put on this dinner without too much strain.”
“But we’re all here tonight,” Kate reminded her.
All being those family members who lived in the big house built to accommodate them—her twin brothers Ry and Shane, their wives, Tallie and Maya, and Ry’s nearly three-year-old son, Andrew, Matt, Jenn and Kate, along with Bax—Elk Creek’s doctor who lived in town—and his wife Carly and his going-on-seven-year-old daughter, Evie Lee, plus Brady.
“All or not, I can do it myself,” Junebug said, holding firm. “You’re missin’ time with Matt’s friend in there.”
“That’s just it—he’s Matt’s friend. Not mine. I don’t have anything to say to him.”
“I heard the two of you liked each other fine in Las Vegas,” Junebug said slyly.
“He’s a nice enough man. But that was then, and this is now, and he’s here to visit Matt, not me.”
Junebug eyed Kate as if she could see right through her. “He’s a handsome cuss. And single, same as you. Maybe you ought to try thinkin’ of somethin’ to say to ’im.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Could be you could get a little romance goin’.”
“I’m not in the market for a romance. If I was, I might go after one of those six handsome cuss, single sons of yours,” Kate countered, teasing the gruff older woman.
“Which one would you like? I’m tryin’ my best to get ’em married off but they’re too mule-headed for their own good.”
Kate laughed in spite of having her bluff called. “I don’t want one of your sons, either, Junebug. I’m not interested in fooling with any man right now.”
“Should be.”
“Well I’m not. And Matt’s as bad as you are about Brady—he’s trying to throw me together with him by hook or by crook. So do me a favor and put me to work in here.”
Junebug looked her up and down, as if debating about granting Kate’s wish.
Then she went to the swinging door that connected the dining room and said, “Would somebody get Kate outta my kitchen so’s I can do some dishin’ out of this food without her underfoot?”
“Thanks,” Kate said under her breath.
Junebug grinned. “Two by two—that’s how we’re meant to walk this earth.”
Kate just rolled her eyes at the woman as demands for her to go into the dining room were voiced in answer to Junebug’s request.
So, with no other choice, that was what Kate had to do.
Rather than serving appetizers buffet-style Junebug had had everyone take their seats at the dining table. But the only place setting that wasn’t already occupied when Kate joined her family was the one directly across from Brady.
She would have preferred being situated farther away from him and without much of a view of the houseguest, but as it was she had to take the sole remaining spot.
The McDermot family was once more laughing at something Brady had said as they passed
