teaching for seven years in a stressful situation. It’s not surprising that I got burned out. End of story.”
“Someone like you doesn’t get burn out.”
“What do you mean ‘someone like me’?” she demanded.
“You’ve got too much determination to burn out. Besides, you’re too damn stubborn to give up.”
“What makes you think you know anything about me? You haven’t even seen me in ten years.”
“I’ve kept track of what you’ve been doing. Michael would brag about you in his Christmas cards, saying that you insisted on teaching where you were needed and could make the most difference, despite the fact that he and the rest of your family didn’t approve of you working in such a bad part of the city.”
Having said that, he reached around her to put a dish in the sink. She felt his body heat against her back, felt his arm brush her breast and she jumped as if hit by lightning.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, confused by her startled-cat routine. “Why did you jerk away from me like that?” Then, as one possible explanation hit him, his expression turned serious, bordering almost on alarmed. “Oh, my God. Were you sexually assaulted?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I was not sexually assaulted. Just because I’m a little jumpy doesn’t mean that anything like that happened to me!” Gaylynn said.
“And even if it had, you wouldn’t tell me, would you?” Hunter retorted.
“If you think that, then why ask me in the first place?”
“Because I’m trying to figure out how I can help you.”
His words were like tiny arrows piercing her pride.
Lifting her chin, Gaylynn stated, “I don’t need you to help me. I’m not one of those injured baby birds you used to take in when we were kids.”
“I’m still pretty good at mending broken wings,” he murmured, coming so close behind her that his breath stirred her hair and awakened silent yearnings.
Hunter was pretty good at plenty of things, not least of which was making Gaylynn feel like a young girl on her first date—filled with anticipation of what could be.
Curtly reminding herself that she was no young girl, Gaylynn squelched her wistful thoughts before they took further flight. “I’m sure the birds around here are glad to hear that you’re good at mending their broken wings,” she replied dryly. “But I don’t have wings and I don’t need your help.”
Gently brushing her shoulder blades with his fingertips, Hunter softly said, “Remember how Michael told you that these would grow into angel’s wings when you got older?”
“I was a gullible kid,” she admitted.
“And now? Are you still gullible now?”
“Sometimes,” she replied, stepping away from the magnetic temptation of his touch. “After all, I let you come over and badger me tonight, didn’t I?”
“You forgot to mention the delicious meal I made. Tomorrow night, you can cook.”
“Hey, I didn’t come to the mountains to cook,” she protested.
“Why did you come here?”
But she was on to his tactics now. “I’ve already answered that question several times. Maybe you need to get your hearing tested,” she mockingly suggested. “How old are you now? Almost forty?”
Hunter did not look amused. “I’m thirty-five and you damn well know it.”
His arrogant assumption that she would know his age irritated her. “Forgive me if I’ve been too busy living life to recall all the details of yours.”
“Yeah, I heard about you living life, traipsing all over the globe.”
She relaxed. This was something she felt more comfortable talking about. “That’s right. During my summer breaks I used to travel a lot,” she reminisced fondly. “I’ve been elephant-trekking in Thailand, slept on the beach in Morocco, shopped in Singapore, gotten rained on in England’s Lake District and visited the rain forest in Costa Rica.”
“You used to be a globe-trotter?”
“Yeah, well, now I stick a little closer to home.”
“Any reason for that?”
“Finances, and the fact that although I’ve seen a lot of the world there are still plenty of places right here in America that I haven’t seen yet. The Blue Ridge Mountains, for cexanmple. This is my first time down here.”
“Then you’ll have to be sure and drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We could do that this weekend. I’m off-duty-”
“I don’t need to go anywhere else,” she interrupted him. “I can see mountains from here.”
“There are even more spectacular views to be seen.”
“I’ll be fine right here.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say that you’re hiding away up here.”
That was exactly what she planned on doing, and she didn’t aim on having Hunter get in her way, regardss of how sexy she might still find him. His shaggy hair had just a touch of gray at the temples while his piercing green eyes reflected an interrogating intensity. She could easily picture Hunter as the embodiment of a gray wolf. He was certainly a natural born predator, trained to go after what he wanted and to get what he went after. She had to remind herself that all he wanted from her was the truth, but even that was too much for her to give him right now.
Seeing she wasn’t about to unload her innermost thoughts to him, Hunter chose a more nonthreatening topic. “So how’s the rest of your family doing?”
“Fine. Dylan flew in for the wedding.” If her rolling-stone younger brother hadn’t planned on flying out the morning after the reception, Gaylynn might have put off coming down to the mountains for a day or two. She hadn’t seen Dylan in a year.
“So what’s he been up to lately? Has he taken over your globe-trotting ways?”
“He pretty much sticks to the western United States, but he certainly doesn’t stay in one place very long. He been working the rodeo circuit out there as a saddle bronc rider. He’s even won a couple of championships. And did you hear that Michael and Brett have adopted a baby girl, Hope? She’s adorable. Smart, too. Naturally I’m her favorite aunt.”
“Naturally. Did she tell you that?”
“She’s not actually talking a lot yet. She’s a little over nine months old and is just about ready to walk on her own. I brought a picture of her.” Gaylynn retrieved a pocket-size photo album
