was a slight frown between his eyes. “I’m sorry. I’ve just never met anyone like you before. Probably because there is no one else like you.”
Linda studied his face, looking for a lie, searching for something that would scare her off. All she saw was intense admiration and the open, honest expression of a man saying what was in his heart. Her own feelings swelled and turned into words.
“I’ve never met anyone like you, either,” she whispered.
Tag looked into her eyes for a long, sexually charged moment then took her hand. “Let’s go to the shop.”
Linda felt dazed. His hand around hers was big and warm and felt like a connection to life itself, to all of the things she had never experienced. She was real and Tag was real, and what was happening between them was more real than the building they entered together.
Inside, virtually alone with him—although Sammy was only about twenty feet away from the opened door of the shop—she moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue and saw Tag watching the perfectly natural gesture with yearning eyes.
She gently disengaged her hand from his and began looking around. There were all sorts of tools and workbenches, and she saw a headboard on one of them and then a child’s play area in the far corner.
“For Samantha,” she said quietly. “You’re a protective father.”
“Comparable to a she-bear with cubs,” Tag said with a slight grin.
“It’s very clean in here. I think I expected sawdust…and… Oh, there’s the furniture you’ve finished.” She left him to walk over to an elegant dining table with a Sold sign on it. “You actually built this?” she asked in amazement.
Tag nodded. “Sure did.”
“You’re not just an ordinary carpenter, you’re a craftsman, an artist.” Linda moved to some chairs and then a coffee table. “Oh, these are all wonderful.”
“Glad you like them. What I like is you.”
Linda sucked in a startled breath.
Tag moved directly in front of her and put his hands on her waist. “I don’t need a year to decide on whether or not yesterday was a red-letter day, Linda. I knew it only minutes after meeting you. And I’ll tell you something else. I don’t say things like that to every woman I meet. You can ask anyone in this town and they’ll all inform you that I’m pretty much a loner. Once in a great while I go down to Joe’s Bar and have a beer or two. That’s about the extent of my social life.”
Linda probed the depths of his eyes. “Tag, you must have had women friends along the way,” she said softly. “You’ve been widowed for five years. Men don’t live without female companionship for that long a time.”
“I’ll tell you about every woman I ever knew if you want me to. Do you?”
She shook her head. “No, of course not.”
“I don’t want to hear about the men in your past, either.”
“But there weren’t any. Other than my husband.”
“Linda, Linda,” he whispered. “Do you realize what’s happening here?”
She knew he was going to kiss her. His face came closer to hers, and she almost felt his lips on hers.
But then they both heard Samantha calling. “Daddy? Where are you, Daddy?”
They quickly broke apart. “There you are,” Samantha said, and smiled when she saw her daddy.
Tag went to his daughter and picked her up. “Let’s go make those burgers, okay, sweetheart?”
“Okay, Daddy,” she replied happily.
Chapter Five
Linda loved Tag’s house. Modern-rustic, she called it—only in her own mind while wondering if there was any such thing. But what else would one call a house with every modern convenience that had the feel of a cozy cabin? In particular she loved the childish drawings—held in place by fruit and vegetable magnets—covering the door of the refrigerator. It was clear that Tag was a loving father to his little daughter.
The floor plan of the house was simple and sensible and would accommodate a larger family than Tag’s, all very impressive, but what delighted Linda most was the craftsmanship that Tag had lavished on his home. He was indeed a master carpenter, and Linda confidently ordered two bookcases with dimensions to fit the now vacant wall space in her compact living room. She looked forward to the day she could start unpacking her books, and she told Tag she would order three more bookcases for her bedroom if the first two were well-done.
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