you saw all of that from your aunt’s bedroom window?”
“Pretty much—especially when he looked up and saw me.”
“What! Are you saying he caught you watching him?”
Ellie opened her eyes, feeling her cheeks heat up all over again. “Yes, he caught me, so I can only imagine what he’s thinking about now. I acted no better today than I did that day ten years ago.”
“He was probably flattered that you were watching. Men like women who show an interest in their bodies. Besides, like I said earlier, he probably doesn’t even remember what happened then. Men typically don’t hold grudges.”
Ellie wasn’t all that convinced. “I hurt his pride. I could see it that day in his eyes. Men don’t typically forget something like that. I should have apologized about it. I never did.”
“What you should do is let it go and hope he has, too.”
Darcy’s last words were still ringing in Ellie’s ears a full hour later, after she had left the comfort of her bedroom to come downstairs. She planned to go to bed early, to get a good night sleep so she could be well rested in the morning.
Her mom had offered to postpone her vacation to come and help her pack up Aunt Mable’s things, but it was something she wanted to do by herself, no matter how long it took. There were a lot of fond memories in this house, and there was no rush. She had an entire month, and if she needed more time she would take it. Her aunt’s attorney, Daniel Altman, would be dropping by on Thursday evening to give her a listing of all the bank accounts her aunt had transferred to her name. When she had spoken with him on the phone last week, he’d given her the impression there were several of them.
She found that odd, since her aunt’s only source of income that she knew about was the monthly pension check from working forty years as an English professor at the Smoky Mountains Community College.
It had just started to turn dark, and Ellie went through the house, turning on the lights. With the approach of night, she suddenly realized that she had never been here in this house alone. All the times she’d visited, her aunt had been present. She hadn’t realized just how quiet things were at night.
Ellie had checked all the doors and was about to go upstairs and settle in for the night, when she heard a knock at the front door. The hard rap against the wood startled her, and automatically her hand flew across her chest at the same time she took a deep breath. The only person she could imagine at her door was Uriel.
The thought of coming face-to-face with him again after all this time gave her pause. Was he coming to have words with her for staring at him through the window? A part of her doubted it, reasoning that if that was the case, he would have done so sooner.
She moved toward the door, inhaling and exhaling deeply. She hadn’t expected company, but she figured she looked decent. She had changed her outfit earlier, putting on another shorts set, and a pair of flats were on her feet.
She took a look through the peephole to make certain it was him, but even after verifying that fact, she asked anyway. “Who is it?”
“Uriel Lassiter.”
Glancing down again, reassuring herself that she looked okay, and trying to keep her fingers from trembling, she slipped the chain off the door and slowly opened it. Uriel stood there, and at that moment she had to literally catch her breath.
On her porch, while leaning against a post with his ankles crossed and hands in his pockets, standing beneath the beam of light from a fixture in the ceiling, he looked like he ought to be on the cover of one of those hot and steamy romance novels Darcy enjoyed reading. He had the right height and the perfect build, she thought, trying to keep her gaze from roaming all over him. She had done that enough earlier, and definitely knew how the body beneath the pair of jeans and white shirt looked. And speaking of shirt, she tried not to notice how his was open at the collar, with the first two buttons undone, giving her a glimpse of the spray of hairs there. Something about them nearly had her mesmerized.
She forced her gaze to his face and met his eyes. “Uri, this is a surprise.”
Surprise in what way? To see him in clothes instead of naked?
She suddenly realized just how lame her words had sounded, especially after having spent the last few moments checking him out.
“I hope I’m not bothering you this late,” he said, in what she thought was a deep and throaty voice. “But once I realized you were here, I felt I should come over and apologize. Had I known, I would have dressed more appropriately for swimming.”
Thinking it was probably rude to have him standing on the porch while they engaged in any kind of conversation, she took a step back and automatically he entered inside. “No apology necessary.”
And to move on past that, she said, “And how have you been? It’s been a while.”
A smile touched both corners of his lips and she almost melted into a puddle on the floor. He’d always had a knock-your-socks-off smile. It was still devastating, when he flashed pearly white teeth against chocolate skin.
“Yes, it has been, and I’ve been fine. What about you? I regret hearing about Ms. Mable. I’m sure her passing was hard on everyone, especially for you. I know how close the two of you were.”
“Thanks, and yes, it was, but at least she hadn’t been sick or anything. She passed away in her sleep.”
He nodded. “That’s what I heard.”
She recalled that she had more manners than she were presently displaying, and asked, “Would you like to sit down for a minute?”
Belatedly, she realized how that sounded. It was as if she was putting a time limit on how long he could stay. But if he had picked up on it, he didn’t show it. He merely crossed the room and sat down on the sofa.
“Would you like anything to drink?” she asked, and then couldn’t help noticing how his jeans stretched tight across his thighs when he sat down.
“Yes, thanks. Water will be fine, unless you have something stronger.”
She couldn’t help but smile, since she’d brought a bottle of wine at a market in Gatlinburg. “Umm, I think I might be able to find something a little stronger. What about a glass of wine?”
“That will definitely work.”
“Okay,” she said, backing up slowly. “I’ll be right back.” She then turned, to head straight for the kitchen.
“Take your time.”
She glanced over her shoulder and met Uriel’s gaze. It was the same gaze that had looked at her earlier, when she’d been standing at the window. She drew in a deep breath, turned back and kept walking.
Her heart was racing a million beats a minute, and she was suddenly beginning to feel a tingle in her inner muscles. Ten years had passed and their parting hadn’t been great. Now they were alone. And other than giving him a glass of wine, she had no idea what to do with him.
Uriel pulled in a deep breath the moment Ellie left the room. “Damn,” he muttered, and the word nearly got caught in his throat. When he’d seen her standing
