wondering if you’ve broken anyone’s heart lately.”
She scoffed, laughing. “Hardly.”
“There hasn’t been anyone special then?”
“I wish,” she quipped. “What there have been are a lot of first dates, emphasis on the word first, as in not many second dates.” She wrinkled her nose. “I just don’t seem to find any keepers, if you take my meaning. Dallas says I’m too picky, but I notice that she doesn’t have a steady boyfriend, either.”
He smiled then abruptly sobered again. “By any chance, might one of those first dates have been with Garrett Willows?” he asked carefully.
Ellie blinked and frowned, shaking her head. “I never met him before that night. Why?”
“I’m just trying to understand the overall situation.”
“But I’ve told you what happened.”
“You put forward a supposition,” he pointed out, “but you’ve as good as said that you don’t really know what happened.”
She slid to the edge of her seat and laid a hand on his desktop beseechingly. “Look, however it happened, it wasn’t malicious.”
Asher beetled his brow. “And how do you—”
“It just stands to reason,” she said too quickly. “I mean, it’s not as if we have enemies.”
“Then who set the fire, Ellie?”
“I don’t know!” she shot back. And she didn’t. Not for sure. “No one! It was an accident.”
“Did you arrange that fire to promote a romance between our relatives?” he demanded.
She gasped. He suspected her? Here she was trying to protect his beloved but harebrained sister, and he would put the blame on her? Indignant, she rose to place both hands on his desk. Leaning forward, she brought her face close to his, so close that she could smell the minty freshness of his breath. “I had absolutely nothing to do with that fire!”
“Nothing?” he asked skeptically.
“Zip,” she declared flatly, punctuating her denial with taps of her forefinger against his blotter. “Nada. Nil. Zero. Zilch. I didn’t set it! I didn’t cause it! I didn’t have anyone else do it! I didn’t know it was going to happen. I still can’t believe that it has!”
After a very long moment, Asher relaxed back in his chair. “I had to ask,” he said, as if that excused all.
Sighing, Ellie dropped her head. He believed her. He believed that she had nothing to do with the fire, and in that moment, fool that she was, that was all that mattered.
Asher still had serious questions, but he felt sure that whatever had happened, Ellie had not purposefully caused the fire at the Monroe house. Deeply relieved, he smiled. She blinked and smiled back. For a long moment he couldn’t look away. Then another thought came to mind. Though she might not have been responsible for the fire, she was certainly guilty of meddling in other people’s lives.
“So you didn’t start the fire, but you’re not above using it for your own purposes,” he accused, frowning.
She dropped down onto the edge of the chair again. “My grandfather taught me that God doesn’t let anything into the lives of His children without a reason, and getting together two people who care about each other seems like a pretty good one to me.”
“Please,” Asher scoffed. “Odelia and your grandfather haven’t had feelings for each other in fifty years.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Even if they did have feelings for each another, I would discourage them from entering into a relationship at this late date. It isn’t sensible.”
Ellie gasped. “You can’t be that cold!”
That, surprisingly, stung. Coldness was what his ex-wife, Samantha, had accused him of when her tears had not moved him. Perhaps if she had not employed them after making angry demands, he would have been more amenable. Perhaps she wouldn’t have left him then. Perhaps his wouldn’t have been the first divorce in his family. He blocked further thoughts on the matter.
“I’m simply pragmatic,” he refuted, keeping his voice level. “Two people the age of your grandfather and my aunt ought not become entangled romantically. It’s just not wise, fiscally, emotionally or in any other way.”
Ellie narrowed her wide, violet eyes at him. “Just because they’re older, you think they don’t deserve to be happy? How hard-hearted can you be?”
Asher felt his temper begin to spike. “I never said they don’t deserve to be happy.”
“Just that they should ignore their feelings for each other!” Ellie exclaimed.
“You don’t know that they have feelings for each other any more than I know they don’t!” he pointed out.
“Well, we won’t know whether they do or not if we don’t give them a chance to find out, will we?”
“What difference does it make at this point?” he demanded. “They’re past the point of contemplating children or building a financial future together.”
“Love and marriage are about more than children and finances! It’s about companionship and emotional support.”
“Oh, please! It’s not as if either of them is living a lonely, barren existence. Aunt Odelia has her sisters. Your grandfather has you.”
“But what about tenderness, satisfaction, the fulfillment of a heart’s desire?”
Asher rolled his eyes. “Believe me, it is entirely possible to live without those things. In some ways, it is even preferable.”
Ellie fell back into her chair, staring at him with those breathtaking eyes. To his horror, tears welled up. “That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard,” she told him in a soft, trembling voice.
He gaped at her, his chest tightening, and felt the urge to rush around the desk, slip an arm about her shoulders and apologize. Then he realized that she’d manipulated him exactly as Samantha had always done. His anger abruptly turned outward again, though he did his best to subdue it with reason.
“Sad?” he echoed. “But that’s just what I’m trying to tell you. Life without romance is not necessarily unhappy. In fact, it can be infinitely more comfortable. Believe me, I know.”
“You poor thing,” she whispered, her expression melting into compassion. “Who was she? Who was it who broke your heart?”
Asher’s jaw dropped as his ex-wife’s face flashed before his mind’s eye. He saw her on their wedding day, resplendent in her white dress, even then, impatience and disappointment stamped on her face. He had ignored that, knowing that he had been less engaged in the planning and process of the wedding than she would have liked. He’d told himself that once he finished law school and passed the bar, things would settle down, but he’d
