she isn’t here right now.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. I didn’t see a phone listing or I would have called ahead.”
“If you’d like to wait…?” She felt heat rising in her cheeks as she suddenly realized she was standing there in a very brief, hot-pink swimming suit that had never touched water. She’d bought it at a secondhand store, just for sunbathing.
“Thanks, I think I will. If it’s no trouble?”
“I was enjoying the sun, but I’ve really had enough for the first time out,” she lied. “Would you like to come inside? I think there’s some lemonade in the fridge.”
“Sounds great.”
As Neil followed her inside, he mentally patted himself on the back for orchestrating a way to see her again. Her slender figure was perfection in the revealing two-piece bathing suit, and the way she moved was sexy enough to stimulate his masculine desires. The pleasure of cupping her enticing backside with his caressing hands crossed his mind as she walked in front of him. She was every bit as physically attractive as he had remembered, but there was something more that had captured his interest from the beginning.
Ever since their casual meeting, he’d been asking himself what it was about her that intrigued him. Maybe it was a kind of melancholy vulnerability, or a challenging independence that reminded him of a frightened child bowing her neck to fight the world. Whatever the attraction, he only knew she touched some responsive chord deep within him, and he was drawn to her in some undefined way.
“Excuse me for a minute,” she said apologetically. “I need to check on Jamie. I’ll just be a minute.”
“No problem.” He sat down on one of the counter barstools to wait.
As Neil glanced around the clean and tidy room, he was satisfied he could reassure the owner that Devanna Davenport was a satisfactory renter. He was anxious to meet the aunt. Was she anything like her niece? he wondered.
When Courtney returned a few minutes later, he saw she’d draped a saronglike garment over her swimming suit. As far as Neil was concerned, the soft, clinging material only heightened the tantalizing lines and curves of her figure. He indulged in a fleeting masculine fantasy of drawing her close and feeling her loveliness pressed against him. Regretfully, he forced his thoughts back to reality and inquired politely about the baby.
“He’s still asleep,” she said, smiling. “He’s settled into the change nicely.”
“And what about you? Is living on the water to your liking?” Something in her bright tone seemed slightly false.
“I’m not sure.” Faint worry lines marred the smoothness of her brow.
“It may take some getting used to,” he offered.
“I guess so.”
Something in the situation was weighing heavily on her, Neil was sure of it. Even though he knew he should distance himself from any concerns about her private life, he couldn’t. The fact that he’d gone to such lengths to see her again mocked any indifference to her welfare.
“I hope this is sweet enough for you,” she said as she set down a pitcher and two glasses, and then took a stool beside him.
He took a sip. “Perfect.”
“You’re easy to please,” she said, smiling at him.
“Nope, to the contrary. My family accuses me of being the worst perfectionist in the world.”
“Tell me about your family,” she urged. In her childhood, she’d been the little girl looking through a fence, watching the extended family next door gathered for a family celebration. “I know you have a lot of nieces and nephews.” He’d referred to himself as “uncle” at the restaurant.
“I have four brothers and two sisters. They’re all great. One sister, and my younger twin brothers live in Manitou.”
She listened, captivated, as he talked about a large overflowing family, with deep roots planted in this community where he was raised.
“My parents are retired and enjoy traveling without a parcel of kids underfoot. All of my siblings are married and I’m the only single one left.”
“Why is that?”
“Oh, I’m not a good candidate for marriage,” he replied lightly, but there was a flickering of shadow in his dark brown eyes, and Courtney wondered what had put it there. “Of course, everyone tells me I haven’t met the right woman. What do you think?”
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly, at a loss when it came to understanding the desires of the heart. “There are a lot of reasons for getting married, I guess.”
“And divorced?” he asked pointedly.
She knew what he was asking. “I’m not divorced.”
He listened attentively as she told him about the unexpected death of Jamie’s father several months before the baby was born. “He was a construction worker. A faulty beam fell six stories, and killed him.”
“I’m sorry. How long had you been married?”
“A couple of years.”
When she didn’t volunteer any more personal information about her marriage, he refrained from asking any more questions. He hated it when people tried to dig around in his past. It wasn’t anybody’s business why he’d decided to forgo marriage.
They sipped their lemonade in silence until Courtney offered quietly, “I’m trying to get my life back together. I thought spending the summer with my aunt would help, but…” Her voice trailed off.
“Things aren’t working out the way you thought?”
She shook her head. “Maybe it’s me, but…” She might have said more but they heard the sound of footsteps on the deck.
Her aunt was back.
Neil instantly rose to his feet as Devanna came in. “Mrs. Davenport. How nice to meet you. I’m Neil Ellsworth. I handled your rental through the Ellsworth Real Estate and Investment Company.”
“Of course,” she responded with only the slightest hesitation. Her eyes lowered just slightly as if her thoughts were racing ahead. “Is there some problem?”
“Oh, not at all,” Neil assured her. “Just making a routine check on all the rented houseboats. I want to make sure everything is satisfactory.”
“How nice of you.” She visibly relaxed and smiled. “We don’t have many handsome men calling on us, do we, Courtney?”
“I find that hard to believe,” Neil responded gallantly.
Courtney couldn’t believe the metamorphosis in her aunt’s behavior. She was all smiles and began gushing about how wonderful it was to have her niece and the baby staying with her.
“I’m glad the houseboat is working out for you.”
“Oh,
