maybe five. Holly put her ice-cream scoop down and knelt in front of the child.
“Someone who gives you his opinion on something you’ve done.”
“Like a teacher?” the little girl asked.
“Kind of. In this case it was my brothers.”
“My brothers never like anything I do,” the girl said.
Holly brushed her hand over the child’s head. She wasn’t shy about touching others, except for him. She hadn’t touched him at all since their morning encounter. He wondered why.
“Brothers are like that. But mine are very honest about my cooking. So I welcome their comments,” Holly said.
“What’d your brothers say?” Joe asked. What would he have to do to get her to touch him again?
He wanted to know more about her family. Wanted to know details of her life so he could stop looking at her and seeing a feminine mystery and instead see someone whom he knew and understood. He doubted the questions would bring him that knowledge but at least they took his mind off the way her skirt pulled tight around her hips when she’d bent to talk to the child.
Holly glanced up at him. “That I’d found the right combination.”
“Really?” the girl asked.
“Yes,” Holly said, standing. She handed the child a cone Joe had scooped.
The line moved quickly and soon the children were gone. The empty gym felt strange with only him and Holly. Joe’s mind wasn’t on the sticky ice cream on his fingers but on the smudge of gelato on Holly’s cheek.
Ignore it, he advised himself, but he knew he wasn’t listening. He reached over and rubbed his thumb lightly over her cheek. She shivered.
Damn, it wasn’t fair that life should put in front of him this woman who reacted so quickly to his touch. Because though he’d lived a solitary life for a long time, he’d never been any good at denying himself. And it had been a long time since he’d seen a woman he’d wanted as much as he wanted Holly.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” she asked as they cleaned up the gelato containers.
“Like what?” he asked, removing his apron and folding it with exaggerated precision. Somehow he couldn’t look into those clear blue eyes of hers for another minute without taking the kiss he’d wanted all day.
“Like you’re wondering if I’ll taste as good as the gelato,” she said.
“Because that’s what I’m thinking,” he said, taking a step toward her. He should be backing away but he was tired of living his life in solitary confinement. Even if he’d placed himself there. Holly reminded him what he was missing, and for this one day he wanted to wallow in it.
“Dangerous thoughts, Barone,” she said, knitting her fingers together.
“I know, Fitzgerald.” He wished he could banter with Holly the way he did with Gina, but he’d never once had the white-hot burning desire to kiss his sister.
A long minute passed and he knew he should just grab his suit jacket and walk out the door. Gina and Flint had already left to go ahead and get the press ready for the check presentation.
But he also knew Holly awakened something deep inside him that he couldn’t silence. “You’re a very touchy person.”
“Easily offended?” she asked.
“No, demonstrative. You’ve touched Flint’s arm every time you talk to him and Gina’s, as well,” he said.
“It’s part of how I communicate.”
“Why haven’t you touched me?”
Stark silence followed his question. He heard a car horn outside and the kids laughing on the playground. Even the sound of Holly’s breathing seemed loud.
“I hadn’t noticed I wasn’t.”
He knew the fine art of evasion when he saw it, and Holly Fitzgerald was doing her best to tap-dance out of his reach. He should let her go. Would if he had a lick of sense. But for some reason sense had deserted him. His body said he wouldn’t miss it. But experience promised he would. “I did.”
She shrugged. She tilted her head to one side and nibbled at that full lower lip of hers. “I’m not myself around you.”
“How’s that?” he asked.
She shook her head and looked away. “I can’t explain it.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
She glanced back and shrugged again. Why was she running scared? What had he done that had made her put up her shields and hide?
“All right, won’t,” she admitted.
She removed her chef’s hat and apron and picked up her purse. “If memory serves, our last stop is at the gelateria.”
“Yes,” he said.
“I’ll meet you there,” she said, pivoting on her heel.
“Holly?”
She glanced back at him, her red hair reflecting the late-afternoon sun that streamed in through the high windows.
“I don’t want you to be uncomfortable,” he said.
“I know. It’s not a bad thing. It’s just that…” She walked back to him. “You make me feel too much, and I’m not sure how to handle it.” She reached up and brushed her fingers against his jaw. “Does this make you feel better?”
“In a hundred ways,” he said.
“But we have someplace to be,” she said.
He nodded. She turned again and this time he let her go. He watched the sway of her hips with each step she took. He watched her leaving and knew deep in his soul that he should remember this picture of her. That he shouldn’t let himself get involved because she wasn’t going to stay in his life.
Holly had never been in the flagship Baronessa Gelateria. She had a pint of Baronessa’s Rocky Guava in her freezer at home. It was the one constant in her kitchen aside from cooking and baking staples.
Gina and Flint had the press stationed in one area and a few customers at the tables. Off to the side was a group of people clustered together. There had to be at least twenty-five of them looking on.
In came Joe. He had his suit jacket on and looked polished and professional. Holly wondered if that was the barrier he used to keep people at a distance.
She was relieved the day was over but she wished she’d had more time with Joe. Alone time.
But that was something she’d be better off without. He made her feel that human spontaneous combustion might be possible. He made her want things that she was used to living without. He made her ache with the knowledge that who she
