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Suddenly, the day—the year—stretching out ahead of him seemed very long, and very boring, indeed.
That entire morning the bell over the bakery door never stopped ringing. Currently a line of customers stretched six deep. Nearly every table and chair were occupied. It wasn’t even eleven, Tina realized, and the muffins were gone, the Danish nearly depleted and only a few loaves of bread remained on the shelves.
But still, the biggest seller for the morning at Castle Bakery wasn’t baked goods or even the coffee bar, Tina noted while she crammed blue icing into a pastry bag.
It was gossip.
‘‘Mariska Alexander, I declare, y’all must be dizzy with delight.’’ Sharie Jo Sullivan pressed a bag of chocolate rugala to her chest, then glanced at her sister, Louzanna. ‘‘Imagine, Lulu, right next door to Abraham Danforth’s campaign headquarters.’’
‘‘The Savannah Morning calls him Honest Abe II.’’ Louzanna handed three bills to Mariska, then dug in her coin purse. ‘‘I hear he intends to run a clean, scandal-free campaign.’’
‘‘What do I know about politics?’’ Mariska said with indifference. ‘‘They will be good tenants. Anything else is of no interest to me.’’
Louzanna lifted a dubious brow. ‘‘And I suppose the fact that Abraham’s sons and nephews and all those other eligible bachelors gathered in one place, no more than a few yards from here, doesn’t interest you, either.’’
Mariska shrugged, then slowly smiled and leaned across the counter. ‘‘Like fish in a barrel,’’ she said, wiggling her eyebrows.
The women all laughed.
Tina’s grip tightened on the pastry bag, and blue icing exploded onto the middle of the sheet cake she’d just frosted. Gritting her teeth, she reached for a knife to scrape off the errant icing.
‘‘We saw Rachel talking with Reid Danforth on the sidewalk last night,’’ Sharie Jo whispered. ‘‘After the bakery was closed.’’
Tina glanced over to the coffee bar where Jason was steaming milk for a latte. Every time Reid’s name had been mentioned this morning—which had been numerous times—Jason’s eye had started to twitch. She wanted to tell him that Reid was no threat to him, but she knew Jason wouldn’t believe her. Especially now, after listening to the female customers expound on the Danforth attributes.
Tina could only hope that the novelty would wear off after a few days and the gossipmongers would find something—or someone—else to occupy their minds. But considering the high profile of the Danforth company, Tina seriously doubted that was going to happen anytime soon. While her mother, Sharie Jo and Louzanna prattled on, Tina forced her attention back to writing ‘‘Happy Birthday, Randy’’ on her cake, determined not to let their conversation bother her.
‘‘All those eligible bachelors,’’ Louzanna said with a sigh. ‘‘Ah, if only I was ten years younger.’’
Sharie Jo rolled her eyes. ‘‘Then you’d still be ten years too old.’’
‘‘Don’t be sassy, Sharie Jo,’’ Louzanna said with a sniff, then tucked an imaginary loose strand of blond hair behind her ear. ‘‘Besides I wasn’t thinking of the younger Danforth men, I was talking about Abraham.’’ Her eyes took on a dreamy quality. ‘‘A handsome widow in his fifties. Surely the man must be lonely.’’
‘‘Don’t kid yourself, Lulu,’’ Sharie Jo said. ‘‘Rich, powerful, handsome men are never lonely. Bored, maybe. Lonely, no.’’
In the middle of writing the t in birthday, Tina went still. Is that why Reid had asked her out last night? she wondered. Because he was bored? To say that she was different from the women he usually dated was probably the understatement of the century. Blue-blooded Savannah socialites and debutantes were more up his alley. Women with names like Caroline or Blair or—what was the name of the woman in the magazine article she’d plucked from the magazine rack and read this morning? Oh, yeah. She curled one corner of her lip. Mitzi.
Like Sharie Jo said, rich, handsome, powerful men were never lonely. Reid had probably dated dozens of women. Tina shrugged a shoulder, annoyed that she was wasting brain space wondering about the man’s love life. Who Reid Danforth did or didn’t date certainly had no bearing on her life. They were neighbors for the next year, that was all.
After he’d left her apartment last night, she’d seen him walk across the street and order a pizza at D’mores. Later in the evening, long after she’d gone to bed, she’d heard him working downstairs. She’d done her best to concentrate on the mystery novel she’d been reading, but her mind had kept wandering, wondering what he was doing.
Wondering what might have happened if she had gone out with him.
‘‘Maybe I would have been the one bored,’’ she muttered out loud.
‘‘Did you say something, Katina?’’ Mariska glanced over.
‘‘No,’’ she said quickly. ‘‘Nothing at all.’’
When her mother turned back to her customers, Tina shook her head at her foolishness. She doubted Reid even remembered her name today, and here she was, talking to herself about the man.
Determined not to let thoughts of Reid Danforth distract her further, she finished the y in Randy, then looked at her work.
Happy Birtday, Randy.
Birtday?
So much for her determination not to be distracted.
Scowling, she reached for the knife again to fix her mistake, then added more white frosting to smooth the top of the cake. Completely focused now, she grabbed the pastry bag and concentrated on her work.
When every letter was perfect, Tina gave a satisfied nod. Lifting the pastry bag to dot the i, she happened to glance over as Reid walked in the door.
His gaze met hers and held, and though it was only for a moment, it felt like minutes. Hours. If a fire had broken out and she was surrounded by flames, she couldn’t have moved.
When one corner of his mouth lifted, her heart did a somersault, her hand tightened.
And blue icing oozed all over her cake.
Chastising herself, she looked away. Darn it! She’d been so proud of herself that she’d managed to resist the man’s charm, then he walks in the door with that you-want-me-you-know-you-do grin, and suddenly she can’t breathe? How did he do that? she thought irritably.
Every head had turned. Conversation had died. When he walked through the crowd, it was like someone had rolled out a red carpet. And when he flashed that smile on the women in the bakery, they all but swooned.
He owned the room, Tina realized. His confidence, his demeanor, his presence. And his looks, she thought, appreciating the stretch of broad shoulders under his black polo shirt and the low slung worn jeans across lean hips and long legs. A woman didn’t stand a chance.
Well, except her, of course.
It took all of five seconds for the bakery to erupt into chaos and converge on Reid, another forty-five seconds for Tina’s mother to come around the counter and push her way through the crowd like a linebacker at the Super Bowl.
‘‘Let the man sit.’’ Mariska shooed everyone away. ‘‘Jason, bring our new neighbor a cup of coffee.’’
When Jason mumbled something under his breath, Tina shot him a warning glance. Nothing but trouble and heartache would come from any kind of public confrontation between the two men. A scowl on his face, Jason turned away, certainly not appeased, but for the moment, at least, contained.
‘‘Thank you.’’ Reid plucked a ticket from the number machine. ‘‘But I can wait my turn.’’
‘‘Of course you will not wait,’’ Mariska said and everyone who still had tickets in their hand nodded their approval. ‘‘Latte, cappuccino, espresso?’’
Tina rolled her eyes, surprised her mother didn’t add, my daughter’s hand in marriage?
‘‘Black would be great,’’ Reid said. ‘‘But—’’
‘‘We have strudel still warm from the oven.’’ Mariska didn’t give Reid a chance to protest as she pulled him to a chair. ‘‘Tina, a slice of strudel for Mr. Danforth. And a nice apricot rugala.’’
‘‘Please, call me Reid,’’ he said to Mariska, then looked at Tina with a grin that clearly said he was enjoying himself. ‘‘I really don’t want to be any trouble.’’
‘‘It is no trouble,’’ Mariska said cheerfully. ‘‘Is it, Katina?’’
Though it hurt, Tina smiled. ‘‘No, of course not. No trouble at all.’’
‘‘So tell me.’’ Mariska sat in the chair beside Reid. ‘‘Will your wife be helping you with the campaign?’’
Oh, for heaven’s sake. Tina turned to slice the strudel. Her mother couldn’t have been less subtle if she’d pulled out a calendar and asked him what day he was available to plan a small wedding for four or five hundred.
‘‘I don’t have a wife,’’ Reid said. ‘‘But I’m certainly looking for volunteers.’’
Tina’s head shot up. Every female in the room drew in a breath.
But before Mariska—or any of the other women in the room—could offer their services, Reid said, ‘‘To help with the campaign, of course.’’
Disappointment rippled through the bakery.
‘‘Ah.’’ Mariska’s shoulders sagged, then straightened again as she smiled brightly. ‘‘My daughters will help,’’ she said with enthusiasm. ‘‘We are all big supporters, you know.’’
What! Since when were they supporters of any political campaign? Tina stared at her mother in horror.
‘‘That’s very generous of you, Mrs. Alexander.’’ Reid slid a glance at Tina. ‘‘But maybe you should ask your daughters how they feel about that.’’
‘‘Sophia and Rachel will be happy to volunteer,’’ Mariska said, waving a don’t-be-silly hand at him. Then she added as an afterthought, ‘‘And my Tina, of course.’’
Tina clenched her jaw at the murmurs and nods from the customers who weren’t even pretending not to listen. It wasn’t bad enough she’d lost out on her restaurant to Reid and his family, now she was supposed to help them? She had to stop her mother before this got out of hand. Snatching up the plate of strudel and the cup of coffee Jason had poured, Tina hurried over to the table.
‘‘Mom,’’ she said as sweetly as she could muster. ‘‘I’m sure Mr. Danforth is looking for volunteers with some political knowledge.’’
‘‘Not at all.’’ Leaning back in his chair, Reid glanced up at her. ‘‘We’re having a volunteer welcome gathering tomorrow night at seven-thirty. Why don’t you and your sisters come by?’’
Tina opened her mouth to say she was busy, but her mother was much too fast.
‘‘They will be there. We will all be there,’’ Mariska said firmly. ‘‘I will bring cookies and rugala.’’
When Mariska rose, Reid stood, as well, smiling as he extended his hand. ‘‘Thank you, Mrs. Alexander. You are an extremely generous woman.’’
When Reid smiled, Mariska’s cheeks bloomed red and she giggled. Tina’s jaw went slack. Her mother never blushed, and she most certainly did not giggle. Disgusted, Tina watched her mother hurry back into the kitchen.
Did all the Danforth men have the ability to make women act and feel stupid? she wondered, glancing back at Reid. If they did, Tina could only hope that one day some brilliant female scientist would be able to isolate that gene and come up with a vaccination.
She’d be first in line.
‘‘Your strudel,’’ she said tightly, sliding the plate onto the table and setting the coffee beside it.
‘‘Thanks.’’
‘‘Don’t mention it.’’
When she turned, he surprised her by reaching for her arm. Darn it. There it was again. That jolt of electricity. She looked at him, prayed he couldn’t feel it, too. Prayed that he couldn’t see the effect he had on her. With so many people watching, it would really be embarrassing if she swooned.
‘‘Here.’’ He took her hand and laid a key in her palm. ‘‘I had a copy made.’’
To anyone watching it was a completely innocent exchange. To Tina it felt personal. The touch of his fingertips on her skin, the press of the key in her palm. The almost imperceptible lingering of his hand against her own.
She closed her fingers tightly around the key and pulled her hand away. ‘‘Thanks.’’
‘‘Till tomorrow, then,’’ he said with a nod.
‘‘Right. Tomorrow.’’ When she turned and walked away, she could have sworn she heard him chuckle.
She hoped he choked on the strudel.
Lying on his back under the desk, Reid struggled to wiggle the printer cable into the back of the computer. If he’d had another inch of cable, along with another inch of space to reach into, he would have been done ten minutes ago.
But that would have been easy, he thought irritably. And after the morning he’d had, why should he expect his afternoon to be any better?
He’d scraped his knuckles changing a flat tire, dropped a cup of coffee on the press release he’d told Nicola he’d fax to the Savannah Morning News, misplaced the sign-in book for the orientation tonight and just five minutes ago, reaching blindly into the back of the desk, drove a splinter the size of a screwdriver under his thumbnail.
It still hurt like hell, dammit.
But what really aggravated him the most, what really set his teeth on edge, was the slender, curvy, sassy-mouthed woman he couldn’t get out of his mind.
What was it about Tina Alexander that had him tied up in knots? he wondered. With her velvet, amber-brown eyes, heart-shaped face and turned-up nose she was pretty, but not necessarily what most men would consider beautiful. She was average height, a little thin for his taste and icy as an Arctic breeze.
Damn if he didn’t want to get his hands on her.
It was as if she’d gone out of her way to alienate him, and perhaps that was what intrigued him the most. But he wasn’t stupid, and he certainly wasn’t blind. He’d seen the way she’d reacted every time he’d touched her. He’d felt her shiver, watched her eyes widen. Something told him that under that cool exterior was heat and plenty of it.
Damn if he didn’t want to taste that heat.
When the cable slipped from his fingers for the tenth time in fifteen minutes, he swore like a truck driver in a skid, then narrowed his eyes and threaded the cable through the hole in the wall of the desk again. He’d be damned if he’d let a stubborn printer cable—or woman—make him lose control.
When the cable plug finally dropped over the inlet, Reid smiled, grabbed his bottom lip between his teeth while he wiggled the cable into place…
‘‘Hello?’’
At the sound of the feminine greeting, Reid sat up sharply and slammed the top of his head on the underside of the desk. He wasn’t certain if the crack he heard was wood or his skull.
Dammit, dammit, dammit…
Through the stars swimming in his blurred vision, Reid watched a pair of shapely legs appear from around the corner of the desk.
‘‘Sorry if I startled you.’’ Tina peered down at him. ‘‘You okay?’’
Grunting, he pulled himself from under the desk, winced at the rocket of pain that shot through his brain when he sat. ‘‘Sure. I slam my head into desks every day just for fun.’’
His sarcasm earned him a smile. She dropped down on her knees and leaned close. ‘‘Here, let me look.’’
‘‘I’m fine.’’ When she reached out and took his head in her hands, his heart slammed against his ribs.
‘‘I don’t see any blood,’’ she said, gently sliding her fingers through his hair.
That’s because it’s all dropped to the lower half of my body, Reid wanted to say, but wasn’t willing to risk her letting go of him just yet.
