For His Daughter

“Then do we have a date? I could pick you up at nine in the morning.”

“What?”

“We could make a day of it. Perhaps have an early dinner afterward and discuss which idea might do the most good. Whether the paper would have any interest in covering one of them.”

She hoped she didn’t look as cornered as she felt. “I—I’ll need to work out the details with Chester, my photographer.”

“Of course.”

She really ought to see what the town had in mind for the festival. But there was no way she wanted to spend almost an entire day in this man’s company. Even if he didn’t remember her. Inspiration came at the last minute. “It would probably be simpler if I met you at these places. Why don’t you give my secretary the addresses and we can arrange to link up?”

She stood, determined to take the upper hand and show him that she wasn’t going to be maneuvered. This meeting was over.

Dani came around the desk, stretching her hand out once more. Rafe D’Angelo rose quickly, placing his long-fingered hand in hers.

“Thank you for the offer of dinner,” she said. “But I’m afraid I have plans tomorrow night.”

A curtain lifted in his eyes. They were suddenly alive with interest and amusement. “I’m disappointed,” he said. “Are you sure we can’t have dinner? Don’t you want to catch up on old times, DeeDee?”

CHAPTER FIVE

RAFE WATCHED THE SHOCK take over her features.

Oh, yeah, she remembered who he was, and she obviously didn’t like the fact he remembered her, too. By the set of her jaw, he had a feeling she didn’t want to discuss the past.

Eager to get some kind of reaction, he reached out and pulled her closer. “Now that’s the DeeDee I remember so well. All haughty superiority. What have you been up to all these years, darlin’?”

She slipped out of his arms, and he let her go. In another moment she was back behind her desk, a safe barrier between them.

“All right,” she said at last. “So you know I used to be DeeDee Whitefeather. I remember you as Oz. Six years isn’t long enough to erase those memories completely. But so what? We’re different people now. I don’t see why it should be a problem that we were friends in Vegas.”

He did a double take. “Friends? I’d say we got to be a little more than that.”

She paled, and he wondered if she remembered just how “friendly” she’d tried to get with him. She turned away in exasperation, pulling a hand through her hair. Six years hadn’t changed the bright luster of it, that great complexion, those eyes like storm clouds over the mountains. Had she really expected him to forget those eyes?

She remained silent, thoughtful. It occurred to him suddenly that she was desperately trying to put all the pieces together about their one close encounter, but was coming up empty.

“Come on, DeeDee,” he said. “It’s not that bad, is it?”

She turned quickly back to face him. “Look, we both know that night in Vegas was… I’m not sure how or why it happened, but it did. I vaguely remember waking up side by side with you on one of the big beds at Native Sun, so I assume somewhere along the way…”

That wasn’t exactly how it had stacked up, of course, but he was interested to see just how good her memory was. “I definitely was the one to take your clothes off,” he agreed. “In fact, whatever high you were on, you couldn’t wait to get out of them.”