Return To Rose Cottage: The Laws of Attraction

“Did we differentiate?” she inquired sweetly.

He sighed. “No, we did not differentiate. This is going to be a lot trickier than I expected.”

“Which means we should probably change the subject, even though I’m winning,” Ashley conceded with a magnanimous air. “Do you know anything about baseball? I’m a Red Sox fan myself.”

Josh stared at her, not entirely sure if she was serious. “Really? When was the last time you went to a baseball game?”

She faltered a bit at that. “I don’t actually go to the games,” she confessed eventually. “That doesn’t mean I don’t follow the team.”

“Then you watch them on TV?”

“Not really.”

“Read the sports pages?” he asked, his amusement growing.

“Okay, okay, I don’t know a damn thing about baseball,” she finally said. “But people in the office mention it. Obviously it’s something some people care about. I thought you might be one of them. I was just trying to make conversation.”

Josh grinned and held out his hand. “I’ll take a dollar, please. You mentioned your office.”

She stared at him with apparent dismay. “That doesn’t count.”

“Of course it does. Office, work, it’s all the same thing.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sakes,” she muttered, as she dug in her purse and tossed a dollar onto the table. “I’m still winning.”

“And we have a week to go. Don’t get overly confident, sweetheart. It’s unbecoming.”

She frowned at him. “Seen any good movies lately?”

“Not a one. You?”

“No.”

“Read any good books?” he asked, fully expecting her to slip up and make some reference to a law journal.

Her expression brightened. “Actually, I read a great one yesterday afternoon. It almost made me late for dinner.”

“Would I like it?”

“I doubt it. It was a love story.”

“Hey, I’m all in favor of love.”

She regarded him with blatant skepticism. “You want to read this?”

“Sure, why not? The fish was very good, by the way. You follow directions well.”

She seemed startled by the praise. Her gaze shifted to his clean plate, then to her own. “I do, don’t I? Maybe I’ll learn to cook while I’m here.”

“I’d be happy to be your guinea pig,” he offered. “I have a cast-iron stomach. I have to, given how lousy I am in the kitchen.”

“Maybe Maggie could give us both lessons,” she suggested. “That could be fun.”

“Even relaxing,” he retorted. “As long as you don’t turn it into some sort of competition.”

“Not everything has to be a competition with me,” she insisted.

“Really? I’ll bet by the time you were three, you wanted to know if your hands were the cleanest when you came to the supper table.”

“I did not,” she said, but there was a spark of recognition in her eyes that suggested she saw herself in his comment just the same.

Josh wondered if a woman who obviously thrived on challenges would ever be content with a slower, less stressful pace, or if she would always need to be in the thick of some battle. It was something he needed to decide about himself, as well.

He’d come down here to simplify his life, to cut through the clutter of being on the fast track and see

if he wanted to get off entirely. He suspected Ashley wasn’t in the same place at all. If anything, she was probably champing at the bit to get back on that fast track. It might be the kind of complication that meant they were doomed, but it was hardly something that needed to be resolved tonight.

Tonight it was enough to be with a woman who stirred his blood and kept him on his toes mentally. At some point during the evening, he’d gotten past the triumph of being invited to Rose Cottage by one of the unattainable D’Angelo sisters. Now it was all about being with a woman who intrigued him, a woman with strengths and vulnerabilities he wanted to understand, a woman whose bed he wanted to share.

When that thought cavorted through his head, he immediately slammed on the brakes. He was getting ahead of himself, way ahead of himself.

He glanced across the table and saw Ashley studying him intently. There was an unmistakable and totally unexpected hunger in her eyes. He told himself it had to be for the chocolate.

“Ready for dessert?” he asked, his voice thick and unsteady.

She nodded, her gaze never leaving his.

“Cake?”

She shook her head.

“A brownie?”

Again, that subtle shake.

Josh swallowed hard. “Eclair?”

“Not right now.”

“What do you want?”

“You,” she said quietly.

Amazement flooded through him. “But—”

“No questions, no doubts, unless you don’t want me,” she said.

“That is definitely not the issue,” he admitted.