The longing, deeper and more powerful than any she’d ever known, threatened her arousal. So she pushed it away to be dealt with another time. She dropped her hands, moved around to stand in front of him and kissed him.

He responded like a starving man. He kissed her hard and hot, touching her everywhere. He also began nudging her backward, toward the bedroom.

His hands were on her breasts, between her legs. Frantic, urging and she soon found herself just as eager. Then she was on the bed. There was a second’s delay as he slipped on a condom, then he was inside of her, filling her, taking her with an intensity that gave her no choice except to give herself to him and enjoy the ride.

“DISASTER,” Dani said as she sank into the chair opposite Gary’s at The Daily Grind. “It was a total disaster. I loved everything about the place. Valerie was great, her staff was charming and happy. Martina, the chef, is someone I would love to work with.”

“So how was it a disaster?”

Dani glanced around, wanting to make sure no one from Valerie’s Garden happened to be lurking in the area, then spoke in a low voice.

“The food was hideous. Seriously awful. I hated everything. Even the iced tea. Apparently I don’t have an upscale vegan palate. If only they’d given me a regular cheese quesadilla, I would have signed up in a heartbeat. Or if it had been nearly any other kind of food. Even if I’d only sort of liked it, I probably would have tried to make the job work, but I’m telling you. What they served bordered on nasty.”

Gary chuckled. “They probably won’t want you in their ads.”

“Probably not. I’m seriously bummed. Why did it have to be like this? I feel like Goldilocks. So far, nothing is exactly right.”

Gary reached across the tiny table and patted the back of her hand. “You’ll find something. I know you will.”

“I hope so,” she grumbled, even as she tried to figure out what she felt about him touching her.

“I’ll keep looking,” she said. “I’m determined to further my career. I’m getting calls, so that’s good. I just have to be patient.”

“That’s the attitude,” he said. “Did you talk to the private investigator?”

“Yes. Thanks for giving me her name. She’s great and we got along, but she said without some more information, she can’t help me.”

Dani wasn’t surprised. She knew absolutely nothing about her father except for the fact that at one time he’d existed.

“I haven’t got a clue about him,” Dani said. “No name, no address, not even a description. I’ve asked my oldest brother Cal if he remembers anything but he doesn’t. He was pretty young and I’m sure my mother was careful to keep him away from the man she was having an affair with.”

Gary pulled back his hand and took a sip of his coffee. “What about papers from your mother? Letters? Notes? A date book?”

All good ideas, she thought. “I don’t know of anything like that. I’ll ask my brothers, but I don’t hold out too much hope. There’s only one person who might know something and getting her to talk would take a miracle.”

“They happen.”

“Not in my world.”

Gloria? Help her? Her brothers swore the old woman had changed, but was it enough? Gloria had made it clear she loathed Dani.

“I don’t want to give her the pleasure of going to her and asking,” Dani said flatly. “She doesn’t deserve it.”

“What do you deserve?” he asked. “If there’s a chance of getting what you want, isn’t that worth an awkward conversation?”

She smiled. “Oh, sure. Be rational.”

“I’m a math teacher. What did you expect?”

She sighed. “I know you’re right. I just can’t stand the thought of going begging, which means you’re going to say then I obviously don’t care enough about finding my father.”

She drank more of her coffee. “Maybe I’ll talk to Reid. He’s living in Gloria’s house and spending the most time with her. If he says she’s really willing to help, then I’ll ask.”

“Now you have a plan.”

She looked at him. “You think I should go face the dragon.”

“Our fears get bigger than they should be if we don’t see them in the light of day.”

“That would be the theology teacher speaking,” she said.

“Maybe, and a little of the man.”

“We never talk about your life very much,” she said, realizing she didn’t know that much about him. “You’re very good at asking questions.”

“I’m very interested in your life,” he told her. “My days are often similar.”

“And I’m living in the middle of a soap opera. I’m thrilled to know I can at least entertain my friends.”

“We appreciate it,” he said lightly, then leaned toward her. “Dani, would you like to go to dinner with me sometime?”

He was asking her out. She’d wondered if he would and how she would feel about the invitation. But now that it was here, there was no sense of panic or the need to avoid taking things to the next level. Gary was a great guy. She really liked him. He was kind and honest. The total lack of physical chemistry might be a good thing. She’d been burned by passion enough lately.

“I would love to go to dinner with you,” she said.

REID WAS FEELING LIKE pretty hot shit. It was sunny and relatively warm, he’d decided what to do with his life and last night he’d seduced the hell out of Lori. He hadn’t taken what was offered, he hadn’t gone along with what was easy. He’d planned the evening, reduced her to a puddle and then he’d made her scream.

He liked knowing he could do that to her. He also liked that there was no pretending. He could read her body nearly as easily as he read his own and he knew exactly how to please her. Being with her made him feel good. He found himself wanting things he hadn’t thought about in a long time.

The realization should have scared the crap out of him. Instead he found himself thinking about the future. Playing a serious round or two of “what if.”

What if he didn’t walk away from Lori? What if things developed between them? What if she fell in love with him?

He knew she liked him. Not just the crush she’d admitted to, but real liking. She wouldn’t have slept with him otherwise. He wanted to take credit for her physical transformation, but he knew it had very little to do with him. She’d used him as the excuse, but in truth she’d wanted to make a change for a long time. Lori wasn’t comfortable hiding anymore. It had just taken a while for her outsides to figure that out.

But could she fall in love with him? Was she willing to take that ultimate risk? He knew that on the surface he was a great catch. Healthy, good-looking and rich. But what about on the inside? He’d never committed to a woman in his life. He’d only offered once. As Lori had pointed out, he’d then used that moment as an excuse to stop trying.

That wouldn’t be enough for Lori. She had high standards and he wondered if he could measure up.

He poured more coffee from the pot on the credenza, then turned back to the stack of letters on his desk. He’d pulled out the ones that bothered him the most and had gone over them again. He had to be able to do something for these kids.

One caught his eye. The one from the boy whose twin brother had died. Reid had grown up close to Walker and Cal. His brothers, along with Dani, had meant everything to him. If something had happened to one of them…

He picked up the phone and dialed the number on the letter. A woman answered.

“Mrs. Baker?”

“Yes.”

“Good morning. My name is Reid Buchanan. I used to play baseball.”

“What? Oh. Really? I know who you are. My son is a huge baseball fan. The sport and the players are his world. Even more so since…well, recently. He hated to see you retire. He talked about it for days.”

If the kid knew Reid had screwed up his career himself, he would think a lot less of him.

“Mrs. Baker, your son wrote me about your loss. I’m terribly sorry.”

There was a moment of silence followed by a strangled, “Thank you. It’s been difficult.”

“I can imagine. I was thinking about what I could do for Justin. To take his mind off of things for a little while. I have some friends on the Seattle Mariners and I’ve been talking to their general manager. How would you and Justin like to spend a long weekend with the team at spring training? You’d be flown down first-class, put up in a nice hotel. You’d have a car and a driver at your disposal, along with money for meals. The hotel has a spa. You’d have free use of the facilities. I’d make sure there was someone to keep an eye on Justin while you were relaxing.”

He heard her breath catch. “I don’t know what to say,” she admitted. “Why would you do this?”

“Because I can. You and Justin have already been through too much.”

“You’re being incredibly generous,” she said quietly. “I don’t know what to think.”

“I would very much like you to let me do this for you. If you need a little time to think it over, then let me give you my phone number. You can call me back.”

She gave a little laugh. “Mr. Buchanan, I might have trouble getting through the day, but I’m not totally crazy. Justin would love this and honestly, so would I. Of course we’ll go. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m going to have a travel agent call you in a couple of hours. She’ll make all the arrangements. But I want you to take my personal number as well. If you have any trouble, anything at all, you call me.”

“This is amazing. Thank you.”

“Just take your boy and have a good time.”

“We will.”

They hung up. Reid leaned back in his chair and stared down at the list of arrangements that had to be made. While the travel agent he’d spoken with had promised to stay on top of things, he knew he would be calling around and checking himself. He didn’t want another repeat of the no return tickets disaster.

He pulled out a pad of paper and added to the ongoing list. If the foundation wasn’t going to have an in-house travel agent, then he wanted to make sure there was someone who would follow up on the arrangements made. There weren’t going to be any more screw-ups on his watch.

LORI ARRIVED HOME shortly before five and saw a familiar car in the driveway. She pulled into the garage, closed the door behind her and walked into the kitchen. She could hear Madeline and her mother laughing in the living room and her stomach clenched.

She didn’t mind that her sister invited people over—this was Madeline’s house, too—but why did it have to be their mother? No matter how the evening went, Lori always ended up feeling like the odd one out.

“Hi, I’m home,” she called as she walked into the kitchen and set her purse on the counter.

“We’re in the living room,” Madeline called. “Come join us.”

Lori stood in the kitchen and wished for an excuse to escape to the quiet of her room. If only Reid had wanted to seduce her tonight. But he hadn’t been around when her shift had ended and she hadn’t been comfortable calling him on his cell to find out his plans. They might be physically involved, but she didn’t know or understand the parameters of their relationship. She had a feeling that answers were only a conversation away. But she was afraid to ask.

Talk about dumb, she told herself. She should be willing to ask what he was thinking and explain her own needs and desires. She prided herself on being a take-charge person, and she was. Everywhere but with Reid and her mother.

Evie walked into the kitchen and smiled at her. “Hi, Lori. Did you have a good day?”

“Yes, thanks. Gloria is doing better and better. I’d been concerned about how she would heal, but she’s moving forward all the time. She should be back to her regular life in a couple of months.”

“That’s good.”

Her mother linked arms with her and dragged her into the living room, then forced her onto the sofa and settled next to her.

“Your sister and I have a confession,” Evie said, then looked at Madeline and they both burst out laughing.

Lori glanced between them, not getting the joke. “What happened?”

Madeline waved her hand in the air. “It’s not a bad thing,” she said, barely able to speak between gasps of laughter. “Unless you’re the chicken.”

That set them off again. Lori tried to be patient, even though she felt a powerful need to scream. What was so damn funny?

“We were supposed to have chicken for dinner,” Evie said as she wiped at her eyes. “I came over to help Madeline get things started. We were seasoning the chicken. It was wet and slippery and it went flying across the room.”

She started to laugh again and couldn’t stop. Lori could see how an unruly chicken could be humorous, but this was a little extreme.

“Okay,” she said slowly. “And?”

Madeline pressed a hand to her chest. “I picked it up and when we were washing it off, it got away from us again. That chicken was determined not to go in the oven.”

“It’s true,” her mother said. “We dropped it twice more, but we finally got it seasoned and in the pan. We put it in the oven and came in here to recover. Then about five minutes before you got home we realized—” She erupted in laughter.

Madeline joined in, then gasped. “We forgot to turn on the oven.”