by J. A. Clarke

Chapter 1

Samuel's coming!

It was a great day, an outstanding day, one of those perfect days in late May. The sun's warmth through the windshield of the battered red pickup truck made a mockery of temperatures that still dropped below freezing at night. Her chances for becoming mayor looked better than good for the simple reason no one else seemed to want the job. And on the tape deck, Enrique Iglesias was making love with his music.

Yes, sir, Electra Hamilton thought happily, it's an absolutely divine day. She had the afternoon ahead of her, but best of all, Samuel would be here in just two more days.

She couldn't wait. The tone of his voice when they had spoken five days ago seemed to indicate he was just as excited as she was. It was, after all, six months since they had last seen each other. Six months since they had agreed to think about turning a special friendship into something more. Plans to get together sooner always seemed to evaporate in the rush of time, but now it was really going to happen.

She was ready. Had been for a while. A small frown creased her brow. At least, she was almost positive she was.

She barely noticed as the truck found another pothole in the gravel road. He had taken her suggestion seriously. She had almost expected him to laugh.

The tempo of the music softened to a tender croon as the singer reminded her what love should feel like.

Jittery excitement speared through her belly again--excitement and a dose of nervousness that brought the hated sensation of nausea. He would be here in two more days. And her life was in for a major change.

Where would they live? Seattle probably. She could tolerate big city life again.

The music soared. She'd miss the high desert, of course, but they could always come back for vacations. A six hour drive was nothing.

Her mind churned with possibilities as she took the turn into the driveway a little too fast. The box on the seat next to her started to slide to the floor. She grabbed for it, took her eyes off the heavily shadowed, familiar driveway for just an instant. And in that split second something registered as being different.

Her reflexes were too slow.

Even as she tramped hard on the brake and felt the truck begin to respond, she knew with a horrible sense of inevitability it was too late. The truck came to a halt with a gentle bump and crunch of metal.

Into the near silence, the singer poured out his feelings.

"Shoot!" Electra switched off the ignition and blinked hard at the dark mass in front of her as she tried to adjust her vision from the brilliance of the sunlit road to the dense shadows of the driveway. A movement off to the left resolved itself into the shape of a person. The slam of a car door echoed loudly in the silence. A lean shape moved toward her, paused to examine where the two vehicles were joined together, then approached her window.

About to open her door, she hesitated and rolled down the window instead. The shape, dressed in dark gray chinos and a pale blue shirt, came to a halt. A masculine hand rose and came back into view holding a pair of dark glasses.

"Hello, El. Still at your creative best to irritate the hell out of me, I see."

"Drew!" Electra felt a shiver of cold shock slide down her spine. "What are you doing here? Where's Samuel?"

"It's good to see you too, El. Sam, as far as I know, is still up north."

"But--"

"Do you think you could back up so I can take a look at the damage?"

"What? Oh, of course." Her hand shook as she turned the key. What was Samuel's brother doing here? She hadn't seen Drew in three years. No--almost four. Not since that rainy June day she and his brother had graduated from college together, ready and more to take on adult life, convinced the world was waiting for them with bated breath.

The pickup lurched and crunched against the vehicle in front of it.

"El." Drew's voice, floating through the window, was calm and too controlled. "You have to put the truck in reverse."

"No kidding, Mr. Rocket Scientist," she muttered as she wrestled with the recalcitrant manual shift. An all too familiar annoyance was starting to burn through her veins. Drew had always had the power to inspire all the wrong emotions in her. The shift gave in with an embarrassingly loud grind. With another crunch of metal, the two vehicles separated.

She turned off the ignition again, set the brake and sat looking at the man who crouched to examine the fender of the sleek, black, expensive Lexus.

Holy cow! What was Drew, of all people, doing parked in her driveway? And why, oh why, did she have to plow into him? Literally. The divine day had definitely taken a turn for the worse.

She watched the compact, lean body straighten. His shoulders looked broader than she remembered, but his hairstyle hadn't changed at all in four years. The dark, almost black strands were clipped to conservative shortness and fell obediently into place on the head of a Roman gladiator. Even the small breeze that played in the branches of the trees didn't dare disturb the perfect preciseness of his grooming.

He turned to study the front of her vehicle. Thick eyebrows drawn together in concentration crowned dark eyes. His lips, pressed together in a narrow line, triggered a memory, a whisper from nowhere, the words of a friend who had once declared the shape of his mouth was the mark of a highly sensual man. Drew, she realized with a little start of awareness, would be considered by some to be a handsome man. She had never thought of him quite like that before. His brother's rugged blondness was far more to her taste than the sophisticated dark looks Drew had inherited from his Italian mother's side of the family.

"Hey, El." He stared at her through the windshield. Sunglasses now shielded the expression in his eyes. "You plan on sitting in there all day? I promise I'll try not to make it too painful for you."

Heat raced across her face as his words raised a specter of one of the most embarrassing moments of her life. She struggled with the urge to whip the truck into first gear and stamp on the accelerator. The vision of Mr. Sophisticated losing his cool and fleeing for his life brought a grin to her face and she took a brief moment to savor the satisfying image.

He pulled the door on the driver's side open with an irritating squeal of unlubricated hinges "Out you get. I've had a long drive and would like to eat lunch at some point in the near future."

Her mind still on the image of a fleeing Drew, Electra swung her legs around and prepared to exit the pickup. At the last moment, she paused. Damn it! He was on her property. She wasn't a teenager anymore and he had no right to give her orders. Besides which, it occurred to her that if his car was damaged in any way, it was his fault. Any idiot should have better sense than to park a black car in deep shade in someone else's driveway.

She pulled the hem of her bright red crinkle skirt over her knees, folded her hands primly in her lap and said with a calmness she didn't feel, "You never answered my question, Drew. What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" He turned to survey his surroundings and took his time doing it. When he faced her again, a slow grin stretched across his features. She mistrusted it instantly. "Why, El, I'm on vacation."

"Huh?"

"Vacation. You know. R and R. Holiday. Time--"

"Here? In Little Creek?"

"Couldn't think of a better place to spend three months unwinding."

"Three months?" The unpleasant encounter was turning into a nightmare. Did Samuel know about this? And if he did, why on earth hadn't he told her?

She stared at Samuel's brother. The sun had crested the top of the trees and light glinted off the stylish sunglasses that had some designer's name etched on one side. His grin was still in place. She got the feeling he really was amused--at her expense.

"Where are you staying? The B&B doesn't take people for more than two weeks at a time."

He jerked his perfectly groomed head. "Here."

"What?" Mr. Sophisticated, Electra thought wildly, had lost his tiny mind. Did he think that just because his brother had an invitation, he had one as well? "You can't. I don't have room." Her voice spiraled in a nervous squeak.

One dark brow lifted. The grin widened. "It's a delightful thought, but whatever gave you that idea, El?"

She scowled at him, tempted to snatch off the sunglasses so she could read his expression. "I don't know, Drew. I never was good at riddles. Suppose you tell me what you mean?" The tone of her own voice shocked her. She didn't think she actually disliked Drew. She just preferred to avoid him altogether. Most of the time. Something about him made her skin prickle with uncomfortable little shivers. And she always felt like she was being judged and found wanting.

"I'm staying at the main house."

"Huh?"

"You have cotton balls in your ears today? I said I'm--"

"I heard you. The property management company never notified... Oh, God!" Electra pictured in her mind the very messy top of her small desk. Somewhere in that mess was a letter from Sunshine Properties notifying her of a rare tenant arrival. There had been a list of instructions she hadn't bothered to read at the time. Her promise to herself to get back to it had never materialized in all the excitement over Samuel's imminent arrival and accelerating developments on the mayoral front.

"Well, they wouldn't notify God, but I had every expectation they would notify the on-site caretaker." This time, his amusement was obvious. "I gave very specific instructions."

Suspicion bloomed bright and fierce within her. "You know I'm the caretaker here, don't you? Did Samuel tell you?"

He inclined his head. "Something like that."

"And of all the properties in the area you could have chosen, you chose this one? Why?" A quiet rage was building inside her. Once again Drew was interfering in her life. He had never approved of her relationship with his brother. It was too coincidental that he was here just when Samuel was about to show up.

"Why not? I like the area. I'm on an extended vacation. This house, from what I've seen, will suit my purpose."

A scream of pure frustration threatened to erupt from her throat. She ducked her head as she struggled to hold on to the last vestige of her control. A patch of sun blossomed on the thin fabric stretched over her knee and warmed her skin. With great care, she said, "You're here because Samuel is coming to visit, aren't you?"

"No." Now his voice had taken on an icy quality. "This trip was planned long before Samuel told me he was coming." He paused and, even in her distress, she felt the change in him and heard the strange gentleness in his voice when he spoke again. "El, we need to talk, but I really don't want to spend all day in the driveway. Can you let me in the house? When I'm settled and have eaten something, we'll continue this discussion. Okay?"

She stared past him at the sliver of bright water in the distance. Her hands were clenched in her lap. The nails bit into her palms. She wasn't ready to let go of her anger yet but a terrible sense of foreboding was threatening to paralyze her. "It's always about what you want, isn't it, Drew?"

She heard the whoosh of air as he gave a heavy sigh. "Just give me the keys, El."

"Oh, all right." She pushed herself to the edge of the seat. "Move, will you?"

He hesitated just long enough to convey displeasure at her tone, then stepped back one pace. She slid out of the truck and set off down the driveway with only a quick sideways glance between the two vehicles to assess the damage. The bumper on the Lexus did look a little crumpled but her old fender didn't seem any worse than it normally did. She didn't check back to see if he was following her.

Three months! What was she going to do with Andrew Bolinger living in her pocket for three months? She'd have to quit the very comfortable caretaker position and take a room with Mrs. Cranston again, if she'd have her. She stepped off the driveway onto the graveled path. At the end of the path, in one corner of the property, an old, small cabin nestled beneath a stand of pine trees. It was the original structure on a prime piece of riverfront real estate. A soft crunch from behind her told her she was being closely followed.

Where, she thought sourly, was her genie when she needed him? She'd give up a lot to make one particular man disappear completely from her life. She stepped onto the narrow deck, twisted the knob and pushed open the door.

Quickly, before Drew had quite reached the deck, she went inside and shut the door again. She was behaving with unforgivable rudeness, but Drew had always made her feel young, inexperienced and inadequate. She was in no mood to improve his opinion of her nor could she bear for him to see her private space. It wasn't in any shape to withstand Mr. Perfect's scrutiny.

It took a minute or two to locate the key to the main house. It wasn't in its usual place on the hook by the door but mysteriously buried under the pile of papers on her desk. When she yanked open the door again, Drew was propped against the side of her house. He looked as if he had all the time in the world, as if he hadn't a care in the world. The damn sunglasses still effectively screened his expression.

"Looks as if I may not have needed a key after all," he said. "Do you always leave your place unlocked?"

"This isn't Seattle," she snapped, instantly resenting the criticism she heard in his words. "The only thieves we're used to seeing around here are raccoons and the occasional bear."

"Meaning?"

He hadn't moved, but his body language had changed subtly, taken on a new alertness. Her inflection had clearly caught his attention. She decided against the sarcastic response that leapt to her lips in favor of retreat. She had to get rid of him. She had to collect her thoughts before she could continue the old argument and wasn't about to admit that he had stolen her peace of mind and the glorious excitement that had marked her days ever since her last phone conversation with Samuel.

She tossed the keys at him. He caught them with a smooth economy of movement. "Never mind. The big house is kept locked." She hesitated then, mindful of her duty and the unread instructions on her desk, said grudgingly. "I'll be here the rest of the afternoon. Let me know if you need anything."

He nodded, tossed the keys in his hand and glanced at his watch. "Come over at four, will you? I'd like to go over the instructions I sent the property management company." Without waiting for an acknowledgement, he pushed himself away from the wall and stepped down onto the path.

"And bring your insurance information with you, please."