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Kyle said, giving her a mischievous grin.
     
    Without warning, he placed his arm loosely around her shoulder. The gesture felt so natural that Lauren didn't think to pull away until it seemed it would become too obvious to everyone around them. Although the wave of heat his touch generated filled her with a stirring deep beneath the pit of her belly, she found herself enjoying the fire kindling inside her. It had been way too long since any man spawned such desires.
     
    "So, Kyle tells me you're coming for dinner on Sunday," Judy said as if it were a confirmation of something already discussed.
     
    "I beg your pardon?" Bewildered, Lauren looked, first at Judy, then at Kyle.
     
    Kyle blew out a breath and gave her a crooked grin. "Ma, would you let me get around to asking her first?"
     
    "What are you wasting time for? Just ask the girl for cripes sake," Judy chortled.
     
    "Well, I, uh-" Lauren stammered.
     
    "Are we going somewhere, Mommy?" Kristen asked curiously, looking up at Lauren with widened eyes.
     
    "Here, have a cup of hot chocolate to warm you." Judy extended a Styrofoam cup filled with hot chocolate and piece of fried dough lightly dusted with powdered sugar. Lauren automatically accepted, keeping the hot chocolate for herself and handing the pastry to Kristen.
     
    Kyle quickly whisked her away from the concession stand. "Sorry about that."
     
    "It's okay. She's just..." Lauren turned to look back at the concession stand, still reeling from the strange conversation.
     
    "What is it?" he asked, answering her befuddled expression.
     
    "I'm sorry. It was rude of me to stare. It's just that your mother..."
     
    "I know. She spoke a little soon. But the invitation still stands. I mentioned to her this afternoon that I wanted to invite you and Kristen to dinner on Sunday. I hope you'll be able to make it," he said, squeezing Lauren's hand.
     
    "No."
     
    He stopped walking and jerked his body around to look at her. "You won't come for dinner?"
     
    "No, that's not what I mean. It's just..." She didn't quite know how to verbalize her thoughts, especially since it was a cause of concern over being so young herself when Kristen was born. "Your mother seems so young." Heat filled her cheeks. It was a stupid thing to say, but honest none-the-less.
     
    Kyle laughed. "She'd probably kiss you if she heard you say that."
     
    "She seems too young to have a son your age is what I'm trying to say," she added.
     
    "Most people pick up the fact that I tower over my parents or that they both have brown eyes and mine are blue."
     
    Feeling embarrassed for such an inconsequential observation, Lauren crouched down to fiddle with Kristen's mittens that were now covered with powdered sugar from the fried dough.
     
    As if sensing her discomfiture, he offered, "Mom and Dad knew early on they weren't going to have kids of their own. They adopted me."
     
    "It's none of my business," Lauren blurted out, trying to brush off a flood of seven-year-old memories the word adoption evoked.
     
    "It's okay. It doesn't bother me. It shouldn't bother you," Kyle returned as they made their way to the long line of people still waiting for Santa Claus to show.
     
    "It doesn't," she stopped and turned to face him, trying her best to appear unfazed. The last thing she wanted was for him to misread her hang-ups over adoption as being a negative reflection on him. The truth was, Lauren had never quite given up the guilt over almost giving Kristen up for adoption all those years ago.
     
    "Really? Why do I get the feeling there is something more?" It was frightening, the way Kyle's eyes seared through her as if he was penetrating her soul, reading her deepest fear. No one had ever come close to doing that before.
     
    She darted a quick glance at Kristen, then back to Kyle. A prickly heat scorched beneath her scarf and began to feel like a noose around her neck. His eyes softened and his expression fell as they took their place in the long