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staying?”
    “He’s staying here, of course,” Cam said.
    Pepper at first looked appalled, then tried to look pleased and welcoming. “Oh, how
    nice.”
    “No, I won’t be staying here,” Dallas said. “I’ve a room at the Hilton.”
    “That’s totally unnecessary when we have plenty of room here, Dal,” Cam protested.
    “I have to leave for the airport at six o’clock tomorrow morning. I don’t want to wake up your household and, plus, it would be much more convenient for me since I can catch a shuttle to the airport from there.”
    Infinitely relieved, Pepper smiled brightly. “That’s too bad that you can’t stay longer, Dal. We could have taken you out on the town, such as go to San Francisco and walk the Golden Gate Bridge, and take you on a wine tour up here,” she said, totally forgetting that he grew up in the area.
    Dallas’s eyes flickered to her. “Perhaps next time,” he said with faint irony. He looked at his watch. “I think I better get to my hotel since I’m going to have an early morning.”
    “I’ll drive you,” Cam said, getting out of his chair.
    “No. That won’t be necessary. I’ll call for a cab.” He turned to Pepper. “That was an excellent dinner. One of the best I’ve had. Now, I see why you’re restaurants, show, and books are such successes. You are a very good and extremely talented chef.”
    Secret Affair 25
    His words took Pepper by surprise. The lavish compliment went a long way to mollify
    her from the earlier unfavorable impression of him. He might be defective in normal social interchanges but he obviously knew how to be gracious. She smiled with apparent self-satisfaction and with all the egotism of a driven artist. “Yes, I know. I dare say you won’t find better prepared dishes for hundreds of miles, thousands, I should think.”
    Gratefully, Anna Marie grabbed the opportunity that Dallas’s leaving provided to take hers. “I need to get home, too. I have a busy day at the library tomorrow.”
    Pepper suggested, apparently completely unaware of any undercurrent tension between
    them. “Why don’t you drive Dallas to his hotel on your way?”
    Secret Affair 26

Chapter 3
    With his face completely expressionless, Dallas watched Anna Marie as her face turned white, her eyes looking stark in their horror against the paleness.
    “I’m not quite sure…” Anna Marie choked.
    “That really isn’t necessary,” Dallas said smoothly. There was faint humorless light in his eyes when he saw relief sweeping across her face.
    “Of course it is,” Pepper said dismissively. “It’s ridiculous of you to go through all that trouble and expense in calling a taxi when Anna here is perfectly capable of driving you.” Anna Marie opened her mouth then shut it again. There was really nothing she could do or say to get out of it, because her driving Cam’s brother to his hotel made perfect sense, and it would have been extremely ungracious and rude of her to force him to get a taxi.
    “Alright,” she said faintly. Good heavens, she thought, with both of them lousy at small talk, what in the world were they going to say to each other?
    “You’re sure I won’t be putting you out of your way?” Dallas asked with mocking
    politeness.
    Secret Affair 27
    Anna Marie knew that he did not really care that he was putting her out of her way and found her discomfiture amusing. He was laughing at her, but that wasn’t what bothered her.
    “No, of course not,” Anna Marie said in a strained voice.
    Five minutes later, she was sitting behind the wheel of her twenty-year old Honda
    Accord, both of her hands clutching at the steering wheel like a lifeline, keeping her eyes straight ahead, her mind frantically thinking up a way to casually start a conversation, one that would not sound contrived or desperate, or both. She had to think of something, anything to ease this screaming tension inside her. She was so aware of Dallas’s big, tall body sitting so near her. She