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was a model.”
    “New York? L.A.?”
    “L.A.” She glanced at her watch. “Oh, dear. I really ought to be going. Do you mind…?”
    Subject closed. “Of course not,” he said obligingly, and signaled for the check.
    Conversation stayed light on the drive back to White Horse. At the shelter she produced a cardboard carrier for Hannah, who unhappily allowed herself to be ensconced in it.
    Eric waited while Madeline locked up again, then strolled beside her out to their vehicles. Days weregrowing longer, but by this time of the evening dusk had painted the sky purple-gray. He deposited the carrier in his pickup, then turned back to Madeline, who’d hurriedly unlocked her car door and was using it as a shield.
    “Thank you for dinner.” Her voice was light, quick. Nervous. “Really. I enjoyed it. But I do wish you’d have let me pay my own way.”
    He shook his head and took a deliberate step closer. “I’m the one who wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
    She ran a finger along the metal edge of her car door. Head bent, appearing to concentrate on the back-and-forth movement of her finger, she said, “I was rude when you first asked. I apologize.”
    “No. You were polite enough, despite what I said at the time. I made assumptions.” According to Teresa, what he’d assumed was that any woman favored by an invitation from him would leap at it. Dammit, he wasn’t that cocky.
    Madeline apparently didn’t want to talk about his assumptions. “Well, um, good night.” Her shaky smile died when he took another step.
    “Can we do this again?” he asked, voice deepening.
    Now her fingers gripped that car door. She swallowed hard. “Again?”
    He didn’t usually have this effect on women. And he’d been so careful tonight.
    He backed up a step, made his tone soothing. “Yeah, why not? The food was good, and I thought the conversation was, too.”
    She relaxed immediately, he guessed because of his physical retreat. “Yes, it was. Dinner again sometime sounds nice.”
    He knew better than to say, What about tomorrow night? Patience, he told himself. Take it slow.
    He smiled easily. “Good night, then. Thanks for your company. And the cat.”
    “I’m sure we’ll be talking,” she said dismissively. A moment later she’d climbed into her car, started the engine and with a wave of her hand backed out
    He got into his pickup. Hannah uttered an inquiring mew. Eric poked a finger into one of the holes in the cardboard so that she could rub her soft nose against it.
    “You want to know where we’re going? Is that what you’re asking? You’ll like the answer. Home.”
    He used his signal, then turned out onto the road. Ahead red taillights flickered. To the cat he said, “Do you know why that lady is scared of me, Hannah? No? Well, I’ll tell you what. I’m going to find out. When I do, I’ll let you know.”
    Patience, he reminded himself.
    H E’D INTENDED to shut Hannah in Garth’s bedroom for a couple of days, to give her a chance to acclimate, but when he let her out of the carrier, she tested the air with her pink-and-gray nose, then hopped up on the bed and surveyed the room with quiet serenity. She wasn’t going to hide under the dresser for a week. Eric decided to see what she’d do if he left the door open. What she did was follow him. She wasn’t completelyconfident; she crouched, ready for flight if necessary, and she oozed around corners, but she still came.
    She slipped around a glass-fronted bookcase and almost tripped over Mannequin, who’d earned her name by rarely moving. If she hadn’t occasionally wanted food and the kitty litter, he could have kept the cream-colored ball of fluff on a shelf like a stuffed animal, with no one the wiser. Now Mannequin lifted her head, blinked her magnificent blue eyes and allowed herself to be sniffed. The newcomer’s tail puffed, but otherwise she didn’t appear alarmed. She’d apparently read Mannequin’s nature immediately.
    The other cats