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was quiet. She kept her gaze locked on the side window, her teeth worrying the hell out of her bottom lip.
    He drove up his lane and parked the car outside the garage next to his house. He told her to hang on while he took his bag into the house and grabbed the key to the cottage.
    Merri waited for him beside the car, wide eyes taking in the tall pines that surrounded the house and one-story cottage several hundred yards to the rear. He knew there was something really wrong when she didn’t fight him to carry her bags to the cottage.
    Then she surprised the hell out of him by asking, “Has the cottage always been here?”
    “It was built around 1905 for the family to live in while they built the main house.” He walked up to the arched oak door then turned to find her stopped on the walk.
    “It looks like something out of a fairy tale.”
    The tone of her voice caught his attention but her wide-eyed stare baffled him.
    He’d always thought the structure resembled a hunting cabin, but maybe a woman would see it differently. The arched door and windows, fieldstone walls and peaked slate roof might give the impression of charm, but he knew the mortar needed to be rechinked , the old windows drafted like a sieve in the winter, and the interior was dark.
    He opened the door and waited for Merri to walk in ahead of him.
    She stopped in the center of the main room and he took the opportunity to study her. Her two braids hung down the middle of her back to her waist. Her jeans hung on her slim hips, and she didn’t have much of a butt to speak of. From the back, you might mistake her for a boy.
    But not from the front. Never from the front. She was just too damn pretty.
    He dragged his gaze away from her face and took the bags to the kitchen along the far side of the room.
    She continued to stand in the middle of the room, her gaze unblinking.
    “Like I said, it’s not much, but it’s clean and everything works.”
    She nodded and finally met his gaze. “It’s fine. Thanks for everything, Jimmy, but if you don’t mind, I’m going to lie down.”
    His gaze snapped back to her face, seeing the fatigue in the droop of her eyelids and the pallor of her skin.
    “Sure. Why don’t you come down for dinner around seven?”
    She nodded again but didn’t speak, her sigh saying more than words.
    He turned and left when the urge to grab her and hold her close nearly overwhelmed his common sense.
    Nearly three hours later, while stirring melting chocolate chips, he wondered what the hell he’d been thinking by asking her to dinner. He should’ve gone back to the lab. Should have wrapped himself up in some project, but he’d been afraid nothing would be able to distract him from Merri.
    He couldn’t deny his attraction to her. And if he was truthful, he didn’t want to. He wanted her, but he knew mentally she wasn’t in a place where he could try to seduce her. She had too much going in her life right now. Too much turmoil.
    He wasn’t surprised when the bell rang precisely at seven. He didn’t think the girl would ever be late for anything.
    Before he headed for the door, he took the roast chicken out of the oven. It had seemed like a good choice considering she’d had chicken in her cart.
    He’d made comfort food tonight—chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, fudge brownies for dessert. He hoped like hell she’d eat. She needed to put back on some of the weight she’d lost.
    When he opened the door, the first thing he noticed was her hair. Curls flowed everywhere. Down her back, over her shoulders, against her cheeks. If she’d had wings, she’d resemble something out of an English fairy tale. Of course, the jeans and pink t-shirt didn’t go with the image, but you couldn’t have everything.
    “Hey, Merri, come on in. Have a good nap?”
    With a nod, she stepped into the house, the slight floral scent she wore brushing against his senses and jacking his lust into high gear.
    Oh, this was a bad idea. A really