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not-so-reputable collector for an entire too-good-to-be-true-priced box of buttons.
    Sure, there are some tantalizing things at the top. But as I learned back when I first got into the button business, when I dug deeper, I found out I’d been sold a bill of goods.
    Just like with Kaz.
    I admit, over the years, he’d made my heart dance around plenty.
    Mostly, it was just from annoyance.
    I hung onto the thought and reminded myself I could no way, no how let go of it (at least not without completely losing both my self-respect and my mind) when I rounded the corner on North Wells Street the next evening and caught sight of Kaz coming the other way.
    Oh yeah, my heart started dancing, all right.
    Damned heart.
    Didn’t it know I didn’t have time to tango? I had just run out to pick up a turkey sandwich and was on my way back to the shop for my follow-up appointment with Kate Franciscus. I didn’t need to get distracted.
    And there is no distraction quite like Kaz.
    “Hey, Jo!” He closed in on me fast, but then, that’s the way Kaz does everything. Well, almost everything. There was that sweet little room in Barbados, and—
    I batted the thought as far away as it was possible for it to get. Not so easy because before I knew it, Kaz was two feet from me, a smile in his brown eyes and his face lit with the sizzling grin that had been known to make even the most levelheaded button diva forget herself.
    “I just stopped by your store,” he said, tilting his head back the way he’d come. “Some girl was there. She said she didn’t know when you were coming back.”
    “Brina.” I supplied the name, not so much because it mattered that Kaz knew, but because when he was standing there looking me over and I caught a whiff of the aftershave I used to buy him every Christmas simply because it magically seeped into my brain and made me nuts from wanting him, I knew it was wiser for me to concentrate on work than on Kaz.
    Kaz in nicely worn, butt-hugging jeans.
    And a dusky blue shirt, open at the collar, the sleeves rolled up above his elbows.
    I forced myself to watch a passing bus, the better to keep my mind on other things, and said, “Brina is my assistant. I left her in charge.” I lifted the white carryout bag in my right hand. “While I went out to grab some dinner.”
    It was all I was willing to say. In fact, as soon as I got back to the Button Box, I was going to send Brina home. It was only five-thirty, and Kate wasn’t scheduled to arrive for this evening’s appointment until eight, but I wasn’t taking any chances. When Kate made this appointment, she’d insisted we meet alone. None of her assistants, and no sign of mine. Apparently, after looking over my buttons, she was ready to make her choice, and like everything else about her royal wedding, she wanted this detail to be a surprise. For everybody.
    “An assistant, huh? You’ve come up in the world.” I didn’t have to look at Kaz. I could hear the amusement coloring his words. “She sure doesn’t look like an assistant. She doesn’t even look like your typical button nerd.” He didn’t bother saying he was sorry for the slam. But then, Kaz never does. In the long line of things that had pushed me over the edge from Mrs. to ex, it was the one that still grated the most. “She looks like she should be working at some biker bar.”
    “She’s Adele Cruikshank’s granddaughter.” Kaz didn’t need to know that Adele had begged and I had given in. Kaz already knew I gave in far too often. It was the only thing that could possibly explain why we’d stayed married for three years.
    As for what had finally forced us apart . . .
    It wasn’t much of a mental leap for me to remember the two goons in my shop. Or that just about the first thing I’d thought of when I ran into them (after the whole terror/panic/ scared-senseless thing) was Kaz.
    The thought threw ice water on the heat that had been building since I set eyes on him. When I looked