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hair and wondered when his simple plan to marry her had become so complicated.
    “Um…I better bring the coffee out to Rae-Anne.”
    She tried to skirt around him but he stopped her by blocking her path. He knew it was childish but there was something about CJ that made him react from the gut instead of from the head.
    “This isn’t over,” he said. He didn’t know why she was running but realized that life had changed this woman more than he’d realized.
    Crossing her arms over her chest she glared up at him. He felt like a big mean bully and wanted to pull her back into his arms and kiss away her irritation.
    “Yes, it is.”
    “Why?” he asked, not willing to let the subject drop. “It can’t be because of one comment in high school.”
    “It’s not.”
    He waited but she didn’t say anything else.
    She sighed and then looked at the floor. Finally in a small voice she said, “I don’t have affairs.”
    Now we’re getting somewhere. “Why not?”
    “Life is easier that way.”
    Life was going to be damned hard for him until he had her in his bed, writhing under him. “I’m not going away.”
    “You will.”
    Her confidence threw him. She’d been the one to leave him all those years ago. “Don’t count on it, Cathy Jane. I have plans for you.”
    “Business plans, I know.”
    “I’m going to marry you,” he said, surprising himself. But the words sounded right in his soul. She was exactly the kind of woman he’d been unconsciously searching for. He’d been thinking of marriage a lot lately.
    He wanted her to be his wife. He wanted her to be the mother of his children. He wanted her in his bed and it had nothing to do with the fact that his parents wanted him to give them grandkids.
    “What?”
    Having blurted out his announcement, he had no choice but to keep going. Damn, this is what happened when he let his groin do the thinking. He should have eased into his announcement but she’d been backing away and he’d wanted to put his mark on her. To claim her as his even though he didn’t have the right.
    “You heard me. I’ve analyzed the facts and I think we’d be very successful together as a married couple.”
    And he did believe that. He’d tried love with Kylie and ended up frustrated and alone. Marriages, the really successful ones he’d noticed, were based on common likes, similar backgrounds and physical compatibility.

    CJ thought maybe she’d stepped into one of those alternate realities like they had on Star Trek: The Next Generation sometimes—like the one where Tasha Yarr was really alive and married to a Romulan. Tad watched her with that mix of determination and intelligence that she’d come to recognize meant he wasn’t backing down.
    She was still trying to assimilate all the feelings from him kissing her. It had been a high school dream and something she’d imagined a million times. But the reality had been so much more. Now she knew his taste, his touch. The way his hands felt on her face. And the way he’d closed his eyes just halfway as they’d pulled apart. Dammit. She didn’t want to think about the kiss.
    Instead she jumped on the one subject that was a powerful distraction. Marriage.
    “Are you nuts?”
    “No. I’m serious about this.”
    “We don’t know each other,” she said. And there was a part of her that was really glad he didn’t know her. There were certain secrets she wasn’t going to share with anyone—especially a man.
    “Sure we do. Plus we have a lot in common.”
    “Name one thing.”
    “We’re from the same small town.”
    “That barely counts. And we don’t live there anymore. Name something else.”
    “We both chose the same type of Christmas tree.”
    “Tad, have you fallen on your head lately? You don’t marry someone because they like the same things as you do.”
    “Just think about how peaceful our Christmases will be.”
    “There’s more to life than Christmas.”
    “I know. We also live only a few blocks apart