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flicking on a small headlight. “I do it all the time.” She started
the quiet motor and put on her helmet. “Well.”
    Her eyes were on him, big and dark, and he longed to finish
that kiss.
    “Um, good night,” she said.
    “Yeah,” he said. “Good night.”
    As she rode off he stood there in the starlight for a long
moment. Cypress Corners was a contradiction. For that matter, so was Harmony
Brooks.
    He shook his head. What was the matter with him? She was
just a diversion. A means to an end. He thought again about that almost-kiss.
    A means to an end? Then why did tonight feel like a
beginning?

Chapter 4
    Four days later Harmony stared up at the draped ceiling
above her bed, trying to think about anything but Rick Chapman as she began
what would probably be another sleepless night. Well, sleepless save for the
dreams involving the man in question. Darn Rick Chapman of Chapman Financial.
    He was sharp and focused, despite his easy laughter and boyish
smile. He’d looked so much younger that night, less driven than she’d ever seen
him. The Florida climate will do that, wilt people’s attitude along with their clothes.
But she wouldn’t think he was anything else but what he seemed:  a
smooth-talking corporate guy with one thing on his mind. That darn recreation
café.
    She recalled that flush of heat when she’d touched his hand
at the restaurant. When he’d leaned close and stared into her eyes out under
that blanket of stars. When he brushed that gorgeous mouth against hers. Well,
maybe he had more than one thing on his mind.         
    A cool breeze danced over her skin, let in through open
flaps set high on the gable ends of her tent-cabin. She closed her eyes and
focused for one delicious minute on what it would be like to be kissed by Rick
Chapman, to be held by his strong arms, touched all over by those big hands. She
shivered and she knew it had nothing to do with the chill night air. She felt
hot and cold and like her skin was a bit too tight. Oh, he was dangerous.
    Sure, he’d been charming a few night ago. There was no
denying that, even days after. But she couldn’t forget that first encounter,
when he’d said he’d speak with the Institute and get her fired. She couldn’t
afford to let her guard down. She needed this job. Her parents needed her to
look after them. She had to stay focused. She had to keep Rick out of her mind.
    She’d managed to keep herself busy out at her camp, putting
off a ride to the Institute for fear of running into Rick. Coward. But
there was only so much to occupy her out at her lake. She’d sunned and read and
paddled her canoe. She’d gone over her photos and notes on the buckwheat before
hiking through the far end of Cypress Corners. Even as vast as the property
was, she couldn’t think of a thing to keep her busy out here tomorrow.
    She turned onto her side and shut her eyes. Out, darn
you! Oh, how would she get him out of her mind and out of her bed, if only
in her dreams? After a few more minutes of trying to fall asleep, she threw off
the sheets and sat up.
    “That’s that.” She snapped on the light on the table beside
the bed.
    The thick rag rug her mother had made for her was soft and
springy beneath her bare feet as she crossed to her dressing area. She pulled
on her boots, grabbed her flashlight and went out to the lake. The sounds
soothed her, loud here on the narrow dock that jutted out over the smooth water.
She sat, drawing her knees to her chest as she stared out over the water. Slowly
she waved the beam of light over the water’s surface, seeing telltale signs of
others as unable to sleep as she. Water spiders and frogs winked back at her,
their eyes yellow and green as the light touched them. Then she saw them, red
eyes that could only belong to an alligator. She set the light on the dock
beside her. No swimming tonight, then. She was too tired anyway.
    She closed her eyes, but even the breathing exercises her
mother had taught her