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was pressing the breath out of him. “Mimi, let’s continue our discussion.”
    “Not a good idea, and we’ve been frugal withgood ideas our whole friendship,” Mimi said, hurrying out the door. “We should be frugal with the bad ones, as well. Bye, Mason!”
    Mason could hear her feet tripping lightly down the stairs. Sighing, he knew full well he’d missed a prime opportunity to get on top in their relationship.
    And it wasn’t just sex he was worried about.
    He picked up her bra off the floor and smiled. Oh, he would get on top—and it would be sooner rather than later, he vowed. Mimi Cannady was going to learn that he was a man to be reckoned with, and if she thought he was going to chase her, she was quite mistaken. Mimi was going to do all the chasing, until she understood that not only had she loved him, she still did.
    He was the only man she would ever love, no matter how much she wanted to believe otherwise.
    Then it hit him: Mimi had turned the tables on him. She had tricked him into wanting her. Despite his best promises to himself, he had fallen into her charming net, happily and gladly.
    Now that he’d kissed her again, and tasted her, it might even be an irrevocable fall—which was exactly what he’d been avoiding for years.
    He didn’t want to fall mindlessly as his brothers had. He’d seen what that had done to their lives.While the end results might be happy and beneficial for them, getting there looked messy and torturous.
    He’d had enough of that.
    She’s right. No more bad ideas. No more Mimi, he told himself for the thousandth time.
    The problem was, as wonderful as it had been to make love to the girl she’d been, the woman she was now would be far more satisfying. His soul ached to its very core that he must deny himself that sweetness. But he had to, or he would be lost—like Maverick, the father who had eventually succumbed to his broken heart.

Chapter Five
    Word of the afternoon she hadn’t really spent with Mason somehow got around like cookies at a bridal shower. Mimi couldn’t understand how so many people seemed to think that she and Mason were now destined for the altar. The knowing winks and happy smiles and the well-meaning question Where is Sheriff Jefferson this afternoon? were all somewhat embarrassing.
    Darn Calhoun and his big Jefferson mouth.
    “He means well,” the stylists at the Union Junction Salon agreed once they heard her story. All the girls were there, including Valentine, who had closed up at the bakery. Everyone gathered to sit out on the lawn, enjoy some lemonade and a gossip among girls. Sighing, Mimi recognized how much these special times among her “sisters” meant to her.
    “Calhoun might have meant well, but what he thought happened, didn’t. The truth is that Mason and I are farther apart than ever. I don’t even know why I say ‘Mason and I’ in the same breath. Separate is what we have to be.”
    The women looked at her. There were nineteen stylists who’d come to Union Junction several years ago and stayed through the night of the big storm that had nearly leveled the town. They’d worked for a while in Lonely Hearts Station before Last’s girlfriend, Valentine, accidentally burned down the salon. Now they were all back here. The only missing “sister” was Annabelle Turnberry Jefferson, who lived in a different city with her husband, Frisco Joe. Over the years, all the women had grown close, a family who had learned to be strong despite whatever bad circumstance had originally brought them here.
    Mimi felt certain she shouldn’t complain about her life, when it was as wonderful as it was, but one too many people had asked about Mason. Mimi had replied that she wasn’t in charge of his social calendar, which had gotten the girls to gossiping.
    “You can’t give up on him,” Marni said. “He’s the father of your child.”
    “You know how those Jeffersons are,” Lily said. “Irresistible. Though I love my Sam.”
    Mimi