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    Laughing again, she peeled apart the biscuits and put them on a baking tray. He slid it into the oven and poured them each a mug of coffee. “It’s good to hear you laugh, Isabel.”
    “I slept well last night.”
    “Pretty quiet up here, isn’t it?”
    She added cream and sugar to her coffee. “I can’t believe you washed my clothes.”
    “As survival skills go, laundry isn’t too much of a challenge.”
    “I remember a time when you couldn’t toast bread.”
    “I’ve figured a few things out.” His voice dropped, and his strong brown hand closed over hers. “Isabel.”
    She knew she should take her hand away. She knew she should insist on going back to the city immediately. She knew she should not be feeling this overwhelming attraction to a man who had broken her heart.
    Yet she simply sat there in the bright, sunlit kitchen alcove, sipping coffee and holding hands with Dan Black Horse.
    It was wrong. So why didn’t it feel wrong?
    She felt warm and dreamy and relaxed. She loved the way he looked in the sunlight through the window, his long hair gleaming, his denim shirt parted at the throat to reveal his tanned chest, his dangerous smile and his deep brown-black eyes.
    I’ve missed you.
    She almost said it. Then the oven timer went off, and they jumped simultaneously. Dan retrieved the biscuits and brought them to the table with butter and honey.
    While they ate, he talked. “I always thought I’d have no trouble handling the band’s success,” he said. “But when it started happening for us, it never quite felt right. I guess you could say it messed with my internal chemistry or something.” He ran a hand through his loose hair. “I didn’t fit into my own life anymore. The tours,the schmoozing, the politics, putting up with Jack and Andy and all their problems…” He shook his head. “I kept waiting to feel like myself again. To do something real.”
    A faint smile curved his mouth. “‘The great mother calls home her own.’ That’s how my grandfather explained it. Once I found this place again, there was no way I could ever go back to what I had before.”
    “I read about your departure from the band,” she said. It had been all over the local arts journals.
    He waved his hand. “We hung together for as long as we could. Had a few laughs, made some good money. I pick up the guitar now and then when I’m in the mood. That’s enough for me now.”
    She looked out the window and saw a bird land on a tangled marionberry bush at the edge of the yard. “What time is it? I really need to be getting back.”
    His eyes hardened almost imperceptibly. He had never been big on clocks and schedules. It was one of the things she had found so charming about him at first, so exasperating later.
    He squinted at the clock on the stove. “Looks like around noon.”
    “Noon!” She almost choked on her biscuit as she shot to her feet. “I can’t believe I overslept.”
    “No such thing as oversleeping at this lodge. That’s a house rule.”
    “But—”
    He stood and pressed a finger lightly to her lips. She tried to ignore the frankly sensual feeling that simmered inside her.
    “Listen,” he said, slowly taking his hand away. “Iremember what you said about your busy week. But you can’t get any of that done on Sunday. At least take a look around, Isabel. See what I’ve done with the place.”
    She remembered how petty she had felt yesterday for ignoring his accomplishments. After he took her home, she would never see him again. The least she could do was admire what he had built.
    The rain had washed the forest clean. Everything was a rich, glistening green. A light breeze shivered through the trees. Isabel felt a piercing sense of connection with this place, and she understood Dan’s affinity for it.
    They walked along a path to the stables. The long, low building, surrounded by a fenced yard, housed four horses, three of whom put out their heads to see who had come. Isabel