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of the car, but by the time he was sliding into the seat beside her, she had stopped glaring. She was suddenly aware of just how much space he seemed to occupy in the vehicle. He really was a big man. Automatically she edged a little closer into her own corner as she fastened the seat belt. She watched Trent shrug out of his expensive jacket and toss it carelessly onto the back seat.
    „This whole thing is really very funny, isn’t it?“
    Trent switched on the ignition and put his arm along the back of the seat as he glanced over his shoulder. He backed the Mercedes neatly out of its slot in the parking lot. „You seem to find it all amusing. If you thought it was going to be fun to return to the old hometown and show everyone how much you’ve changed, why haven’t you done it before now?“
    Filomena shrugged. „There hasn’t been much opportunity. I haven’t gotten where I am by taking vacations. This is my first real one in ages. Usually I just grab a weekend here and there, and frankly there are more exciting places to spend a weekend than Gallant Lake. You’re in a high-pressure business. You must know how it is.“
    „I know,“ he said with unexpected empathy. He guided the car out onto the narrow road that led back along the lake toward the lodge. „Sometimes we need to slow down and take the time to sort out priorities. I’m here on vacation, too, remember?“
    „That’s not what Brady Paxton thinks.“
    „I’m not interested in what Paxton thinks. I’m interested in what you think.“
    „Is that right?“ She slanted him a covert glance. His face looked hard and unyielding in the shadowed confines of the car. But that didn’t surprise her. Trent’s face looked hard and unyielding most of the time except when he flashed his brief rather wicked smiles. „Why would you care what I think, Trent?“
    „Seriously?“
    She nodded. „Seriously. I know that you were doing my family a favor tonight by acting as an escort for me, but I figure that’s about all it amounts to – a favor. Why should you care what I think about you?“
    „If you have to ask that, then you haven’t learned as much as you think you have during the past few years.
    Maybe we should talk about the gap in your education.“
    Before Filomena could answer, he slowed the car unexpectedly, turning off onto a tiny side road that led down to the lakefront.
    Filomena straightened in her seat, her curiosity and desire to bait Trent fading rapidly as a new kind of tension rippled through her. „Where are we going, Trent?“
    „To the fishing spot your father took me to yesterday morning.“ He reduced his speed even more to compensate for the unpaved surface. The narrow track wound down toward the lake through a thick stand of pine and fir.
    Filomena told herself she ought to make a firm and forceful protest before they reached the water’s edge. She was almost positive Trent would turn back if she made a fuss. He was, after all, a friend of the family. Her father certainly liked and trusted him, and Trent appeared to return the respect Amery showed him. Such a man would not abuse that trust. If she demanded to be driven straight home, Trent would do it. Filomena was sure of it.
    Perhaps it was because she was so certain of it that she she refrained from making the demand. Trent probably intended to kiss her, but that hardly constituted an earthshaking event. She could handle him.
    Filomena relaxed in her seat as Trent brought the Mercedes to a halt at the edge of the lake. He turned off the engine and rolled down his window. The whisper of the wind in the treetops made its way into the car. Moonlight glittered faintly on the surface of the dark lake. On the far side an occasional pinpoint of light marked the location of a house or a car driving along the shore. The evidence of human habitation was sparse and distant, however. Filomena was suddenly aware of how very much alone she and Trent were.
    Trent unfastened his seat belt and