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    As soon as they were a few feet from the building, she took his hand. He glanced down at their clasped hands, but she couldn’t read his expression. At least he didn’t recoil. His hand was warm, and a little rough, as she’d expect from all the work he did outside in all types of weather.
    “I’ll just add water to the horse’s trough. You can sit on the picnic bench and I’ll be right back. He nodded and let go of her hand, but he didn’t sit on the bench. He stood and watched her. Maybe there was still a chance...
    She leaned over and stuck out her ass, which she’d been told was a lovely rounded shape. The skinny jeans with some bling on the pockets made her feel feminine. With any luck he’d notice and want to cop a feel.
    She glanced beneath her arm, and saw the hunger in his eyes as he watched her. Ah. A very good sign. She was tempted to wave it back and forth a bit, but she didn’t want to be that blatant.
    At last she’d filled the trough and resisted patting the horses. She didn’t want to test how bad Ethan’s allergies were. She did, however take a moment to murmur some nonsense that seemed to make them happy. When she walked back up the hill she let her breasts bounce just a bit, hoping it didn’t seem too obvious.
    “Have a seat,” she said and gestured to the bench.
    “What I have to say is quick.”
    Oh, no. That’s never good. She braced herself and expected her hopes and dreams to be dashed. She bit her lip and nodded as if to say, “Go ahead. I’m ready.”
    “If we’re going to do this, it’s going to happen the normal way. I need your phone number, so I can ask you out.”
    “On a date? But that’s not—”
    He held up a hand to halt her speech.
    “That’s how it’s got to be. I won’t do this any other way. I’m not even guaranteeing we’ll have sex on the first date—or the second.”
    Her jaw dropped, then she remembered he didn’t say no. ‘Maybe later’ was better than an outright no. Anything was better than a no.
    “Okay. Let me get a pen and paper.” Her hands began to shake.
    He reached into his lightweight jacket pocket and produced a small spiral notebook and a pen. 
    “Oh. You come prepared.”
    “Generally, yes. I don’t think there’s any preparation for someone like you though.”
    “Huh? Someone like me?”
    “You dropped a bombshell on me. I hope you don’t do that often.”
    She chuckled. “I can honestly say I’ve never done that to anyone else, ever.”
    “Lucky me.”
    She smiled. “I hope so.”
    * * * *
    “I must be out of my mind.” Ethan opened a beer and leaned against his refrigerator.
    Charlotte sighed. “I don’t know what the big deal is. She’s a sure thing, like I was, but she isn’t charging you a cent and doesn’t have a knife sticking out of her head.”
    “Yeah. Now that I have that visual, you’ll have to tell me how it happened.”
    “My customer had a jealous lover. What else is new?”
    “That must have been one strong woman to sink a knife into your skull.”
    “Not a woman. A man. And it’s a very long, very sharp, two sided dagger.”
    “Wait a minute...a man? Were you entertaining women too?”
    “Oh, my, no. The man who owned this house went to sea for several weeks at a time. You’d call him gay these days. His—ahem—roommate was the kind of man who could play a part if it would keep him from working too hard. In fact, he was an actor. But I know acting, and I can tell you beyond a doubt that the lazy lout preferred me. I made the mistake of telling the sailor the bad news when he returned unexpectedly and demanded to know who I was.”
    “Wow.” Not knowing what else to say, Ethan took a long swig of his beer.
    “Yeah. Wow. At first, I didn’t even know I was dead. I didn’t feel anything. When I finally figured it out, they were fighting. I hung around to see if my John was going to be all right, and I must have missed the bright light...my chance to move on. I’ve