He shoved them quickly into his pockets, and out of danger.
He reminded himself that they weren’t on a date. That Emily had made it clear that she wasn’t interested in dating him. But that didn’t change the fact that he still wanted to kiss her.
He realized that he was still staring at her mouth. He quickly lifted his gaze, only to find his eyes locked with hers. And his mind emptied of coherent thought.
“Wade?” Emily sounded uncertain. “Good night.”
“Oh. Uh, yeah. See you around.”
He forced himself to take a step backward. It was probably the hardest step he’d ever taken.
After a moment, Emily climbed into her car and closed the door with a decisive snap. Wade walked to his Jeep, cursing himself for acting like an idiot around this woman. For wanting something he couldn’t have. And for proving, once again, that he had a real knack for being attracted to women who were entirely wrong for him.
HE HAD WANTED to kiss her.
As she drove home with that thought echoing in her mind, Emily tried to tell herself that she was being silly. Fanciful Conceited. Wade had done absolutely nothing to indicate that he wanted to kiss her. Except to look at her mouth. For what had seemed like a very long time. And then he’d met her eyes with what might have been a glint of hunger in his.
She shook her head, muttering to herself. Apparently, it wasn’t enough that she had developed this embarrassingly juvenile and ill-timed crush on Honoria’s new chief of police. Now she was trying to convince herself that he felt the same way about her.
Ridiculous.
And even if he was attracted to her—if only a little—she’d already decided that it would be unwise to act on that attraction. Especially considering that she was still officially a suspect in his case. And now that she’d gotten reluctantly involved in a project that was going to take most of her free time for the rest of the month, she simply didn’t have time to get involved in a relationship, or an affair, or whatever it was that Wade Davenport might have had in mind when he’d looked at her and thought about kissing her.
WADE DROVE UP to Emily’s house Saturday morning and noted immediately that his Realtor’s car wasn’t there. Though he was on time—it was exactly ten o’clock—apparently he’d beaten her there. He wondered if he should wait in the car for her to arrive, or get out and ring Emily’s doorbell.
Clay settled the question for him. He had his door open and was out of the car the moment Wade turned off the engine.
“Daddy, I like this house,” said the child who’d found something to criticize about both of the houses they’d visited before. Wade hadn’t even told him who owned this one.
Wade climbed out of the Jeep. “What do you like about it?”
Hands on his slender hips, Clay cocked his red head and looked thoughtfully around. “I like the porch. And the big trees. And the...Daddy, look! It’s Miss Emily.”
Wade swiveled around to find Emily watching them from her porch. And despite all the lectures he’d given himself on the way over about acting like an adult and responding to her with his brains instead of his libido, he still had to gulp before he could force a smile.
&
nbsp; He still wanted to kiss her.
“Good morning,” he said. “Are we early?”
“No. Actually, there’s a slight problem. Mary Kay just called. Her husband has been rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery and she’s going to have to break your appointment this morning.”
“That’s terrible. I hope he’ll be all right.”
“She seemed to think everything will be okay once the operation is over. An appendectomy, I think.”
“We’ll reschedule, then.”
Emily shook her head. “You’re here now. Why don’t I show you the place?”
“This is your house, Miss Emily?” Clay asked, wide-eyed.
Emily smiled. “Yes. Would you like to see it, Clay?”
He nodded fervently and skipped toward the porch where she stood. “Yes, please.”
Wade followed more sedately, wondering if this was such a good idea, after all. It seemed that a weakness for Emily McBride was something the Davenport men shared. Clay was gazing at her like a lovesick puppy—and Wade could only hope that he wasn’t wearing a similar expression.