God, yes.
Keeping the words to himself, he glared at the man who looked back at him with sympathetic eyes. “Trying to play shrink, Walt? Maybe you should leave that to the professionals.”
“Like Joanna.”
“Yeah. Like Joanna.”
Letting his arm fall to his side, he glanced again at the now empty road. “You’re no better yourself or you wouldn’t have been lurking back here rather than coming out to see them off. To see Maddie off.”
Walt sighed to concede the point. “Maybe you’re right.”
“So that’s it?” The imitation was deliberate. Pointed. “You’re just going to let her leave?”
Walt replied with a grimace. “Touché. I guess you aren’t the only man scared spitless by a pretty Zielinski sister.”
Adam shifted abruptly to walk around his friend. “I’ve got a lot of catching up to do around here. I think I’ll start now.”
Walt patted Adam’s back a little too heartily. “Looks like we both need to figure out what we really want. And how to go about it without getting ourselves—or anyone we care about—hurt in the process.”
“It’s a little less complicated for you than for me,” Adam muttered. After all, Walt didn’t have a son to think about.
He regretted his cranky tone when Walt said quietly, “I might be older and a little more beat up, but I’ve got feelings and fears just like you do, my friend. Our circumstances are different, I’ll admit, but the risks—and the potential rewards—are more alike than you want to acknowledge.”
“Walt, I—”
“—have some work to get to,” Walt finished for him, sparing them both the awkward apology. “Go take care of it. I’ve got some thinking of my own to do.”
He turned to walk away without looking back.
* * *
DRESSED IN A reasonably conservative, at least for her, blouse and skirt, Maddie looked up from her desk when someone tapped on her closed office door. It was late in the workday on a Friday afternoon almost three weeks after the trip to South Carolina. Most of her associates had already left for the weekend. She had no more appointments scheduled, and she’d thought her secretary had gone already, so she wasn’t sure who was interrupting her now. “Come in.”
Her frown faded into a speculative smile when an unexpected visitor entered the office, closing the door behind him. Her heart rate increased, and anticipation shivered along her nerve endings. She rose slowly to her feet, cocking one hip into a cheerfully impertinent stance. “Well, hello, Sarge. This is a nice surprise.”
Smiling, Walt crossed the room toward her. “I hoped it would be a nice one. And I hope you don’t have plans for the weekend.”
She felt her lips curve in delight. “If I did, I don’t now.”
He paused a couple feet away to give her a leisurely once-over. “You look great, Maddie.”
“I look like a lawyer,” she corrected him, her tone self-mocking as she glanced down at her conventional outfit.
“Yeah, well, it works for you. But then, you’d look good in anything.”
She moved closer and walked her fingers up his blue-dotted tie to the neat knot at his collar. “Does that mean you’re happy to see me?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said huskily, reaching out to pull her against him. “Oh, yeah.”
She rose on her tiptoes to greet his hungry kiss.
A long time later, he lifted his head. “Does that mean you’re happy to see me, too?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
“Oh, yes. Assuming you’re here for reasons that have nothing to do with my sister or your idiot friend.”
“Nothing at all,” he promised. “Joanna and Adam have to work out their own issues. I plan to spend the next day or so trying to figure out exactly what you see in a divorced, war-damaged lawyer a few years older than you. Doing my best to convince you I don’t think you’re flighty or irresponsible. And following your advice about finding out where this chemistry between us could lead.”
She didn’t much like his self-deprecating description, but she figured it wouldn’t take her long to convince him she saw a lot more in him. She cupped his face in her hands and brushed a kiss across his mouth. “I’m pretty sure my instincts are right. As I said before, I’m good at that sort of thing.”