Some Like it Hotter

Jean was right.

Ames was a loser.

He kept his expression serious. “Well, it’s about time.”

“You’re kidding. Tell me you’re kidding.”

“Jean.” He spoke patiently. “Every apartment needs a gorilla. This one is mine.”

She looked at him in concern. “Does this mean you’ve finally lost it?”

“Not at all.” He pushed his chair back, came around the front of his desk, not even in the mood to pretend to work anymore. “I’ve become a collector of animal statues and small putting greens. This is only the first one. Next, a giraffe. Then a zebra. My living room will become a mini-golf course.”

“You are kidding me.”

“Am I, Jean?” He perched on the edge of his desk. “Am I really?”

She stared at him suspiciously, then broke into a grin. “Oh, boy. Eva is part of this somehow. I can smell it.”

“Could be.”

“I shouldn’t have doubted you, though, my God, you were acting like a wet blanket. I’ve seen infants with bigger ones.” She put the phone back to her ear. “Send it up, Frank. He definitely wants the gorilla. Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s some kind of present for his girlfriend. I know. I don’t, either, but kids these days...”

Ames started grinning. He had a feeling he wouldn’t stop for quite a while.

“Okay. Your gorilla is on the way.” She handed him the phone. “Use it wisely.”

“The phone or the gorilla?”

“Yes.” She surprised him with a warm hug. “Good luck, Ames. I have a feeling about you and this girl.”

“Thanks, Jean. I do, too.”

She patted his arm. “Just don’t screw this up or you’ll be lonely and miserable for the rest of your life.”

“Oh, for—” He gave her a big smacking kiss on the cheek. “That is so sweet.”

“Hey, they don’t call me honey for nothing.” She winked. “I lied again. No one calls me that.”

“Not surprised.”

Jean snorted and started for the door. “Okay, you want me out of here so you can call Eva. Not to worry, I’m going. I’m gone.”

“Thanks, Jean. Truly. I’ll see you Thursday.”

“Only if I live that long.” She stopped at the door and turned back to smile, a warm and lovely one he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen before. “And you’re entirely welcome.”

15

EVA GLANCED AT the clock. Again. Who kept turning the hands back? The day couldn’t possibly be going this slowly. Her shift ended at two, and then she had somewhere important to be.

In Ames’s arms. With her mouth pressed against his, and her eyes devouring the wonderful and sexually irresistible sight of him.

Not that everything would be fixed by her coming back to him. Certainly the agony of the past several days’ separation would be behind them, and the uncertainty of her feelings, the fear that she’d never be able to commit to any one man seriously—that would be gone. Eva wasn’t defective. She loved Ames. She wanted to be with him forever.

All those issues were fixed and the relief was immense. But getting there had presented her with more problems. She could call Chris, tell her the switch back was off indefinitely, that they should take it month by month, that she’d fallen head over heels in love with Ames and wanted to be with him in New York.

The problem? She didn’t want to be in New York. She missed California, she missed her shop, she missed her routines and the peace and the room just to be. What she’d been lacking there on the coast, what she’d needed to cure the boredom that had started this monthlong adventure, wasn’t the thrill and excitement of a big city. It was Ames.

And that introduced the next problem. Ames was a New Yorker. Well, she supposed to most New Yorkers, he was Jersey scum, but as far as she was concerned, he fit the city organically and the city fit him. Plus he not only had a job here, but a career, one that afforded him international travel and contact with some of the most creative food and wine minds in the city, and—as a good New Yorker would tell you—therefore the world.

Why would he give that up for her? How could she ask him to?