Eva shot a glance toward Elena, then decided the unenthusiastic response was because she didn't want her mother dragging her to a museum on a drinking and shopping day. Fair enough.

"There's also a place called Wildseed Farms that looks fun. They sell the flowers, but also crafts and ice cream." She stressed the last word and got a laugh from Elena. But it seemed a little hollow, too.

She sat her phone on the seat between them, crossed her arms, and said, "Okay, what's going on? This was your idea, and I'm the one who's giddy."

"I'm fine," Elena said. "I'm just super tired. I didn't sleep well at all last night." She reached over and grabbed Eva's phone, clicking the side button to darken the display. Then she reached down and dropped it into Eva's purse. "So, the limo's pretty cool, right? And there's music."

As she turned toward the console, Eva grabbed her phone again.

"Mom! It's our time. Don't be hanging on your phone."

"I just want to

follow the map. There are places we might want to stop. And--okay. What are we doing on the east side of the highway?"

Elena's brows rose. "I don't know how to get to Fredericksburg and neither do you. Let's trust the driver, okay?"

But as they talked, the limo made a right turn off Airport Boulevard and into a neighborhood. Eva kept her head down, not sure if she should laugh or shout.

In the end, she decided on a maternal scowl as she lifted her head to face her daughter. "So," she said. "Who are we picking up?"

"Ah, um."

"That's what I thought." Definitely a laugh, though she wasn't going to let it show. "Would have been nice if you'd told me you'd invited him. I might have dressed better." She wore linen drawstring pants and light cotton T-shirt.

"You look great."

Eva wanted to disagree--she'd barely put on any make-up--but held her tongue. Elena obviously had orchestrated a chance to spend time with both her parents. It was not--repeat, not--a date, and so it didn't matter what Eva looked like.

Not that she could escape, even if she wanted to. Because there he was, coming out of the charming little limestone house nestled in among the oak and pecan trees.

He was wearing jeans that hugged his thighs and a short-sleeved navy blue T-shirt that stretched tight across his well-muscled chest and incredibly broad shoulders. She had a sudden, visceral memory of her fingertips stroking his skin, the light dusting of chest hair rough beneath her touch. Of resting her head on his chest as they lay naked together. Of the hard, safe lines of his body.

Okay, stop. Just stop.

She took a deep breath designed to reset her senses, grabbed a tissue from the box on the back console, and wiped the line of sweat that had formed on her upper lip and at the back of her neck.

If Elena noticed, Eva was blaming it on the early onset of menopause, truth be damned.

After killing the engine, the driver came around and opened the curbside door, and Elena scrambled out, her squeal of, "Check it out! We're going in style," making Tyree laugh, the low rumbling baritone doing all sorts of pleasant things to Eva's body.

Pleasant, and yet inconvenient.

There was no denying that her attraction to the man hadn't faded over the years. If anything, it had intensified. He was a man now, not a boy. He owned a business. He knew how to roll with the punches. And from what little she'd seen with him and Elena, he was a pretty damn amazing father.

What he wasn't, was hers. And she needed to remember that. She wasn't going to have a fling with the man she'd once had a fling with. Especially since that fling had shifted both their lives off course. True, that had been her father's fault. But they were both more than twenty years down different paths now. And life was confusing enough without adding fresh layers of lust to the mix.

All of which sounded incredibly rational and intelligent. Too bad for Eva that rational thought and intelligence seemed to go flying off into the hinterlands whenever Tyree so much as looked at her.

Still, she'd closed the door Wednesday night. So she knew she could be strong. She just had to remember to actually do it.

But surely today wouldn't be much of a problem. After all, they could hardly get wild and naked in a limo with their daughter sitting between them.

She started to slide toward the door, intending to get out and say hello properly, but then he was stooping down to climb inside, and he stopped midway in, his eyes fixed on her, his face a mixture of surprise and pleasure.

She couldn't help it; she burst into laughter. "You, too?"

A charming grin lit his face. "Do you remember that Disney movie they remade with Lindsay Lohan?"

Tags: J. Kenner Man of the Month Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net