Looking relieved to no longer be the center of attention, Hannah patted Dylan on the arm. “Maybe you should attend to your fan club and let me continue here.”

Dylan looked down at her, still not sure what she had been about to wager. He couldn’t say why exactly, he just knew he was more certain than ever that she was doing something she did not want him, or anyone else in Holly Springs, to know about. “No way.”

Her soft lips took on a mutinous line. “Excuse us, will you?” Hannah tugged him aside. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking out for you.”

She drew a deep breath, clearly exasperated, as she apparently did not want to be kept away from the unsavory types, by him or anyone else. “How did you even know I was here?” she hissed.

Wondering if he would ever in a million years understand women and why they were drawn to rich losers over decent hardworking guys like himself, Dylan replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world, “I followed you from Holly Springs.”

That gave her pause, Dylan noted with grim satisfaction. “Why?” she asked a lot more cautiously.

Dylan shrugged, never taking his eyes from her face. This much at least he had been prepared to answer. “You’ve got my stuff in the van. My carry-on luggage. The clothes I was wearing earlier. It’s all in the back.”

Yarborough strode over. “Hey, babe,” he drawled so lasciviously Dylan wanted to punch his face. “You going to play or not?”

To Dylan’s chagrin, Hannah looked torn, as if she wanted to go off with R.G., just not in front of Dylan, or anyone else she knew from Holly Springs.

Not gonna happen, Dylan decided. He winked over at her with a playfulness he knew she would not appreciate. “I don’t mind.” He shrugged his shoulders lazily. “I can wait.”

Hannah dug into the front pocket of her tight black skirt. “I’ll just give you the keys and you can go on out and get your stuff.” She pressed them into his palm, her fingers warm against his.

Dylan planted his feet firmly beneath him and resisted the way she was practically pushing him away. “I also need a ride back to Holly Springs,” Dylan continued matter-of-factly.

Abruptly, Hannah stopped pushing. “I thought you followed me here,” she said with a frown.

Dylan examined her keys. “In a cab.”

Her pretty pine-green eyes radiated displeasure. “You can’t take a cab back?”

Dylan shrugged. “I’m out of cash. But that’s okay.” He leaned against the pillar at his back, prepared to do whatever it took. “Like I said, I can wait.”

Thwarted, Hannah gave up. “Wait here,” she commanded furiously as she stalked off, R. G. Yarborough in tow, and said something to him that he looked none too happy to be hearing.

There was another brief exchange. One that Yarborough seemed to be on the losing end of again, then Hannah headed back to Dylan, her strides long and sexy. “You’re turning out to be one royal pain today,” she told him as they headed toward the door, side by side. “You know that, don’t you?”

“So I’ll make it up to you,” Dylan drawled, wondering how it was that he could have known Hannah Reid as long as he had and never made a single pass at her.

“How?” Hannah snapped, giving him yet another hot, aggravated look.

Dylan reached past her to open the door. Still determined to find out what was going on with the former tomboy, he smiled at her gallantly. “I’ll buy you dinner.”

Chapter Two

Hannah stared at Dylan as they moved out onto the sidewalk. He appeared to be serious, anyway. Not that she would in any way consider this to be an invitation for a date. The men she knew from Holly Springs did not ask her out on dates. “When?” she said, still not sure what Dylan Hart was up to this evening.

He shot her another appreciative male glance. “Right now sounds good to me.”

Hannah ignored the unsettling way her senses stirred at his proximity. She stepped back a pace, then another. “We already ate at the reception.”

He stood, legs braced apart, arms folded in front of him. “That was more like a late lunch. Unless you’re used to eating the seniors’ special at 4:00 p.m.”

“Very funny.” She made a face at him, refusing to be charmed by his teasing.

“Come on,” he cajoled her, his hot gaze sliding over her from head to toe before returning with heart-stopping accuracy to her face. “I’m buying.”

Just looking at his handsome face made her heart race. She didn’t want to think about what it would be like to go on a date with him, never mind fantasize about what would happen at the end of the evening as they said good-night. Keeping her defenses up—and her thoughts at bay about being held against his tall strong body and kissed by those soft, sensual lips—she countered mildly, “I thought you didn’t have any cash.”

“I still have a credit card,” he murmured with easy familiarity.

Ignoring his steady, probing gaze, she continued walking away from him. “Some cab companies take credit cards.”

He waited until she swung around to face him again. “Then I’d miss our…date.”

So this was a date. “It’s ten-thirty on a Sunday night. Only the fast-food joints and the pancake houses are going to be open this late.”

He shrugged his broad shoulders lazily. “Sounds fine to me. Let’s go.” He gestured for her to lead the way to her vehicle.

Cantankerously, Hannah stayed right where she was. “I haven’t exactly agreed to go out with you yet.”

“Buying you something to eat is the least I can do after interrupting your ‘hustling’ back there.”

Hannah propped her hands on her waist, puzzled by the hint of derision in his low tone. “What is it you’ve got against me scrounging up a game of pool, anyway?” she inquired, refusing to be sidetracked by the dark woodsy scent of his aftershave. He had to know, from all the times she had played him and his brothers in Holly Springs, that she was bound to win.

Dylan raised his eyebrow. “Is that what you were doing?” he asked, his audacity unchecked.

As far as anyone else knew, yes it was. Although she couldn’t quite ignore the hint of innuendo in Dylan’s watchful gaze. “I wasn’t trying to date the guy, Dylan,” she explained dryly, continuing toward the minivan.

“Good, ’cause in case you didn’t notice,” Dylan continued, still observing her carefully as he fell into step beside her, “R. G. Yarborough is married.”

Hannah wasn’t surprised Dylan had noticed the wedding ring R. G. Yarborough had been wearing when she had approached him for a game, then ever so discreetly slipped into his pants pocket when he thought she wasn’t looking. Dylan noticed everything. Especially, apparently, the sleazy elements of her would-have-been companion for the duration of the evening. Not that Hannah intended to discuss with Dylan why it had been so important she hook up with the rich son of a gun, anyway.

“So?” Hannah kept her focus on Dylan as she unlocked the repair-shop minivan and slid open the back passenger door so he could get his clothes. “Last time I heard, it wasn’t against the law for married men to play pool.”

Dylan unzipped the bag and drew out a pair of jeans, a knit polo shirt, sweat socks and running shoes. He tossed the bag aside, then prepared to climb into the back. “Mind if I change?”

Yes, as a matter of fact, she did. “Wait till we get where we’re going to eat,” Hannah said, pretending she hadn’t been affected at all by his earlier quick-change artistry. “I’ve seen enough of your studly body for one day.”

Dylan flashed a surprisingly wicked grin. “Turned you on, huh?” he said, tossing his clothes down and climbing into the front-passenger seat inside.

If you only knew, Hannah thought. She was still burning from the glimpses of his handsome body. “You wish.” She threw the taunt over her shoulder as she circled around the front of the van and climbed behind the steering wheel.

Dylan relaxed in the passenger seat, looking debonair and sexy, and very much ready to take a woman to bed. Which was ridiculous given that generally speaking he didn’t even know she was alive, let alone a woman. Although you wouldn’t know it the way he kept glancing at the way her skirt was riding up over her thighs…

Shaking off the wistful transgression—the day she would get Dylan’s attention in that way was never going to come!—Hannah started up the vehicle and eased away from the curb. “So where do you want to go?” she asked in the most casual voice she could manage, wishing he didn’t still look and smell so good.

“There’s a drive-in root-beer stand en route back to Holly Springs. What do you say we stop there? That is if they take credit cards.” He looked worried.

“I think I can handle it even if they don’t,” Hannah said dryly. She might not be rolling in dough, but she made more than enough to handle her day-to-day expenses as well as anything she felt like doing after hours.

“If it’s cash only, I’ll pay you back tomorrow,” Dylan said, giving her another curiously analytical look.

“No problem,” Hannah said.

The silence strung out between them. “You don’t look happy,” Dylan said eventually.

Hannah released a long, irritated sigh. “Should I be?” Given that he had just interrupted a very important get-to-know-you session she had planned. Not that she could have continued her preplanned manipulation of events with Dylan standing there, watching every move she made, without revealing what she and Cal were trying to accomplish when it came to R. G. Yarborough.

“Are you disappointed that guy you were with tonight turned out to be married?”

Hannah blinked in surprise as Dylan favored her with a challenging half smile she found even more disturbing than his sudden interference in her life.

“You were flirting with him,” Dylan said.

Just as a means to an end, Hannah admitted to herself. But Dylan didn’t need to know about any of that. “He’s a little old for me. Don’t you think?”

“He still looked like he wanted to take you to bed.”

Hannah’s neck and shoulders drew tight as a bow. Be blunt, why don’t you? “And that surprises you?” Hannah asked coolly, flushing despite herself.

“That someone would want to take you to bed?”

Hannah tingled all over at the low timbre of Dylan’s voice. With effort Hannah kept her eyes on the road and her hands on the steering wheel. She was not going to let Dylan Hart lead her down that path! She was not! “R. G. Yarborough never said that.”

Dylan smirked. “Trust me.” Dylan lounged in his seat, radiating all the pure male power and sexy masculinity he typically did on the TV screen. He turned to look at her directly. “The way you were coming on to him, he would’ve gotten around to suggesting it before the end of the night,” Dylan predicted darkly.

Hannah knew that was true. The moment she’d walked up to tell her mark why she was there, only to have him suggest the two of them play a game of pool instead, R. G. Yarborough had looked her over like a piece of meat. “And that bothers you?” Hannah asked, completely surprised that Dylan sounded almost…jealous.

Suddenly, it was Dylan’s turn to hedge.

DYLAN WAS PUSHING TOO hard. He knew it. But the curiosity was eating him up inside. He had to know what was going on between Hannah and Cal. Because if it was what it looked like at first glance, Cal and Hannah were both in a heap of trouble. He couldn’t let either of them crash and burn without trying to stop it. “You just don’t seem the type to pick up men in a bar,” Dylan explained finally.

Now he had really hit a sore spot with her. She was taking his observation as an assault on her morality, when that wasn’t what he had meant at all.

“I hope you know you’re buying me one of everything on the menu for that remark,” she said as she turned the minivan into the restaurant parking lot and angled it into one of the slots on either side of the concrete divider. She rolled down the windows and warm August air poured over them.

A waitress on roller skates headed over to the car. She handed them a plastic-coated menu. She told them about the specials, then gave them a few moments to decide. As soon as the waitress skated off, Dylan turned back to Hannah and picked up the conversation where they had left off. “I meant that in the most respectful way,” he said, doing his best to repair the damage.

“Did you now.” Hannah kept her eyes glued on the menu.

It was late, but the place was full of teenagers in cars. All of whom seemed to be having a very good time—unlike he and Hannah.

Oh, to go back to such easy, carefree days…

“I’m concerned about your well-being and safety,” Dylan continued.

Hannah turned back to him. She was about to speak, when the phone clipped to Dylan’s belt began to ring.

Frowning, Dylan picked it up. “Dylan Hart,” he said as the waitress roller-skated past them, balancing a tray filled with food. While he listened to the voice on the other end of the connection, she attached it to the driver-side window on the station wagon beside him. The delicious aromas of onion rings and chili dogs with cheese wafted up around them.

“It happened,” Sasha, the Chicago evening-news anchor, said. “Just like you said it was going to.”

Dylan tensed as Hannah went back to studying her menu. “When?”

“Tonight around six,” Sasha said grimly. “Check your e-mail. The official notification should be there.”

Dylan clamped down on a string of swearwords. “Thanks.”

“No problem. And Dylan…” Sasha paused, empathy in her low voice. “I’m sorry.”

“Same to you,” Dylan replied just as sympathetically. He hung up to find Hannah watching him. “Mind if we take a rain check on dinner?”

Her eyes widened. She couldn’t believe his audacity. “First you interrupt my evening. Now you’re standing me up?”

Sometimes life really bites. “I need to get back to Holly Springs.”

Hannah paused, her indignation fading as fast as it had appeared. She looked at him harder. “Something wrong?”

“A problem with my job,” Dylan muttered, reluctant to tell her anything more until he saw it in print and knew for certain his life was really crashing down around him.

Hannah hesitated, her lips taking on a softer curve. “Anything I can do?” she asked after a moment.

Dylan shrugged, his mood turning grimmer by the minute as he contemplated the days ahead. He was supposed to be in Holly Springs all week, on vacation. “I need to look at my e-mail as soon as possible. Do you have a computer with Internet access that I can use?”

Hannah continued to study him, knowing, as did he, that every single member of his family had computers, at home and at work, yet he wasn’t asking any of them. She had to be asking herself why. Yet, she didn’t ask him.

“Sure.” She shrugged her slender shoulders gracefully.

Dylan hadn’t expected such kindness. He knew, after the way he had behaved toward her this afternoon and evening, that he certainly hadn’t earned it. “That’s it? That’s all your questions?” He regarded her just as closely.

Hannah shrugged and signaled the waitress that they were finished with the menus. She shook her head in a way that let him know she had weathered her own share of personal crises. “The look on your face is answer enough.”

DYLAN EXPECTED Hannah’s Craftsman-style brownstone to look like every other eighty-year-old house in Holly Springs. Low ceilings, small cramped rooms, outdated everything. Instead, it looked like a demolition zone inside.

“What happened here?” he asked. He had been in her house a few times years ago, when he was a kid, recruiting Hannah for a game of pick-up baseball or soccer. A natural athlete, she had never failed to disappoint.

“When my grandfather died, I had a choice to either sell it or live in it. I decided if I was going to live in it I was going to make it my own. So for the past two years I’ve been remodeling, a little at a time.”

“And then some.” Dylan looked around. The original low ceilings had been completely ripped out, doing away with most of the attic and exposing the house’s sloping fifteen-foot roofline. Three-quarters of the drywall had been redone, the rest was still waiting.

“I tore everything out and hired a contractor to put in new wiring and plumbing to bring it up to code. And built that—” Hannah pointed to the end of the house, away from what was going to be a central downstairs living area.

She led him toward the stairway. He followed her up. On the other side of the waist-high white bead-board wall that ran the length of the loft was a bedroom. Hannah had left the brownstone chimney exposed. A queen-size brass bed with a surprisingly frilly white lace comforter was pushed up against it. Her bridesmaid dress and the bouquet she had carried down the aisle were scattered across it. On one side of the room was a desk, with laptop computer and printer, the other side had a television and stereo. Beyond, he could see a pretty, white and ocean-blue bathroom, with private water closet, a pedestal sink, separate ceramic-tiled shower and clawfoot tub big enough for two. There was also a linen closet and an astonishing number of bath salts and scented lotions, makeup and shampoos. The windows were covered with pleated, ocean-blue-fabric blinds.

“As you can see, this is where I’m doing most of my living.”

“Nice,” Dylan said, meaning it. By putting in the loft, she had added another five hundred or so square feet to the thousand already downstairs.

“It will be when I finish,” Hannah said, already booting up her computer while peering into a walk-in closet that seemed to contain mostly jeans, T-shirts and the one-piece coveralls she wore when working on cars down at the garage. “You know how to access your e-mail from someone else’s computer?” Hannah asked as the home page—some car mechanic’s site—came across the monitor.

Dylan nodded.

“I’ll be downstairs. Yell if you need anything.” She disappeared down the loft stairs.

“Thanks,” Dylan said.

Unfortunately, the news was as bad as Sasha had predicted. Dylan had known it was coming. Still, he was stunned.

Knowing he’d want to read the letter from the TV station later, he printed a copy then shut the computer and printer off. Still feeling as if he had been kicked in the gut, he headed downstairs. Hannah was perched on a sawhorse in the middle of the gutted first floor, a small carton of premium ice cream in hand. She had a plastic spoon in her mouth as she surveyed the unfinished wide-plank floors and partially finished drywall. “I’m painting everything down here white, too,” she told him. “And I’m going to leave the wood natural and protect it with polyurethane.”

“What about your kitchen cabinets?” Dylan asked.

Hannah got up and walked over to the stainless-steel refrigerator. Aside from the microwave, it was the only appliance currently in the house. There wasn’t even a kitchen sink, although there was a half bath with original basin nearby.

“They’re white beadboard, similar in style to what I have upstairs in the master bath. I’ve got ’em in boxes, in the garage, along with the rest of the paint and the wallboard and the kitchen appliances—which I was lucky enough to get at cost a few months ago. Just haven’t had the money to have any of it installed. Yet.”

Was that what she had been doing at the pool hall? Trying to get together enough money to finish the inside of her home? It was a laudable goal, even if the means weren’t to be commended.

She paused, her hand on the handle of the fridge. She studied him curiously. “Get what you needed up there?”

Dylan nodded.

“Then how come you still look like you just lost your best friend?”

Close, Dylan thought with a sad sigh. Then finding he needed someone to confide in—someone with a guy’s gut sense when to stop with the questions—and a woman’s compassionate heart, he said simply, “It was my job.” He watched her carefully for reaction. “I got fired tonight.”

Hannah took the news in stride, as he had hoped she would, and opened the freezer compartment. “Then you’re going to be needing this,” she said wryly as she took out another pint of ice cream and handed it to him, along with a plastic spoon.

There was no judgment in her eyes, only silent sympathy.

His hand warmed at the contact of her fingers brushing his. He looked down at the label, fighting the feeling of failure. Six years and four jobs in the business had taught him that television news was a brutal medium in which to work. “You think mocha cocoa crunch will help?”

“Ice cream always helps. So does chocolate.” She reached over and touched his hand, more gently this time, before resuming her perch on the sawhorse. “I’m sorry about your job, Dylan.”

“Me, too,” he said honestly. He pried off the cardboard top of his ice cream. Although it had been irrational, he’d hoped to escape this bloodbath. Forcing himself to be a man about it, he looked into her eyes. “But that’s the way it goes in my line of work. New owners mean new management, which means new staff.” Usually in pretty quick order. Which was what had happened here.

She took another bite, then licked the back of the spoon. “Did you get severance pay?”

Telling himself to not even think about what her mouth would feel like under his, Dylan concentrated on answering her question. “Two months.”

“Well that’s good. Besides, a guy with your looks? You’ll probably find something right away. Meantime—” Hannah waved her spoon for emphasis “—you’ve got the support of the entire Hart family.”

Dylan let the rich chocolate slide down his throat and tried not to dwell on the fact this was the first time in his life he’d been fired—from anything. “I’m not telling them.” He paused to let his words sink in. “Not until I have another job, anyway. And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t, either.”

If she was shocked she had the grace not to show it. “Whatever you want. Although that begs the question.” She looked deep into his eyes. “If you’re not telling them, why tell me?”

Why indeed? It wasn’t like him to trust someone he knew he shouldn’t trust. Not since he had been involved with Desirée, anyway. “’Cause I’m going to be needing access to a computer while I’m in town this week,” he said calmly. “And I was hoping you’d let me use yours.”

A teasing light crept into Hannah’s emerald-green eyes as she gave him the slow, thoughtful once-over. “Do I get to charge you?”

Depends, Dylan thought. How badly do you need the money?

Hannah’s phone rang. Her eyes still on his, she pulled the receiver off the kitchen wall. “Hannah. Yeah, hi. No, I didn’t, sad to say. Because we got interrupted. Not to worry. I’ve at least got him interested. Yeah, ten to one he’ll call. If I’m lucky, tomorrow or the next day. I promise. ’Night.”

“Anyone I know?” Dylan asked, wondering if that had been Cal and how he felt about that if it had been.

“I make it a policy never to talk and tell. So…” She gestured around her. Dylan could see chalk outlines on the floors, where all the appliances, and the sink and so on were to go. “What do you think about what I’ve done so far with my downstairs?” she asked.

“I like it.” Dylan studied the layout of the roughed-in kitchen that overlooked the backyard. “When will you be done?”

Hannah frowned. “I’m not really sure. Depends on the money situation. Materials aren’t so bad. It’s the labor that’s so costly.”

Dylan figured it would take thousands of dollars to finish what she had started. And although the upstairs was nice, the downstairs was barely livable. He couldn’t imagine living like this for the two years she said it had been going on. No wonder she was getting antsy. “You can’t get a second mortgage?” he asked helpfully.

“Already maxed out on that avenue. That’s how I got all the materials and the upstairs done.”

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