He shrugged and glanced away. “It was just after I’d made my first million with the dot-com I’d founded. I guess I didn’t want people to think I was a fluke or…stupid.”

“I never thought you were stupid.”

“No.” The grin was back in a flash of white teeth. “You just thought I was reckless and impulsive. I still am, by the way.”

And because the grin had sent a shower of sparks through her system, she retorted crisply, “I can tell. You’re driving that damned Harley without a helmet. That’s illegal, you know.”

“Not in every state. Besides, you can’t get the full experience with a bucket strapped to your head.” A pair of dark brows rose over the top rim of the sunglasses. “Want to go for a ride, Ali? I can go real slow if you’d like, or take you fast.”

His silky tone and the double entendre implied along with his raised brows had gooseflesh appearing on her arms.

“Fast or slow, I never liked your bike,” she answered primly.

“No. But you used to like me.”

What she’d felt had gone a great deal beyond “like,” and he damned well knew it. Ali notched up her chin and let the chill seep into her inflection when she said, “So, what are you doing all the way out here today?”

She asked, but she thought she knew. Surely he had driven to this secluded shore of the island to speak with her in private before the midweek meeting at which Dane and Audra would be present. An apology would be coming any minute…an apology she still planned to decline.

Ali’s stone cottage, which had once belonged to her grandmother, sat on Trillium’s western shore, affording it a breathtaking view of Lake Michigan. It was tucked in amid a huge parcel of state land, making it the only private residence for miles. The only private residence except for…

Even before she could finish the thought, Luke was pointing to the slight rise at the northern edge of her property. Since the leaves on the trees were still sparse, Ali could just make out the pitch of the neighboring cottage’s roof and she cursed her hubris.

The place had belonged to Luke’s grandmother. Elsie Banning had raised Luke after his father, an alcoholic, had died while Luke was still in grade school. Luke’s mother had already abandoned the family by then. As Elsie’s only surviving kin, the cottage and the seven wooded acres on which it sat technically belonged to Luke.

“I thought I’d swing by the old house and see how it’s fared since I’ve been gone.” He took off his sunglasses again and fiddled with the ear pieces. Regret colored his tone when he added, “I should have had someone taking care of it over the years.”

Elsie had died just three months before he’d left Trillium. If the man had one redeeming trait, Ali knew it was that he’d loved his grandmother without reserve. Her death had devastated him.

“I’ve looked in on it from time to time,” she admitted.

She’d done more than that, actually. She’d kept the grass mowed, the carpet roses trimmed back and the cobblestone path that led from the driveway to the front door free of weeds. She’d done it for Elsie, not for Luke, or at least that’s what she’d told herself. But sometimes, after finishing the yard work, she would sit on the rear porch that faced the big lake, rock slowly back and forth in the wide swing where she and Luke had long ago shared their first taste of passion, and wonder what he was doing and if he ever thought about her.

The fact that he’d run into her today by accident seemed to answer that question now.

“I appreciate it,” he said.

“It’s no trouble to walk over,” she replied on a shrug.

Luke motioned toward the house behind her. “Does that mean you live here now?”

She nodded. “My grandmother deeded it to me when she moved to Florida with my parents six years ago.”

He smiled slowly and despite Ali’s closed posture, laid one warm hand on her upper arm and squeezed. The casual contact caused her traitorous pulse to shoot off like a bottle rocket and had her irritated all over again. He seemed not to notice, lost as he was in reminiscing.

“I think I spent as much time in your grandmother’s kitchen as I did in my own. She made the best sugar cookies on Trillium. Remember how when we were kids we would sneak them off the baking tray before they even had a chance to cool?”

Ali didn’t want to be reminded of the ways in which their lives had once twined together so sweetly since his abandonment had caused her heart to fray apart afterward. And so when he asked, “How is Mrs. Conlan doing these days?” she announced baldly, “She died last winter.”

“God. I’m sorry.” He slipped the glasses back on, making Ali wonder if she had just imagined that fleeting shadow of what had looked like self-reproach. “I didn’t know.”

“How would you?”

“Ali.” He said her name quietly, and then stroked her cheek. This time she didn’t back away, if only to prove to herself that his touch meant nothing.

A bee buzzed past and overhead a blue jay’s shrill cry rent the silence as they regarded one another.

Finally, motioning in the direction of his grandmother’s property, Ali said, “Don’t let me keep you, Luke. I know you’re a busy and important man.”

He hesitated, and she thought for a moment he was going to say something, but then he dropped his hand and straddled the bike, firing it to life with a swift downward kick of his booted foot. Over the engine’s throaty growl he hollered, “See you Wednesday.”

Wednesday, Ali knew, would come much too soon.

Luke slowed the bike as he approached the driveway to his grandmother’s cottage, but in the end, he sped past it, instead following the rutted road as it wound through the woods and then spilled back onto the main drag a dozen miles later.

He hadn’t felt up to seeing the cottage and confronting any more of his past. Not after seeing Ali.

He’d known her right away. She hadn’t changed much. Even the baseball cap snugged over her crown was the same. He snorted out a laugh that was lost to the wind. The woman just couldn’t give up on the Detroit Tigers even though they hadn’t won a World Series since 1984.

Despite her poor taste in baseball teams, she looked good. Better than good, actually, even with her dark hair sprouting from the back of the cap, perspiration dotting her upper lip and dirt streaking her right cheek. Her eyes were still a couple shades darker than caramel and she’d kept her figure, that long-legged, slim-hipped athletic build that had given him many a sleepless night in his youth.

He frowned, realizing that none of the women he’d dated during the past decade had looked anything like her. There had been blondes and redheads, but not a single brunette. Certainly none of those women had been a fan of baseball much less able to pitch one low and inside while the bases were loaded in the bottom of the ninth.

That had been only one of Ali’s talents, of course. Remembering the others nearly had him crashing his bike into the unforgiving trunk of a sugar maple.

He’d thought he’d forgotten her. No, that wasn’t true. He’d never forgotten her. But over the years he’d convinced himself that adolescence and inexperience had magnified and romanticized the feelings he’d once had for her. In a way, she’d been the girl next door, since their grandmothers had lived side by side. He and Ali had always known one another and hung around together since Luke and her older brother, Dane, had been good friends.

Then, the summer she was seventeen, the pigtails he’d once pulled had become the sleek tumble of hair he’d weaved his fingers through. God, he still remembered the magic of that first kiss and the way her slim arms had wrapped around him and held tight when he would have backed away. He’d been twenty at the time and Luke had known that everyone on the island, including her family, thought their match was a mistake.

Looking back now, he didn’t blame them. He’d had no prospects at all, just big dreams as he’d pumped gas for the luxury cabin cruisers that stopped at Whitey’s Marina. Ali, on the other hand, was set to graduate top in her class and had plans to go away for her degree after completing a couple years at the community college on the mainland to save money.

He’d always figured his leaving had been as much a favor to her as a way out for him. Despite being accepted at the University of Michigan a few hours’ drive downstate, she’d begun to talk about staying on Trillium, taking correspondence courses or transferring to a less prestigious university near Traverse City and commuting a couple days of the week. Both of their futures had seemed so doomed.

Then his grandmother had died.

Luke could still hear the words Elsie Banning had spoken to him as she lay in a hospital bed, hooked up to an assortment of beeping, buzzing machines.

She’d gripped his hand with her knobby fingers and in a voice barely above a whisper she’d commanded, “Be happy, Luke, and make me proud. You’re not your father. It breaks my heart to see you settle for being less than what you were meant to be.”

Even now, her words drove him. He revved the bike’s engine, catching air as he crested another hill. Before touching down again on the other side he caught a glimpse of the big lake glittering in the midday sun. His grandmother had always loved that lake and the limitless potential she said she saw in its sheer vastness.

“I’ve made something of myself!” He shouted the words as he raced against the long shadows of his past.

At thirty-four, he enjoyed the distinction of being one of the few dot-comers who’d gotten rich and then wisely gotten out before the bubble burst. Since then he’d invested in more traditional ventures, primarily real estate, cultivating a reputation as a shrewd dealmaker. He’d accomplished every goal he’d set and exceeded even his own very high expectations.

He was Luke Banning, successful businessman, respected entrepreneur. No one pitied him now or looked askance at him when he walked into a room. Hell, people paid him large sums of money and sat shoulder to shoulder in crowded auditoriums just for the privilege of hearing him share his expertise.

“I’ve made something of myself,” he shouted again, wondering why his triumphant return to Trillium didn’t feel quite as sweet as he’d imagined it would.

And wondering why it was that for all he had accumulated over the years something still seemed to be missing.

CHAPTER TWO

ALI thumbed through the clothes in her closet once again. Even though Audra wasn’t in the room, she swore that every time she selected something, she heard her twin whispering, “You’re not going to wear that, are you?”

And so it was that with a mere forty minutes before the Conlans were to meet with Luke Banning, Ali found herself standing in her bra and panties, and dithering between a navy skirt and a black skirt that were the exact same conservative cut and by the same maker.

Gazing at the garments, she muttered aloud, “When did I become so damned boring?”

Exasperated, she tossed both skirts onto the small mountain of clothes on her bed and stuffed her arm into the far reaches of the cramped closet. After a minute of fruitless fishing, she finally produced what she was looking for: A suit the color of freshly spilled blood.

The jacket cut in sharply at the waist and then fell away at the hip. As for the skirt, it was a little shorter than the rest of her closet’s offerings. Instead of ending primly just below the knee, it skimmed to the middle of her thighs. She’d bought it on sale last fall while shopping with Audra, which explained the vivid color and more daring cut. She’d planned to take it back. In fact, the tags still dangled from one sleeve. Now she was glad she’d kept it. Black, tan and navy just didn’t suit her mood today.

Blood-red did.

Half an hour later, she stood in front of the full-length mirror that was affixed to the back of her bedroom door and surveyed her appearance.

None of this, she assured herself, was for Luke’s benefit. She’d been thinking about making some changes, paying a little more attention to small details like putting on eyeliner and a faint sweep of blush to highlight her cheekbones.

Besides, she didn’t want the man thinking that all she owned were blue jeans and ball caps. She wanted him to see her as a professional and an equal. And okay, she could admit it. She wanted him to see her as a woman…a woman who was off-limits.

She’d left her hair loose. She couldn’t remember the last time she hadn’t yanked it all back in some sort of clip or another. When they were girls, she had envied Audra her wild tumble of curls. The grass always being greener, her sister had complained mightily that Ali had lucked out with her stick-straight mane. Today, Ali had to admit, she rather liked the way it fell to her shoulders in a sleek cascade the same color as the antique mahogany bureau that had once belonged to her grandmother.

The suit fit as well as she remembered, accentuating curves she hadn’t known she possessed. She would die a slow and painful death before admitting it to Audra, but Ali really liked the way it looked and the way it made her feel: professional and put together, with the side bonus of sexiness.

Then she glanced down at her shoes. The serviceable black pumps with the rounded toe looked like something an arthritic grandmother would wear now that they were matched with a chic suit and a white silk blouse.

She didn’t want to do it, but Ali finally broke down. Picking up the telephone, she dialed Audra’s number, praying that her perennially late sibling had not become suddenly punctual and already left for the resort. A breathless Audra picked up on the fourth ring.

“Aud, you haven’t left.” She sighed in relief.

“I’m on my way, I swear. Practically out the door as we speak. Seth just…and then I…” She trailed off on a throaty laugh that made words unnecessary. Ali swore she felt herself blush.

“Newlyweds,” she muttered. “Don’t go into detail. Please. I have neither the time nor the inclination to listen to a play-by-play. I need a favor.”

“A favor? What kind of a favor?” Audra asked.

“I’m having a bit of…a problem,” Ali hedged. Then, “Oh, hell, I need to borrow a pair of pumps.”

“You’re having a shoe emergency? God, I love it.” Laughter bubbled through the phone line. “I suppose it would be small of me to remind you that last month when I showed off the new pair of Kate Spades I’d purchased, you asked how many feet I had that I needed another pair of shoes.”

“I knew calling you would be a mistake,” Ali snapped.

Audra wasn’t insulted at all. “No, sweetie, not calling would have been the mistake. I may have changed my life around and gotten rid of a lot of the fluff, but I still have more fashion sense in my pinky than you’ll ever have in your entire bony body.”

Damn, Ali thought, wasn’t that the pathetic truth.

“So, will you help?”

Audra made a dismissive sound. “Of course I will. What are you going to wear?”

“The suit I bought when I went shopping downstate with you last fall.”

“The red one?” Audra whistled low. “Good choice and aren’t you glad I talked you into buying it?” Before Ali could answer, her sister was saying, “Please tell me you didn’t pair it with one of those starched oxfords you seem to own stock in?”

“No. I do have a white silk blouse.” Exactly one, and again it had been purchased while out with Audra. “Could we get back to shoes? All I have are the black pumps I normally wear to work.”

Through the receiver came Audra’s low moan. “How can we be sisters let alone twins?”

“Aud, the minutes are ticking away here. I really don’t have time for a discussion on DNA. What have you got for me?”

“Let me think about it. I’ll go hunt through my closet and see what I can come up with. Come straight to my office when you get to the resort.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen. And, Aud?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for not rubbing it in too much.”

Her sister snorted. “Who says I’m done?”

Luke had already seen Ali since returning to Trillium, so he didn’t expect their meeting today to be awkward. Then, recalling the cool way in which she had regarded him during their chance encounter on Sunday, he amended his opinion. It probably still would be awkward, but not as awkward as it could have been had they not already come face-to-face.

But then she walked into the conference room decked out in red and exposing a pair of long, toned legs that any Rockette would be proud to insure, and he nearly forgot how to breathe.

Who was this woman?

Three days ago, Ali had looked almost unchanged to him wearing a ball cap and faded jeans, with no makeup on her face and her hair pulled back the way she’d always worn it. He’d found comfort in that fact and, when he’d had a chance to think about it, it made his lingering attraction to her understandable, maybe even a little nostalgic.

He wasn’t feeling nostalgic now, or comfortable. When she rolled back her shoulders to let the jacket slip down her silk-covered arms, he shifted in his seat and had to stifle a groan. No, he wasn’t feeling comfortable at all.

“Hello, Luke.”

They were alone in the room. Dane had just gone to take a phone call and Audra had yet to arrive. Luke stood because the moment seemed to require him to be on his feet. Once he was upright, he hastily pulled closed his suit jacket, more than a little appalled by his body’s embarrassing reaction.

The other day when he’d come upon Ali as she’d knelt pulling weeds, he had enjoyed the advantage of surprise. Today, the shoe was on the other foot—and what a sexy little number it was, too, black and open-toed, allowing a tantalizing peek at red-painted nails. God help him, but he’d always had a thing about women’s feet. And this woman, he remembered, had a very sensitive instep.

As his gaze connected with hers, something about the way her lips twitched told Luke she knew she had him shaken…and stirred.

“You clean up well,” he admitted.

“Thank you.” One slim dark eyebrow notched up when she added, “I try to dress for the occasion.”

He nodded, wondering just what he should infer from her bold color choice this day. And then, because he wanted badly to touch her and test himself, he held out his hand.

A long moment passed before she reached to shake it. At the contact, Luke felt the wild sizzle he thought he had either outgrown or simply imagined.

“Some things never change,” he murmured, taking a step closer.

She pulled her hand free, stepped back. “And some things do.”

He acknowledged her words with a nod. She was different and the same all at once, the girl he remembered wrapped in the body of an alluring and mysterious woman.

An alluring and mysterious woman who was all business when she said, “Why don’t you have a seat? Dane and Audra should be along shortly.”

“Okay.”

“More coffee?” she asked, as she reached for the insulated carafe and mugs that were on a tray in the middle of the table. Her blouse fell open a little as she leaned forward and reached, affording him a fleeting glimpse of something lacy and white and the gentle swell of flesh that disappeared inside it. He sucked in a breath, drawing her attention.

“Everything all right?” she asked, those not-quite-brown, not-quite-gold eyes narrowing.

“Fine.” Then Luke couldn’t resist. He let his gaze dip down again and said with a little more emphasis, “Very fine.”

She straightened instantly, her posture rigid as she filled her coffee cup to the top and then slid into the seat opposite his. She didn’t bother with cream or sugar, he noted. He got the feeling if she were to walk into one of the trendy coffee shops in Manhattan she would bypass all of the frothy concoctions listed on the order board and go for plain French roast. She’d always been practical. As he studied her, she snagged a handful of dark hair and tucked it behind her ear and out of the way. That move was practical, too, but that didn’t make it any less sexy.

“I’m sure you’ve had a chance to read through our plans for the golf course. I’m curious to hear what you think,” she said.

Business, Luke reminded himself. That’s why he was here. And so he straightened in his seat and decided to get down to it.

“Three hundred acres is ample space for a course the size you’re talking about, but if we could pick up additional acreage we could make the holes relatively secluded from one another. We could leave in a lot more trees that way, too. It makes for a picturesque experience and golfers appreciate not having to worry about hearing ‘Fore!’ hollered while they’re in the middle of their back swing.”

“How much land are you talking?”

“Another hundred acres would be ideal.”

“What’s this about another hundred acres?” Dane asked as he walked through the door. Audra was right behind him, her face breaking into a grin even before she had cleared the threshold.

Where Ali had acknowledged Luke with cool reserve, Audra wrapped him in a hug and gave him a smacking kiss on the lips.

“It’s good to see you, Luke.”

“Good to see you, too.” And he meant it. He suddenly realized how much he’d missed this place and these people.

Dane had been his best friend since grade school, remaining such despite some tense moments after Luke and Ali had started dating. He’d always figured Dane didn’t think Luke was good enough for his sister, even though Dane had never come right out and said it. Even so, they’d stayed tight. That their friendship had fallen by the wayside, another casualty of his leaving, was Luke’s fault, and he knew it. Dane’s cool greeting when Luke arrived on Trillium told Luke he knew it, too.

As for Audra, she’d always been a kindred spirit. Luke had never fantasized about her, despite her Marilyn Monroe curves and come-hither smile, the way he’d fantasized about Ali. Clasping Audra’s hand now, he didn’t feel that crazy current of electricity shoot up his arm, either, just the pleasant warmth of remembered friendship.

“Sorry I couldn’t get by to see you before now, but Seth and I have been pretty busy,” she said.

“Newlyweds usually are,” Luke teased.

A glimpse of Ali’s tight expression told him she wasn’t all that pleased with her twin’s enthusiastic greeting. Given the fact that Audra had been on the back of his Harley when he left Trillium, as eager as he to get the hell out, he figured he understood that. And still, he couldn’t keep from hugging her back.

Dane’s exclamation ended Luke’s reverie.

“Whoa, Al, look at you!” Dane whistled. Luke couldn’t be sure but he thought Audra poked her brother in the ribs, after which Dane coughed and said, “I mean, I’ve always liked that outfit.”

Ali flushed, but then settled back into her chair. After taking a sip of her coffee, she said, “Luke was mentioning that he thought if we could add some acreage to the golf course, it might make it more aesthetically pleasing.”

“And safer for golfers,” Luke inserted. “Insurance premiums being what they are, that’s something to take into consideration.”

“But another hundred acres,” Dane began, pulling out the plat map from the stack of files he’d brought with him. “Where would we pick up that kind of land?”

“It doesn’t have to be a single parcel,” Luke said, following Dane to the table.

He stood just between Ali and Dane’s chairs and his arm brushed her shoulder when he leaned over for a better look at the map. He was wearing cologne, the same crisp yet subtle scent he’d always favored. It had Ali inhaling deeply and remembering. She forced her attention back to the map. They had shaded in the acreage they planned to purchase. It was a sizable tract that snaked along one edge of the resort’s property line.

“Do the Dohertys still own this chunk of land?” Luke asked, tapping his finger on a pie-shaped chunk.

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