"Forty years of practice." Her father grinned. "You going to marry Mike and learn how?"

"No!"

Louisa sighed. "Well, darn."

"Mom, I didn't invite him here."

"But he followed you." Her mother sent her a dreamy look. "He loves you, you know."

"What?"

"He's head over heels. Ga-ga. Fallen off the cliff."

Corrine felt the color drain from her face, but managed a perfectly good laugh. "You've been dipping into the cooking sherry."

"No, really. He-" At the elbow in her ribs, Louisa glared at her husband, who gave her a wordless glance. Whatever unspoken communication they'd shared, Louisa went quiet on the matter. But she did manage to get the knife from him and push him toward the door.

"I can tell when I'm not wanted," he said, kissing his wife on the cheek before he went.

"Why did you argue with him over the knife, Mom? He was just trying to help."

"Oh, I know."

"But you kicked him out."

"Kicked him out… Oh, honey." Louisa laughed. "You think I hurt his feelings. Trust me, I didn't. It's just that he always cooks, and he's worked an eighty-hour week already. The poor man is dead on his feet, but he didn't want to leave me alone to do the work. It's just a little game we play, that's all."

Corrine glanced at the swinging double doors where her father had vanished, and knew the mysteries of cohabiting were still escaping her. "A game."

"Yes." Louisa set down the knife and smiled easily. "Of love."

Mike poked his head in the kitchen. "Can I help?" He moved to the cutting board and picked up the knife Corrine's mother had just set down. "I'm good at slicing veggies," he said, following Louisa's diagonal cuts.

Corrine's mother positively beamed. "What a handy man you are." She shot Corrine a telling look, pointing at Mike's back and mouthing the words, Loves you.

Corrine rolled her eyes and turned away, but that lasted no more than a second before she had to crane her neck and stare at him. He was the same person he'd always been: the same dark hair and darker eyes; the same long, leanly muscled body that made her mouth water; the same here-I-am attitude that both drew and annoyed her at the same.

So why was she looking at him in such a different light here in the house where she'd been raised?

"Louisa." Donald stuck his head back in the kitchen and waved a checkbook. "Babe, this thing is a mess. I can't figure out how much money is in here."

"Look at the bottom line, hon," Louisa said, pulling more salad makings out of the fridge.

"Which bottom line? You have three of them here."

"Oh." Louisa straightened, lettuce in one hand, a beet in the other. "Well, the first is in case the check I lost clears the bank. If I lost it before I wrote it, which is entirely likely, then that wouldn't be necessary. Hence the second number."

Donald sighed. "And the third?"

"Why, that's what we'll have when my automatic deposit comes in tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

"That's right."

"But what do we have today?"

"I just told you, it's either-"

"Never mind!" He withdrew his head and vanished.

Louisa grinned. "Perfect."

"Why is annoying him to distraction perfect?" Corrine asked, confused beyond belief.

"I just bought his birthday present." Louisa grinned. "And if he wasn't so annoyed, he'd have found the check entry. He would talk me into giving him that present early, no doubt about it. Now he'll toss the checkbook aside and give up." She laughed. "Secret kept."

"Louisa!" Donald bellowed from the other room. "I'm going out to chop wood!"

"Good Lord," Louisa murmured. "I meant to have that nice young man down the street do that before your father tried it himself. Last year he nearly lost his fingers."

Mike set down the knife. "I'll go help him."

"Bless you," Corrine's mother said fervently, giving him a quick hug.

Corrine watched pleasure dance across Mike's face as he hugged her back, far more easily this time.

Why was he still here, damn him?

"He's a wonderful man," her mother said when he was gone. "Shame on you for keeping your feelings to yourself."

Out the kitchen window Mike reappeared, walking toward her father.

Corrine forced herself to turn away. "He's a pest."

Louisa laughed. "Okay, hon. If that's how you want to play this thing. Just tell me he's not an adventurous, intelligent, gorgeous man and I'll believe you."

"I hadn't noticed."

"Uh-huh."

"Okay, he's adventurous."

"And intelligent."

"Yes."

"And gorgeous."

"Mom, please."

"And gorgeous," Louisa repeated.

"Okay, fine." Corrine sighed. "And gorgeous."

"He's a keeper, Corrine."

A keeper. Her heart tugged. "Yeah, about that. Keepers. I don't understand something." She drew a deep breath. "You and Dad. What keeps you together? You should have killed each other by now."

"Why? Because we're two strong-minded, strong-willed people?"

"Well…yeah."

"That doesn't mean we can't make peace over such simple things as making dinner and paying the bills."

"It just seems…" Corrine once again glanced out the window. Watched Mike's muscles bunch and flex as he raised the ax over his head and brought it down, perfectly splitting a log in two.

Every hormone in her body reacted, but that was physical. Would she still want in him in forty years? "Hard," she said, no pun intended. "It seems hard."

Louisa looked shocked and more than a little annoyed. "I can't believe we didn't show you better than that, after all these years."

"You're telling me this is easy?"

"Of course not! But it's beautiful anyway, and worth all the work."

"You work at it?" she asked doubtfully. What she'd seen so far didn't seem like work so much as…good luck.

"Goodness, darling." Louisa let out a little laugh. "I think I'm insulted that you have to ask. Yes, we work hard. You can't believe such a loving relationship comes naturally."

"It does in the romance novels," Corrine muttered, taking another quick peek at Mike. He straightened and pulled off his shirt, tossing it aside before once again lifting the ax.

Oh. My. God.

Muscles. Skin shining with sweat. She purposely looked away. And this time, she wasn't going to take another sneak peek!

"Phooey," Louisa was saying. "Nothing this good comes easy. It takes compromise." She picked up the paring knife again. "Give and take. And after so many years, it just keeps getting better and better."

"It does?" What was this silly hope that sprang through Corrine at that? What did it matter if marriage was wonderful? She wasn't planning on trying.

Was she?

Oh God. She was. She was planning on exactly that. Putting a hand to her suddenly damp forehead, she sank to a chair.

"Corrine? Corrine, honey, what's the matter?" Her mother dropped the paring knife and rushed over. "You look terribly pale."

"Oh, Mom. It's… it's…"

"What? It's what?" She knelt down and gripped Corrine's knees. "Are you going to be sick? Do you need a bucket?"

"Yes, I think I do." Corrine gulped, but then managed a hysterical laugh when her mother turned to leave. Grabbing Louisa's wrist, she shook her head. "No, it's not that kind of sickness. It's my heart, you see." And she rubbed the ache that had settled there the day she'd met Mike and had never, not once in all these months, gone away.

"Oh, dear Lord. You've got heart problems? You didn't tell me! We'll get a second opinion. Your father-"

"Mom, it's…" She took a big gulp of air. "It's love. I think I'm in love with Mike. I just realized it, just now, and it's making me sick."

"Oh, darling!"

"Don't look so excited," Corrine warned, pointing a finger at the joy scrambling across her mother's face. "This is a terrible thing. I actually-" she pressed both hands to her heart now "-I actually want forever with him."

Louisa's eyes filled. "Oh, baby."

"Don't you dare cry."

Louisa sniffed and wiped a tear from her cheek. "I'm not." Then a sob escaped and she slapped a hand over her mouth. "Really, I'm not."

"Mom!"

"I can't help it," Louisa cried. "It's just that I'm so thrilled for me. He's just what I always wanted in a son-in-law."

"No! Mike can't know!"

"What? Why not?"

"Don't you see? This can't happen. It just can't. It's an impossible situation, for a million different reasons." Though all of them were crowding her head, she couldn't put words to any of them.

"Name one," her mother commanded.

"There's…well…"

Louisa cocked a brow. "Why, Corrine?"

"Yes," Mike said from the doorway, with a perfectly indescribable look on his face. "Why?"

Corrine's stomach dropped to her toes. So did her heart, and all her other vital organs.

How much had he heard?

There was no telling from the look on his face. "I-I thought you were chopping wood."

"I was. Until I got the strange feeling there was something far more interesting going on in here." He leaned back against the doorjamb, casual as you please. "I was right."

"Yes, well." Corrine leaped to her feet and became a whirlwind of activity, busying herself by straightening up an already tidy kitchen. "We were just-"

"Talking about me," he said, taking her shoulders, turning her to face him.

How had he moved so fast? Reluctantly she looked into those dark eyes, thinking Please don't have heard me, oh please don't have heard.

But those eyes were filled with knowing, and she swallowed hard. "You caught it all, didn't you?" she whispered.

"Every word."

13

She loved him.

Mike hadn't imagined it, had never dared give thought to the possibility. But now his heart was racing, his entire body humming. He could think of nothing else. "Say it again," he demanded.

"I don't think so."

"Please?"

That surprised her, and he realized he hadn't often shown her his polite, gentle, tender side, not unless they were in bed.

That would change, because he intended to make her the happiest woman on earth.

"I think you should go," she said calmly, her eyes alone showing her panic.

"Nope, that wasn't what you said." He cocked his head and smiled, though he was so nervous he could hardly draw a breath. "Try again."

"No, I mean I think you should leave. Now."

He looked at Louisa, who gave a sympathetic shrug. "You have things to discuss," she said. "I'm going to give you some privacy."

"We don't need it," Corrine said quickly, but her mother only put a finger to her lips.

"Listen to him, honey. For once, slow down and listen."

Louisa left, and Corrine stood there looking cornered. When cornered, Mike knew, she came out fighting.

But fight or discuss, calm or agitated, they were doing this. "We can make it," he said softly. "We can make this work, no matter what our jobs are, no matter how different we are, no matter what. Are you getting this?" She studied her shoes. "If we try hard enough, nothing can stop us," he insisted.

"I can think of lots of things to stop us."

"Such as?" He smiled in the face of her fear, even as his heart constricted. "I know it's terrifying." Close enough to touch now, he took her hands in his. "Truth is, I've been terrified since the day I met you, and I didn't realize why until just a moment ago, when I heard you say you love me."

She made a sound of misery and fury, and tried to tug her hands free.

He held on.

She tugged again, but he was quicker and stronger. "I love you back, Corrine. I always have and I always will."

She hadn't so much as blinked. "What did you say?"

"I said I love you back." He waited while that sank in, while her eyes went from heated to glassy with shock. "I want this to work."

"Work."

"Between us. And I want forever. As in the white dress, the minivan, kids…"

"Kids."

"Or not." He shrugged. "I can go either way, unless we're talking about us. Because that's one thing I'm pretty set on, Corrine. You."

"You're set."

He had to smile. "You're sounding like a parrot. Tell me this is good news. Tell me you meant what you said to your mom. That you know we can do this."

She only stared at him.

"Tell me something. Anything."

"You love me."

"Yes."

"You want to get married."

"Yes. Wait, I didn't do that right at all." He dropped to one knee, then reached for her hand.

"Corrine." His heart was in his throat. "You waltzed into my life and changed it forever with your incredible smile and fierce passion. You-"