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One

Three years later

Standing in the hallway outside the hed heavily If she hadn’t had enough proble with the vandaliso, now she was about to face the funding committee to ask for an increase in funds to run it Unfortunately, fro an uphill battle Several of the co the need to provide child care for clubcommittee, Josh Gordon

They had never been formally introduced and she didn’t even know if he kneho she was But she knew hi to deal with the e with embarrassment

Every detail of what happened that night three years ago had played through herthat Josh was a member of the club But when she learned he was chair committee—the very committee that controlled the money to run the day care center—she felt as if she’d been kicked in the stoo to the coet they had set for it That meant she would frequently have to deal with him

She took a deep fortifying breath How could fate be so cruel?

If she hadn’t been half-asleep and wanting so badly to believe that Mark—her then-boyfriend and now ex-husband—had followed her to her sister’s apartuo would have never taken place She would have realized right away that Josh wasn’t Mark and stopped his went too far

Kiley shook her head at her own foolishness She should have knohen Josh kissed her with such passion that theMark had ever been passionate about was himself

Sighing, she straightened her shoulders There was nothing she could do about it now, and there was no sense in dwelling on soe She just wished anyone other than Josh Gordon was heading up the funding co incident, he had broken her sister’s heart when he abruptly ended things between theht, and Kiley simply didn’t trust him

When the door to the hts, a man she assumed to be one of the members motioned toward her “Ms Roberts, the committee is ready to hear from you now”

Nodding, Kiley took a deep breath and forced her feet to move forhat she really wanted to do was turn around and head in the opposite direction “Thank you”

As she walked toward the long table at the head of the room where Josh sat with three men and a woman, she focused on thenized were Beau Hacket and Paul Windsor Great They seemed to be the unofficial leaders of those opposed to the day care center and it was just her luck that they both happened to be on the funding committee Kiley’s only hope was to appeal to the lone fe next to her

“Good afternoon,” she said, forcing herself to give the but optimistic

“What can we do for you today…” Josh glanced at the papers on the table in front of hi for her name “…Ms Roberts?”

When their gazes finally met, she felt a little better She had been hired by the club’s personnel director and hadface-to-face with Josh in the short ti at the Texas Cattleman’s Club But now, she realized her nervousness had been unfounded Apparently Lori had never mentioned her by name and thanks to the blackout curtains her sister preferred, neither of the he was either a good enough actor to deserve an Academy Award or he had no idea who she was, her confidence returned

“As the director, I’ additional funds for the day care center,” she stated, surprised her voice sounded strong and steady in spite of her earlier case of jangled nerves

“What for?” Beau Hacket deeted more than is necessary to babysit a bunch of little kids”

“I can’t believe you just said that,” theat Beau

Kiley watched Josh give the lare before he turned his attention back to her “What do you think you need the additional funds for, Ms Roberts?”