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"Have a night on the town, apparently"

There was no way he was an orchestra kind of guy "But--"

"Trouble at three o’clock," he said casually

She turned to look and found Lucille and another biddy fro fiercely for the next auction item--a date with Anderson Moore, the cute owner of the hardware store in town

"This Anderson guy," Ty said to Mallory, still watching the old ladies upping the bid with alarly suggested the two older wo ended peacefully

Ty winced in clear sympathy for Anderson, who now had to date not one, but two old ladies

"Don’t feel sorry for hioes after anything with breasts"

Ty slid her a look "You have a little bit of a le soul in Lucky Harbor would believe it She had no idea what it said about her that Ty, a perfect stranger, saw more of her than anyone who actually knew her

At her s from her eyes to her mouth "I like a woman with ainto hih, this tiood "Save the charly bad girl characteristic--lying through her teeth

"Explain so to me," he said

"What?"

"Why does everyone think I was your date tonight?"

She stared at him "Last weekend, when I pulled you out of that storm, Amy told you about the auction and how I needed a date, reaped at him "Seriously?"

"I re his brain "I re hit by the tree I reood or bad when he added, "Sort of"

Sort of? He "sort of" remembered her? What did thatharder

"I res"

She choked on her wine

"And I definitely re up in the ambulance with a mother of a headache"

She was silent for a shocked beat while she digested this astonishing fact He had absolutely no ht Well, that certainly explained a lot of things Like being stood up Dah she illing to give it a try "So I guess that the next tiuy, I should pin a note to his collar so he doesn’t forget"

"Good plan" His hand was next to hers on the table He let his thuers, a sh her "I’ot our date," he said He was so close she could see every single hue of green in his eyes, and there were many She could feel the warmth of his exhale at her temple In the crowded Vets’ Hall, their nearness was no different fro their next bid, or laughing over a joke But Mallory wasn’t bidding or laughing Her heart was suddenly pounding in her throat and there were butterflies going crazy low in her belly

"Am I on that list, Mallory?" he asked, low and husky "A?"

Oh God, she was in trouble now, because she liked the sound of her naet too cocky There are others on the list" She lifted her hand to touch the bruise on his cheek

He caught her hand in his "Not what I asked"

"Yes," she admitted "You’re on the list You’re at the top of the list"

Chapter 6

What came first, woman--or the chocolate bar?

Ty had no idea what the hell he thought he was doing, flirting with Mallory

Scratch that

He knew exactly what he was doing He was feeling alive for the first ti at hi alive too, he was guessing But she probably wasn’t wondering if he still had a condoht be

But if she had a list, so did he A short list of one, and she was it "Why does a woman like you need a list at all?"

"Like hed, then shook her head "I don’t know I guess I don’t have a lot of time to date"

He could understand that Hell, it’d been a long ti dry spell without a woman at all, and she was all woman Her dress was a deceptivelyacross her back and fell tohis appetite forworld-class legs that had been hidden beneath her scrubs She had her hair up in so across one temple and at the nape of her neck Her only jewelry was a little gold necklace--no earrings, nothing to stop hishis way to her ear where, if he was so inclined, he’d stop to whisper promises

He shouldn’t be inclined Mallory Quinn eet, war She was a white picket fence and two-point-four kids She was a dia

She was someone’s keeper

Not his Never his He didn’t do keepers

And yet in that beat, with her mouth close to his, a s Someone He wanted to wrap his arms around a woman, this woman, and lose himself in her

A woman tapped Mallory on the shoulder, the same woht pinch to herOr possibly constipated She wore authority and bitchiness as easily as she wore the strand of diahtened, her expression going carefully blank "Jane," she said, in a tone that told Ty that the woman was either her boss or her executioner