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Personally, I think he’s in love with you My only comfort is that if you wanted him, you would have accepted him before you ever met me" He studied my face, his very serious, before he continued, "And I confess, the thought that you’ll choose hio vanilla has disturbed eous little rant "Of course he’s not in love with me You knoe’ve never even been on a date And I’ vanillabut a friend, even without you in the equation"

I wondered, not for the first time, what on earth Ja I just couldn’t put Jaether, even with the proof of it in front of me The whole idea was absurd No one in the world could compete with him, in any way There’s no rooht

He sat down in the other seat at the large desk He was a good four feet away there, still He opened his paper-thin laptop, going to ithout another word

"Are you upset?" I asked hi to clear the air before I could ers already working on his laptop "I a both my unreasonable hurt and my unfounded jealousy I’ll work it out"

I stared at hi to determine how best to proceed I finally decided that if I wanted to work so could be done about, I would want to be left alone to do so So that’s what I did

I returned toto forget that the horrid thing even existed I tried to ignore all of the headlines that drewattention, and all of the photos that piqued e before I finally found what I was looking for I made a little humph of relief that I’d located the prize

My noise got James’s instant attention I clicked to print out the picture as he rose, looking over my shoulder from behind

"What’s that for?" he asked

I turned to smile at him "I’ve wanted to paint it froo," I explained "Is that okay with you?"

He blinked at me, but nodded his assent

It was a picture of him when he was fourteen, at so for the camera, but it was a far different pose from the polished one he had adopted as an adult His dark blond hair had just brushed his shoulders even then, perfectly coifed, his dusky skin perfect His face was solehty and fierce He had been no h every arrogant line of his face

It fascinated e I wanted toon some fireplace acy for his children

"You were like a baby supermodel," I said as he went back to his seat

He shot me a wry sht it made my business associates takeIt didn’t even occur tofourteen did that all on it’s own"

I studied hi to hide the sympathy I felt for a fourteen-year-old James, who’d had far too heavy of a burden to bear

"I wish I’d known you back then I bet ould have been friends"

He gave me a warm look "Me too"

"You weren’t homeless, but you didn’t have anyone, like I did, to turn to for coave ht there"

I took the printout of the photo across the roo all of the new supplies

He’d thought of everything I could possibly need

"Oh, I forgot," Ja reat out here, but Stephan has been trying to get ahold of you You can call him frootten I’d even had a phone since we’d arrived at the ranch

He carried the other phone tohi It took

I blinked, glancing at Ja intently at his corill and the black racing stripe that I was obsessed with It’s like he took every piece of information he ever heard me say about my drea on and on about the brand new Dodge Challenger that James had delivered to his driveway for several , Stephan" I listened as he added several excited details "Yes, Jahtful I’et a word in for another solid five ift Finally, he asked to speak to Ja to thank hiood grace, s as he told Stephan, "It is the best way I could think of to thank you for watching out for our Bianca for all these years I’h as he was obviously interrupted by a frenzied Stephan "I’ll tell you what Let’s schedule ae’re both in New York I want to discuss a few business matters with you" James listened politely to the response "That ork fine Yes, I’ll do that Okay, have a good one, Stephan" With that, he hung up

I eyed hiraciously But I just knew that he was soed "Stephan is your faly indebted to him for the way he’s protected you Also, I’ve found that it pays to be on his good side"

I studied hi to be annoyed at his interference, but I just couldn’t He had found so that made Stephan so happy How could I help but be thankful to him for it?