LITMIR.BIZ

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learned to fight a lot harder for the things I want.”

      Surely he wasn’t referring to their long-ago relationship. They hadn’t seen each other for years, and the man had married someone else.

      “It’s only a house, Seth. You can find another.”

      “That’s what I keep telling you. Now if you don’t mind…” He let the sentence trail away in cool dismissal.

      “You’re not going to give me back my cottage,” she said incredulously.

      “Nope. I’m not.” He opened the front door and stood to one side. “Bye Kat. See you around.”

      What else could she do? With one final, scathing glance, she gathered her dignity and left.

      

      With a mix of admiration, amusement and regret, Seth watched Kathryn stalk off through the woods, straight brown hair swaying against her shoulders, long lean legs churning the ground with purpose.

      That was Kat. Always on the go, always filled with purpose and aware of exactly what she wanted. A long time ago she’d wanted him, but she’d wanted to be a doctor much, much more.

      He shook his head at the thoughts. He hadn’t seen Kathryn Thatcher in years. What did he know of her now?

      Nothing. Not one thing other than she was still as pretty as an Easter lily and still had the uncanny ability to make him want to take care of her.

      For one minute there, after he’d lowered the Glock 44 and while she gazed at him with shock and fear, he’d wanted to take her in his arms. For comfort purposes only, of course.

      Kat. He hung his head for a moment and contemplated the wooden porch. Long ago he’d dealt with losing his first love, but seeing her again stirred some deep and elemental longing to set things right. They’d left a lot of business unfinished.

      His conscience began to nag.

      Finding Kathryn in his kitchen had been a shock he hadn’t been prepared for. He’d come in, guns blazing like some Wyatt Earp cowboy and scared her to death, but that hadn’t been enough for the big-city cop. Oh, no. He’d had to intentionally bait her about the cottage, too. He still hadn’t figured that one out yet.

      He studied his reaction for a minute, wondering if, in some juvenile way, he wanted to hurt her. He didn’t. She had been hurt far more than he by their carelessness as teenagers. After the baby, they’d drifted apart, too guilt-ridden and ashamed to discuss what they both must have been feeling. He hadn’t understood the reaction then. All he’d understood was Kat’s abandonment.

      He didn’t blame her for that. Maybe he once had, but not now. Interesting how fifteen minutes with Kat had resurrected a memory he’d buried for years.

      From the local talk, he knew she had never married, never had more babies. He had. God had blessed him in a thousand ways, even if Rita had killed him and their marriage with her infidelity.

      As a Christian he should have been able to make his marriage work, but he’d failed somehow. Failed Rita. Failed his daughter. Most of all he’d failed God, but he didn’t know what to do about it. Rita had been the one to file for divorce, and as hard as he’d tried to stop her, she’d divorced him anyway. Nothing much a man could do about that, Christian or not.

      But in truth, their marriage had died long before the courthouse funeral. That was the part that haunted him.

      Seth looked up, saw that Kat had disappeared from sight. Twilight hovered over the thick trees like a million black gnats.

      Slowly he shut the door and went inside, chest heavy with emotion. Seeing Kat again had brought back all the questions.

      He was thirty-six years old, divorced, alone, and still asking God why he’d been allowed to love two women in his life but hadn’t been enough to keep either of them.

      Chapter Three

      Kat slammed into the house, flip-flops thwacking against the gleaming hardwood floors. Susan had some explaining to do.

      She couldn’t believe Seth Washington was living in her house. Seth. Of all people. Why hadn’t someone warned her?

      She found Susan in the den, wrapping a gift for a baby shower at church. Her brother-in-law, golden-haired Danny, lay kicked back in his brown leather recliner watching a baseball game. Little Sadie, a dark-haired surprise in a very blond family, sprawled across her daddy’s lap feeding him roasted peanuts. Ten-year-old Jon played some kind of hand-held video game while Queenie the pregnant cat followed his rapid movements in fascination. Shelby was nowhere in sight and Kat figured the fourteen-year-old was upstairs talking on the telephone. Her sister’s family was about as all-American as they came.

      When Kat entered the den, Susan glanced up with a smile.

      “Hand me a blue bow, will you, Kat?” She indicated the coffee table and a plastic bag filled with a rainbow of colored gift bows.

      Plastic and acetate rustled as Kat retrieved the needed decoration. Normally she’d ask about the gift, but right now she had more important things on her mind.

      “Why didn’t you tell me Seth Washington had rented my cottage?”

      Her sister carefully creased the ends of baby-print paper and taped them down before speaking.

      “I wondered where you had gone off to.”

      Kat clapped the bow into Susan’s outstretched hand. “He almost shot me.”

      Susan froze, hand still outstretched. The recliner mechanism popped loudly as Danny sprang upward. “What?”

      She told them about the incident, finishing with, “As soon as he recognized me, he lowered the pistol, but he scared twenty years off my life.”

      “Seth’s, too, no doubt. What on earth possessed you to go into the cabin?”

      “It was one of those spur-of-the-moment things. And the cottage is my house.” But she was feeling more foolish with each passing minute. Her quick decisions in the E.R. were always right on. Snap judgments in life weren’t quite as successful.

      Susan’s usual smile was replaced with a frown. “You worry me sometimes, Kat. All those brains and not a lick of sense.”

      Kat bristled at the taunt her family had thrown at her all her life. No one had said it in years.

      “Susan,” Danny chided gently. “That’s not fair.”

      Susan’s shoulders slumped. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I should have told you about Seth.”

      At her sister’s sweet apology, the tension dissipated but the words hovered in the back of Kat’s mind, painful because she feared they were true. “Yes, you should have, but going into the house was stupid. I should have realized nothing good could come of it.”

      “But you did see Seth again—finally. I know how you’ve dreaded that initial contact.”

      Susan was right—again—though Kat didn’t like being so transparent. “I wasn’t exactly dreading anything. I’ve just been too busy to seek out a virtual stranger from the past.”

      Too busy sleeping and avoiding life.

      Susan gave her a look that said she didn’t believe a word, but she returned to her package without argument. “So how does he look to you?”

      Kat wasn’t about to mention Seth’s stunning green eyes rimmed in spiky black lashes or how the little creases beside his mouth, deeper now, still made her stomach flutter.

      “Medically, he seems healthy enough.”

      Danny made a choking sound as he settled back into his recliner. “Talk about taking the wind out of a man’s sails. I hope Seth never hears that summation.”

      Kat started to make some smart remark about men all

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