LITMIR.BIZ

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was wearing his gleaming white navy dress uniform with rows and rows of ribbons and medals on his chest, and a pair of leather sandals on his feet.

      As more and more people moved out onto the dance floor, Blue turned away and headed for the French doors that led out onto the patio. The doors were closed tonight. It was too hot to keep them open. The air-conditioning would escape and the muggy night air would be let in.

      With his hand on the doorknob, Blue turned back and looked across the room—directly at Lucy. This time he didn’t look through her. This time he met her eyes. He moved his head almost imperceptibly, but his message was clear. Follow him outside.

      Lucy’s heart was pounding as she moved along the ballroom wall toward the patio doors. Perhaps she’d been wrong. Blue did recognize her. He did know she was here. It took her several minutes to work her way around the room, but finally she reached the French doors and slipped out onto the patio.

      The sounds of the music and laughter from the party became muffled and distant as she shut the door behind her. The heat brushed against her face and arms like something solid. The moon was nearly full and it glowed through a haze of high clouds.

      The patio was wide and made of carefully evened-off flagstones, with a decorative cast-iron railing surrounding it. Several chairs and tables with flickering citronella candles were set up around the edges. Japanese lanterns were strung overhead, but the pale light they cast couldn’t compete with the moonlight.

      As Lucy stood and let her eyes grow accustomed to the dimness, she saw Blue in the shadows, leaning against the railing, just watching her.

      Blue couldn’t believe his eyes. That was strange, because he’d been a lot of places, seen both the best and the worst that humanity could offer, and he’d begun to think that nothing could ever surprise him.

      But Lucy Tait, dressed to kill in a sexy black dress, with her legs looking at least seven miles long, with her hair piled sophisticatedly atop her head and her brown eyes made up and smoldering, had proven him wrong.

      He’d expected her to arrive at the country club wearing something demure and functional. He’d expected he would have to use his imagination to see beyond her clothing to the woman he suspected was underneath.

      She started toward him, and he felt his pulse kick into the double time of anticipation, which he immediately tried to squelch. He hadn’t been thinking straight when he’d asked her to come to this party with him. It wasn’t until he arrived and realized that he was the focus of covert—and some not so covert—attention that it occurred to him that, as his date, Lucy would be subjected to the same curious stares and speculation.

      She didn’t deserve that. He had to send her home before anyone saw them together.

      That was why, when he first noticed her standing on the other side of the room, he didn’t allow himself to react. He didn’t even let himself do the double take he so desperately wanted to do.

      But here in the darkness, away from all the prying eyes, Blue could do all the double takes he wanted.

      Mercy.

      She could have been the poster model for carnal desire. But as he gazed into her eyes, he realized that it was entirely possible that Lucy didn’t know how incredibly sexy she looked. He could see hesitation in her eyes, and a kind of vulnerability that, combined with her incredible outfit, made her seem a curious mix of experience and innocence.

      Blue couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a woman and wanted her more than the way he wanted Lucy right now.

      He pushed himself up off the railing as she drew closer. The sexy black spike heels of her shoes made her nearly his own height and she gazed directly into his eyes.

      “Seems I’ve been away from town longer than I thought,” Blue said softly. He felt his body tighten as he dropped his gaze to her mouth to watch her nervously moisten her lips with the pink tip of her tongue.

      “Twelve years,” she murmured.

      He nodded. “So…why aren’t you married…settled down with a couple of kids and all?”

      She crossed her arms, one dark eyebrow lifting slightly. “Why aren’t you?”

      “I never met someone I couldn’t live without,” he said bluntly. “I guess I’m picky that way.”

      Lucy lifted her chin challengingly. “And what makes you think I’m not?”

      Blue had to smile. “Touché.” With that defiant gleam in her eyes, she looked so like the girl he’d first met all those years ago—and so unlike her, all at the same time.

      He could still remember the way fifteen-year-old Lucy had tried to hide her pain, even after the boys who had been beating on her had run off. Her nose had been bleeding slightly, and she was holding her side. Though Blue had seen one of the boys kick her savagely in the ribs when she was down on the ground, she never cried, and tried not to let on that she was badly hurt. But there was a sheen of perspiration on her face that had told Blue otherwise.

      She’d sat on the grass, knees pulled in tightly to her chest, and he’d sat down next to her. “You all right, Yankee?”

      “Yeah,” she said, wiping the blood from her nose with the back of one hand. “Yeah, I’m…fine.”

      “You don’t look so fine.”

      “I just…need to sit here for a minute.”

      “Okay,” Blue said quietly. “Mind if I sit here for a minute, too?”

      She shook her head. No, she didn’t mind.

      “Those boys give you a reason for kicking the bejesus out of you?” Blue asked.

      “They don’t think a girl belongs on the baseball team,” Lucy said.

      “Well, it is called the boys’ baseball team,” Blue commented.

      Lucy’s eyes flashed. “So where’s the girls’ team?”

      Blue shrugged. “’Round these parts, girls try out for the cheerleading squad.”

      “The coach said I’m the best shortstop this hick town has ever seen,” Lucy said flatly. “And from what I’ve seen, he might be right. He put me in the starting lineup and has me batting lead-off. And you want me to be a cheerleader?”

      Blue hid a smile. “You’re pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

      “There are some things boys can do better than girls—like pee standing up,” Lucy told him, her eyes narrowed dangerously, “but playing baseball is not one of them. I’m going to stick it in those creeps’ faces by winning MVP this year—and accepting the award in a dress.”

      Blue might have even laughed out loud at that, except a spasm of pain made Lucy wince. She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. Her face looked so pale.

      “How about I give your mama a call?” Blue asked.

      Lucy shook her head. “She’s working.”

      “You’re hurt—”

      “I’m fine.”

      Blue stood up. “She works in the office at the mill, doesn’t she?”

      “I said, I’m fine!” Lucy scrambled to her feet, and the effort made her sway.

      Blue reached for her, holding her up. “You got a broken rib, Yankee. I’m taking you over to Doc Gray’s.”

      “No, please!” Lucy’s dark-brown eyes were wide, her voice beseeching as she gazed up at him. “It’s only a crack. The doctor will tape me up and tell me I can’t play ball for three weeks. By then I’ll have been off the starting lineup for so long I’ll have lost my place. I’ll spend the rest of the season on the bench.”

      “Sometimes you gotta sit out.”

      “Not

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