Lovers And Other Strangers. Dallas Schulze

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СКАЧАТЬ thought had crossed my mind,” he admitted, and she couldn’t help but laugh.

      “Can I start over?”

      “Go ahead.”

      She drew a deep breath. “I’m Shannon Devereux. I live next door.”

      “Reece Morgan.” He offered his hand, and she took it automatically, startled by the jolt of awareness that shot up her arm at the light touch.

      “I know who you are,” she said as she withdrew her hand. She rubbed her fingertips against her palm. “We were expecting you.”

      “We?” Reece threw a questioning look past her shoulder at the empty street and Shannon cursed the easy way the color rose in her cheeks. This was what she got for letting temper and curiosity get the better of her, she thought. If she’d minded her own business instead of listening to Edith Hacklemeyer, she would still be pulling weeds and enjoying the weather. Instead, she was standing in front of the most attractive man she’d seen in a very long time, confirming his initial impression of her as a blithering idiot.

      “I meant that everyone knew you were coming,” she said.

      “Did they?” Reece frowned uneasily. He’d spent too many years keeping to the shadows to be comfortable with the idea, but he knew there were few secrets in a small town. Besides, it didn’t matter anymore, he reminded himself. It was just that old habits were hard to break. “I didn’t exactly take an ad out in the local paper.”

      “You didn’t have to. Sam Larrabee’s brother spread the word.” When Reece gave her a blank look, she clarified. “He works for the electric company. He saw the order to turn on the utilities.”

      “And he took out an ad in the paper?”

      “No, he told Sam. And Sam told Alice—that’s Sam’s wife. And Alice told Constance Lauderman, who probably called—”

      “Okay, I get the picture.” He shook his head as he interrupted her recitation of the local grapevine. “I’d almost forgotten what this place was like,” he said, looking both irritated and reluctantly amused.

      “Well, it’s a small town, and news does tend to get around.”

      “I guess it does.” Reece slid the fingers of one hand through his still-damp hair.

      The movement drew Shannon’s eyes back to the solid width of his bare shoulders and chest, and she felt her stomach clench in helpless awareness. She didn’t know what it was about him that brought on this deeply female response. The sight of a bare male chest had never caused this kind of reaction before. It would be nice to believe it was because she’d spent too much time in the sun this morning. With an effort, she dragged her gaze upward and met his eyes.

      “Anyway, that’s how I knew who you were. I thought you might not have taken the time to do any shopping when you got in yesterday and might like to have breakfast at my house.”

      Reece rubbed his hand absently across his bare chest. She’d guessed right about the shopping. As far as he knew, the only food in the house was a package of slightly squashed Twinkies he’d bought somewhere in Arizona the day before. On the other hand, he hadn’t come back here to develop a social life. He just wanted to put the house in shape to sell and maybe get himself in shape—mentally and physically—while he was at it. No matter how attractive she was, he didn’t want to—

      “Coffee’s already made,” she added, as an afterthought.

      “Let me get a shirt.” The promise of caffeine was too great a temptation. He still wasn’t sure his new neighbor was all there, but she was beautiful and she had coffee—the combination was more than he could resist.

      He disappeared into the house, and Shannon drew a deep breath and then released it slowly. Wow. What on earth had happened to her? It wasn’t as if Reece Morgan was the first attractive man she’d met. Kelly had made it her life’s work to introduce her to every single, straight, attractive male who came within range—a rapidly shrinking pool, as Kelly reminded her tartly every time Shannon turned down a date. She’d never given any of those men a second thought, had barely noticed them even when they were standing right in front of her. But this man—this one made her very aware of the differences between male and female, something she hadn’t paid much attention to lately.

      By the time Reece returned, she’d regained her equilibrium and was able to give him a casually friendly smile. Whatever she’d felt earlier, it was gone now, and if she felt a slight tingle when his arm brushed against hers, it was probably only because she had a touch of sunburn.

      “I thought you could go years without meeting your neighbors in California,” he said as he pulled the door shut behind him and checked the knob to be sure the lock had caught.

      “In California, maybe, but not in Serenity Falls.” She caught his questioning look. “You see, the town is caught in some sort of space-time-continuum warp. You know, like the ones on Star Trek? I think we’re actually somewhere in the Midwest right now. As near as I can tell, the change occurs just as you pass the town limit sign. If you pay attention, you can actually feel the shift as the very fabric of space folds and deposits you in…oh, Iowa maybe.”

      “Really? I didn’t notice,” Reece said politely but she caught the gleam of laughter in his eyes.

      She liked the way he could smile with just his eyes, she thought. Of course, so far, there wasn’t much about him that she didn’t like. Tall, dark and handsome. The old cliché popped into her head, and she smiled a little at how perfectly it fit him. At five-eight, she was tall for a woman and was accustomed to looking most men in the eye, but walking next to him, she felt small and almost fragile.

      As if sensing her gaze, he glanced at her, and Shannon looked away quickly, half-afraid of what her expression might reveal. Distracted, she tapped her fingers against the tailgate of his truck as they walked past.

      “It doesn’t look particularly mean to me.” She immediately wished the words unsaid but it was too late. What was it about him that caused her to blurt out the first thing that popped into her head?

      “What?” Reece gave her a look that combined wariness with curiosity, confirming her guess that he had doubts about her mental health. Not that she could blame him, she admitted with an inner sigh. She hadn’t exactly been at her best this morning.

      “Reports of your arrival spread around town yesterday afternoon. Someone mentioned that you were driving a mean-looking truck.”

      “Mean-looking?” Reece glanced back at his truck and shrugged. “It’s never attacked anyone, that I know of.” He frowned thoughtfully. “There was a woman at the gas station yesterday. Skinny, big teeth and a face sort of like a trout. She looked at me like I was an alien with green skin and antennae sticking out of my head.”

      “Or Elvis in a spangled jumpsuit,” Shannon murmured, thinking of her conversation with Kelly.

      “No, I think she’d have been less surprised to see him,” Reece said thoughtfully.

      Shannon’s laughter was infectious, and Reece found himself smiling with her. He wouldn’t be all that surprised if it turned out that she’d escaped from a mental ward, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him from enjoying her company. Walking beside her, he was conscious of the long-legged ease of her stride, of the way СКАЧАТЬ