Back in the Bachelor's Arms. Victoria Pade

and she thought she’d earned at least that much retribution for his bad attitude the previous evening.

      “And,” he continued, “I should have asked where you were staying, I should have offered you a ride to wherever you needed to go. I was a jerk.”

      “Yes, you were.”

      “But this isn’t easy for me. You have to know that.”

      “It isn’t easy for me, either,” she countered quietly, somberly.

      That seemed to bring about a stalemate and silence reigned for longer than Chloe was comfortable with.

      When she got too uncomfortable, she ended it.

      “So, you’re really needing to work here this week,” she said to get back on the track they were both better able to deal with.

      “I’m afraid I do. Northbridge has some support medical staff, but I’m the only doctor in town. I don’t get a lot of vacations and when I do take one, it’s complicated and really tough to back out on after everything has been set into motion. And our renters really need to get in as soon as it’s humanly possible, and we’ve promised that the minute we close the place it will be ready for them. I know it’s inconvenient for you, but Betty didn’t say anything about you coming—”

      “Betty didn’t know.”

      “Well, we’re in a bind.”

      Guess you shouldn’t have been so contrary to me…

      It was on the tip of Chloe’s tongue but she didn’t say it. After all, his scorn of the night before wasn’t altogether uncalled for. And if accommodating the work he needed to get done on the house would put that scorn and contempt in check so she didn’t have to deal with it while she was in Northbridge, she knew it was for the best.

      “It looks like you’d be mainly working downstairs,” she said with a question in her tone.

      “I would be.”

      “I suppose I should have let Betty know I’d decided to do it, but I came to go through the stuff in the attic. I need to know what should be moved and what can just be thrown out. But with you down here and me up there, there would be a whole floor between us so maybe we wouldn’t get in each other’s way.”

      “We probably wouldn’t.”

      “I guess it might be okay,” she finally concluded, sounding hesitant, but less hesitant than she felt.

      “I appreciate that,” he said. Although getting what he wanted seemed to be double-edged.

      Then he added, “If you are feeling all right, I’ll leave and give you a little breathing room to get your day started. There are some supplies I need to pick up at the hardware store and I won’t be losing much time if I come back in a couple of hours.”

      “That would be good,” Chloe said.

      “Okay then.”

      Reid hadn’t moved more than a few steps from the door and he retraced those steps to open it again.

      But before he went outside, he hesitated and glanced back at her from over one big, broad shoulder. “You’re sure you don’t have any signs of physical problems from the accident?”

      “Positive.”

      He nodded but his gaze remained on her anyway for another moment before he actually did go out and close the door behind him.

      Leaving Chloe with the image of his face branded on her brain as if it were the first time she’d ever seen him.

      The image of a bone structure that fourteen years had honed to look as if it had been carved out of Italian marble, complete with high cheekbones that dropped to hollow cheeks, which gave him a rugged, outdoorsy appearance. A rugged, outdoorsy appearance enhanced by a jaw that was sharply defined and his mink-colored hair that was cut very short and left bristly all over.

      The image of a straight, square forehead, and an aquiline nose that was only slightly long and added to the manly appeal of a face that was undeniably one of the most handsome she’d ever seen. The image of lips that were thin enough to be masculine and still full enough to be sensual. Of great eyes that were vibrant green tinged with only a hint of blue around the edges.

      Deep, penetrating, intelligent eyes that had once been warm, caring and sensitive rather than cold, remote, guarded and wary as they had been last night and again this morning even in the midst of making peace.

      No, seeing Reid, being in the same house with him, putting up a good front, wasn’t going to be easy.

      But even more difficult for her, Chloe thought, was resisting the urge to do something—anything—to make those eyes look at her the way they had so long ago, rather than the way they looked at her now.

      Chapter Three

      Chloe wasn’t sure exactly what time Reid returned that afternoon. When he wasn’t there by one-thirty she left a note propped against the outside of the front door telling him to just come in without ringing the bell because she might be on the phone. Then she went upstairs to her bedroom and called the rental car company where she’d encountered only problems.

      But sometime during the two hours she was on the phone and mostly waiting, she heard water run downstairs and realized that Reid actually had come back.

      And knowing that gave her conflicting emotions.

      On the one hand it made her tense.

      On the other hand, she became aware of a tiny flicker of excitement that she tried to expunge by concentrating on the difficulties she was having on the telephone.

      But despite the fact that the difficulties were many and varied, they didn’t dim that flicker that was still alive at four o’clock when she finally got off the phone.

      Four o’clock was a late start on the attic and the thought of Reid being nearby made her consider not doing any work at all today.

      Maybe she should just go downstairs to say hello, she thought.

      And get another glimpse of him.

      It was tempting. It could even be her contribution to the truce, she told herself.

      But she knew she was only making excuses to see him and that that was not an inclination she should give in to. So, in the end, she decided that a late start was better than no start and went to the attic.

      What she found there was hardly what she expected. She hadn’t realized that her parents had accumulated—and left—quite that much stuff. Boxes upon boxes upon boxes were filled to the spilling point. There were two old trunks that were equally as packed, and an ancient bureau, a matching armoire and an aged wooden icebox that were all crammed full, too.

      Plus the entire attic was covered in cobwebs and dust that made Chloe sneeze and warned her that the first thing she needed to do was clean away some of the yuck before she’d be able to spend the hours and hours it was going to require for her to sort through so much.

      Luckily the old vacuum cleaner her parents had left in case the renters didn’t have one was still in the hall closet of the second floor. It was also fortunately in working order.

      She dragged it to the attic and went about the first order of business—cleaning enough to be able to stand it up there, firmly setting her thoughts to that rather than to Reid.

      At least as much as possible knowing all the while that he was just downstairs….

      It took the rest of the day and well into the evening before the attic and the surfaces of what was stored there were cobweb-, dust-and spider-free. Only when Chloe was done did she realize that the daylight that had been coming in through the octagonal windows at either end of the attic had disappeared and left only darkness outside.

      And for no reason she understood, Reid was the first thing to pop into her mind again when it occurred