The Second Time Around. Marie Ferrarella

she’d known had worn hand-me-downs. That was part of the reason he’d been the butt of so many cruel jokes.

      He nodded. When he spoke, it was matter-of-factly rather than bragging. It reminded her that he’d always been modest. Brilliant, but modest. She was glad he’d done well for himself, especially after what he’d gone through as a kid.

      “I created a few dot-com companies that didn’t go under once the craze was over. I sold a couple, kept one. Things have been good for me.” Crossing his arms before him, he leaned a hip against the counter. His focus was completely on her. “And for you, too, I see. You’re just as beautiful now as you were in high school.”

      She could feel the pink hue getting darker. With effort, she shrugged off his compliment, wishing with all her heart Jason could say something like that to her.

      “I have a few miles under the hood.”

      He laughed softly, shaking his head as if to deny what she’d just said. “Must be way under the hood, because it doesn’t show.”

      Laurel continued to feel warmer, so much so that she was surprised she wasn’t perspiring. Was she feeling like this because of her new condition, or because the faulty thermostat Callaghan kept promising to have fixed “any day now” was still acting up?

      She refused to believe it was because the frog-turned-prince was gazing at her with bedroom eyes.

      Laurel cleared her throat and took a step back, creating a little more space between them.

      Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jeannie watching her, watching them, as intently as she watched her bevy of soap operas on her days off.

      Business, Laurel thought. She needed to get back to business.

      She turned her back on Robert and referred to the wide bulletin board. It represented their best listings, but it was only a fraction of what they had to offer. “You said something about wanting to buy a house. How many bedrooms were you thinking of?”

      When he didn’t answer immediately, she turned back to him. The smile on his lips seemed to say that he was only thinking of one bedroom. The master bedroom.

      What’s the matter with you? Are you pregnant with a demon child? You never used to think like this.

      Maybe she was having her own midlife crisis, she thought. God, what a time to have one, while she was pregnant.

      “There’s just me now,” Robert finally replied. “So two, three. Nothing very overwhelming.”

      He’d said “now,” which meant the condition had been different before. He’d been married. Recently? “Divorced?” she guessed.

      Robert pressed his lips together just for a moment before answering, as if the word was still difficult for him to say. “Widowed.”

      She felt terrible about stirring up the pain she saw in his eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

      Robert nodded, accepting her condolences. He took in a breath, using it as a buffer between himself and the past. “It’s been a little over a year now. I’m trying to move on.”

      She nodded, thinking she must seem like a dummy to him. “Best thing to do.” It was a lame thing to say, but nothing else came to mind.

      “New house, new location.” He looked at her for a moment before adding, “New challenges.”

      She was imagining that, right? That bit of eye contact, the zip that shot through her? The man was a grieving widower. He wasn’t hitting on her. “Starting up a new dot-com company?”

      “It’s on the books,” he admitted. “Something I’ve been noodling around with. In the meantime, like I said, I still have one left and it has been giving me and mine—my parents—” he clarified, “a good yield.”

      He mentioned his parents, but no one else. “No children?”

      “No, why?”

      She moved toward the nearest computer and pulled up a file that had a number of nearby listings. “Well, if there were children, I’d show you some good locations near the schools. But if that’s not a factor, I can show you properties that are situated away from the schools. It would be quieter for you.”

      “I like quiet,” he told her. “Although not too much quiet,” he qualified. “Too much usually lulls me to sleep.”

      Laurel crossed to her desk and picked up the leather-bound notebook Jason had given her when she’d sold her first house. She tried not to notice the smirk on Jeannie’s face.

      Opening the notebook, she began to make notes as she crossed back to Robert. “Price range?”

      He shrugged. “Whatever.”

      Well, that was certainly cavalier, she thought. “Excuse me?”

      “Money is not a consideration here,” he told her. “Like I said, I’ve been very lucky. I can afford to buy whatever pleases me.”

      It sounded like a proposition.

      Or maybe she just wanted it to. Laurel banked down her runaway thoughts and told herself to act like a Realtor.

      “We have houses that start anywhere from six-hundred thousand dollars to ten times that,” she informed him. “Care to narrow down the neighborhood just a little?”

      “Why don’t we start somewhere in the middle and work our way up?” he suggested.

      “Sounds like a plan,” she answered glibly, wishing her imagination would stop getting carried away with every word Robert Manning uttered. He was looking for a house and she, apparently, was looking for affirmation. Affirmation that should be coming from Jason, Laurel reminded herself, not from a man who had triumphed over his shortcomings and made good.

      CHAPTER 8

      Laurel managed to take exactly two steps past the office threshold before Jeannie came rushing up to meet her.

      It was nearly three-and-a-half hours later. There were five other real estate agents in the office now, four women and a man. They were either on the phone or talking with clients. Three “civilians” were in the office, seated on chairs directly beside the various desks. The sound of voices, point and counterpoint, buzzed in the air.

      Only Jeannie was a free agent at the moment. Her desk, Laurel noted when she glanced over in that direction, was littered with files. Having fallen behind in her paperwork, the way she periodically did, she’d obviously spent the afternoon trying to catch up.

      And just as obviously, Jeannie had been watching the door for her return, Laurel thought.

      Paperwork, she knew, bored Jeannie to tears. The woman craved drama, mystery and live interaction. Apparently, in lieu of her beloved soap operas, which provided all three, Jeannie had decided to declare her all three, at least for the afternoon.

      “You were gone a long time with Mr. Hunk.” There was no missing the implication pulsating behind each word. Laurel paused at the main bulletin board to move the pin beside her name from the box labeled “out” to the one labeled “in.” “Anything worthwhile come of it?” Jeannie pressed.

      “His name is Robert Manning,” Laurel told her, hoping Jeannie would stop referring to the man as “Hunk.” She made her way to her desk. “We went to high school together. And I was showing him houses. A whole bunch of houses.” Draping her trench coat over the back of her chair, she glanced past her shoulder at the other woman. “Fifteen in all before he finally decided he’d had enough.”

      Hearing something that piqued her interest, Jeannie had stopped listening to the rest of what Laurel had said. “You went to high school together?” She shifted around to the front of the desk as Laurel sat down. “You never mentioned that there was anyone that gorgeous in your background.”

      “That’s because he wasn’t.” She could