Married to His Business / Six-Month Mistress: Married to His Business. Elizabeth Bevarly

again, seeming to take in each of the men one by one. “I haven’t seen any of them for years,” he said. “Though we’ll all be here for the dedication in September.”

      “What dedication?” Kendall echoed.

      He nodded, still looking at the photograph. “Once each of us has spent a month here, the house will go to the town, and I think the plan is to turn it into some kind of medical facility or something. Anyway, there’s going to be a big ceremony with the mayor and chamber of commerce or something. All of us will be here, too.”

      She smiled. “Sounds like Hunter was a good guy.”

      “The best,” Matthias immediately replied. “He was the very best of all of us.” This time, when he smiled, there was genuine warmth, and genuine happiness, in the gesture. Then the smile fell, and he grimaced a bit. “I’m sorry. I’m keeping you longer than I meant to.”

      Actually, Kendall thought, she was the one who was holding up things by asking all these questions. She was the one who would make herself even later than she’d intended getting back to Stephen DeGallo. Funny, though, how she hadn’t given Stephen a thought since entering the lodge.

      “Hey,” she said again when he started to turn away, more softly than she had the first time.

      He spun around again. “What?”

      She smiled and pointed to him in the photo. “You looked good with long hair.”

      He looked at where she was pointing and asked, “Are you so sure that one’s me? It could be Luke.”

      She shook her head. “No, I know it’s you.”

      Now he crossed his arms over his chest, as if in challenge. “How do you know?”

      She wasn’t about to tell him she knew him by his roguish smile. So she said, “I can tell by the twinkle in your eyes.”

      Oh, bravo, Kendall, she congratulated herself. Telling him that was so much better than telling him you recognized him by his smile.

      Matthias arched his eyebrows at the comment, his eyes… Oh, damn. They were twinkling. “Really?” he asked with much interest. Way more interest than he should be showing, actually.

      “I mean…” Kendall started to backtrack.

      But he wasn’t going to let her. “You think my eyes twinkle? Since when?”

      “Well, since you were in college, anyway,” she hedged. She pointed at the photograph again. “Obviously.”

      “No, I mean, since when did you notice it?” he asked.

      If she were going to be honest, she would have to admit that she first noticed it when he interviewed her for the job. Naturally, she wouldn’t tell him that. “I don’t know,” she hedged again. “And really, it’s not like they twinkle a lot or anything.”

      He smiled. “They must, if that’s how you knew it was me in the photo and not Luke.”

      “Okay, I lied,” she said. “That’s not how I knew it was you in the picture.”