Amazing Gracie. Sherryl Woods

and she told him repeatedly that his were atrocious. He’d promised to change…sooner or later.

      At the moment, though, it seemed to him that his uninvited guest had probably hightailed it here on some mission or another and it wouldn’t do at all to show so much as a hint of retreat. Normally he was as keen as the next man to do business across a desk or over a fine lunch, but certain circumstances required a different tactic. Pure instinct told him this was one of those times.

      It was several minutes, during which he was aware of the car getting closer and the engine cutting off, before he sensed a presence and bothered opening his eyes again. The sight before him was enough to cause his pulse to skip a beat or two, but he tried real hard not to let his reaction show.

      The woman was a knockout. Tall and curvy and classy, all at the same time. The demure outfit she wore did absolutely nothing to mute her sex appeal, and it was definitely at odds with that fire engine red convertible. Kevin had always been fascinated with contradictions and this woman radiated them. Amazing, absolutely amazing.

      “Mr. Daniels?”

      “Yo,” he said without moving.

      “Kevin Patrick Daniels?”

      He hid a grin as he heard the impatience in her tone. “Yep, that’s me. You a process server, darlin’?”

      “No, though I have to wonder why that would be your first guess. Do you spend a lot of time in trouble, Mr. Daniels?”

      “Not half as much as I’d like to.”

      “Perhaps if you would haul yourself out of that hammock occasionally you’d have more success at it.”

      He marveled at her tart tone. Ms. Whoever-she-was seemed to have taken an instant dislike to him. That was promising. Nothing got his adrenaline flowing better than a real challenge.

      “Southern hospitality precludes me from pointing out that you’ve just arrived at my home uninvited and now you’re insulting me. Must be a Yankee.”

      “I suppose, if you go strictly by geographical birthplace, that I am,” she conceded. “And I’m sorry if I appear rude, but I find it very difficult to do business with a man who’s half asleep.”

      “Darlin’, let me assure you, I am wide awake. Have been ever since you walked up. I could prove it, if you’d like to snuggle down here next to me.”

      He could practically hear her swallowing hard as she absorbed the implications of that. He’d lay odds that if he checked her complexion it would be one shade shy of the color of her car.

      “Why don’t you tell me who you are and what you want?” he suggested.

      “I’m Gracie MacDougal,” she said, and waited as if to see if the name meant anything to him.

      “Ah,” he said. Suddenly he understood all the reports he’d heard about the city girl who’d just moved to town and started asking questions about Aunt Delia’s property on the Potomac. He’d figured she’d come calling sooner or later.

      “Pretty as a picture,” several of his friends had told him.

      Even with his eyes half closed, he could see that they hadn’t done her justice.

      “One of them globetrotters come home again,” said an old-timer with the derision of one who couldn’t imagine any legitimate need to leave the South in general and Virginia in particular.

      Kevin thought that one was probably mistaken. If Gracie MacDougal had ever lived in these parts, he would have remembered. She wasn’t coming home. In fact, from the determined jut of her cute little chin, he guessed she was invading new territory, sort of like the Yankees did a hundred and some years earlier.

      “You talk to her, watch your privates,” another acquaintance had warned. “She’s the kind who’ll chop ’em off.”

      That, of course, remained to be seen. No matter who was right, obviously it was going to be a fascinating encounter, he concluded, observing her surreptitiously from hooded eyes.

      “What can I do for you, Gracie MacDougal?”

      “Actually, I have a business matter to discuss, but I find that rather difficult when I can’t even sit down and look you in the eye.”

      Kevin patted the edge of the hammock. “There’s plenty of room right here next to me.”

      She sighed heavily, her exasperation plain. “Mr. Daniels…”

      “Don’t worry, darlin’, I don’t bite. Not on the first date, anyway, unless you ask nicely.”

      “Mr. Daniels!”

      Kevin concluded from her tone that she wasn’t going to get on with her business or give up until he sat up and took notice. He doubted that directing her to a chair a few feet away was going to satisfy her. If she wanted formality, he’d give her hundred-year-old formality.

      “Ms. MacDougal, you surely do know how to spoil a man’s relaxation,” he said, rising. “Let’s go on inside and get this over with.”

      He led the way to his office and noted the surprise on her face when she saw the book-lined shelves with volume after volume of leather-bound classics, the state-of-the-art computer system on his desk, the fax machine, and all the other accoutrements of running a business on the cusp of the millennium. Her gaze returned to him, and this time she seemed to be assessing him a little more carefully. He gestured toward one of the leather chairs left over from his father’s reign over the family fortune, then seated himself behind the desk.

      “Talk to me,” he said.

      “I understand you manage a property on the riverfront.”

      Actually, he owned half a dozen of them, but since he knew which one she was interested in, he saw no reason to belabor the point. “I do.”

      “I was wondering if the owner might be interested in selling?”

      “No,” he said, relieved that he’d had all day to practice saying the word. Otherwise, seeing Gracie MacDougal’s crestfallen expression might have had him waffling.

      “Absolutely not,” he added for good measure.

      “But…” Clearly taken aback, she peered at him intently. “Are you sure?”

      “Very sure.”

      “Couldn’t you at least ask?”

      “No need to,” he insisted.

      “Aren’t you doing the owner a disservice by not taking my offer to them? In fact, isn’t that illegal?”

      He shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

      “You don’t even know what I’m willing to pay.”

      “Trust me, it won’t be enough.”

      “The place is a shambles.”

      That was true enough. Kevin had been meaning to get over there and make a few repairs, cut the grass, maybe even trim the hedge. Had he done so, though, Aunt Delia—actually, his great-aunt on his mother’s side—would have wanted to go along for a nostalgic visit to her home and the next thing he knew she’d be demanding that he let her move back there. He couldn’t allow it.

      The sad truth was, Aunt Delia had no business being on her own anymore. She forgot to take her medication. She left the stove on. She wandered off and left the front door standing wide open. It was a wonder she hadn’t been robbed blind. Kevin had never known what to expect when he’d driven over to visit. Most of the time he hadn’t liked what he’d found.

      Finally, eighteen months ago he’d insisted Aunt Delia move in with him. He’d actually managed to make it sound as if she were the one doing him a favor. By now, she’d probably figured out that he’d bamboozled her, but they’d both grown comfortable with the new arrangement. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t love to