Some Kind of Hero. Brenda Harlen

have any brothers or sisters?”

      He shook his head. “I had a sister. She was a few years older than me, took off on her own when she was fifteen and died on the street of a drug overdose less than a year later.”

      “I’m sorry,” she said, meaning it. As an only child, she couldn’t imagine what it was like to grow up with someone, to lose that someone, to be left alone to remember. For so many years she’d wished for a sister—would willingly have settled for a brother—but her parents hadn’t been able to have any more children. Riane knew it had to be easier to have never had a sibling than to have shared such a connection and have it ripped away.

      He shrugged. “It was a long time ago.”

      “You were close,” she guessed.

      “At one time.” Then, in a not-so-subtle effort to change the topic, “Will you have dinner with me tonight?”

      Riane shook her head. She’d agreed to play tour guide for him to prove that she was her own person—and to prove to herself that she was immune to whatever chemistry she thought existed between them. Her reaction to his unexpected appearance at the camp today proved otherwise. She wasn’t immune at all.

      She’d never believed in chemistry or destiny or any other such nonsense. But the more time she spent with Joel, the more she found herself questioning her beliefs. Rational or not—and she was pretty sure it was not—she was attracted to Joel Logan. Which was why she was determined to keep her distance from him as much as possible. She may have already committed herself to showing him around the following day, but that was going to be the extent of her involvement.

      “Do you have other plans for dinner?” Joel’s question interrupted her meandering thoughts.

      “Yes.”

      “With the fiancé?” Joel prompted.

      “No.”

      Joel didn’t take the hint. “What are you doing?”

      “Not that it’s any of your business,” Riane said, “but I told Sophie I’d be home to eat.”

      “What’s she making?”

      “Pot roast.”

      “Sounds better than anything room service has to offer,” Joel said hopefully.

      “I’m not inviting you to my house for dinner.” Although there was a part of her that wanted to do just that. She was intrigued by this man who’d appeared in her life seemingly from nowhere. She wanted to spend time with him, to get to know him. All she really knew was that he was a former cop who lived in Fairweather, Pennsylvania. These sparse details didn’t begin to satisfy her curiosity.

      Despite her curiosity, though, she was afraid. Not of Joel, but of her own responses to him. And it was this fear that held her back.

      “Please.”

      She sighed again. Although she knew it could be dangerous to spend more time with him, they wouldn’t be alone together. Sophie would be there.

      So she relented, not entirely unwillingly, to his request. “Dinner will be on the table at seven o’clock.”