The Danforths: Wesley, Ian & Imogene. Brenda Jackson

due to rush-hour traffic and was glad that he had. He didn’t want to think how long Jasmine might have been stranded had he not come by.

      “I hope there’s not a next time, too, but I still want to watch,” she said moving out of his way when he pulled out the jack and spare tire.

      A few moments later she regretted watching Wesley. She barely paid any attention to what he was doing. He had removed his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves. She couldn’t help noticing his powerful arms and broad shoulders and the way his slacks stretched tight across his muscular thighs as he removed the flat tire.

      Less than fifteen minutes later, he was done. “That about does it, but you should get this tire fixed sometime tomorrow.”

      “I will and thanks for your help. What do I owe you?”

      “Nothing,” he said, placing the flat tire in her trunk. “Just make sure you get this repaired tomorrow.”

      Jasmine nodded, then remembered she’d been planning to cook spaghetti for dinner. Wesley was used to eating the microwave kind and she wondered if he would appreciate eating the real thing for once. She made a quick decision to find out.

      “I’m cooking spaghetti tonight. I know how much you like it and wondered if you’d like to join me?”

      “For dinner?” he asked, raising a brow as he closed down the trunk.

      “Yes, for dinner. Nothing fancy, just spaghetti and a salad.”

      Wesley paused. He could think of no reason why he shouldn’t join her for dinner other than the one nagging him. He didn’t want spaghetti and a salad—he wanted her.

      “Yes, I’d like to join you for dinner. Thanks for the invitation.”

      “Thanks for your help just now. Do you want to follow me home?”

      He glanced down at himself. He looked rumpled and felt sweaty. “I’d like to go home, shower and change first.”

      “All right and I’ll go on home and start dinner.” A smile spread across her lips before she opened her car door.

      “I’ll follow you.”

      She lifted a brow. “Why? You fixed my tire.”

      “Yes, but I still want to make sure you get home safely. On rare occasions, spares have been known to go flat, too.”

      She nodded. “Should I expect you at my place in an hour or so?”

      The smile she gave him had hit him right in the groin. “Yes, that would be the right time.”

      He began walking back to his car as she started the engine to her vehicle thinking that that shower he intended to take needed to be a cold one.

      Wesley smelled the delicious aroma of spaghetti sauce the moment he walked into Jasmine’s home.

      “I hope you’re hungry since I made a huge pot,” Jasmine said, closing the door behind him.

      She tried to ignore how good he looked in a pair of jeans and a pullover shirt. She recalled the first time she had seen him in jeans—that night he had appeared out of the darkness while she’d been going through his trash. And then, like now, she thought he looked utterly sexy.

      “I’ve never known spaghetti to go to waste while I’m around,” Wesley said in an amused voice, breaking into her thoughts.

      Jasmine couldn’t help but smile. “Good. You can come straight to the kitchen where I have everything set up. I thought it would be nice to sit on my screened-in patio. Although I don’t have a view of the Savannah River like you do, I have a view of a lake that I think is rather nice.”

      “I’m sure it is.” His smile widened when he walked into her kitchen. It was almost as large as his but definitely better equipped. He liked the way she had things set up, including the way several pots hung from a pot rack.

      “You can wash your hands in that bathroom across the hall while I get things ready on the patio.”

      The cold shower hadn’t done him any good, Wesley thought as he went into the bathroom to wash his hands. He couldn’t get over how good she looked in a pair of shorts and a tank top. Like him, she had decided to dress comfortably for dinner. And yet the casual outfit still managed to turn him on.

      When he returned to the kitchen she was loading everything on a serving tray. “There’s a wine rack around the corner in the area that separates the kitchen from the dining area. How about selecting us a bottle?”

      “Do you have a preference?” he asked.

      “No, whatever you’d like.”

      He decided to select a red wine—one he knew was delicious with pasta. When he joined her on the patio, she had set the table and the spaghetti was served in a beautiful ceramic pasta platter. He smiled when he saw she had also baked a batch of garlic bread and he had a feeling it would taste as good as it looked.

      “Everything is ready, so sit down and help yourself.”

      He did, however, he waited for her to serve herself and say grace before digging in. “Umm…this is delicious,” he said moments later after taking his first forkful.”

      “Thanks.”

      “Who taught you how to cook?”

      “My aunt. I went to live with her for a while after my mom died. She loved to cook and together we would try out a lot of dishes.”

      “How long did you live with her?”

      “Less than six months. My father loved my mother very much and he took her death extremely hard. He needed to go through that period of mourning alone. I think the only reason he remarried was because he thought he was doing me a favor.”

      Although she didn’t say anything else, Wesley knew from what Jasmine had shared with him the other night that her father had unknowingly done her a disservice instead of a favor. It didn’t take much for him to gather that the woman her father had married was the stepmother from hell.

      “Is your aunt still living?”

      Jasmine shook her head. “No, she died five years ago.”

      The sadness in her voice touched him. “Other than your father, do you have any other family?”

      “No, he was an only child and my mother had that one sister who never had any children of her own,” she said thinking of her aunt Rena.

      Wesley said nothing for a moment, and then said. “Your mother was a very beautiful woman.”

      She met his gaze, surprised. “How do you know?”

      “The locket.”

      She didn’t say anything for a long moment as she looked into his hazel eyes. She had almost forgotten about the locket and that he still had it. “Yes, she was beautiful.”

      “You favor her.”

      Jasmine’s breath caught as their gazes held. For a moment she wasn’t sure how to respond. His compliment had caught her off guard.

      “Thank you,” she finally said softly.

      Wesley and Jasmine enjoyed the rest of their meal while discussing various topics, steering clear of Abraham Danforth and the press conference he’d held earlier that day. However, they did talk about the rumor that had been going around for years that Crofthaven was haunted.

      Wesley smiled as he finished off the last of his spaghetti. “I’ve spent a number of nights at Crofthaven and have never seen this ghost people claim is there. However, Reid and Jake swear it exists.”

      Jasmine lifted a brow. “Reid? That’s Abraham’s second oldest son, right? The one who’s getting married in a few months.”

      “Yes. Reid and Tina Morgan are getting married and everyone is excited about it.” He