Now, with breakfast served and the dishes done, she prepared to drive to her mother’s and devote the rest of the morning to Maeve. Maggie would be annoyed to hear it, Brianna thought. But her sister didn’t understand that it was easier, certainly less stressful to simply meet their mother’s need for time and attention. Inconvenience aside, it was only a few hours out of her life.

Hardly a year earlier, before Maggie’s success had made it possible to set Maeve up with a companion in her own home, Brianna had been at her beck and call twenty-four hours a day, tending to imaginary illnesses, listening to complaints on her own shortcomings.

And being reminded, time after time, that Maeve had done her duty by giving Brianna life.

What Maggie couldn’t understand, and what Brianna continued to be guilty about, was that she was willing to pay any price for the serenity of being the sole mistress of Blackthorn Cottage.

And today the sun was shining. There was a teasing hint of far-off spring in the mild breeze. It wouldn’t last, Brianna knew. That made the luminous light and soft air all the more precious. To enjoy it more fully, she rolled down the windows of her ancient Fiat. She would have to roll them up again and turn on the sluggish heater when her mother joined her.

She glanced over at the pretty little Mercedes Gray had leased—not in envy. Or perhaps with just the slightest twinge of envy. It was so efficiently flashy and sleek. And suited its driver, she mused, perfectly. She wondered what it would be like to sit behind the wheel, just for a moment or two.

Almost in apology she patted the steering wheel of her Fiat before turning the key. The engine strained, grumbled, and coughed.

“Ah, now, I didn’t mean it,” she murmured and tried the key again. “Come on, sweetheart, catch hold, will you? She hates it when I’m late.”

But the engine merely stuttered, then died off with a moan. Resigned, Brianna got out and lifted the hood. She knew the Fiat often displayed the temperament of a cranky old woman. Most usually she could coax it along with a few strokes or taps with the tools she carried in the trunk.

She was hauling out a dented toolbox when Gray strolled out the front door.

“Car trouble?” he called.

“She’s temperamental.” Brianna tossed back her hair and pushed up the sleeves of her sweater. “Just needs a bit of attention.”

Thumbs tucked in the front pocket of his jeans, he crossed over, glanced under the hood. It wasn’t a swagger—but it was close. “Want me to take a look?”

She eyed him. He still hadn’t shaved. The stubble should have made him look unkempt and sloppy. Instead, the combination of it and the gold-tipped hair pulled back in a stubby ponytail fit Brianna’s image of an American rock star. The idea made her smile.

“Do you know about cars then, or are you offering because you think you should—being male, that is.”

His brow shot up, and his lips quirked as he took the toolbox from her. He had to admit he was relieved she wasn’t angry with him any longer.

“Step back, little lady,” he drawled in a voice thick with the rural South. “And don’t worry that pretty head of yours. Let a man handle this.”

Impressed, she tilted her head. “You sounded just as I imagined Buck sounded in your book.”

“You’ve a good ear.” He flashed her a grin before he ducked under the hood. “He was a pompous red-necked ass, wasn’t he?”

“Mmm.” She wasn’t sure, even though they were discussing a fictional character, if it was polite to agree. “Usually it’s the carburetor,” she began. “Murphy promised to rebuild it when he has a few hours to spare.”

Already head and shoulders under the hood, Gray simply turned his head and gave her a dry look. “Well, Murphy’s not here, is he?”

She had to admit he was not. Brianna bit her lip as she watched Gray work. She appreciated the offer, truly she did. But the man was a writer, not a mechanic. She couldn’t afford to have him, with all good intentions, damage something.

“Usually if I just prop open that hinge thing there with a stick”—to show him, she leaned in alongside Gray and pointed—“then I get in and start it.”

He turned his head again, was eye to eye and mouth to mouth with her. She smelled glorious, as fresh and clean as the morning. As he stared, color flushed into her cheeks, her eyes widened fractionally. Her quick and obviously unplanned reaction to him might have made him smile, if his system hadn’t been so busy going haywire.

“It’s not the carburetor this time,” he said and wondered what she would do if he pressed his lips just where the pulse in her throat was jumping.

“No?” She couldn’t have moved if her life had been threatened. His eyes had gold in them, she thought foolishly, gold streaks along the brown, just as he had in his hair. She fought to get a breath in and out. “Usually it is.”

He shifted, a test for both of them, until their shoulders brushed. Those lovely eyes of hers clouded with confusion, like a sea under uncertain skies. “This time it’s the battery cables. They’re corroded.”

“It’s . . . been a damp winter.”

If he leaned just the slightest bit toward her now, his mouth would be on hers. The thought of it shot straight to her stomach, flipped over. It would be rough—he would be rough, she was certain. Would he kiss like the hero in the book she had finished the night before? With teeth nipping, tongue thrusting? All fierce demand and wild urgency while his hands . . .

Oh, God. She’d been wrong, Brianna discovered, she could move if her life was threatened. If felt as if it had been, though he hadn’t moved, hadn’t so much as blinked. Giddy from her own imagination, she jerked back, only to make a small, distressed sound in her throat when he moved with her.

They stood, almost embracing, in the sunlight.

What would he do? she wondered. What would she do?

He wasn’t sure why he resisted. Perhaps it was the subtle waves of fear vibrating from her. It might have been the shock of discovering he had his own fear, compressed in a small tight ball in the pit of his stomach.

It was he who took a step back, a very vital step back.

“I’ll clean them off for you,” he said. “And we’ll try her again.”

Her hands reached for each other until her fingers were linked. “Thank you. I should go in and call my mother, let her know I’ll be a little late.”