Gemma stepped away from Mike. “Sorry, I—”
“Yes, definitely,” Mike told his wife. “And the only way for you to win me back is to start going to the gym with me every morning.”
Sara walked between them to leave the room. “In that case, I hope you two have a great time. You can visit your son on alternate weekends.” She went down the stairs.
“She isn’t angry, is she?” Gemma asked.
“Not at all.” Mike put his hand on Gemma’s shoulder, and she knew he was checking out her deltoid.
“Soft,” she said.
“Absolute mush. Maybe this afternoon . . .”
“Gladly,” she said, and smiling, they went downstairs.
In the kitchen, Mike gave Gemma a glass of juice. “No carbonation, no sugar.”
“And no flavor,” Tess said.
“Did you meet my baby sister?” Mike asked.
She looked from one to the other. It took a moment, but she could see the resemblance.
“Tris is looking for you,” Tess said. “Are you two an item? Have you thrown out Colin already?”
Mike looked at his sister. “You’d better back off of her. She can take you down.”
“I think I’ll find Tris,” Gemma said and left the room, drink in hand. When she went outside, she saw more garden, more lawn, more trees, and close by were several old buildings that she knew had once been part of a plantation. In the shade of a big tree was a huge stainless steel grill. Tris was standing by it, talking to a tall, handsome man who was holding a pair of tongs.
“Hey!” Tris called when he saw Gemma. “Come meet Luke.”
“He’s the author you’ve never heard of,” said a voice to her right. She didn’t need to look to know it was Colin, but she did turn. Like she had to breathe, she had to know how he felt about what had taken place between them.
It took only a glance to see that he didn’t remember what had happened. He smiled at her as though she were his sister, fondly, even protectively, but certainly not with any adult, male-female interest.
Of all the things she’d imagined in the last week, that Colin wouldn’t even remember what had happened had not been one of them. The red hot heat of the anger that surged through her was something new. She’d never before felt anything like it—but she was determined not to show it. She took a few breaths, then looked back at Luke. “Actually,” she said as she turned so Colin was out of her line of vision, as she couldn’t stand to look at him, “I read your first book.” She went toward Luke, her hand extended. “I loved it. Your research was excellent.”
“A couple of guys at the college look over my manuscripts. They’re sticklers for perfection. If I get even a shoe buckle wrong, they let me know.”
“Did you meet Mike?” Tris asked.
“He greeted me with a fist aimed at my head.”
Luke looked concerned, but Tris laughed. “So what did you do?”
“Ducked, of course, then I came back at him with a left uppercut.” She demonstrated.
Through this exchange, Colin had been left standing, as excluded as though he weren’t there.
Gemma kept her back to him as she looked at the grill. “What’s cooking?”
Luke was looking over Gemma’s head at Colin, whose face showed his bewilderment at having her back turned to him. “Nothing yet,” Luke said, “but Mike ordered the most organic of the organics from Ellie. Have you met her?”
Before Gemma could answer, Colin stepped forward. “I introduced her to Ellie.”
Gemma still couldn’t stand to look at him. “Tris and I had breakfast together at her store. I had some divine chocolate concoction.”
Gemma’s refusal to include Colin in the conversation was now so pronounced that Luke quit looking puzzled and showed his amusement. “So Gemma,” Luke said, “Tris was telling me about some magic Frazier thing. What is it?”