Roland shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks. For the time being, that was the only way he could stop them from shaking. Glancing up at the stars, he drew in a deepbreath. What the hell had just happened in there? He and Lennox had simply stood there, staring at each other like they were the only people in the room.
He had to admit, his attraction had shifted into desire territory—big time! There hadn’t been anything normal with the degree of heat that had flowed between them just now. Anyone within ten feet had probably felt it.
She had to realize something had happened between them just now, too, didn’t she?
Tonight, he’d tried something different…and it had backfired on him. He’d decided to stop avoiding her, and engage in casual conversation, just to prove to himself that no woman alive could get him twisted in knots.
But it hadn’t taken long for him to discover that Lennox could do it with ease.
And that left him with a problem. How did he stop whatever was happening between them? He didn’t want to feel this way about any woman—not anymore.
Yet when he’d walked away from Lennox, he could still feel their heat flowing through him. How crazy was that?
The only good thing about this situation was that there was no reason for their paths to cross again any time soon. And if they did, well, he’d have better control of himself.
He had to.
A couple of weeks later…
LENNOX SOFTLY HUMMED ASshe slid a tray of cookies out the oven. She’d baked three dozen this time--the Perkins would love her.
She smiled, thinking of the couple who used to live in the condo across from hers. They had been the first people she’d met when she’d first moved to Charlottesville. Harry and Aggie Perkins had been the perfect neighbors and she’d been sad when they’d bought a house in the suburbs big enough to house their growing family.
God, she missed them. Harry, an engineer, was a man who could repair just about anything. Aggie was a nurse. Lennox had spent a lot of time with both of them, relaxing and chatting over delicious meals and wine. Delivering these cookies to them would be a good excuse for her to see them and to love on their four-month-old daughter, Oriel.
After placing the cookies on a cooling rack, she pulled out her phone to call Aggie. “Hello?”
“Hello, Aggie. Guess what I baked today,” Lennox said, grinning.
“Please say it’s your oatmeal raisin cookies. Please.”
Lennox threw her head back and laughed. “Yes. What are you guys doing later? I can drop them off.”
“Hey, save your gas. I can have Harry come pick them up.”
“Umm, are you sure you want to do that? You know what happened the last time you sent him to pick up cookies.”
“My goodness, how on earth had I forgotten about that?” Aggie said, chuckling. Harry had picked up two dozen of cookies, but by the time he got home, there’d barely been a dozen left.
“I guess I’d better come myself then,” she chuckled.
“You’ll do no such thing. I’ll bring them. Besides, I haven’t been out all day and I need to grab a few things from the grocery store.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
“Have your new neighbors moved in yet?”
“Not yet,” Lennox said, putting the cell phone on speaker so she could move around and start cleaning up her kitchen.
Harry and Aggie had sold their condo to an older gentleman, in his late sixties, two years ago. To welcome him to the neighborhood, Lennox had delivered cookies to him when he’d moved in. He had thanked her and introduced himself as Richard Murray, a widower and retired college professor.
Richard pretty much kept to himself and rarely got visitors. However, she knew he liked playing golf and would often see him leaving with his golf bag at least three to fourtimes a week. He had only lived in the condo a little over a year when he’d told her that he was moving to Cincinnati to be near his only son and daughter-in-law. The couple had recently given him his first grandchild. Within a month his condo had sold and he’d quickly left.
That had been a few months ago. Whoever had bought the place from Richard obviously wasn’t in a hurry to move in, since it was still vacant. That meant for now, she had the entire fifth floor to herself.
One of the reasons she had chosen this condo complex was for the location, which was adjacent to Charlottesville Historic Downtown Mall. With more than one hundred and twenty shops and thirty restaurants that were situated in historic buildings, everything was in walking distance. That made things convenient if she wanted to go to a movie, dine out, attend a play, or patronize any of the other venues.