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“Well, I am.”I crossed my legs, mostly to help calm the throbbing, but also to draw his attention back to my legs.“Have you thoughtaboutme?”

He looked at me as if I were nuts.“Do you honestly think I can concentrate on anything else?”he yelled.“You make working verydifficult.”

Well that was encouraging.“I haven’t stopped thinking about you, either.I was looking forward to seeing you again...I just didn’t think it would happen so soon.”Not that six and half months was soon.God no.It was entirely too long.“It’s beentorture.”

“You didn’temail.”

“You said it was for emergencies,” Ishotback.

I watched as he moved around the worktops, opening an industrial refrigerator, pulling out containers, bread, and a knife.“Then things have beengoingwell?”

That was a loaded question.“No, but they’ve been moving forward.Andyou?”

He half shrugged.“It’s really hard to stay in my office these days.Someone reminded me I have a lot to enjoy.”He shot me a wry grin that was damn nearboyish.

Fuck it looked good on him.Every single time he let the weight of the world melt away his hot factorquadrupled.

“But you’re still aworkaholic.”

“I am.”He closed the sandwich and slid it myway.“Eat.”

“How do you know I’lllikeit?”

He cocked a mischievous eyebrow.“Iremember.”

I took a bite.It was the exact same sandwich from our waterfall picnic.Cold chicken, mayo, green onions, lettuce, and a touch of mustard.It was a perfect midnight snack.All it was missing was passionate sex underthesky.

“Thankyou.”

He grunted again as he made a secondsandwich.

“Were you really going to go back?”I didn’t need to explain that I meant TheWesterly.

“I gave you my reservationnumber.”

I couldn’t count the number of times I’d looked at it over the months, wondering if he’d be there, wondering ifI’dgo.

“You live here all alone?”It was a lot of house for abachelor.

“Ido.”

“Is itlonely?”

“All thedamntime.”

Ancestral family home.I got it.But I alsodidn’t.“Why?”

He took a giant bite and let the question hang between us, all while studying me.“Are you asking why it’s lonely or why I live herealone?”

“Both.”

He scowled.“It’s lonely because until my father died this was a house full of people.All those people have either died or moved and now it’s just me, holding it all together.I live here because this is my home and if I’m going to maintain the Landry family legacy, I might as well doithere.”

I didn’t want to push too far too fast, but I also wanted to know everything now that there was nothing between us.I know that sounds pretty hypocritical considering how much I wasn’t sharing with him, but it was whatitwas.

“Is our being here a good thing or a badthing?”

He shrugged, looking a little lost.“It’s just a thing.”Then he cleared his throat.“How are you findingyourroom?”