Page 38 of The Paradise Plan

“Oh, all right,” he said in a sweet-and-sour way.He leaned closer and closer, until Cass thoughthemight kiss her.“But, Cass, you’re not that old.”

“Older than you,” she said, her lips barely moving.“Right?”

“Probably,” he said.“But not much.”

“How much?”she asked.

“I don’t know how old you are,” he said.

“Forty-seven,” she said.

He nodded as he put a safer distance between them.It didn’t matter, because the spicy, ocean-y scent of his cologne had entered her nose and fired up her pheromones.His body heat seeped into hers through her palm, and she dropped it.

“I’m forty,” he said.“So not too different.”He turned and went up the ramp, leaving Cass cold and alone at the bottom of it.

“Mama,” Conrad called, and she spun back to him.How long had he been there?What had he seen?

“Yeah?”

“You’ve got to come see this guy’s outdoor kitchen.Bea says she’s never leaving.”He laughed, gestured her toward him, and ducked back inside.

Cass looked over her shoulder to Harrison, who chuckled.“Go on,” he drawled.“Go see my amazing outdoor kitchen.”

“I’m telling my friends at Supper Club next week,” she said.“And my kids.”

“That’s fine with me, sweetheart,” he said as he went past her with her mother’s antique desk in his hands.“You’re in charge here.”

Cass did like being in charge, and she started for the door.Now she just had to figure out how to be amazed by something she’d seen before, and it better be a good performance, because Bea had raised three teenagers and could smell a lie from fifty feet away.