A contemporary I’m working on…side project, dunno what I’m doing with it yet.

The last thing she needed right then was to see David Coltraine.

On top of everything else.

The absolute last thing.

His eyes, darker than the darkest chocolate, stared into hers. His face, not quite as a pretty as he’d been ten years ago, was shadowed with more than five o’clock shadow and she suspected it had been a few days since he’d used a razor.

The shock of seeing him rolled over her and for a few seconds, all she could do was stare.

A smile tugged at his lips as he held her gaze. Slowly, she straightened, and aware of the fact that her hands were trembling, she slid them off the table and into her lap.

There had a been a time when she wouldn’t have been able to look at him without blushing, talk to him after what had happened without crying—that had changed. But she couldn’t keep her hands from shaking, and she’d be damned if she let him see.

She needed to say something, though. Had to, because if she didn’t…