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fear of what grew inside her.
    Tom had always been her one sure thing. It wasn’t conceit to feel he worshiped her; he’d shown that in a hundred ways. She had to believe his love was still hers.
    Julie poured a glass of cold water from the fridge and carried it out to him.
    “Thanks, babe.” He drained the glass and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.
    “It’s awfully hot out here. You’ve finished mulching this bed. Why don’t you leave the rest?”
    He looked doubtful. “Leave it for who?”
    “I’ve been thinking. You’re right about hiring gardeners for the grunt work. I’ll call around tomorrow.”
    “Hallelujah.” He handed her the empty glass and started gathering up the gardening tools.
    Julie admired the muscles in his arms and back as he worked. My husband. My man. “Why don’t you get cleaned up and we’ll have lunch at The Shack?”
    “What about all those calories?”
    “I thought you had a plan for burning those off.”
    His grin melted her.
    * * *
    Before she opened her eyes, Annie heard Kate’s voice in another room. No doubt, she was on the phone, planning her next man-hunting safari. Sometimes Kate talked Annie into joining those ventures. Last winter, Annie had taken up country line dancing because Kate said the men who went to those dances weren’t jerks like the ones at the singles bars.
    Wrong! They were just jerks in cowboy boots. Men! She gasped. “Oh, my God. Tom .”
    Annie sat up, jolted wide-awake by a rush of excitement. A smile flashed across her face and then, just as quickly, vanished. She crumpled against the pillows. For a moment, she’d been sixteen, thrilling in the Sunday morning afterglow of a Saturday night date with the coolest guy in school.
    She was almost thirty. Too old to have that giddy feeling of love at first sight. That was nonsense.
    “Be sensible,” she whispered to herself.
    In the first place, Tom was probably a married man, and that made him ineligible.
    “Right, Annie?”
    Gary had been unfaithful throughout most—maybe all—of the seven years they were married. She didn’t think much of women who knowingly dated married men.
    “So, be sensible!”
    Annie wrapped her arms around a pillow and curled on her side. She couldn’t think of anything sensible about what happened to her last night. Something wild had happened. Something triggered by the touch of Tom’s hand. It excited her to think maybe he was a psychic. Or a witch. Could he have projected that vision into her mind?
    Was that Tom’s novel way to pick up women? She sighed again. He hadn’t actually tried to pick her up last night. But then, she’d missed him on his way out. Maybe he’d looked for her then. Oh, how stupid.
    “He wasn’t trying to pick you up with his wife in tow.”
    Annie closed her eyes and recalled the look on his face after the vision. He’d looked just as shocked as she felt. No, he hadn’t caused the vision, and he hadn’t expected it to happen either. This was no ordinary experience. It was something special for both of them. Annie had a link with Tom. Somehow she knew this. And that link meant that whatever happened between them was out of their control.
    She sat up again. He might not be married at all. What if he was single, or divorced, and the woman with him was just a casual date? Divorced was better. At his age, if he’d never married, he probably never would. Not that she was sure she wanted to marry again, but still . . . Then again, a divorced man came with a lot of baggage. Either way, she’d been wrong to assume he was married. He just couldn’t be.
    Feeling as if the ten thousand pieces of her jigsaw life had slid together perfectly, Annie floated out of bed and into the shower.
     
    Annie’s kitchen was aglow with sunlight when she walked in thirty minutes later.
    “Morning, sleepyhead,” Kate said.
    “Uh-huh.”
    Kate stood at the kitchen counter, skillet in hand. “Want some of my breakfast? I’ve got plenty.”
    “No way.”