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to?”
    â€œMaybe some day, but now I have to make a living and I’m establishing roots. After all, this is where I was born and raised. Don’t you feel that way about where you came from?”
    He shrugged. “I think a career path can lead away from roots. If you want to become a resort manager, you could end up on a tropical island.”
    Maybe he felt as if he’d shared too much personalinformation with her last night because he hadn’t answered her question. “I can’t picture myself leaving Montana. I feel grounded here.” She knew that mostly had to do with her mother and her daughter, but he didn’t need to know that. “Have you traveled much?” she asked, curious about his life…curious about what being wealthy meant.
    â€œI traveled before college, backpacked through Europe that summer.”
    â€œYour parents let you do that when you were so young?”
    â€œLet’s just say I was a responsible eighteen-year-old, and at eighteen my mother and stepfather couldn’t really stop me. I needed to get away and that was the way I chose to do it.”
    â€œI bet they worried about you the whole time you were gone.”
    â€œMy mother was busy managing my father’s company. Her marriage to my stepfather was still fairly new. I didn’t feel they’d miss me.”
    â€œBut they did.”
    â€œI could tell my mother did by the way her face lit up and she hugged me when I got home. What about your parents? Do they live in Thunder Canyon?”
    This was territory where she didn’t want to go, but she took a few footsteps in. “My mother does. She’s an elementary school teacher. But my father left when I was five and we never saw him again.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” Dillon said sincerely. “I know how hard it is to lose a parent, no matter how that happens.”
    She wanted to touch him now, the same way he had touched her. She longed to slip her fingers through the wave of hair on his forehead, or touch the line of his jawthat seemed so strong and determined. But she knew she should do neither. She knew she should back away.
    She actually did take a step back. “I have to start my workout so I can get to the office on time.”
    â€œI won’t keep you, then. I’ll see you later.”
    â€œLater,” she agreed, then headed for the StairMaster. She needed more than a sedate yoga routine today. She needed to expend some real energy. That way she could forget how Dillon’s thumb had felt on her cheek. She could forget the way his body turned her on. She could forget the way she’d felt when he’d held her in his arms.
    Â 
    Late that afternoon, Erika studied the firmed-up details for Frontier Days. She found she accomplished more when Dillon wasn’t in his office. His presence distracted her no matter how she tried to focus. That was unusual. She was usually good at focusing.
    She heard the light footsteps in the hall and looked up when Stacy Gillette strolled in.
    Dillon’s “friend”—that’s how Erika thought of her—stopped at her desk. “Is Dillon in?”
    â€œNot right now. He’s in a meeting upstairs. Would you like me to page him?”
    Stacy didn’t seem perturbed. “No. I’ll see him soon enough.”
    A dinner date tonight?
    As Stacy left the reception area, Erika told herself once more she shouldn’t care what Stacy and Dillon meant to each other. But she did.
    Time to focus again.
    Turning to the computer, she printed out the schedule of events for Frontier Days. She was lifting the last page from the machine when she heard Dillon’s bootfallsand took a deep breath as he strode in. Right away she noticed the grim expression on his face. His gaze met hers when he stopped by her desk.
    â€œIs something wrong?” She didn’t know why her voice wobbled a little but it did.
    â€œWe have a big problem. I