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hadn’t pictured her
wearing those loose-fitting shorts or the modest, dark-green cotton knit tank
top, either. The woman who’d turned him every way but loose last night looked
like a lady of whom even his mom would approve. Not that Julie wasn’t still
gorgeous and incredibly sexy, because she was.
    She gave him no hint of the erotic creature
in the ad he’d fallen in lust with, but part of him was glad. That image was
etched in his brain, and it didn’t bother him a bit that strangers who looked
at her wouldn’t see her that way.
    That surprised Jimmy a little. He’d pretty
much persuaded himself during his marriage that it turned him on to have other
men ogling Belinda with her tight, slutty outfits and in-your-face sexiness.
The last year with her had taught him a lot of lessons, though, and helped him
grow up a little, he supposed, as he bent and kissed Julie before taking her
hand and heading downstairs and out of the condo building.
    “You look great. Too good to be hanging out
with a big lug like me.”
    She laughed then stood on tiptoe and kissed
the ticklish spot where his neck met his shoulder. “I think you look pretty
good yourself.”
    He was glad he’d dug a clean polo shirt and
khaki cargo shorts out, instead of the t-shirt and exercise shorts that were
his usual casual attire. “I thought we’d have breakfast at one of the places
here on River Street and then check out the sights. I’m hoping you’ll show me
around. I’ve only been in Savannah a couple of months.”
    “I’d love to. This has always been one of
my favorite places. I grew up not too far from Savannah, left when I was
eighteen and moved back from Manhattan two years ago.For a
long time I wondered if I hadn’t just been running away, trying to escape bad
memories. But now I’m glad I did.”
    When she looked up at him, a soft smile on
her face, his heart practically stopped. “I’m glad, too.” He’d been comfortable
lusting after Julie, but now as he realized he wanted friendship, too,
something akin to panic gripped him. Idiot. You and Belinda used to be
friends, too.
    Quickly he changed the subject. “How about
some good old-fashioned Southern cooking?” he asked, spying the stone front and
cheery-red awning of a familiar café farther down the block.
    “I’m ready. Bernie’s is one of my favorite
places for brunch. I love their country ham and biscuits.”
    Picking up their pace, he led the way to
the small, quaint restaurant and settled them at one of the tables in front so
they could look out over the Savannah River.
     
    Somehow he’d had the idea that supermodels
ate like birds, but Julie surprised him and cleaned her plate while he called
for a second order of eggs and bacon. “Tell me about yourself.” When he met her
gaze from across the table, it struck him that he wanted to know all about what
made her tick. He cautioned himself not to get in too deep, but he had a
feeling that warning was likely to go unheeded.
    “As I mentioned before, I’m an old Georgia
girl. Born and raised near Macon.” Her smile wavered when she mentioned her
parents’ death in a car accident when she was seventeen, the fact she had no
close relatives left. “If they’d lived I imagine I might have dug my feet into
the Georgia clay, settled down and raised my own family within yelling distance
of home.
    “But I didn’t. Guess I was running from my
grief, but as soon as I got my high school diploma I bolted for New York City.
Applied with a modeling agency, got some good jobs, got married and divorced.”
    “So what brought you back?” Jimmy sipped
his coffee, tried to picture the man who’d have let a woman like Julie slip
through his hands.
    As if trying to figure that out for
herself, Julie stared out the window for a long time at the cobblestone street
and the boats moving slowly along the river. She lifted her cup, drank a little
tea then looked at Jimmy and spoke. “Homing instinct, I guess. I needed a new
scene,