Free Something Wild by Toni Blake Page A

Kentucky, about an hour south of here. The land is covered with strip malls and fast food restaurants now, but back then, there was a silo, and acres of tall corn, and a tire swing that hung from the big apple tree in front of their house, just for Patti and me."
    Ryan himself had grown up in a rural farming community, and though Penny's memories of such surroundings sounded warmer than his own, it reminded him of good times. "My brother Dan and I had a swing, too, a wooden one. My dad sat down in it one day after we'd outgrown it and broke right through it."
    They shared a smile over Ryan's recollection, and he decided he certainly agreed with her grandfather's nickname for her, but how had they gotten off track so quickly? He determinedly wiped the grin from his face and returned his eyes to the computer, ready to move into the accounting program once and for all.
    An incredible sense of relief washed over him as he finally fell into full work mode, soon showing her the accounting elements he'd designed for the pub after leaving last night. He supposed his comfort came from having done this hundreds of times; working with clients had become second nature to him and explanations for each screen display rolled off his tongue with ease. But he didn't really care why, he only cared that it'd happened, that she hadn't distracted him with any more personal stuff, and that he'd finally started acting more professionally before anything could go awry.
    Every now and then, Penny uttered an "mmmhmm" or an "ah" or asked a question, and he made sure she understood the relevant features of each component before going to the next. Periodically, he asked her to give suggestions or point out things she disliked, taking notes and responding with suggestions of his own. By the time they'd walked through the screens he'd created, he felt a familiar sense of pride and satisfaction in his work.
    "All right then," he said, "we've got the payables and receivables programs roughed in, let's move on to payroll. Like yesterday, I'll want to look at your notes, hear your thoughts, and we'll discuss ideas and look at some templates."
    Glancing up, he saw her smile. "Dare I suggest a bathroom break?"
    Ryan leaned back in his chair with a sigh and slowly let a conceding grin spread across his face. "I guess that's not a totally unreasonable request."
    "And I, for one, am thirsty. Sure I can't tempt you?" She raised her eyebrows.
    Okay, maybe he had been a little rigid earlier—it was easier to see in retrospect. But now they'd proven this could still be done, they could still work together like two normal human beings, two mature adults, even after last evening's kisses. "All right. I'll have something cold."
    Penny got to her feet and padded from the room, and he had to admit, things truly seemed ordinary here. They were working well together as they had the other day, making good progress, and he was enjoying the interaction the same way he usually enjoyed client interaction. He might catch the occasional whiff of her hair now and then—what was that fragrance?—and he might notice the cute lilt in her voice when she caught on to how something worked, but overall, they'd fallen back into the roles of client and system designer with startling ease.
    "I made some lemonade before you got here," her voice echoed from the kitchen.
    "Sounds great." Peering at her hard drive resting upright on the floor beneath the desk, Ryan shrugged free of his suit jacket and got down on his knees. He started fiddling with the floppy drive where, sure enough, a diskette was lodged inside. It surprised him Martin couldn't have spent a little time making Penny's computer functional, but tomorrow, he'd bring a tool kit and take a closer look.
    "It's from my grandma's secret recipe," she called, still in the other room.
    "Your grandma has a secret recipe for lemonade?" he yelled back. "How can there be a secret to that?"
    He continued to poke and prod at the diskette as she