Free Any Thursday (Donovans of the Delta) by Peggy Webb

they left the waterfront.
    Hannah looked back at the cozy little place and was filled with a sweet nostalgia. The tender way Jim had held her, the way his eyes had deepened when he’d looked at her, the way his voice had wrapped her in velvet—all came rushing over her. She hadn’t allowed herself to feel so much in a long, long time. Maybe too long.
    She wished she could press the evening and put it in a scrapbook.
    Jim was unusually quiet as he drove her back to the country club for her van. It was a comfortable silence, and she discovered that she liked it. There was a great difference between the quietness of being alone and the quietness of a shared moment. In her cabin in Alaska she’d had years of being alone, and she’d always believed she wanted it that way. Now she wondered.
    “I wish the evening could last forever, Hannah.”
    With a start she realized they were in the parking lot beside the clubhouse.
    “You sound as if you really mean that, Jim.”
    “I do.” He took her hand and lifted it to his lips. “I’ve discovered that romancing you is just as much fun as sparring with you.”
    Her breath caught at his choice of words. “Was it romance?”
    With one arm he pulled her close, so close she could feel his warm breath against her temple. She saw the sparks ignite in his eyes. He was going to kiss her. She could almost taste his lips on hers.
    “It might have been—” Abruptly he stopped speaking and pulled back from her. She felt the distance he put between them. “It might have been,” he repeated, “if you were the girl of my dreams.”
    Was it hope that shriveled inside her at his words? Don’t be ridiculous.
    “How fortunate for both of us that I’m not.” She jerked open the car door and plunged out into the night.
    “Hannah. Hannah! Wait!”
    She ignored his calls. She probably should turn around and thank him. For a giddy, foolish moment she’d been dangerously close to making the same mistake she’d made with Rai.
    She slammed the door of her van and revved the engine. The tired old motor sounded like a polar bear with a toothache and was loud enough to wake everybody in Greenville, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to be home and out of Jim Roman’s sight.
     o0o
    By the time she got home, she’d cooled off enough to think straight. What she needed was to forget about the unexpected glow Jim Roman lit inside her and to follow through with her original plan—seduce him and forget him. Once and for all she needed to prove to herself that she was in charge of her life and that no man could ever take that from her again.
    Although the air-conditioning was running full force, she felt the need for some fresh air. She opened her bedroom window and sat on the windowsill, leaning out so she could breathe the night air and glimpse the stars. The peace of the evening was in direct contrast to the turmoil inside her.
      Ahhh, Jim. Why do you make me feel this way?
    Far in the distance she heard the sounds of a car. He was coming. The moonlight lent a magic to the moment so that the dusty rented car seemed to be a glorious chariot and Jim a mighty warrior returning from battle. Hannah leaned farther out the window to get a better view.
    Jim still wore the toga with the air of a man who didn’t care what the rest of the world thought. As she watched, he absently patted his hips, then reached inside the car and pulled out a pipe. She had never seen him smoke. Her brother Paul had once told her that he smoked his pipe only when he needed to do some serious thinking.
    What was Jim thinking? Was he shaken by the same feelings that raged through her? Was he replaying every kiss, every touch, every look they’d shared, just as she was? She envied him his pipe. It gave him something solid to hold on to.
    Hannah stayed at the window until Jim started toward the house and disappeared under the eave of the front porch. She imagined the way the front door creaked when he came through,