Free Disclosure of the Heart (The Heart Series) by Mary Whitney Page B

“David’s not there, so the place is actually clean for once.”
    “Oh…okay.” I clenched my bag, hoping I made the right choice.
    When we arrived at his car, snow covered it, so he told us to get in and get warm while he dusted it off.
    “I’ll sit in the back,” said Sylvia happily. “I don’t mind.”
    “Okay.” I felt like we were replaying our roles from 1993.
    Ever the gentleman, Adam opened the doors for us and shut us in. I huddled in my seat trying to get warm, though shivering had its benefit of releasing nervous energy. When he got in, he revved the engine for a second and then looked at me. It was déjà vu all over again. Adam and I together in the front seat of a car, only now the car wasn’t his high school Honda. Now he drove a sleek BMW.
    “Sorry about the cold leather. The seat warmer switch is on your left if you want it. The control for your side of the heat is on the dashboard.”
    “Thanks,” I whispered, feeling another urge to text Juan Carlos. While Adam drove and talked with Sylvia, I whipped out my phone and dashed off a carefully crafted message.
    Hi, sweetie. Having dinner with these two.
I’ll call you later. I love you.
    His reply soon popped up.
    Still drinking. Hope I can even talk later. Love you, mi reina.
    Somehow just checking in with Juan Carlos made me feel more at ease. I wasn’t hiding anything, or at least not much.
    When we got to Adam’s apartment in Dupont Circle, we first took off our wet coats and boots. Standing in his apartment in my wool socks, I felt more comfortable as I looked around the large open space that flowed from the kitchen to a dining and living area.
    “Your place is so nice,” I said.
    “That’s because I designed it,” said Sylvia.
    “ You picked out the art,” Adam said as he hung up our coats. “ I chose the furniture.”
    “What? We gutted the entire space, and I designed the layout and placed everything.” She grabbed my hand. “Come on. I’ll take you on a tour while Adam gets us some wine and starts a fire.”
    “Okay.” I laughed nervously. “But, Adam, please don’t go out of your way.”
    “Not at all. I was going to do it.” His smiling eyes for me morphed into a glare for his sister. “I didn’t need to be told.”
    Sylvia tossed her head and ignored him as she began to tell me about how she came up with the design. When she got to the mantle, she then went on about the painting she’d chosen to rest above it. I sipped the wine Adam had provided and stayed tuned in to Sylvia as best I could. After she finished, she announced, “Let me take you through the rest of the flat.”
    Oh God. Adam’s bedroom? I didn’t have time to object before she walked on, and I had to catch up with her. First she led me into the spare bedroom and its attached bath. Maybe if I knew more about decorating I would’ve been as impressed as she was with the Italian tile. When she led me out of the bedroom, I headed left to return to the living room. There was Adam standing in the hallway before me.
    Sylvia headed in the other direction and asked, “We can go in your room, right, Adam?”
    I met his gaze and really wanted to tell him he didn’t have to let us, but that might have sounded even worse than saying nothing.
    He simply said, “Sure.”
    He hadn’t sounded incredibly enthused, but he followed us along. Now I was really nervous as I entered his room. The cream-colored space had a large bay window with two leather chairs in a sitting area, and beyond that was a large alcove that looked to be a little home office. A king-sized bed sat in the middle of the room.
    Sylvia pointed to the art above the bed. “This is a very special print. The artist worked on it for months…”
    She continued talking, but I stopped listening. Adam’s bed was too much of a distraction. I let my eyes drop down to inspect the perfectly made blue duvet and matching shams. Adam’s bed—where every night he slept and probably did all sorts of