Evan

“I did bruise them pretty badly,” Evan said miserably.

“She bruised them by trying to fight you and falling out of bed,” Harden reminded him harshly. “She was half your size and all bones, and a terrified virgin into the bargain. Anna is a big girl, tall and sturdy and voluptuous. She’s much more your type.”

“I don’t want Anna!” Evan returned.

“Suit yourself. She’ll probably marry the honorable physician and have ten kids.”

“If that’s what she wants.” His blood ran cold at the thought of Randall giving her children. He stuck his hat over his eyes and walked out of the room.

Harden, watching him, shook his head. He couldn’t talk to Evan anymore. The older man was running scared, even if he wouldn’t admit it. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to make a mess of not only his life, but Anna’s as well.

In the days that followed, Evan noticed a difference in his life. He went to town, and there was no more Anna peering over his shoulder in the hardware store or peeking out of her mother’s office window to grin and wave at him. He went to a local social gathering, and Anna hadn’t begged an invitation so that she could flirt with him. He took the precaution of taking Nina with him, just in case, but it hadn’t been necessary.

He should have been jubilant, but somehow it wounded him that Anna didn’t want him anymore. All his arguments against the relationship didn’t help.

Two weeks after the party, Anna was shopping at the local boutique when Nina danced in, wafting expensive perfume and looking on top of the world.

“Well, hello!” she greeted Anna, smiling. “So Evan did finally beat you off! We didn’t see a sign of you at the Andersons’ get-together night before last! He spent the first few minutes peeking around corners in case you showed up. You really gave him a complex.”

Anna felt sick at the way Nina had put it. “Yes. Well, I’m devoting myself to Randall these days.”

“The doctor with the wandering eye, hmm?” Nina mused, fingering one of the more expensive dresses in the shop. “He won’t be easy to hold, I’m afraid. I don’t suppose you know he took Cindy Grayson to the swimming party at the Fords’ Monday? Or that she didn’t get home until daylight?”

Anna glared at the older woman. “Is all this malice really necessary? You’ve got Evan. What more do you want?”

Nina’s delicate eyebrows levered up. “I haven’t ‘got’ Evan at all,” she said. “He only asked me out to keep you away from him. He said he’d do anything to scrape you off.” Her eyes darkened as they studied Anna haughtily. “You should have known that his type of man doesn’t like being chased. You cut your own throat.”

“Well, he’s safe now,” Anna said, almost choking.

Nina shrugged. “I doubt he’ll believe it. Not that I mind,” she added cattily. “Because the longer he feels you’re a threat, the longer I’ll have with him. He’s quite something in bed,” she said deliberately, watching Anna blush.

Anna left the dress she was looking at and went out the door of the boutique as if her jeans were on fire. Nina watched her for a minute and then turned back to the dress racks. That had been easy enough. She didn’t like the way Evan was preoccupied since Anna’s defection. Only if Anna was kept away would Nina have a clear shot at Evan. The fiction of sleeping with him seemed to do the trick, though. She was actually humming by the time she left the shop.

For the rest of the afternoon Anna barely knew what was going on around her. She left early and went to the Taylor Gallery.

Brand Taylor was elderly, with a keen eye for art and a thorough knowledge of the market for it. He’d known Anna since she was a child, and he’d followed her interest in art with pleasure.

“I’ve been hoping you might approach me for a job one day,” he told her honestly when she asked about it. “I’m here alone, and it’s a bit of a grind sometimes. It would be nice to have an assistant. You have an eye for detail, and I can teach you how to evaluate paintings, how to predict the market. But it will be hard work. Nothing like sitting in your garden and painting.”

She smiled. “I’d like to try it, nevertheless.”

He nodded. “All right. When can you start?”

“Monday,” she said. Her mother had never really needed her. A job had been created for her, but they both knew she was redundant.

“Won’t Polly mind?” he asked.

She shook her head. “On the contrary, I imagine she’ll be delighted.”

Polly was delighted and surprised. “I didn’t think you’d want to leave the office,” she admitted.

“Because Evan spends a lot of time there,” Anna murmured dryly. “That’s the very reason I want to leave. If I’m going to let go, I need to do it wholeheartedly. I’m very fond of Mr. Taylor, and I do like the idea of a career.”

“I’d hoped you might think of marriage as one,” Polly said quietly. “God knows, I’d have done that if your father had been able to settle down with me. He was too much a wanderer, though. He still is.”

“You’ve never really dated anyone else,” Anna ventured.

“Neither has he,” Polly said with a smile. “Maybe someday he’ll get it out of his system and come home. I never stop hoping. Meanwhile, I have a career I enjoy and I’m making gobs of money.”

“That’s what I want to do,” Anna said seriously. “I want to do something useful with my life. Marriage—maybe someday. But not yet.”

“Good girl. You’re young. You have plenty of time.”

“Plenty,” she echoed. Her eyes were sad, but she wasn’t going to moon around the house. “How about going out to eat tonight?”

“Delightful,” Polly agreed. “The Beef Palace?”

Evan’s favorite hangout. Anna shook her head. “How about that new Chinese restaurant, for a change?”

Polly smiled her approval. “Nice. Very nice.”

As they were leaving the restaurant that night, talking animatedly about Anna’s upcoming new job, Evan spotted them as he drove past with Nina. Odd, Anna eating Chinese food. He was sure she didn’t like it.