When he didn’t interrupt her ice cream inhaling to intrude with conversation, she piped up. “Did you hear the fire truck siren a couple hours ago?”

“Yup.”

“I set that fire.”

“Did you now?” He didn’t lean over to clean up the dab of Griff’s Secret on her cheek, but man, he wanted to.

“I’m not sure what street it was on. Or where it was. In fact, I didn’t have any idea I’d set the fire until an old busybody four doors down came storming into Louella’s kitchen to track me down. So, if that’s why you stopped by-to hear it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak-now you’ve got it direct from me. The fire was all my fault. I did it. Fire setting’s in my blood. I’m nothing but trouble. The only reason I came back to town was to cause trouble.”

“Thanks for sharing.” Okay. He couldn’t stop himself. That bit of ice cream on her chin was too tempting to ignore. Her eyes shot to his when she felt the touch of his finger. His eyes shot clear-cut communication right back.

So. He didn’t have to worry anymore that she didn’t feel the same electric click that he did. Both of them knew-speaking of fire-that there were potentially explosive sparks.

“I took one look at you,” he said, “and before I had a clue about all that history, I just knew, right off that bat, that you were a wicked, wicked woman.”

“Watch it. A compliment like that could bring tears to my eyes. Most men who first meet me seem to immediately figure out I’m a pretty plain old ordinary schoolteacher.”

“Plain old ordinary? That never crossed my mind. I took one look and thought there’s a breath of fresh air in this town. A gorgeous, sexy woman, who can make a T-shirt look like designer clothes, has eyes a man could drown in, with character and mystery surrounding her like magic.”

She almost choked on the last spoonful of ice cream. “All right, all right. You know I’ve been here a couple days, so as you might have guessed, I already know your story. You charm every female that’s ever crossed your path-whether they’re two or ninety, married or single. You’ve gotten a marriage proposal from every single woman in a three-county radius-”