She burst out laughing but left her hand where it was. Inadvertently his tongue had touched her fourth finger and left a tiny spot of skin damp at the knuckle. It seemed to burn now as he studied the diamond and fingered it with thumb and index finger. He glanced up and bestowed that teasing little-boy grin. "Some guys have all the luck."

Reluctantly she withdrew the hand and began eating again. But she could feel his eyes on her time and again in between the moments of attention he gave to his plate.

"So, when's your big day?" he asked.

"Only three months away. The third Saturday in June."

"Ah, a June wedding, no less."

"Yes, we've had the date picked out for almost a year."

"You and-?"

"Paul Hildebrandt."

"Paul Hildebrandt," he repeated thoughtfully, then filled his mouth with potato salad. When he'd swallowed, he studied her askance. "So, what's he like?"

"Oh, he's…" She drew circles on her plate with a celery stick. "He's ambitious and extremely intelligent, and very easy on the eye." She sensed that Joseph Duggan had stopped chewing, so quirked a quick peek at him from the corner of her eye.

"Naturally," he grunted sardonically, "he would be good-looking."

"But then, maybe I'm biased. You'll meet him tomorrow, and you can see for yourself."

"He'll be at the wedding?"

"Yes, though he only knows Sandy and Mick through me. He wasn't part of my old college crowd. I met him after I graduated."

"From the University of Minnesota?"

"Uh-huh. I went there, too, at the same time as Sandy and Jeanne and Larry and some of the others."

"That makes you…" He squinted an eye while doing mental calculations. "Twenty-four years old."

"Twenty-five. And how old are you?"

"Twenty-seven."

"And I take it you're not married, nor considering it?"

"Absolutely not."