Mr. Firth smiled at her from the other side of the door. "Evening, Mrs. Carter," he greeted her. His eyes surveying her lush body made Joan uneasy. She grew uncomfortably aware of her appearance and realized her hair must be a mess. She reached up to try to tuck stray handfuls of thick dark hair back into her bun. "Caught you napping, did I?" The twinkle in his eye seemed to convey more than his words. Joan was reminded of the instinctive distrust of the man she had felt as soon as she walked into his real estate office that morning.

Then, she had been unable to determine what it was about him she did not like. Only now did she realize it was the way his eyes made her feel. They made her uncomfortably conscious of the fact that he was a man and she a woman.

"Yes…" she stammered. Her manners made her motion him into the living room, though she was terrified he might somehow guess what she had been doing on the couch. "Won't you come in?"

"Sure will, ma'am. As soon as I bring in that trunk of yours. Old Will came back with the truck just before dinnertime, so I thought I might as well bring your trunk right on out to you. Thought you might be needing it. You'll feel right at home with your own things around you."

"Thank you. That was very kind." She did not ask him why old Will had not brought the trunk out. She thought she knew the reason. Though she realized another woman would be flattered that he was taking so much trouble for her, his attention only unnerved her. He was a handsome man, no more than ten years older than she. But, those eyes of his…