A baby grand piano dominated the living room to her left, and she crossed to it. “Do you play?” She trailed her fingers over the keys.

“Occasionally.” He was leaned up against the doorsill, watching her. “Do you?”

“No.” Lina bent down to study a black-and-white photograph on a side table of a teenage Nick and an older man on a sailboat. “Your father?”

“Yes.”

“You look like him.” She straightened and turned back to him, her heart rate accelerating as she took in his casual stance, his shoulder leaned against the doorsill, one hand pushed into the pocket of his shorts. He seemed to grow more handsome every time she saw him.

“Would you like something to drink? Water, Coke, wine?” He pushed off the wall, leading her into his large kitchen, which encompassed the back of the house.

“Water would be nice. Oh, I love it.” Lina stepped to the window, relieved to find her nerves finally settling as she looked out at a private patio overflowing with flowers and plants. “May I take a closer look?”

“Please.”

The patio, which was the width of the back of the house, was surrounded on three sides by seemingly every type of flower that bloomed in the Mid-Atlantic.

“It’s beautiful,” she told Nick when he joined her.

“It’s all the previous owners’ doing. I just try not to kill them. Do you have a garden?” He was standing so close she could feel the heat emanating from his body and had an urge to lean back into him.

“I do. Several. It’s kind of my passion or therapy.” She followed him to a small round table. “I spend hours tending to them. The time just disappears.”

“I’m sure they’re beautiful.” His eyes traveled over her face. “What’s going on here?” He trailed his finger over the skin below her eye. She caught her breath at the unexpected jolt of attraction.

“I saw her. She was at the wedding we attended. I can’t stop picturing them together. I’ve barely slept in two days.”

“I’m sorry.”

“How can I love him and hate him at the same time?”

“Life isn’t that simple. It’s not all black-and-white.”

“I wish I hadn’t seen her. I shouldn’t have gone.”

“Would you rather live in denial? I know it’s not easy, but it is the reality.”

“Have you ever had an affair?”

“No.” He met her eyes.

“Would you?”

“Sleep with a married woman?”

“No. Cheat on your wife.”

He reached out and pushed a few tendrils of her hair back behind her ear. “I would never have cheated on you, Lina.” He let his fingers trail down the side of her face, his eyes never leaving hers. “He must have been temporarily insane.”

She caught her breath. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what? Tell you what an idiot I think your husband is?”

“Don’t say that.”