But for now he just liked seeing her in here. The dusky skin against the smooth blue walls, and the way the shimmer of light from the low fire danced in shadows.

She’d left her earrings on his dresser once. It had given him a hell of a jolt to see them there the next morning. They’d looked so…female, he remembered.

Yet he’d been foolishly disappointed when she’d removed them.

What that had to say about him, about things, he’d just have to figure out.

She put on his shirt against the light chill of the room and walked over to her purse.

“I’m going to buy you a half dozen flannel shirts,” Brody decided. “Just so I can see you walking around naked under them.”

“I’ll take them.” She sat back on the bed, and dropped an envelope on his bare chest. “And these are for you.”

“What?” Baffled, he sat up, tapped out the contents. The two airline tickets only increased his confusion. “What’s this?”

“Two tickets on the shuttle to New York. Next Friday. One for you, one for Jack.”

He eyed them, then eyed her. Cautiously. “Because?”

“Because I really want both of you to come. Have you ever been to New York?”

“No, but—”

“Even better. I get to introduce it to both of you. The director of my former company called me earlier in the week,” she explained. “They’re putting on a special performance—one show only, next Saturday night. It’s for charity. There’ll be several selections from several ballets performed by different artists. He’d asked me to participate some time ago, but I passed. So much going on, and it’s all but running into the opening of my school.”

“But now you decided not to pass.”

“The dancer who was to perform the pas de deux from The Red Rose—that’s a ballet Davidov first performed with his wife when they were partners—is out with an injury. It’s not career-ending, thank God, but she can’t dance for at least two weeks. That’s put her out. He’s asked me to fill in.”

Simple, she thought. It was all very simple. And she wasn’t going to give Brody any wiggle room.

“I’ve danced this part several times. Fact is, it’s what he asked me to perform originally. So when he called, I didn’t want to say no. Then, of course, he talked me into doing another segment from Don Quixote. I should leave Monday to get in shape for it, but I couldn’t shuffle everything, so I’m leaving Tuesday.”

He felt a little twinge in the gut at the thought of her leaving again. “You’ll be great. But listen, Kate, I appreciate the gesture, but I just can’t grab Jack and take off to New York like that.”

“Why not?”

“Well, work, school, for starters. A new puppy for another. Your basics.”

“You can leave after school on Friday, and be in New York before dinner. We can stay at my sister’s. Saturday you can see some of the city, maybe take Jack to the top of the Empire State Building. Saturday night, you come to the ballet. Sunday, we see a little more of the city, go have dinner at my grandparents, catch the late shuttle back. Everyone’s at school or work Monday.”