“Nonsense. He’s a sweetheart. I’ve already been invited to Rex and Donna’s place next week. She said they’re planning a clambake. She grew up in Galveston, you know.”

“No, I didn’t know. I also didn’t know that this dinner seems to be a weekly thing.”

She patted his leg. “You’re not in the gang, Ben. We’re playing games next week. Sarah said I can bring you as my date if I want to.”

After a long silence, she cupped the side of his face and kissed his lips. “Stop worrying. You’re too young to be senile.”

He didn’t move. “Why did you do that?”

Her face was only a few inches from his, so she whispered, “Since you pulled off to park, I thought I’d give it a try. You want to touch my breasts?”

“No.” He straightened. “And we are not parking. I just pulled over to talk.”

She laughed. “So you don’t want to touch my breasts?”

“Where is this coming from, Professor Clark? Have I ever made an improper advance toward you or treated you as anything but a colleague?” He pushed aside the memory of bumping against her breast when he was coughing and the touch of her back when he directed her into his dad’s house.

“No, sir. You’ve been a perfect gentleman,” she snapped. “Let’s blame it on your father giving me ideas. Since we are parked out on a country road with no one around, I figured a kiss and a touch might get the ball rolling. To tell the truth, it’s been a while, so if you’re not interested, I’d understand. You do seem about as cuddly as a scrub brush right now.”

He sat perfectly still as he put the pieces together. “But you don’t even know me. Once you get to know me, you might not like me, and then we’d be in a mess.”

“Ben, we’re both in our forties. We don’t have that much time.”

He sat frozen. The evening had turned into something that he’d never meant it to be.

After a while she patted his knee again. “It’s all right. Just a misunderstanding. We’ll laugh about it tomorrow, then forget it ever happened.”

“I lied. I do want to touch your breasts . . . but it seems such an adolescent thing to do. I’m forty-two, far too old to be parking on a country road.”

“Drive me home, Dr. Monroe, and we’ll discuss this problem.”

He gave her a hesitant kiss, and then another, as if relearning an old skill.

As the kiss warmed, he moved his hand along her back, then to her waist, then up until he finally cupped her breast.

She placed her hand over his heart as if she knew what he wanted. What he needed. “About time you found me, Farmer,” she whispered.

Chapter 17 - Benjamin