He shook his head. “Of course not. You did what you had to do.” He got to his feet. “Now I think I’d better go outside to make that call to Mallory. You might need a little time to curse me for an interfering son of a bitch. After that you’ll be back to your usual self and remember I made you a promise.” He moved toward the door.

“I’m almost back to myself already,” she said. “Just a little shaky. You’re right, the unexpected kicked my butt.” She added fiercely, “But you’d better keep that promise.”

“Absolutely.” He looked back over his shoulder and grinned. “I haven’t forgotten you threatened to punish me. I’m definitely taking it seriously.”

* * *

“You look much better. Not like you’ve been wrestling with monsters in the forest,” Maria said brusquely as she came into the bedroom where Lara was blow-drying her hair. “Which of course you have, but I’m trying to forget. Now, get dressed while I duck into the bathroom and freshen up. Tanner said that he was telling Mallory to serve dinner right away. I’m hungry, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know. I guess I am. I haven’t been paying attention.” She brushed her hair out of her eyes. “You can’t just come in here and start talking about having dinner. What happened with Tanner?”

“We had a talk. I told you I would. He’s…interesting.” She took the brush away from Lara and began to brush her hair. “I haven’t done this for a long time. You were too grown up. You didn’t want to bother me. Too damn grown up…You should never have had to grow up that soon.”

“Life is life.” Lara smiled at her. “But we made it through the bad times. Now we’re going to have a chance to see what we can make of the good ones.” Then her smile faded as she saw Maria’s expression. It made her uneasy. Her entire demeanor since she had come in that door had been different from what Lara had expected. “Or are we? You’re being very peculiar. You’re almost in tears over my damn hair. Why?”

Maria chuckled and brushed her lips over the top of Lara’s head. “I’ve always loved your ‘damn’ hair. It’s like silk. And maybe seeing you all tousled brought back memories of when you were a kid and I used to put it up in a ponytail.”

“Or maybe your talk with Tanner had some sort of weird effect on you.” Her gaze was narrowed on Maria’s face. “What did you talk about?”

“Not about your hair, I assure you.” She turned and was heading for the bathroom. “We hardly spoke of you at all. We were just trying to get to know each other and attempting to find common ground.”

“And did you?”

“No. We’re very different and anything common was defined with very broad strokes. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t find him fascinating and worth the time I was spending exploring.” She paused. “But I did learn one thing. You said he kept his promises. I think I’d agree with you in most cases.” She added wryly, “And he does like to be in control. You’ll have to be careful in the way you handle him.”