He connected a call to her, then went to stand at his window in his wrinkled scrubs. Outside, the lights of Atlanta sparkled against a black backdrop of sky. He concentrated on a distant window glowing with yellow light as if, should he try hard enough, he’d be able to see her there.

Leah’s brows glided upward when she saw the identity of the incoming caller. Sebastian was calling her? Sebastian? “Hello?” She sounded woefully breathless.

“Leah, it’s Sebastian. How are you?”

“Very well, thanks. And you?”

“Doing well.”

The deep voice she’d heard a few nights ago in a dream curled around her like a warm silk blanket. “Still wearing the Susan B. Anthony T-shirt?” she asked.

“No. It was so tight I had to use a vacuum attachment to suck it off me when I got home.”

“The idea that ‘we, the people doesn’t mean we, the white male citizens’ has never been a comfortable one for men to wear.”

He laughed. “True.”

“I happen to love my T-shirt. I’m wearing it while grading papers at this very moment, in fact. Eminently comfortable.”

A pause of quiet. Why had he called?

“I wondered if you’d be interested in having dinner with me,” he said.

Her shocked mind took a ride on a Tilt-A-Whirl. “For what purpose?”

“For the purpose of enjoyment.”

What did that mean? She didn’t want to misunderstand. “Are you asking me out on a date?”

“I am.”

A thrill sizzled along her spine.

“Right after I met you,” he said, “I wanted to contact you, but I didn’t know your name. I couldn’t believe my luck when I ran into you at the school’s farmers market. Except, right after we started talking I learned that you were the Leah who Ben’s been interested in for so long.”

“Oh.”

“He’s talked about you since you started teaching at the school. When I discovered who you were to him, my hands were tied.”

“So you encouraged me to date him.”

“It seemed like the right thing to do. For everyone concerned.”

She tried and failed to wrap her mind around the idea that Ben and Sebastian could both be attracted to her.

“Ben saw us talking at the football game,” Sebastian said. “Afterward, he told me it would be fine with him if I called you and asked you out. Are you interested in going out with me?”

“No—that is . . . Yes.” She cleared her throat. “On one hand, I am interested because I’m attracted to you even though, as I told you weeks ago, I truly thought I was missing the attraction gene. On the other hand, no. I’m not interested because I refuse to come between you and Ben.”

“Ben has told me that our friendship will be fine.”