The dark stubble on his cheeks informed her that he hadn’t shaved this morning. Hurriedly, she worked to absorb the remaining details of his appearance. . . . The piercing pale gray of his eyes. The blunt nose and determined lips. The weathered plane of his forehead. The vertical furrow between his brows. He looked like a man who’d been to war and lived to tell the tale.

“Dr. Grant.”

“Professor Montgomery.”

“Nice to see you again.”

“Nice to see you again, too.”

“You told me once that you like to mow your lawn.”

“And you told me once that you like hiking.”

“I guess neither of us was lying.”

He smiled. “What brings you to this part of town?”

“I get bored walking my neighborhood, so I frequently drive to areas of town I haven’t yet explored and walk other people’s neighborhoods,” she lied.

“You’re not carrying a purse.” His attention flicked down to her tennis shoes and back up. “So where’s your graphing calculator?”

She laughed. “I’m heartened to inform you that I actually can accomplish quite a bit of math in my head, so I keep my calculator near me most of the time but am not obliged to keep it with me all of the time.”

“You’re not afraid you might encounter a math problem you can’t solve in your head while out walking?”

“If I do encounter that type of problem while out walking, I’m confident that I’ll be able to remember it well enough to input it into my calculator at the first available opportunity.”

“Very brave.”

And there it was, that living, crackling, thrilling allure. And not because of his shirtlessness. Because of him. His quickness and understated humor. And also them. Their alchemy.

Very, very intriguing.

It was glorious to banter with him again. In fact, talking to him gave her the same feeling she’d experienced when she’d returned to Misty River from New England—the delight of coming home.

“Ah,” she whispered.

Wait. Had she said that out loud?

Ah what?” Sebastian asked. He could not believe that Leah Montgomery was standing in front of him. He felt like he had the first time he’d seen her inside his wrecked car—dazzled and stupid. His responses to her were much too big. Ridiculous. His heart was pounding, and his senses were rushing.

She’d dressed in a light blue workout top, yoga pants, socks that had pom poms at the back of her ankles above her tennis shoes. She’d pulled the front of her hair to one side and fastened it with a barrette. Exertion had turned her cheeks pink, and she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

“Ah, isn’t this summer heat wonderful?” she finished in answer to his question.

“Ah, isn’t this mountain air perfect?” he countered.

“It is.”

“Go on any doomed road trips recently, Professor?”