“Kissing? It’s usually a prelude to the other part.” He bent toward her.

She pushed him away. “To fill the house? You said ‘we.’”

With a sigh, he fell back onto the mattress. “Too soon, isn’t it? I did that the first time. Made up my mind right away. Isn’t there a saying about that? Marry in haste, repent at leisure. But this time, I don’t think I’m making a mistake.”

“This time?” she whispered. “Marry?” She sat up, pulling on her shirt, then her jeans. She didn’t bother with underwear. Her sandals went on quickly and she stood up. She looked down at him. He’d pulled his shirt across his hips but most of him was nude. He looked very good. So good that Cait’s stomach lurched at having to leave him.

But she had to. “I’m not...” She inhaled deeply. “I don’t want to get married. Ever. Sorry I misled you. This was fun but this is it. No more.” She didn’t give him a chance to reply but ran from the house and got into her Jeep and spun out of the driveway.

Coop fell back against the mattress. He had no idea what the problem was. Yet again, he seemed to have done something wrong but he didn’t know what.

It was a while before he saw the bra and underpants she’d left behind. He picked them up. Plain white cotton. As sensible as Cait was. Did he leave them there or give them back to her? When he stood up and pulled on his jeans, he saw the box tucked behind the mattress. He sure hoped it was one of Cait’s emergency meals! After the fiasco of the naked parade, he’d been too timid to face the laughter at Gresham’s for lunch.

But the box didn’t contain food. It was photos and papers. He started to close it but on top was a black-and-white photo of two young men. One was Adam Hatten and Coop guessed the younger one was his brother, Robbie, the one who’d died in Vietnam.

Why was Cait looking at them? He’d been in Mason long enough to have heard of the coolness between Adam Hatten and Miguel. Had she hidden the box in the house so her father wouldn’t see them? But why did Cait want to look at them?

He spread the photos out on the old mattress and looked at them more closely. By the third picture of young Robbie Hatten, Coop saw the resemblance between Cait and the young man. Same eyes, same nose, same little bend in their mouths. There was a picture of Robbie with a woman he assumed to be his mother. They looked very much alike. If Cait were in the photo, people would marvel at the family resemblance. Three clones.