“We’re still friends.” He cuddled her closer, and intended for the kiss to be light and affectionate. But he sank into her.

Her mind was going fuzzy when he turned to lay her back on the bed. Her arms were reaching up for him as she said, “What about the shower and the meal?”

“Later.”

It was later, and a great deal later, and they both ate like starving wolves. Here it was easy to fall back into friendship, to be two people who’d shared meals hundreds of times before.

Did you know Betsy Clooney’s whole brood’s down with the chicken pox?

Have you noticed Jack Brennan’s eyeing Theresa Fitzgerald now that she and Colin Riley have broken things off?

Between bites she told him of her sister Patty’s latest flood of tears over whether to have pink or yellow roses in her bridal bouquet. And they lifted a glass to toast the closure of the deal with Magee.

“Are you thinking he’ll send a man out to get the lay of the land and design the theater?” Brenna got up to let Bub in when he came scratching at the door.

“If that’s his plan, it hasn’t come down to me as yet.” He watched the cat slink over to Brenna to rub against her leg.

“Sure, it’s the only way it can be done correctly.” She considered another serving, then decided if she gave in to greed on that, she’d suffer. With a little regret, she pushed her plate away. “He can’t be sitting up in his lofty office in New York City and design what should be here in Ardmore.”

“And how do you know he has a lofty office?”

“The rich are fond of lofty.” Grinning, she kicked back in her chair. “Ask Darcy if lofty isn’t an aim when she finds the rich man she’s hunting for. In any case, they have to see what we are and what we have before they set in their minds what we’ll be.”

“I’ll agree with that.” He rose to clear the table. “I liked your design. Maybe you could draw it up a little more formally. We could give Aidan a look at it. If he likes it as I do, there’s nothing stopping us from passing it onto the Magee for his consideration.”

For a moment she simply sat. “You’d do that?”

He glanced over his shoulder as he ran hot water and soap into the sink. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“It would mean a great deal. Even if Magee laughs it off and tosses it aside, it would matter to me. I’m not an architect or engineer or anything that . . . lofty,” she decided as she got to her feet. “But I’ve always had a yen to have a hand in the designing and the building of something, from the ground up.”

“You get a picture in your head,” he said. “An empty field or lot and what you’d put on it right down to the fancy work.”