Lilly leaned back into the chaise and listened to the tinkling of the wind chimes hanging from the redbud tree that grew next to the patio. She loved wind chimes, but Craig had hated them and wouldn’t let her hang them in her garden. She closed her eyes, glad the guests at the B&B seldom visited this quiet spot just behind the house.

She’d finally stopped asking herself how long she was staying here. When it was time to leave, she’d know. And today had been such fun. When she’d slid into home plate, Kevin had almost seemed proud of her, and at the picnic he hadn’t deliberately avoided her the way Liam had.

“Hiding out from your adoring public?”

Her eyes snapped open, and her heart skipped a beat as the man she thought about far too much came out the back door of the B&B. His hair was shaggy, his clothes the same rumpled khaki shorts and navy pocket T-shirt he’d worn earlier at the picnic. Like her, he hadn’t yet cleaned up from the softball game.

She gazed into those dark eyes that saw too much. “I’m recuperating from this afternoon.”

He sank into the cushions on the redwood chair next to her. “You’re a pretty good softball player for a girl.”

“And you’re a pretty good softball player for a sissy artist.”

He yawned. “Who are you calling a sissy?”

She stopped herself from smiling. She did too much of that when they were together, and it encouraged him. Every morning she told herself she’d stay in her room until he left, but she’d go downstairs anyway. She still couldn’t believe what she’d done with him. It was as if she’d been under a spell, as if that glass-enclosed studio had been part of another world. But she was back in Kansas now.

She was also mildly irritated by how much he’d enjoyed himself without her. If he hadn’t been laughing with Molly, he’d been flirting with Phoebe Calebow or teasing one of the children. He was a gruff, intimidating man, and the fact that they hadn’t been frightened of him somehow annoyed her.

“Go get cleaned up,” he said. “I’ll do the same, then take you out to dinner.”

“Thanks, but I’m not hungry.”

He gave a weary sigh and rested his head against the back of the chair. “You’re hell-bent on throwing this away, aren’t you? You’re not going to give us a fighting chance.”

She eased her legs over the side of the chaise and sat straighter. “Liam, what happened between us was an aberration. I’ve been alone too much lately, and I gave in to a foolish impulse.”

“Just time and circumstances, is that it?”

“Yes.”

“It could have happened with anyone?”