She was never certain if he was happy to see her or if anyone would’ve done after the long day alone.

“He said the keys you’re looking for are in the bedside table drawer next to your pleasure devices.” Dan held the phone away from his ear as the person on the other end screamed so loud that Kara could hear her. “Don’t shoot the messenger.” He grinned at her, flashing the dimples she found irresistible. “Those were his exact words.” Dan continued to placate the woman on the other end of the line for another five minutes before he ended the call. “That, right there, is why I hate handling divorces.”

“I didn’t think you did divorces.”

“I don’t, usually. But after I helped Tiffany Sturgil with hers, I’ve been in hot demand around here.”

“I thought her ex-husband was the island lawyer.”

Dan scratched at the stubble on his jaw. Though he wrote with his left hand, he shaved with his right, which was why Kara had been helping him with that, too. “He is, but since the town council meeting when Blaine told off Jim, his business has been way down. I’ve been flooded with calls.”

“You don’t have time to be taking new cases with your book due.”

“I know, Mom, but Tiffany asked me to help out her friend, so I did.”

This was said with a shrug and the charming grin that Kara had fallen victim to the night he’d taken her out and ended up in her bed. “Are you ready to eat?”

“I’m starving. I thought you’d never get here.”

“Sorry to keep you waiting, but I do have a business of my own to run, you know.”

He got up off the couch slowly and painfully.

Since she couldn’t stand to see him in such agony, she looked away and busied herself with getting dinner on the table.

His hand on her back made Kara freeze with surprise. He hadn’t touched her since the morning after their night together.

“I know you have a business to run, and all I meant was that I was looking forward to seeing you.”

“Oh.” She turned to face him, taking a careful study of the healing cuts and bruises on his stunning face. “You were?”

“Of course I was. Why would you think otherwise? I live for the time with you every day.”

Kara stared at him, wondering if she’d heard him correctly.

“Why are you so surprised?”

She hated the way he could see right through her. That had been a source of aggravation from the first time she met him the winter before at Luke and Sydney’s house. He’d undone her from the very start. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”

Dan took her hand and brought it to his lips. “What don’t you know?”