between them both heightened, Everett gently pulled away.
“Woman, you’ve got quite a kiss there.” He let out some air and raked his hair back with his fingers.
Everett’s hair suddenly stuck up a bit, looking kind of spiky. It looked so cute, in fact, she wanted to muss it up some more.
“I think we’d better cool off for a second.” Indeed he appeared to have broken out in a perspiring glow.
They both grinned at each other.
The air seemed filled with sounds again. A car honked. A jet flew overhead. Funny, how during the act of kissing, one became insulated from the world. “Do you need your coat back?” Lark asked.
Everett laughed. “Are you kidding?”
Was he actually trying to catch his breath? Being thirty-five years old, surely he’d kissed a woman before. Or maybe Everett felt some new sentiments, too. “Why didn’t you have any friends?” Lark asked.
“There are a couple of reasons.” Everett looked down at his loafers. “But when you’re a slave to your job, it’s one of the hazards.”
Lark wondered what the other reason was for not having friends. He didn’t say.
Everett lifted her chin to look at him. “Please go out with me tomorrow night.”
“Will you feed me?”
Everett grinned. “Yes.”
“Then I accept.”
He felt the velvet strap on her overalls. “Everything you wear is so soft. Do you plan that every morning to be so appealing, or does it just come naturally?”
Lark gave him a one-shouldered shrug. She picked up an acorn and set it in his open palm. “Tell me, what do you see?”
To her surprise Everett held the acorn up between two fingers and studied it. “Well, from an accountant’s perspective, I see potential. . .for growth.”
“Potential is good,” Lark whispered.
Everett put the acorn in his pocket and then lifted her hand to point to the tree above them. “And what do you see up there?”
“This big, old oak?” Lark thought for a moment as she gazed up into the branches and falling leaves. “I see a filter of light. A marker of time. And for birds, it’s their birth, home, and first flight.”
“Very perceptive. There’s a painting in there somewhere.” Everett released her hand. “But I suppose there is a scene to paint everywhere.”
Lark suddenly wondered if he always planned to live in Eureka Springs. She knew her moving pains would be acute if she ever had to live anywhere else. “Don’t you just love it here?”
Everett glanced over at his house across the fence. “Yes, I like my house.”
“No. . .I mean Eureka Springs.”
He smiled as if he knew what she was really asking. “You’re here. So I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”
Lark breathed a sigh of relief.
Everett leaned over and gave Lark a slow, lingering kiss.
Okay, that felt very pleasant. She almost lost her footing.
“I’ll pick you up at six. . .tomorrow evening.” Everett squeezed her arm. “Casual. Okay?”
“I’ll be ready,” Lark said. Casual talk from a suit guy. Amazing. And he wore a green turtleneck instead of a button-down shirt. As he turned to leave, she remembered a question that had been tickling her curiosity. “Everett? May I ask what your middle name is?”
He looked back at her and groaned. “That information is given out on a need to know basis only.”
“That bad?” Lark winced.
“Moss. It’s Moss. You know—”
Lark tried to be polite and not chuckle. “You mean like the—”
“Yeah. Like the fuzzy, green stuff you tromp underfoot.”
She laughed.
“But my mother liked it because Moss is a form of Moses, which means ‘saved.’ So maybe that redeems the name a bit.”
“I believe it does.” She found herself captivated by his golden brown eyes. Without thinking, she reached up to his face. Her hand was midway in the air when she heard Everett’s cell phone come alive like a monster-sized beetle.
He frowned down at the phone, took it off his belt clip, and opened it to look at the screen. “It’s somebody returning my call. I’m sorry, but I need to talk to him.”
“Please, go. Take the call.” Lark shooed him away sweetly. Everett mouthed the words, “I’ll call you later.” He answered the phone as he strode toward her gate. He’d forgotten his coat, but he didn’t seem to even notice. She tugged it around herself, wanting to relive the warmth of his arms. She breathed in his scent. Mmm. His cologne is spicy but sweet. Nice.
As Everest closed the gate, she remembered his words about the woman in his office. “But I was always honest with her.” How honorable. Had she