If We Never Met (Whisper Lake #5) - Barbara Freethy Page 0,3

I'll have to add tonight to one of my more embarrassing moments."

"Don't feel that way. I enjoyed talking to you."

"I'm an idiot. I thought you were a great listener, but you had no idea what to say, because you're not Danny."

"You're not an idiot. I should have corrected you. I was about to, if that helps."

"Not really. You shouldn't have waited so long. We talked about our dead parents."

"I know. That was weird. I haven't actually talked about that with anyone outside my family."

"Why did you tell me?"

"I honestly have no idea."

She stared back at him with a mix of confusion and embarrassment. "Are you meeting a date tonight?"

"No. I just came in for dinner. The innkeeper where I'm staying recommended this place."

"Are you staying at the Firefly Inn?"

"I am."

"Lizzie, the owner, is one of my best friends. You'll love it there."

"It's very nice."

"How long have you been in town?"

"I just got in last night."

"Oh." She drew in a breath and let it out. "I should go and talk to the real Danny."

"Probably. I hope he's fun and plus-one material."

"Me, too." She got up, then hesitated. "Are you even single?"

His pause was a second too long.

She shook her head, anger entering her brown eyes. "Really? You're married?"

"No, I'm not married or engaged," he said quickly.

"But??

"I am seeing someone. It's not serious." He didn't know why he'd said that. It wasn't like he was going to date Keira. He was in town for three weeks. And most of that time would be spent in rehab.

"I wonder if she knows that," Keira said dryly. Then she walked away.

He watched her greet Danny and take a seat. She had her back to him, and he couldn't see her expression as she spoke to her date, but it didn't feel like she had the same energy with this guy that she'd had with him.

He felt somewhat happy about that.

Danny was nowhere near as attractive as Dante. He had similar features and his hair was the same shade of brown. But Danny didn't have Dante's sharp blue eyes or full, sexy mouth, or deliciously appealing stubble on a strong, masculine jaw.

However, Danny was nice. And he did talk more than Dante. In fact, he spoke endlessly about himself, his former career in law, and now his new writing project, which seemed to be based on some of the cases he'd worked on.

Danny was a Colorado native, who had grown up in Denver and moved to the lake to find more solitude and time for writing. He was an only child like her, so they had that in common. But he didn't ask her much about herself, except to wonder if her mom required a lot of medical care and her full-time attention. She didn't know if he was digging to see how busy she was, although she could have told him it wasn't her mom who put a lot of demands on her time, it was her businesses.

As he spoke more about his book plot, her mind wandered to Dante. She'd deliberately sat with her back to him, but over the past several minutes, she'd been inching her chair sideways, as if to stretch out her legs, but it was really just to get another look at him.

She had to admit when she'd sat down at his table and caught his gaze, she'd felt butterflies in her chest. Her breath had sped up and her palms felt sweaty. She hadn't met anyone who'd made her feel like that in a very long time.

She finally managed to turn her head and take another quick peek at him. He was talking to Joanne, and he had a burger in front of him now. It looked good. He looked good. She inwardly sighed and then turned away, forcing herself to give Danny a smile.

Dante had a girlfriend, or at least someone he was seeing. And aside from the fact that she knew he had three brothers and had lost his mother at a young age, she didn't really know anything else about him. Since he was staying at the inn, he was probably just passing through town. Lizzie would know. But she wasn't going to ask her friend. There was no point to that.

"Do you want to order food?" Danny asked, his question interrupting her thoughts.

She should say yes. She should give him a chance, but she wasn't feeling him at all. And even if she wasn't caught up in the blue-eyed Dante, she had a lot of