the quarter inch of cleavage showing above the zipper of her jacket.
"Look," he said, waving his hand in her direction. "Just so you know, we're both mad, and I'm still thinking about your breasts."
"What?"
"Don't get any more pissed, I'm trying to make a point here."
She glared at him. "The point is you're a Neanderthal."
"Yeah." He nodded. "I resemble that remark, and so will every other guy you meet to whom you confess you haven't had sex in the past four years."
She looked ready to spit or slap or stomp, but just then the door to the bar was flung open and Desiree marched out.
Tanner could kiss - no, God, no, not that - but he could think of something nice to thank her for interrupting the moment. He needed to cool this conversation with Hannah. She hadn't quite accepted the way their situation was yet, but he'd take the heat off now and come back to it again later.
"Dez!" he said in a hearty voice. "Do you have a few minutes? I thought we could talk over itineraries. You have some time to do sightseeing and stuff with Hannah and me, right?" The smile he sent her was supposed to make her feel both guilty and cooperative.
She didn't seem to notice he was alive. Glancing over her shoulder at the bar door, she continued advancing toward the gleaming Beemer parked nearby. "Do you want to go back to the hotel now, Hannah?" she asked the other woman.
"I sure do." She shot Tanner a look full of displeasure.
He ignored a bite of panic. "But Dez, Dez. First just say you can help me show Hannah around."
She dug keys out of the tiny yellow purse in her hand. "No can do, Tanner. I've got other plans that are going to keep me pretty busy."
"No - "
"Yep. I've got a job working for your big, ignorant, insulting, insufferable, butthead of a brother."
He blinked. Dez was going to be working for Troy?
Speechless at the thought, Tanner could only watch as this year's trouble climbed into a car with last year's trouble. Though the car pulled away, Tanner knew it was a pretty sure bet that neither one of them was done with him.
Or his brother, either, which made him feel only marginally better.
FROM THE DESK OF HANNAH DAVIS
Things I Hate about New year's
Writing the wrong date on my checks until June.
Chapter 10
The next morning, Hannah tiptoed out of the suite, aware that her hostess was still sleeping in one of the two bedrooms. Before shutting the front door behind her, she cast a last glance out the sliding glass leading to the living area's attached balcony. The incredible view of broad beach and foaming surfline only added to her reluctance to leave the place. It would be so much easier to step out into the salty air and let the forever stretch of water and that endless wash of waves on sand hypnotize her into somnolent inaction.
But it was time to wake up and smell the coffee! she told herself, shutting the door and forcing her feet along the path leading toward the Hotel Del Coronado's lobby. The resort was magnificent, a Victorian dream palace stretching wide along the beach and reaching high into the sky with red-roofed cupolas and towers. While yesterday the weather had been almost summer magnificent, showing it off to perfection, today the early-morning sky was heavy with clouds.
Suiting her mood, Hannah thought, as she lined up at a coffee cart set up in the corner of the sumptuous lobby, across from a King Kong - sized Christmas tree. Maybe a little caffeine would lighten her heart, but she doubted it. While she'd been mentally preparing for this morning's meeting a long time, her physical body seemed to protest the idea of carrying through with her plan.
What was she? she fumed to herself. A woman or a mouse? She'd been the latter for much too long, and today she was going to change that. Today she was going to get answers to the questions that had been plaguing her for months.
The person at the front of the coffee line was served, and the rest of them shuffled forward as he stepped away. He.
Tanner Hart.
Her future fled from her thoughts and his footsteps halted as he caught sight of her.
From three feet away she let herself look at him again, forgetting for a moment he was the same man who'd made her so furious yesterday afternoon, with his presumption and his