to do something so crazy, but she was here at his house at just after noon on a random Saturday.
And she was going to ask him if he wanted to have sex.
KEN WAS WORKING ON cleaning up one of the flower beds in his backyard. The previous homeowner had filled it with ferns that grew like crazy every spring, overflowing the bed and ending up everywhere, and he was tired of trying to keep up with them. But digging up fern bulbs was a losing prospect. Every time he thought he’d gotten all of them, a new round would appear out of nowhere.
He’d had a lot of excess energy this week after his hot evening with Madeline on Tuesday, so he’d woken up restless and jittery. Since he couldn’t go pounding on her door this morning and asking her again for hot sex, he committed to getting the rest of the fern bulbs out of that damned bed before they started popping up everywhere again in the spring.
It was a warm, sunny day for autumn, and after a couple of hours, he was hot and sweaty and covered with dirt. His head was still full of erotic visions of Madeline with hot eyes, flushed cheeks, tousled hair. No clothes. So he kept working, hoping he’d eventually be too tired for lustful thoughts.
Marlowe, his black lab, had been keeping him company during the morning, rooting around in the dirt and chasing away birds and squirrels. But a certain kind of barking indicated that a person must have arrived, so Ken straightened up and looked around. Marlowe had run around to the front of the house through the open fence gate.
Ken followed him. It was probably Katie. She sometimes stopped by on Saturdays so the girls could say hi on the weekends when they weren’t staying with him.
Before he’d gotten around the corner to the front yard, Marlowe returned with happy yaps and twirls, followed by Madeline.
Madeline.
She was wearing jeans and a simple white shirt. Her hair was loose and her eyes were downcast.
Ken’s heart gave a ridiculous lurch at the sight of her. He pulled to a stop and stared, unable to move or say anything for a moment.
“Hey,” she said, darting a quick glance up at him. “Sorry to just stop by.”
“You’re sorry?” He almost choked on the words. “Why are you sorry? I was just thinking about you.”
“You were?” Her face and shoulders relaxed. She’d reached him now. Marlowe was running circles around them, thrilled with the unexpected visitor.
“Yes. I didn’t think... I wasn’t sure you’d want to...” He was almost never tongue-tied like this. He had no idea what had gotten into him.
She gave a little giggle and dropped her eyes again. Her eyelashes were thick. Her pink cheeks were delectable. “I wasn’t sure either, but then I... I don’t know. I wanted to do something... just for me.”
His heart gave another crazy lurch. He had to breathe a few times before he’d tempered his excitement enough to say in something close to his normal laid-back tone, “Well, if the something you want to do for yourself is... me, then I’m totally in.”
She laughed again, and he laughed too. Since he had sweat dripping off his face, he pulled up the bottom of his T-shirt to wipe it off. As he did, he caught Madeline’s eyes on his bare stomach.
She seemed to like how he looked. He’d never considered himself having anything special in the looks department, but Madeline’s eyes were hot and hungry as they stared at his abs.
The idea got him going good. His whole body tightened.
“You’re sure?” she asked at last. “Just sex. I don’t want to be anyone’s girlfriend. I just want a... a rebound fling.”
He was honest enough with himself to admit that the current state of his feelings indicated that he probably wanted more from her than meaningless sex, but he wasn’t stupid enough to admit it. If she thought he had anything close to a serious interest in her, she’d never consider anything with him at all.
And he wasn’t going to miss out on this—whatever she was willing to give him.
So he said, “A rebound fling sounds perfect to me.”
MADELINE COULDN’T BELIEVE it had been so easy. She hadn’t had to explain herself or make her case or admit anything embarrassing. Ken had known why she was there and had wanted it too.
It was an intense relief. An assurance that this wasn’t a bad decision. She felt so much better that