not be so strong. Next time she might accept the tenderness he was offering, the promise of even a few moments of gentle loving.
No. She brought herself back sharply from the provocative image. Stepping out of the tub, she toweled herself dry with rough strokes, then yanked on her robe. She didn’t dare even begin to think that way about Justin. She was still married, if only in name. She was no doubt in a heap of trouble with Will, if not with the authorities. She couldn’t drag Justin into the middle of all that.
Nor could she turn to a man to solve her problems. All her life, she had been relying on other people. First it had been her parents who’d set the rules and protected her from harm. She had left her hometown to prove that she could stand on her own two feet, only to fall in love with Will and let him take over the control of her life just as her parents had before him.
This time was going to be different. She was going to solve her own problems. She would settle this mess with Will, establish a solid, respectable future for herself and her son and then...well, then, if Justin was still interested, if the attraction hadn’t died, maybe there could be something between them. Not if she needed his protection, though. Only if she could come to him as an equal, a woman every bit as strong and capable as he was.
“You’re getting a little ahead of yourself,” she chided herself aloud. “The man tried to kiss you. He didn’t propose marriage.”
But something told her that a man as honorable as Justin Adams had proved himself to be took even his kisses seriously and that she would be very wise to remember that.
* * *
Patsy barely had the door at Dolan’s open in the morning when Justin came in. She switched on the lights and watched warily as he crossed to the counter and settled on a stool. If he brought up that almost kiss, she wasn’t sure what she was going to say to him.
“I guess the coffee’s not ready yet, is it?” he asked, his manner nothing more than friendly.
Patsy let out a sigh of relief. Apparently last night was forgotten. “I’m just about to put it on. It won’t take a minute. Can I get you something else?”
“Take your time. I know it’s not really opening time yet. I wanted to catch you alone.”
Panic, never far away, choked her. “Why?” she asked, barely managing to get the single word out.
He seemed amused by the question. “To talk.”
“About?”
“It can wait. Whenever you’re set, I’ll take eggs, bacon, toast.”
She already knew he liked his eggs over easy, his bacon crisp and his toast the same color as his coffee—or so he claimed. She’d thought he was only being polite when she accidentally burned the first batch she ever made for him, but he swore burnt toast reminded him of home. She noticed, though, that he scraped away most of the black before eating it.
She was about to turn away to start his breakfast, when he snagged her hand.
“Patsy.”
Her gaze met his, then skittered away. “Yes?”
“Maybe we should get this out of the way. I’m sorry about last night.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry for.”
“I pushed.”
“You’ve already apologized. It wasn’t necessary then. It isn’t now.”
“But—”
“Justin, please,” she pleaded. “Drop it.”
His gaze locked with hers, questioning her even without any accompanying words. She held her breath, waiting for something, an explosion maybe. Will would have gone into a rage if she’d dared to cut him off.
Finally, to her relief, Justin simply nodded.
“For now.”
It had become a refrain between them, a subtle warning that one day she would pay for all the silences. One day the questions would intensify and there would be no holding back. He would demand to know everything.
“I’ll get your breakfast,” she said, and hurried away.
By the time she’d fixed his eggs and bacon, Sharon Lynn had arrived and there were more customers. From then on Patsy was so busy she didn’t have time to take a deep breath, much less worry about Justin and his unanswered questions.
It was well after nine before she got a real break.
“Sit for a minute,” Sharon Lynn ordered. “I’ll bring you a cup of coffee.”
“You must be as beat as I am. Why should you wait on me?”
“Because you opened up this morning and Justin was right on your heels so I know perfectly well you