A Rainbow in Paradise by Susan Aylworth Page A

for each of
them while Eden blanched the pasta and set the meal on the table.
For a time, they ate quietly. Then Logan spoke, his tone casual.
"Eden? I've been thinking about us."
    She tried not to choke on her ravioli. "Is
there an us to think about?"
    "Sarah tells me your business is in
Phoenix."
    "Right. Day care. The Old Woman's Shoe. You
knew that."
    "Right," he agreed. "And you're going back
there in a few weeks, as soon as you put this house on the market,
right?"
    "Right again."
    "I've been wondering how you'd feel if we
spent some time together for the next few weeks, just while you're
in the area."
    Eden just looked at him, wondering if she was
hearing him correctly.
    He stumbled over the next words. "I know, I'm
the one who said maybe we shouldn't see each other—"
    "I remember that part. You talked about some
kind of commitment."
    "Yes, but I'm not talking about any kind of
commitments now, not between us, I mean. I'm talking about two
grown-ups who enjoy each other's company just sharing some time
together. No strings."
    She licked her lips, put her fork down.
Something in the way he said it piqued her ire. "Did you think I
had something else in mind?"
    Now it was his face that darkened with
embarrassment. "No, it isn't that. I just didn't want there to be
any misunderstandings between us—"
    "So, gentleman that you are, you decided to
protect me by setting the record straight right from the start, is
that it?"
    He couldn't have missed her sarcasm. "Uh,
something like that, I guess."
    Eden was on a roll. "But you hesitate to
spend time with me because of some other commitment you've made
that you don't want to tell me about."
    "I... I guess you could say that."
    "And yet you want me to agree to spend time
with you, anyway? No strings attached?"
    He felt the heat in his face. She was holding
up a mirror to him and what he saw shamed him. "Uh, well, yeah. I
guess."
    "Logan, do you think that's wise?" She wasn't
being sarcastic anymore, or evenly viciously sardonic. He could
tell from the intensity in her expression that she was absolutely
serious, that in trying to avoid hurting her he had hurt her worse
than he'd ever imagined.
    Her searching honestly demanded no less from
him. "I can't seem to be wise when I'm around you, Eden."
    She made a sharp, high sound then, a quick
burst that might have been a laugh or a sob. "And you still want to
spend time around me?"
    "More every time I'm with you."
    She drew a long, slow breath while she
studied her fingernails, picking at the paint that still speckled
them. "It seems to me," she said after a while, "that we've come to
a bit of an impasse."
    They sat in the kitchen—Eden staring at her
hands, Logan watching the floor. The kitchen wall clock sounded thud, thud, thud —each slow beat clicking off another second.
There were many thuds before Logan spoke again.
    "It seems to me," he said carefully, "that as
long as we both understand it isn't going to go anywhere..." The
sentence trailed away.
    "You're setting ground rules," she said,
getting his drift.
    "I guess you can call it that."
    "Ground rules," she repeated, as if adjusting
to the thought. She looked up. "What you are telling me is..." She
paused, coming to terms with all she had learned, piecing the bits
together. "You have another commitment that will keep us from ever
becoming serious about each other, so you want me to understand
from the outset that you will never marry me and I shouldn't expect
that, but you want to spend time with me while I'm here." She
looked up. "Am I getting this so far?"
    Logan had been listening, his eyes dropping
as she spoke. "It sounds pretty awful when you boil it down like
that," he said, "but yes, I guess that's what I'm trying to
say."
    "I didn't come up here looking for a
husband," Eden began, and she saw Logan twitch as she said it. "But
I think I might enjoy spending some time with you, too. What did
you have in mind?"
    "My time is fairly free just now with the
goat