A Word with the Bachelor by Teresa Southwick Page A

married.”
    She pushed macaroni around her plate without looking at him. “There was a lot going on and the time never seemed right.”
    Jack had proposed to Karen just before he left for his first deployment because there was an instinctive need to be connected to someone and something from home. It wasn’t a completely rational thing and was more about spirituality and not being alone. A man got pretty damn spiritual when he was facing the possibility of dying. And with her guy it was more than a possibility. He knew his shelf life had an expiration date.
    â€œBut he wanted to get married.” It wasn’t a question and a shadow slipped into her eyes. “He got weaker and weaker. Couldn’t manage to do that.”
    He , not we, Jack thought. There was something she was keeping to herself and that seemed out of character for her. Something she was holding back.
    But still, he couldn’t help admiring her loyalty, which was more than he could say about his ex. She’d walked out and flatly refused to even try working on the marriage. Erin had never taken the in-sickness-and-in-health-till-death-do-us-part vow, but had lived it anyway.
    He respected her for that, along with her determination. Unless she decided to direct it at him. She deserved someone as good at thinking about someone besides himself as she was.
    Jack wasn’t that guy.

Chapter Six
    â€œH ow are you coming with those research topics?”
    Erin was almost getting used to Jack Garner syndrome, which was what she called the way her heart skipped when he walked into a room. She had her computer set up on the kitchen table and looked away from the screen when he got her attention. Although, technically he’d gotten her attention when he appeared in the doorway looking very Jack-like. Which was to say that his animal magnetism was on full display. But he’d asked a question and it required a response, even a sarcastic one. Sarcasm was the only place where she could hide.
    â€œResearch? Really?” She leaned back in the chair. “You’re suddenly in a hurry because you can’t write the next scene in the book without knowing the mating habits of the blue-footed booby?”
    â€œFascinating creatures.” His lips twitched.
    â€œYou’re not fooling anyone.”
    Harley padded into the room and looked expectantly at Jack. He looked at the dog, then her. “I’m not trying to.”
    â€œRight.” And she was the Duchess of Doubtville. “This research is nothing more than a distraction to keep me from bugging you.”
    â€œI think of it more as a flanking maneuver.”
    â€œAh.” She nodded. “An end run around your editor. Battle of wills. Cut off your nose to spite your face.”
    â€œYou said it, not me.”
    â€œVery mature.”
    â€œLet’s just call it my process.” He leaned a broad shoulder against the doorjamb, folded his arms over his chest and grinned.
    Erin’s mouth went dry. She’d been there for over a week and thought she’d seen the best that Jack could throw at her. But she’d been so wrong. His scowl brimmed with sex appeal but the oh-so-masculine and tempting smile on his face right now could flat out make a woman’s clothes come off.
    Insert change of topic here. “Speaking of your process... How did the pages go today?”
    â€œOh, you know—” He lifted one of those swoonworthy shoulders in a shrug.
    â€œActually I don’t. That’s why I asked.” The brooding look was back and that made her nervous—on a number of levels. But she focused on work. “Please tell me there are pages.”
    â€œOkay. There are pages.”
    His tone was flat with shades of mocking and she didn’t know whether or not to believe him. “Let me look at them.”
    â€œThey’re not prime-time ready.” He reached down to rub Harley’s head when the dog put a paw on