Amazing Gracie by Sherryl Woods

incinerated.
    “Don’t worry. This problem isn’t life-threatening,” Kevin reassured her. “I can have it corrected in a few weeks, tops. I’ll give it my undivided attention.”
    Gracie was sorely tempted to give in. It might he nice to learn to play. It might be especially nice to be taught by an expert.
    It would also be dangerous. Kevin Patrick Daniels rattled her. In no time at all, she might forget all about the house she wanted to buy so she could start a new life.
    “Thanks anyway,” she said. “I’m content with my life just the way it is.”
    He shrugged. “Whatever you say, sweetheart, but that wistful expression on your face suggests otherwise.”
    The man was entirely too intuitive where she was concerned. It made her nervous. If only she could read him as well. She was beginning to get the uncomfortable feeling that she’d sold him short, that there were depths to Kevin Patrick Daniels she hadn’t even begun to see. Underestimating an adversary was very risky, indeed. She’d approached this whole project far too impulsively, just as Kevin had suggested earlier. She needed time to reassess, do a little of her own research.
    She was competitive and driven by nature. She had foolishly assumed that getting her hands on that old Victorian gem was going to be a snap. Now she knew otherwise. Her blood raced in anticipation of the all-out battle ahead.
    “Why the smile?” Kevin asked.
    “Nothing,” she assured him. She wondered how he’d react if he knew she’d been envisioning the day when she managed to steal that house right out from under him.

6
    T here were a lot of provocative things about Gracie that Kevin couldn’t forget during a long, restless night, but one particular thing lingered in the morning. He couldn’t imagine a life as singlemindedly focused on career as hers had apparently been. Not that all work and little play had made her dull, but he’d never known anyone more in need of shaking up.
    Fortunately, he’d grown very adept over the years at making the impulsive gesture, at doing the unexpected, at seizing the moment. Perhaps it was his way of compensating for the amount of responsibility that had been heaped on his shoulders. He’d been determined never to let it weigh him down. He’d learned to steal every minute he could for himself.
    Plus, he’d discovered that it gave him a certain advantage over his more uptight competitors, whether in business or for the affections of some woman. Business opponents often misinterpreted his devil-may-care attitude for a lack of attention. Women simply enjoyed the spontaneity he brought into their lives.
    After a rigorous workout in the gym he’d had installed off his bedroom, he showered and went down to thedining room to give the matter some more thought over his regular breakfast of scrambled eggs and country ham. He figured the workout just about balanced the cholesterol intake.
    “You’re on the go early,” his housekeeper noted as she set his plate in front of him. “You going to Richmond for business meetings?”
    “Not today, Molly.”
    “Couldn’t sleep, then?” She studied him worriedly. “Is something on your mind?”
    He grinned ruefully at the woman who’d been watching out for him since he was barely toddling around the house. She was plump from too much of her own country cooking and unrepentantly gray-haired with curls like corkscrews, thanks to the home perms with which she periodically stunk up the whole house. No one on earth, though, had a bigger heart.
    “Someone,” he conceded with some reluctance, knowing exactly where the admission would lead.
    Her expression brightened. “A woman?” she asked as she pulled out a chair and sat down opposite him. “Tell me.”
    “Not a chance. You’re a worse meddler than Aunt Delia.”
    “I’ll bet it’s that pretty little thing who was here day before yesterday,” she concluded without so much as a hint from him.
    “How on earth did you know about her?