Laura Abbot by Belleporte Summer Page A

Even though he was angry, his heart had kicked into overdrive. She looked so alive, so carefree.
    When they spotted him, they both stopped in their tracks. “Ben? Hey, am I late or something?” Mike at least had the wits to look nonplussed.
    “Half an hour,” Ben mumbled.
    “But it’s such a glorious afternoon!” As if oblivious to the tension between the brothers, Laurel went on. “Spring is in the air and it was a perfect day to fly a kite, wasn’t it, Mike?”
    Ben couldn’t enter into their shared glee. “What about work?”
    “Work is always there,” Laurel responded airily. “But kite-flying weather isn’t. Besides, Mike’s been working hard. He deserved a break.”
    “But what about your opening? Will you be ready?”
    “Of course, but you know my motto. Carpe diem.”
    Oh, yeah. It figured. Seize the day. Apparently that was her answer to everything.
    She took the kite from Mike and eyed Ben over the top of it. “You ought to try it sometime.”
    Like that was practical. Between his workload and family obligations, he could hardly squeeze in an occasional game of racquet ball or a night at the Rathskeller with his buddies. “Maybe I’ll just do that.”
    As he uttered those words, he could hear Jay’s taunting voice, Ask The Gift Horse lady out.
    Steeling himself against the temptation, he was reminded that right here was an example of their differing values. He’d never walk away from his responsibilities to fly a kite.
    Laurel propped the kite against the door and finger-combed her unruly curls. “Thanks, Mike. I really enjoyed that. See you next Saturday?”
    “Sure.” He eyed Ben sheepishly. “Let’s go.”
    The idiotic thing was, Ben didn’t want to go. He wanted to stay, to gaze at the rosy color of her cheeks and her windblown curls. To spend time with her.
    She pulled out her door key, but paused, looking back at Ben. “Come by soon and see how the shop’s shaping up now that some merchandise is in.”
    “I will.” He gulped, then found words tripping off his tongue with an ease that surprised him. “How about tonight? I’ll pick up some pizza and be back in an hour.”
    The smile she gave him chased any second thoughts right into left field. “Super. I love showing off our progress.”
    “Later then.”
    When Ben started for the car, Mike didn’t move. Instead he gaped at his brother. “No way,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief. “No way.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    L AUREL DIDN’T KNOW what to make of Mike’s skeptical reaction to Ben’s suggestion, which surely was nothing more than friendly interest in her shop. Until today, Ben had kept a polite distance almost as if that night on the beach had never happened. His standoffishness would be amusing if it wasn’t such an obstacle to their friendship. In fairness, she acknowledged he had his own problems, his own prior relationships.
    Perhaps that was just as well. She needed to focus on business, not on a man, even Ben. Just in case, though, she decided to freshen up, change her clothes and put on a little makeup.
    After her shower, she ran a brush through her damp hair, pondering the fact that Ellen hadn’t mentioned Ben lately. Nor had Laurel seen the two of them together, although that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Laurel made a face at herself in the mirror. Hypocrite. She did care.
    She was waiting in the shop, rearranging items on the counter, when Ben came to the door, looking way too handsome for indifference in khakis and a slate-blue pullover that accentuated the deep cobalt flecks in his eyes. She took his jacket and draped it over a chair.
    He set down the pizza box, then, with hands shoved idly in his pockets, studied the interior of the shop—from the antique general-store counter she’d rescued from an old barn in Pennsylvania to the pie cabinets stacked with pottery, candles and dried flower arrangements, and then to the children’s nook, filled with an assortment of rag dolls and wooden toys