“That jackass,” Mom fumed. “I’m so sorry, Mallory.”

“I’m fine, Mom, really. No broken heart, I promise.”

“Well, I’m glad, although I know that it must have stung.” She hesitated then asked, “So what was Adam like? Still handsome and charming?”

“Yes.” And sexy and sweet and funny and sexy. “He was very…nice.” Her gaze drifted again to the table. Very nice indeed.

“Well, just be careful about jumping into another relationship too soon, honey.”

“Not jumping. But if the right guy comes along, believe me, it wouldn’t be a rebound situation. Greg is already a distant memory.”

“Good. How about lunch tomorrow? Are you free?”

“I am. Noon at my office?”

“I’ll be there.”

After saying goodbye, Mallory dialed Kellie’s number. Her friend answered on the first ring.

“Has he left?” Kellie asked. “Are you alone?”

“Yes. Where are you?”

“My house. I can be on my way to your house within three minutes. I have a bottle of wine. It’s warm, but hell, what can you expect with a power outage.”

Mallory laughed. “Don’t rush out. I have a few calls to make for work. I may have to show houses later today.”

“You’re killing me, you know that? You phone me last night and tell me you can’t talk because Adam, your gorgeous former lover, is at your house, and now you tell me that you have to work? There’s a phrase for that, Mal. It’s called ‘cruel and unusual punishment.’ Humph. Just for that, I might not tell you the details about the gorgeous man I met at the beach yesterday…and who I’m seeing again this evening. Which means I’m only available for girlie chitchat until six o’clock.”

“I want to hear everything. Let me make my calls and I’ll phone you back.”

After hanging up with Kellie, Mallory called the buyers and sellers she was supposed to see that afternoon. She tentatively rescheduled the appointments for early in the evening, in the hopes that the blackout would have ended by then. If not, then they agreed to reschedule for tomorrow. That done, she called Kellie back.

“I’m free for the next few hours, so come on over,” she told her friend. “But forget the wine. I have possible appointments this evening. Got any diet soda?”

“Nope. But I have a container of Rocky Road in my freezer. It’s probably half-melted but I’ll bring it anyway.”

Mallory squeezed her eyes shut. “Yippee.”

KELLIE’S ARRIVAL AT NOON coincided with the power coming back on.

“How’s that for timing?” Kellie asked with a grin, shoving her carton of half-melted Rocky Road in Mallory’s freezer.

Since the temperature hovered near ninety, they closed the windows and Mallory cranked up the air conditioner.

“Ahhhhh,” she said as the first blast of cold air hit her. “That feels so good.”

“Quit hogging the AC, sit your butt down and tell me everything,” Kellie demanded, commandeering the bar stool closest to the air conditioner.

“You first. Tell me about this guy you met at the beach.”

“Why do I have to go first?”

Mallory waggled her eyebrows. “Saving the best for last.”

Kellie’s eyes widened, then without delay related her story of meeting one Mark Grainger at the concession line. “He was ahead of me and holding up the works because he’d ordered a half-dozen hot dogs and sodas and hadn’t brought quite enough money. Turns out he was seventy-five cents short, so I handed him a dollar.”

“In the interests of getting the line moving.”

“Exactly. Plus, he had a great ass. When he turned around, the front view was just as great. Six-two, dirty blond hair, deep green eyes, killer smile and dimples. He was all kinds of polite gratitude and had the most amazing accent. Turns out he’s from Australia and he’s been in New York six months working for some international bank. He invited me to join his party, so I helped him carry his drinks. His party consisted of his two sisters, his brother and sister-in-law who were visiting from Down Under and one of Mark’s male coworkers.”

Mallory smiled. “I can see that you had a great time.”

“Great is a gross understatement. I can’t remember the last time I’ve laughed so much. They were all so nice-and they thought my accent was cool!” She shook her head and chuckled. “As for Mark…wow. Can you believe he insisted on paying me back my dollar? Said he couldn’t let a ‘lydee’ pay for his food.” She patted her chest. “Be still my heart. He’s funny, smart, gorgeous, and so gentlemanly and polite. And he’s employed. And he’s heterosexual. And he’s interested in me.”

“He sounds terrific.”

“Right. Which means there’s got to be something horribly wrong with him.”

Mallory laughed. “Maybe he’s just a terrific guy. I know they’re an endangered species, but there are still a few of them out there. Probably. So where were you when the lights went out?”

“We were all still at the beach. When the radio announcements advised people not to drive, we just stayed there.”

“All night?”

“Yup. They had a cooler filled with drinks, bags of chips and pretzels, so we were set. Everybody else eventually fell asleep, but Mark and I stayed up the whole night talking. I swear, it felt like we’d known each other for years. Total clickage between us. And wow, does he know how to kiss.” She heaved a dreamy sigh. “I’m telling you, Mal, this guy’s totally knocked me silly. I’ve never experienced anything like this before. Every time he looked at me I felt positively woozy.”

“Believe me, I know the feeling.”

Kellie’s gaze sharpened. “Well, since you haven’t met Mark, you must be talking about Adam. Your turn to spill. Tell me everything.”

There was no point in sugarcoating it-Kellie would see through that in a heartbeat. “The night was…amazing. He was amazing. Exactly as I remembered, only better. Charming, sweet, thoughtful. We talked and laughed, reminisced about the past-”

“And the sex was…?”

“Amazing.”

“When are you seeing him again?”

The question brought a hollow pang to her midsection. “I don’t know that I am.”

“Ha-ha. When?”

“Seriously, I don’t know that I am.” She gave her a quick recap of how they’d left things. When she finished, Kellie shook her head.

“Mal, I understand you not wanting to put your life on hold, but it sounds like you and Adam have something special. Don’t forget that eighty-eight percent, ‘One Who Got Away’ statistic.”

“In this case, away is the operative word. Pretty hard to figure out if you have something special with an ocean between you. And I’m not about to sit around for three months while he’s off discovering European women.”

“He’ll be back.”

“And then he’ll be gone again. Or moving to Hawaii, or somewhere else.”

“Surely after three months in Europe he’ll be all traveled out. Maybe you could persuade him not to go away again.”

That brought her up short. And had her heart lurching. Persuade him not to go away again? “I…I don’t know. I haven’t had enough time to sit down and really think it through.”

“Well, you need to. If he’s ‘The One Who Got Away,’ you don’t want him to get away again. Chances are he found last night as amazing as you did. Which means that you’ll be on his mind. Which means that when he gets home and sees you again, he might not be so anxious to go jetting off somewhere else or moving thousands of miles away. You said he wants to leave Manhattan-he didn’t say he wanted to leave New York. Give the man a reason to want to stay. As for his trip, don’t forget-absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

“Don’t forget-out of sight, out of mind.”

“From what you told me, which was pretty stingy on the sexy details by the way, you will not be out of his mind.”

“Three months is a long time.”

“But it’s not forever.”

Mallory huffed out a laugh. “You have an answer for everything.”

“Yes, I do. It’s part of my charm.” She batted her eyes. “Mark particularly liked it. He thought I was smart and savvy.”

“You are.”

“So are you.”

Mallory managed a limp smile. “Thanks.” But she didn’t feel smart or savvy. Darn it, she felt like a deflated balloon, which was precisely what she didn’t want to feel like. And it was all Adam’s fault. Blowing back into her life with his sexy grin and blue eyes and everything that made him so irresistible, reigniting all the feelings she thought she’d buried, then breezing out again, leaving her reeling as if her emotions had been battered in a windstorm.

Well, he was gone and there was nothing she could do about that.

Or was there?

ADAM PACED AROUND Nick’s kitchen, feeling like a large animal penned in a too-small cage.

“Dude, you’ve been here for ten minutes and done nothing but pace,” Nick said. “Watching you is giving me a crick in my neck. Something’s obviously bothering you, so why don’t you just spit it out-preferably before I need a chiropractor.”

Adam halted and a sheepish smile pulled at him. “Sorry.”

Nick waved away his apology with his longneck beer bottle. “No problem. But my sleep deprivation is making my attention span about three minutes, so if you wanna talk-which I’m assuming you do since you’re still here-you’d better get started.”

Adam pulled in a deep breath then slowly exhaled. “I don’t really know what to say because I’m not sure what’s wrong.”

“It’s simple. If you know something’s wrong, but you can’t put your finger on what it is-”

“Exactly.”

“Then it’s a woman.” Nick looked him up and down, his brows raising slightly when they hit the grass stains on the knees of his jeans. “Doesn’t look like you got much sleep last night-something I can relate to, although I bet your lack of z’s had nothing to do with a crying baby.”