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Annabelle saw something flicker through Kate’s expression, something she’d never seen there before. Doubt about her relationship with Arnie.

Annabelle wanted to do a victory dance even though she shouldn’t be so happy that her friend was having doubts about the man she’d agreed to marry.

Maybe their night in Philadelphia had been good for something if Kate was questioning her relationship. Which was a huge mistake just waiting to happen, Annabelle believed. But one she couldn’t convince Kate of.

Seems all Kate had needed was one night at a swanky hotel party. If Annabelle had known that was all it would take, she’d have booked them a weekend away a year ago. Before she’d said yes to Arnie.

“You’re right. It’s not a good idea,” Annabelle agreed. “I’m swearing off guys for a while.”

At least she was swearing off playboys who made her hotter and hornier than she’d ever been in her life.

The bell over the door dinged, making Annabelle’s breath catch in her throat.

Just her luck the woman would be early…

Turning, she swallowed a groan as Teddy Walters waddled into the room like a two-hundred-pound duckling.

“Hello, Annabelle,” he chirped in his high-pitched squeak. “So, today’s the big day, huh?”

She managed not to roll her eyes, but just barely, and forced a smile for her fellow antiques dealer. Teddy and his mom, Dolores, owned a shop just up the road where Dolores had a collection of Staffordshire china to die for.

“Good morning, Teddy. I thought you were visiting your sister this week in Pittsburgh?”

“Oh, I am, I am.” He nodded to Kate, but never took his eyes off Annabelle. Well, Annabelle’s chest. “But I wanted to be sure I said good-bye before I left.”

Annabelle and Kate exchanged a look, which Teddy never noticed.

“Well, I hope you have a great time,” she said. “Say hi to your sister for me.”

“I will. Mom asked if you’d come visit her while I’m gone.” He nodded sagely, the perfect copy of his elderly mother, who he still lived with. “You know how lonely she gets when I’m not there.”

Annabelle now had to work to keep from rolling her eyes. Dolores actually loved to have her little house to herself. Said she enjoyed the peace and quiet.

When Teddy turned to look around the shop, she made a frantic face at Kate, who bit her lips to stop laughter from bubbling over.

Annabelle hated to be rude to anyone but she couldn’t take Teddy today. He made no bones about the fact that he wanted to date her. But as much as Annabelle adored his mother, Teddy didn’t do a thing for her. Which never stopped him from trying.

And after Jared—

No. The man had no place sneaking into her thoughts today.

“I’ll be sure to stop by,” she said with a gracious smile. “Now, I’m sure you need to get on the road so don’t let me keep you. I know how your sister looks forward to your visits.”

Teddy’s bright smile made him almost handsome. Almost. “Alright, Annabelle. I’ll be sure to stop by when I get back.” He smiled again, and with one last quick glance at her chest, he walked out the door.

Kate and Annabelle sighed simultaneously, then broke out in bemused laughter.

“I swear, that man would attach himself to your leg if he ever cut his mother’s apron strings,” Kate said. “You should put him out of his misery and go out on a date with him. Just once.”

Annabelle shook her head. “Wouldn’t help. He’d never leave me alone then. But I did need the laugh. I should thank Teddy for that. I’m a little calmer now.”

Kate gave her another hug before moving to the door. “Think about good old Teddy’s face if you get nervous. That’ll help you smile. I gotta get back to work. Just remember, Annabelle, no one knows your stuff better than you. Make sure you come and tell me how it goes.”

Kate closed the door behind her, leaving Annabelle alone again to run a critical eye around the shop.

Situated on a side road off the main antiques drag, the building’s former life as a small hotel built in the 1890s had been eradicated except for the main desk her granddad had turned into the checkout counter. He’d gutted the first floor for the shop and renovated the second and third floors into a living space.

The first floor, with the exception of the rear gallery, was an open space filled with furniture. Annabelle closed her eyes for a few seconds then opened them, trying to see the room as a casual observer would.

It was crowded, but what antiques shop wasn’t. Granddad had alternately cursed and blessed their many treasures, but Annabelle had never seen the jumble as anything less than heaven.

Lancaster County chests mingled with Philadelphia sideboards and an authentic Gruber Wagon built in Berks County took up a large area near the front of the store. Grandfather clocks made in Reading near the turn of the nineteenth century towered over the folk art made by an itinerant farm worker in the 1940s.

She had a couple of Benjamin Austrian paintings on the wall and several local landscapes that, remarkably, still looked the same as they had a hundred years ago.

Since it was Monday, and the shop was closed, she didn’t have to worry about visitors interrupting. But that left her with an hour to fill before Carmen Moran was set to arrive.

Carmen had agreed to come to the shop instead of interviewing Annabelle at her New York gallery because Carmen was traveling back from Ohio to visit family by car and it’d worked for her schedule.

That had suited Annabelle just fine. She loved the city but it’d been years since she’d been back.

Heading back to the front room and the CD player beneath the counter, Annabelle dug beneath the tasteful classical music she typically played when the store was open until she found what she wanted.

She smiled at the posturing cast of The Matrix. The obliviously cool Keanu Reeves. Sexy Carrie-Anne Moss. All that black leather.

Slipping the CD out of the case and into the player, she queued up her favorite song and cranked it.

Marilyn Manson blared from the speakers hidden throughout the shop. Closing her eyes, she let the hard-driving drums and guitar pound at her brain. She couldn’t help herself, her feet wouldn’t stay still, and she started to sway to the music.

Hairstyle be darned. They didn’t call it head-banging for nothing. Music had been one of the few normal teenage things she’d been into. And she couldn’t seem to cure the addiction to industrial metal she’d picked up when they’d lived in Germany for several months in her teens.

The music throbbed in her blood, lending itself to a total release of inhibitions. Thank God no one could see her—a grown woman dancing like she was a fourteen-year-old in the concert pit. Pins flew from her hair and she raked her hands through the mass to take out the rest. She’d fix it later. After she got this restlessness out of her system.

It felt good to let go. She’d been living in a fishbowl since breaking up with Gary. A young woman with no family, no boyfriend, and very few friends living in a tight community was cause for speculation.

If she hadn’t—

Someone started clapping.

Eight

With a gasp, Annabelle stumbled over her now schizophrenic feet, grabbing onto the nearest piece of furniture to help her regain her balance. She froze, lungs gasping for air, and scoured the room until she found the intruder.

Silhouetted against the front window, Jared Golden glimmered like a mirage in the morning sun.

He wore a denim shirt under a black leather jacket and a pair of jeans that clung lovingly to his thighs. He looked so different out of his tuxedo she had to wonder if she wasn’t seeing things at first.