"Is that what they're calling it nowadays?" Charlotte tried to walk away, but Joe grabbed her forearm. Despite everything, his touch made her breath catch.

"Charlotte?" He turned her and looked into her face as if he was truly concerned for her feelings. "LoriSue is leaving gift baskets on my front stoop. We are talking about the same thing, correct?"

"Gift baskets?" Charlotte couldn't stop her mouth from falling open.

"Muffin mixes and fancy vinegars and crap I don't even know what to do-with." A crooked smile spread across his face. "That's all she's been giving me."

Charlotte covered her eyes with her gardening gloves and wanted to die right there. She heard Joe laughing softly and she joined in.

She peeked at him. "Sorry."

"No problem." He released his hand from her arm. "Thanks for looking out for my best interests, though."

"We take care of each other in Hayden Heights."

Joe nodded, and Charlotte watched his expression turn wistful. "Look. About the other night-"

'There's no need to explain. I'm sorry I behaved like that. I'm usually not such a-"

"Don't be sorry for anything, Charlotte. Is there somewhere we can sit down?"

"I'm fine here. And the kids are coming home soon."

"Ahh, right" Joe cleared his throat, "Well." He seemed nervous, and his gaze wandered onto her freckled chest and dragged its way down her belly. Charlotte tried to suck in her gut without him noticing.

Joe redirected his gaze to her face. "I have one thing to tell you and two questions to ask, and then I won't bother you again."

The way he looked at her, with such earnestness, made her think of her own little boy. She didn't understand how she made that connection, but her heart softened to Joe and whatever it was he wanted to say. She must be the biggest sucker on the planet.

"Go on."

"You need to know that I tried to find you after that day, Charlotte. I looked a long time."

She could not move.

"And the first question I have is-" Joe shook his head and laughed, his black eyes sparkling. "Damn, girl! Put me out of my misery and tell me whose Miata you were you driving that day, would you?"

She wasn't prepared for that question and found herself laughing nervously. He'd looked for her? She felt like the ground was rolling under her feet, like she might lose her balance. "The car belonged to the girlfriend of one of my boyfriend's roommates."

Joe smiled and shook his head. "And I bet she had no idea her man lent it to you."

Charlotte shrugged. "Maybe not. He gave it to me to drive because it was a special occasion. I was on my way to-" She stopped, unable to complete the sentence that would have included the words Kurt and propose. It seemed like blasphemy, under the circumstances.

He took another step toward her, so close that she could smell him-heat and soap and Joe.

"I looked for about six months, Charlotte-tracked down every blue Mazda Miata in the state of Maryland. Then I got transferred with my job. I always hoped I'd see you again."

This was more than she'd bargained for, and Charlotte turned on her heels and headed back to the mower. She needed to end this conversation. She needed to hop back on the Cub Cadet and put the headphones back over her ears and forget she'd ever heard the words he'd just spoken. It was too much. Far too much for her to handle.

But his hand touched her shoulder.

"Do you know you kissed me so hard that day that you broke my tooth?"

"What?" She spun around and examined the smile that greeted her. So that's what was different! He had a little snip off the inside of his left front tooth! She'd remembered his smile as blazing perfection, but now it was flawed, rakish, sexy as all get-out.

She absently ran her tongue along her bottom lip, then said, "No shit?"

Joe tapped a finger on his front incisor. "You owe me. And remember, you don't cuss."

"Damn-I really did that to you? I'm so sorry! I… uhm-" She couldn't stop licking her own bottom lip, horrified to know that the crack she'd heard had been one of his teeth! She'd been so out of control that day. What had she been thinking?

"I have just one more question."

She raised her eyes and scanned his entire face, nearly falling backward as she looked up at him from under the brim of the ball cap. He was so dark and beautiful that it overwhelmed her. He was too close. He was too real. He'd looked for her.

'The day we met-"

His pupils were bottomless, compelling. She once thought of him as the devil, the devil with a fishing pole, if she remembered correctly. So who was he now, and what did he mean when he said he'd never bother her again?

She felt Joe's gaze as it explored her face, and watched as his smile turned to an expression of tenderness. Worry, even. It was as if he suddenly expected her to shatter into pieces or blow away in the wind.

She flinched at the feel of his fingertips brushing the side of her cheek.

"I need to know, Charlotte. Please tell me the truth."

Oh God. She knew exactly what he was asking. His thumb brushed her bottom lip, tracing the invisible scar, paralyzing her.

"Did you give me your virginity that day?"

Charlotte spun away from his eyes, his touch, his words, and was about to hoist herself into the seat of the riding mower when his arms encircled her. With gentleness, he pulled her back against him. As he continued to talk, she felt his breath on the side of her damp neck.

"It's important to me. I have a right to know."

Charlotte didn't consider herself a coward. She'd faced so much and held it together for so long that she could surely answer this simple question. And the truth was, he did deserve to know. She wanted him to know, in fact.

So she nodded.

"Thank you, Charlotte." Joe swept his lips across her shoulder, released her, and backed away.

"I'll be leaving soon," he said. "I had no idea you lived here. I never intended to interfere with your life or cause you any pain."

She twirled around again. "You're what?"

"I have to leave. I'm sorry."

"You're leaving because I live here? You don't want to live near me?"

"It's not that. It's my work."

"You can't live here and write? Why not?"

"It's not that, exactly-"

So he was rejecting her again. Her chest ached and her head buzzed with anger.

"Why the hell did you cut down my honeysuckle?"

"I didn't know it was yours until your friend Ned set me straight. It'll bounce back. Most things do."

Charlotte took a few steps back, circling around the riding mower, putting several hundred pounds of bright yellow steel between them. She shook her head and laughed. "Okay, Joe. So you just show up next door after thirteen years, tell me you never forgot me, hack down my honeysuckle, and leave?"

He moved toward her, leaning both hands on the mower. "It's more complicated than that, Charlotte. I'd give anything to stay here and get to know you, but I can't. It's impossible."

"Right. Great." She hopped into the deep leather seat of the Cub Cadet and was about to turn the key in the ignition when his hand grasped hers.

"I'm glad you remember me, Charlotte. It means a lot to me."

The laughter exploded from her just as the tears began. If the man only knew- Charlotte stared at her grass-stained sneakers and shook her head, thinking of how the memory of Joe had flooded her poetry, her fantasies, her marriage, her life.

"What's so funny?"

If he was leaving, she might as well speak the truth. Charlotte raised her head, looked him in the eye, and said, "Since that day with you, nothing else has ever been good enough."

She turned the key in the ignition and let the roar of the motor drown out his response.