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He smiled, picked up a few oranges, but stayed right where he was. “Natalie said you were in the dress shop this morning when she cancelled her wedding costume.”

“Yes, she told Vera she’d tossed you over. Shouldn’t you be home mourning or something?”

“You’ve met her. What do you think?”

“My opinion doesn’t matter.”

“Honestly, we weren’t well suited from the start. She wanted me to sell my saloon and I realized I wanted a woman with more depth.”

Eddy looked up into his eyes and saw an intensity in them that made her swallow dryly.

“We really need to have dinner, Eddy. With candlelight, I’m thinking.”

Fighting to keep herself on an even keel, she whispered sharply, “If I make you marmalade, too, will you leave me be?”

“Probably not, but I will take the marmalade. I thought we were supposed to be adults?”

She didn’t like having her words come back to haunt her. “You’re the devil.”

“Am I tempting you?”

Her blood rushed with so much heat, she had to close her eyes to keep herself upright. He was way better at this back and forth than she’d ever be. He’d melted her from the knees down. “How can you be so endearing one moment and so incorrigible—­” She hadn’t meant to say that aloud.

He paused. “You find me endearing?”

“No.”

He folded his arms. “Well now.”

“Go away.”

“I want to hear more about how endearing I am,” he said quietly, moving to stand beside her. “I say we discuss me over dinner.”

Shooting him a hot glare, she ignored the people staring and strode away to pay for her oranges.

Rhine watched her determined departure. Endearing. The attraction between them continued to spark like summer lightning, and if he weren’t mistaken, things had just ramped up several more notches. In spite of not scatting when she’d asked, he did care how their encounter might be perceived. The last thing he wanted was for her to be tarred by gossips. So when he saw the tight disapproving face of Mrs.Elsa Parker, the wife of one of the city’s bankers as she stood by the strawberries, he said to her, “Those berries are almost as lovely as you are, Mrs.Parker.”

She tittered and colored up. “You are such a flirt, Mr.Fontaine.”

“Only with ladies as beautiful as yourself.” Knowing his attentions would override any untoward story she might’ve spread, he asked, “Can you help a poor man pick out some good lemons? My chef needs them but I’m ignorant on the matter.”

“Oh, of course.”

Through the store window he saw Eddy march by. Bantering with her only increased his desire for more. He planned to hold her to her offer of the marmalade, and sometime in the very near future show her just how endearing and incorrigible he could be.

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