“Actually...” Alastair said as he leaned toward her.
“Uh-oh. You look serious.”
He didn’t smile. “Iamserious. I didn’t answer your texts this week because I was in Atlanta.”
“Makes sense. I’ve heard that up north they don’t have the internet. Very backward people are those Yankees.”
He laughed. “My father used to say ‘If they can grow apple trees, then they’re Northerners.’”
“I like that.” Her scallops were delicious. “So you couldn’t answer my texts because Atlanta isn’t a technically advanced city. Right?”
“No. It was me. I was putting in sixteen-hour days and collapsing at night. Too tired to answer any form of communication. My mother is so angry at me that I have to take her to lunch on Sunday. Somewhereveryexpensive.”
“So why all the work?”
“I completed what I needed to move my business here. Well, not here in Lachlan, but into a high-rise downtown on Broward.”
“Ooooh. Big city. Why not Miami?”
Alastair held his fingers up in a cross. “Don’t hex me with that name. Fort Lauderdale and Miami don’t mix.”
“I didn’t know. I’ve been learning that Fort Lauderdale and Lachlan are separate.”
“True. We just share utilities, taxes, public transportation and schools with them.”
Kate finished her second glass of wine, while Alastair had barely touched his. “And we can’t forget the Broward County Sheriff’s Department that rules us both.”
“With its state-of-the-art forensics department.”
“Really?” she asked.
“Yes. Fort Lauderdale Police Department uses it.”
“Wish they’d use Sheriff Flynn,” she said under her breath.
“I wondered how you were getting along with him. Too bad you aren’t a Kirkwood.” He grinned. “Or a Stewart. Hey! Let’s elope tonight and tomorrow you’ll be a Stewart. That’s one up from a Kirkwood. Ol’ Sheriff Flynn will be kissing your rings.”
Kate had already drunk enough wine that it seemed like a hilarious proposition and she laughed hard. “You’re my third marriage proposal.”
He picked up a table knife. “If one of them was from Jack Wyatt, I’ll stab myself in the heart now.”
“Jack? Not a chance. He’s more like my brother than a...than a...”
Alastair held the wine bottle over her glass. “Say he’s not like me and I’ll buy a hundred-dollar bottle of their finest.”
“He’s not at all like you,” she said.
Alastair signaled the waiter and ordered a second bottle. “Now, seriously, Kate, my lovely, I need a house here in Lachlan. Can you find me one?”
“Oh, yes. Definitely. What are you looking for? Acreage? Old house? New? Something to remodel? Water view? In town so you can walk to the shops?”
He was grinning at her. “I like this Kate. Do you wear suits and high heels? Carry a briefcase?”
The way he said the words was so sexy that she felt herself sliding down in the chair. “I’m prim on the outside but Ilovelacy underwear.”
He raised an eyebrow. “From that catalog?”
“The one teenage boys like so much?”
