“Ate out. Sometimes double-dated. We vacationed together—there were six of us, actually. We rafted down the Colorado, went on horseback through parts of Montana. It was fun.”
“Very macho,” she teased and was rewarded by a sheepish grin from Matt.
“I suppose.”
Her smile lingered for a minute before fading. “Brad never married.” She’d learned that when she’d been informed by the lawyer that she was the sole beneficiary of her brother’s estate. “I wonder why.”
“Maybe he never met the right girl, one who could accept him as he was.”
“Have you ever married?” she asked on impulse. Matt stared at her for a minute, then shook his head. “Why not?”
“Same reason.”
She pondered his answer quietly. “I can understand it in Brad’s case. He grew up in an atmosphere in which intellectual excellence was the only valid goal. He struggled to keep up for a while, then simply threw in the towel. Neither my parents nor their circle of friends could accept his behavior. Long before he left, he was labeled a misfit. I’m sure he was sensitive about it.”
“We all have our sensitivities.”
“What are yours, Matt? Why would a woman have trouble accepting you as you are?”
He chomped several more potato chips and would have seemed perfectly nonchalant had it not been for the ominous darkening of his eyes. “I’m blue-collar all the way. I don’t have a pedigree, or a series of fancy qualifying initials to put after my name. Over the years I’ve done well in my work, but that doesn’t mean I aspire to own my own company, or that one day I won’t decide to chuck it all and go back to building log cabins. If a woman thinks she’s getting a future real-estate tycoon in me, she’d better think again.”
Lauren couldn’t miss the bitterness in his words. “You’ve been burned.”
“Several times.” He looked out over the water and his tone gentled, growing apologetic enough to defy arrogance. “I’ve always attracted women pretty easily. But physical attraction isn’t enough. Not by a long shot.”
“The grass is always greener …” she said softly. “There are those of us who’dloveto have looks that would attract.”
Matt eyed her as if she were crazy. “But youdo! I can’t believe there isn’t a line of men waiting to take you out!”
It took Lauren a minute to realize what she’d said and why Matt had answered as forcefully as he had. She’d forgotten. That happened a lot. A slow warmth crept up her neck. Compliments were still new to her, and from as physically superb a man as Matthew Kruger … “I don’t know about a line,” she said simply.
“Then there’s one man?”
She shook her head.
“You’re a beautiful woman, Lauren. Surely you’ve had offers.”
Again she shook her head, this time with a self-conscious half smile.
“Why not?”
At his bluntness, she burst out laughing. “You’re almost as undiplomatic as Beth.”
“I’m sorry. I was just curious.” He held up a large, well-formed hand. “Not that I’m saying you should be married. You’re only, what, twenty-nine, and you’re obviously building a career for yourself.” A new thought hit him, and he frowned. “You said you haven’t been in Boston for very long. Then the shop is a recent thing?”
“We’ve been open barely a month.”
“And before that?”
“I worked in a museum back home.”
He rubbed his forefinger along the rim of his paper cup. “Back home. That could explain it. Brad told me about back home.”
“What did he say?”
“That it was stifling. One-dimensional. You were either an artist or an academician affiliated with the college.”
“He was being unfair. Bennington’s a beautiful place. Some fascinating people chose to live there. Brad just didn’t.”
