Just a Memory by Lois Carroll Read Free Book Online

and led the way across the showroom. "My office…we can eat in my office."
    Carolyn cleared off her desk and placed a folded newspaper down to catch the grease under the pizza box. "I've got some caffeine-free cola," she offered. "Nothing stronger. Sorry, no beer. I can't stand the bitter taste."
    Mac chuckled. "Whatever you have would be great. I didn't think of bringing drinks."
    Being careful not to touch him, she passed him to go to the dorm-sized refrigerator on the other side of her desk. The office was so small, not much bigger than a walk-in closet, that she felt awkward.
    He must have noticed. "Look, if you'd rather not eat the pizza, it's okay. Maybe I should just help you finish picking up so you can get home at a decent hour."
    "No, I would like the pizza." She laughed nervously. "I…well, I'm just surprised you brought it, that's all. I'm not used to having anyone…I mean, of course I have friends in this town, but they wouldn't…"
    Exasperated, she ran both hands through her hair and then plopped her hands back on her hips. "Thanks, Mac. It was very nice of you."
    "I didn't do it just to be nice. I was hoping we could be friends, Carolyn," he said softly. "I haven't made any friends yet in Lakehaven." He held his hand out to her.
    He'd hesitated just slightly before the word 'friends'. She looked at his outstretched hand and fought the direction her mind suddenly took when another kind of relationship, besides friendship, popped into her thoughts. For a moment she thought of him only as a desirable man, and of herself as a woman who had been without a man in her life for a very long time. A startling warmth filled her and made her acutely aware of her femininity. She was startled by this stranger's ability to rouse such long-dormant feelings in her.
    Continuing to think along those lines wasn't good. Having loved Richard and lost him, she'd vowed never to let her feelings for any man get that strong again. Especially not a man, who put his life on the line every day in his job as a cop, and who was in town only temporarily. She wouldn't set herself up again for the pain and loss that would be inevitable when he left.
    Besides, dating someone like Mac would only increase the frequency of her daughter's broad hints that it was high time she had a daddy. Carolyn would never get the child's hopes up only to have them dashed.
    Trying to remember that being friends was the only way to be, she placed her hand in Mac's and smiled tentatively. "I'd like another friend." She emphasized the word 'friend' just a little.
    Mac grinned and they shook on it. "Good, then let's eat. I'm starved."
    "Me too."
    Mac removed his trench coat and uniform jacket together in one movement. His tie hung from a loosened knot and his top shirt button was undone. He turned back from hanging his coat on the corner of the open door to catch Carolyn watching him.
    She looked away to reach for the paper towels to use in lieu of plates and napkins. Amazed that she'd actually enjoyed watching his muscles move under his fitted shirt, she felt a warm glow deep down where she hadn't felt one in a long time.
    With an old-fashioned politeness she appreciated, he waited to sit while she took off the holiday smock. "I only wear this old thing when I clean the store," she explained self-consciously. She was tempted to put on her pants-suit jacket, hanging behind her chair, but decided not to. Apparently it felt as warm in the office to him as it did to her.
    She sat at the opposite corner of the small desk from him and they ate, not inhibited by the cramped quarters, or the fact the pizza was hardly warm anymore.
    As he ate Mac stretched his long legs out beyond the end of the desk. The movement caught her attention. When she looked up from his legs, he was gazing at her. Unable to remember a time when she felt so self-conscious, she quickly looked down and reached for an extra paper towel. She kept her legs primly folded and her feet tucked under her