It had already been a long day when Sophie called him in a panic. “That researcher from the university is supposed to arrive today, and I don’t think I’m going to make it back from Nashville for at least a couple of hours.”

David sighed. “You want me to go over and meet her? She’s staying at Millie’s, right?”

“Oh, David, that would be wonderful. Do you mind?”

David did mind, but he wasn’t going to tell Sophie that. “It’s fine, Sophie, I don’t mind.”

“I can tell that you do, but I promise I’ll make it up to you,” Sophie said, making him feel guilty.

“I’m sorry; it’s already been a long day, that’s all,” he said, meaning it. “Tell me about her again so I’m prepared.”

“Well, her name is Michelle, and she’s in the master’s program, and she’s going to use Molly Swensen in her thesis,” Sophie said, then added, “I don’t really know anything else about her.”

“Okay, when is she going to be here?” he asked, not looking forward to trying to connect with an academic since school hadn’t exactly been his thing.

“Any time now,” Sophie said, then when she heard him groan, added, “I’m sorry, David, time just got away from me.”

“You owe me, Sophie,” he said, then hung up the phone.

When he got outside, he saw that there was an unfamiliar car parked in front of the boarding house and quickly crossed the street. As he got closer to Millie’s, he saw that she was once again on her porch, but today she was talking to a someone in a baseball cap and jeans.

He didn’t think he recognized the person sitting next to Millie, wasn’t sure at first if it was a male or a female. But then he got a little closer and realized that it was a woman, and that she was staring at Millie intently. Opening the gate, he headed up the walk to the porch, trying to decide if the woman was the one he was supposed to be meeting.

She didn’t look much like what he’d imagined; dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt, her hair tucked up in the baseball cap, she looked more like a hiker than a researcher. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, Millie saw him and smiled.

“Well, David, that’s twice this week you’ve come onto my porch,” Millie said, then winked at him, clearly enjoying herself.

David smiled at Millie, opened his mouth to tease her back, but before he could speak, the woman sitting next to her turned and looked at him. Their eyes met, and all rational thought seemed to evaporate from his mind; he couldn’t seem to put even two words together as his heart began to pound furiously in his chest.

All the air came whooshing out of his lungs, and he stumbled back a couple of steps. The woman was beautiful, her features perfect, her blue eyes framed by lashes so long they brushed her cheeks when she blinked. Stunned, he took several deep breaths, his body tingling as desire raced through him.

Millie looked from him to the woman sitting next to her, and a big grin spread across her face. “David, this is Michelle McIntyre. She’s come to town to research Molly Swensen; isn’t that exciting?”

David could only stare; this woman couldn’t possibly be the one Sophie sent him to meet. She didn’t look anything like a researcher, or an academic; she looked more like a model. When she got to her feet, he saw that she was almost as tall as he was, something that made her even more attractive.

Knowing that she was probably very aware of his reaction to her, was probably used to men reacting to her this way, he tried to gather his thoughts. Finally, he managed to say, “Sophie got held up in Nashville; she called and asked me to meet you. Sorry I’m late.”

Michelle came down the porch steps, her hand out, and said, “It’s fine. Millie was just entertaining me with the stories she’s heard about Molly Swensen.”

David looked at her hand, suddenly afraid to touch her, afraid of what his reaction might be, afraid that once he did, he wouldn’t want to let go. But he reached out and slid his hand into hers; it was warm, and almost instantly his body began to tingle just as it had before.

Shocked by his response, he pulled his hand away and said, “Let’s get you moved in and then I can show you around town.”

Michelle looked up and down the street. “I don’t think that will be necessary; I think I can find my way around,” she said, then added, “I mean, I’m sure you have things to do.”

David had a million other things he should have been doing, but none of them sounded as good as showing Michelle around town. “That’s okay, I can spare a few minutes, since that’s all it will take,” he said, giving her a big smile.

Michelle wanted to scream; she’d been enjoying her conversation with Millie and didn’t want to be interrupted. On top of that, his reaction to her had been written all over his face and she wasn’t in the mood fend off his advances.

She’d grown accustomed to the attention she attracted from men, had learned to either block it out or stop it completely with a few words. She wasn’t in the mood to do either; what she wanted was to spend the rest of the afternoon talking to Millie. But she was clearly stuck since David wasn’t going to take no for an answer, and she couldn’t risk being rude to someone on her first day in town.

Resigned to David’s company for the next hour, she smiled at him and said, “How can I refuse such a nice offer?”

“I’ll help you get your stuff from the car if you want,” David offered.

“Oh, I’ll unpack later,” Michelle said waving her hand at her car. “I didn’t bring that much with me.”

David looked over at the car, which was packed full of her books and clothes, then back at her. “Okay, but I don’t mind helping,” he said.

“It’s fine. I’d rather take it up a little at a time, but I don’t know where my room is,” Michelle said.

“Well then, let me introduce you to Stephanie,” David said, leading the way into the house.

Half an hour, a cup of tea, and two cookies later, she was standing in her room feeling like she’d stepped back in time. “We haven’t done much with the rooms yet, new mattresses and bedding of course, but everything else has been here for at least a hundred years, some things longer,” Stephanie said, going over to the windows and pulling open the curtains.

Michelle walked around the room, the afternoon sunlight pouring through the big windows making the old wood furniture glow. “Oh, it’s lovely. I wouldn’t change a thing. This is exactly what I expected,” she said, charmed by the room.

“The fireplace works, although I doubt you’ll need it this summer,” Stephanie said, going over to a door and opening it up. “I gave you this room because it has its own bathroom; can’t have you sharing with the men.”

Michelle walked into the bathroom and gasped, sure now that she’d stepped back in time. The room was huge, the floor covered in black and white tiles, and right in the center was a huge claw-foot bathtub, with an old shower attachment. Against one wall was an old pedestal sink, the wall above it full of mirrors.

“I can’t wait to take a bath in that tub,” she said, walking over and running her hand over the white porcelain.

Stephanie laughed. “This was the only indoor bathroom in town for a long time. Judge Wilson spent a pretty penny putting it in for his wife. This used to be the nursery.”

“Well, it makes a great bathroom,” Michelle said, wandering out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom. “I think I’m going to enjoy staying here.”

Stephanie smiled at her. “It will be nice to have another woman around,” she said.

Michelle smiled back at her wondering if she’d just made a new friend, something that had always been hard for her to do. Just like men, women always seemed to notice her beauty first; many made assumptions about who she was based on her looks, assumptions that had nothing to do with who she really was.

“I’ll unpack my car when I get back. David volunteered to show me around town,” Michelle said, heading for the door.

“Well, then I’ll see you back here in a few minutes,” Stephanie said, pausing at the top of the stairs. “I bet that happens to you all the time.”

Michelle wasn’t sure what she meant. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re incredibly beautiful. I bet it can be difficult at times,” Stephanie said.

It was the last thing she’d expected Stephanie to say, but it was an honest observation, and she didn’t sense any malice in her words. For just a second, she let her magic flow, relieved to find only empathy in her new friend.

“It can be, but I’ve learned to handle it,” Michelle said, shrugging her shoulders.

“David is a nice guy,” Stephanie said.

Michelle could hear the warning in her statement. “Don’t worry, I’ll let him down easy.”

Stephanie seemed satisfied with that answer. “Well, then don’t let me keep you from the big tour.”

When they came out of the boarding house and said goodbye to Millie, she had a satisfied look on her face. “Looks just right to me,” she said when she saw them.

“What?” Michelle asked.

“Oh, nothing, just an old woman thinking out loud,” Millie said.

“I’m going to show Michelle around town; anything you need?” David asked as they went down the steps.

“Nope, I’ve got all I need right here,” Millie said, waving them away. “Get out of here and have some fun.”

When they were far enough away that she was sure Millie wouldn’t hear her, she said, “Millie’s quite a character.”

David laughed, “You wouldn’t know it to look at her now, but she stayed shut up in that house for twenty years.”

Michelle looked back over her shoulder at the house, which suddenly didn’t seem quite so charming. “Alone?”

“She had people come in and clean, a woman who cooked her meals, but other than that, no guests, no visitors and she never came out, not even onto the porch.”

Michelle shivered a little bit at the thought of being that cut off from the world. “How old is she?”

“No one is quite sure, but she has to be over a hundred,” David said.

They’d reached the two white tents set up next to the school, and Michelle was distracted from her thoughts of Millie. “Why are these here?” she asked.

David explained about the plans to put Gypsum Creek back on the map. When he’d finished, he said, “I still have my doubts about this working, but it’s nice to see people happy and busy for a change.”

“Well, it’s a good investment if you ask me; this is a beautiful place, and lots of people will want to come here when they find out about it,” Michelle said, looking at the mountains around them.

“I hope you’re right,” David said, his face serious. “A lot of people are going to be disappointed if it doesn’t.”

Seeing David so upset, Michelle found herself wanting to comfort him. Since they’d started talking about the town, he’d relaxed, wasn’t so distracted by her looks. “You really care about this town, don’t you?” she asked.

David shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know why I do. I shouldn’t,” he said.

Michelle could tell that she was missing something, but before she could probe further, David changed the subject. “This is our school. Sophie is the teacher. She fixed it up a little when she first came here, but we’re going to give it a full renovation as soon as the store is done.”