Where was Ellie? She could count on her sister for companionship on a Friday night-when the rest of the world was on dates or out with friends. Was Chase out on a date?

Not any of your concern, she told herself.

With a sigh, she reached across the table and pulled one of the sections of the unfoldedMillbrook Telegram toward her. She straightened the paper and began to read with only halfhearted interest. Then a noise caught her attention.

She looked up and listened more intently. It was the sound of laughter. She pushed up from the table and went to the window that overlooked the front yard. The street was quiet She heard the laughter again. The sound was two deep chuckles mixed with a higher, more nervous giggle. She crossed over to the sink and looked out the window into the backyard.

At the wrought-iron table, nestled in among her grandmother's peonies, a blond man sat across from Ellie. Ellie sat forward on her seat. Even from a distance, Abby could see that her cheeks were flushed. Chester lay under the table by Elbe's feet. Chase stood at a gas grill, a pair of tongs in his hands.

Abby quickly headed to the back door.

"Hey, there you are. We thought you were going to miss this here fine cooking," Chase said.

"Hi. I didn't know we were having a barbeque tonight."

Chase inclined his head toward Ellie. "Neither did your poor sister," he said with a contrite smile.

"Yes, we sort of invited ourselves," said the blonde.

Abby really looked at him for the first time. Even in his seated position, she could tell he was tall. His

blond hair was worn longish, not quite as long as Chase's, but shaggier than the current style. He was a very handsome man, but what struck Abby most about him was the hard look in his gray eyes. A bitterness that his winning smile couldn't erase.

He stood and extended his hand. "Hi. I'm Mason Sweet. We actually attended high school together." Abby frowned and then her eyes widened with recognition. "Of course, Mason. Yes, you were the quarterback." Mason nodded with a reticent smile. "Yes, that was I." Abby wouldn't have recognized him if he hadn't said his name. In high school, he had been the type of kid who seemed to have a golden aura around him. A constant smile. Always laughing. While Mason still had his tremendous good looks, the radiance that had surrounded him was doused. She couldn't help wondering what had happened in his life to kill that vivacity.

"Mason is the mayor of Millbrook," Chase told Abby, as he flipped what appeared to be a piece of chicken on the grill. "Really?" Mason shrugged and sank back into his chair. "I try not to let the glamour of the position jade me." "He's a very good mayor," Ellie said softly but with a conviction that caused Mason to study her over his drink.

Ellie didn't return Mason's look, instead making a great show of idly reaching out to snap a dead blossom off one of the peonies. She likes him, Abby realized, and immediately felt sorry for her little sister, who lived in a world of dreams and fairy tales. She didn't have the type of personality that could deal with a hardened man like Mason. It was as hopeless and dangerous as her own attraction to Chase. Leave it to the Stepp sisters to long for the unattainable. Wasn't that what the stepsisters inCinderella did, too? Shoot for the prince when, realistically, they should have aimed for the frog.

Don't do this to yourself, Abby scolded. She wasn't aiming for anything other than a nice platonic relationship with Chase-at which she was succeeding. Okay, there were still the occasional bouts of racing pulses and sweating palms.

But otherwise she was achieving the goal she'd set for herself the night of the CrabFest. She was acting normal around the man.

She wandered over to Chase and peered at the grill. "So is this one of your specialties?"

Chase shook his head and picked up the bottle in the sideboard of the grill. "Not if you consider Heinz Barbeque sauce a specialty."

"It smells good."

"I'm not sure that's my doing either."

"It looks good. You know, not burnt or anything."

"Now that I can take credit for." He winked at her, and one of those odd spells of heart palpitations occurred. But Abby was sure it was about the chicken, rather than how charming Chase was. She did like chicken a lot.

"How was work?"

Abby's heart fluttered again. He asked her that every evening, and although she spared him the details of her research, it still made her feel good that he asked.

"It went well. And your day?"

Chase nodded. "Not too bad. Had a bit of a struggle with a crumbling chimney, but otherwise pretty good. But I'm glad today is over. I need to relax." He lifted his arms over his head, bending to one side to stretch the muscles in his back. Abby couldn't help staring at the way his T-shirt hiked up, giving her a glimpse of washboard belly.

She tried to focus on his shoulders, but she suddenly had an image of kneading the muscles there, her hands then moving to the leanness of his torso, then to the hardness of his stomach. And then down...

A sudden, shrill ring erupted in the tranquil evening air. Abby jumped.

"That's me," Mason said and stood to retrieve a small black phone from his belt. "Sorry."

He flipped the phone open and moved across the lawn to speak, whether to not interrupt their conversation or to keep his own private, Abby wasn't sure.

"Okay, I brought the chicken. What did you make?"

Abby gave him a bewildered look. "Me? I... I provided the backyard."

"Well, hell, I had one of those already."

"I don't cook. I told you that."

"You did, didn't you?" He offered her a warm smile that she could feel to the tips of her toes. "It's a good thing you're so cute. And you got your sister."

He went to Ellie and threw an arm around her. She'd been absorbed in watching Mason and was confused by her sudden inclusion in their conversation.

"Huh?" She cast a muddled glance up at him and then to Abby.

"I was just telling Abby that she's lucky to have you, because I happen to know you are one helluva cook."

Ellie frowned up at him. "Are you sweet-talking me for some of my chocolate-chip cookies?"

"And maybe some of your pasta salad."

"You think that face will get you anything, don't you?"

He smiled, and Abby suspected that dimple did go a long way to getting most things.

Ellie chuckled. "Lucky for you, I made cookies earlier. But the salad's going to take a while."

"It's worth the wait." He gave Ellie a quick hug. "Thanks."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Ellie got up and headed into the house.

Abby was a bit perplexed by the scene that had just played out. Chase and Ellie appeared to be quite comfortable with each other. Chase's behavior didn't surprise her. He had a natural ease with just about everybody- But Elbe's relaxation with him was unexpected. She could be painfully shy, especially with men.

"You've had Ellie's pasta salad-often?"

Chase, who was walking back to the grill, paused for half a second, then continued his approach. "A few times."

Abby fiddled with a long-handled spatula resting on the edge of the grill. "When?"

"So do you think being a scientist made you nosy, or you were nosy so you became a scientist?" He asked the question teasingly, but she got the feeling he was avoiding her question.

She debated querying him further but decided it wasn't necessary. Being a scientist did teach her that frequently the most obvious answer was the correct one. They were neighbors. Ellie loved to cook.

Chase seemed to love to cook, too. They must have done this sort of thing before. It also would explain Elbe's comfort with him.

"Hey, guys, I'm sorry to duck out like this, but there's a crisis at the town council meeting. I thought this would be a sale one to miss. The topic on the agenda was supposed to be a simple vote on the new hours of operation for the landfill site. But apparently Milton Howe and Cliff Newcomb are practically coming to blows over the subject. I should have known nothing is simple when it involves the dump."

"The folks of Millbrook take trash very seriously," Chase stated.

"Indeed they do." Mason held up a hand as he headed toward the driveway. "Nice to see you, Abby. And say good night to Ellie."

After he left, Abby realized that she was alone with Chase in the waning evening light. She watched him use the tongs to flip the chicken.

"Finally, I have you all to myself."

Abby's head shot up. Had he read her mind?

He stood only inches away. She could feel waves of heat caressing the skin of her bare arms and face.

Don't be so overdramatic, she scolded herself. The warmth was from the flames of the grill.

Then Chase's gaze strayed from her eyes to her mouth and back to her eyes again, and Abby wasn't certain. The man did have the ability to make her sizzle.

He reached out and brushed a wave of hair from her cheek. The touch was fleeting, but it gave Abby no doubt that the heat she was feeling had solely to do with him.

"Did I mention that you look beautiful tonight?"

Abby shook her head.

"Well, you do." He gave her a quick smile and then turned his attention back to the grill.

Abby fought the urge to groan with frustration. How could he say things like that and then just flip chicken?

She watched him turn a piece of the meat. Juice dripped through the rack, causing flames to rise up and briefly engulf the cuts of chicken.

Chase was like that fire. Whenever she was with him, he surrounded her and heated her to the core.

How could such torment be so scary and so wonderful, all at once?

"So, let me ask you something." Chase's frank tone jarred Abby out of her thoughts.

"Okay."

"Is this platonic thing really working for you?"

"What?"

He put down the utensil and crossed his arms. "This idea to keep things between us strictly platonic?

Are you finding that easy?"

Abby hesitated. "No."

Chase let out a sigh. "Good, because I don't want to be the only one suffering this torture."

"But we're going to stick to it."

"Right Right." He looked back to the grill, then after a few seconds turned back to her. "Why are we going to stick to it, again?"

Abby couldn't help smiling. "Because of Nelson. And because we make better friends than romantic partners."

He seemed to consider her explanation, nodded and went back to tending their dinner. Seconds later, he said, "Should we really make that judgment without testing it out first?"

Abby laughed.

"What did I miss?" Elbe's innocent question caused them both to jump like guilty teenagers.

But Chase quickly recovered, and said with his usual aplomb, "I was hitting on your sister, but she turned me down."

"Well, that was dumb," Ellie replied.

"Then you'll have to work on her for me."

"I will."

Abby nearly groaned. It was hard enough to resist Chase without having her sister pushing her toward him, too. Who was she kidding? She didn't need a push. A tap would work just fine.

Ellie observed Abby and Chase throughout the meal, and she was struck by how similar the two really were. They liked the same music. They liked the mountains. They liked history and old houses and antiques. But most of all, they liked each other.

Ellie rested her cheek on her hand and watched them in the flickering light from the candles arranged in the middle of the table. They were crazy about each other. It was obvious in their gazes, their smiles, in the way they teased each other.

"It's late," Chase suddenly noted. "I have to go out to the Martins' in the morning and finish their chimney."

"On a Saturday?" Abby asked.

He got up and stretched. "No rest for the wicked."

Ellie noticed the way Abby's eyes ate up the sight of the muscles straining under his shirt.

He began to gather dishes, but Ellie stopped him. "You cooked. No cleaning."

"But you cooked too."

Both of them looked at Abby. She rolled her eyes and said grudgingly. "I know, I know. I've got clean-up duty."

"I'll help," Chase said.