Jarrod stared at himself in the mirror over the bar. He looked like a normal man. He had been normal until he saw Catherine in that skin-tight dress and Dolly Levi hat. The hat he could laugh off, but the dress, more than the dress the woman inside it aroused him, made him want to put his hands on her. And he had. Look what that did to him.

Made him an idiot.

Now an engaged idiot.

He couldn't marry Catherine. Not because he couldn't play her game, but because he couldn't play her game. Six months of close contact with her and he'd be a basket case. He had no doubt about it. There was no such thing as a platonic relationship between them. If he found himself alone with her, he couldn't be more than what he was, a man attracted to a woman.

Five years ago he'd asked for the job in England. It was prestigious and would help his career in the long run. It involved restoration instead of the new construction he'd done. Since finishing his architectural apprenticeship three years earlier.

When it was time for him to leave it seemed everyone had something to do they couldn't get out of. His parents were away and Catherine agreed to take him to the airport. He remembered their banter in the car during the drive. It was happy and normal for them. Jarrod liked her and she liked him, even if he did embarrass her on occasion. When it was time to board the plane he looked at her and didn't know where the decision to hug he came from. She was the only one he knew there and he was leaving for an indefinite period of time.

He pulled her in his arms and buried his face in her hair. It was a hug, only a friendly gesture from someone who was going away, but Catherine's arms had encircled him, returning the hug. For a moment their differences were wiped away and only the friendship they felt remained. Jarrod remembered the smell of her hair, a flowery, summery kind of scent. For five years that scent remained with him. Today he smelled it again. While he had her in his arms.

She was young when he left. He imagined her unchanged, yet when he saw her she'd matured. The lankiness was gone, her tentativeness replaced with confidence. She was beautiful, her dark eyes and hair a haunting reflection of the girl he'd once known. Yet this new image took him back to that hug in the airport, to all the practical jokes he'd played on her and made him understand how everything had been a coverup. All the times he'd played jokes on her, he was masking his real feelings. He'd denied them, even to himself, but when he kissed her there was no more denying.

How could he pretend for six months? He'd have to pretend he didn't have feelings for her. Pretending he did would be easy, but it would also tell her everything in his heart.

Taking cold showers and controlling himself were things movie actors did. This was the real world. In life it happened the way it had happened today. He'd wanted to kiss that gorgeous mouth and he'd found a way, but he hadn't been prepared for the consequences. He hadn't expected one kiss to turn his life around, to make him want to marry her, but there was something about Catherine that got under his skin. He'd never known it before. And he wanted to explore whatever it was that made him look at Catherine and see a raving beauty, a desirable woman who pushed his arousal buttons.

He'd had to pull back. While he kissed her, while his hands stroked her soft, sensual curves, while sanity was flying away on a tempest, he'd heard Audrey's approach. At the last minute he remembered he'd initiated the kiss to convince Catherine's sister they were in love. Somewhere during the process she had become an intrusion. Jarrod supposed he should be thankful she was there. The screen actor would. If she hadn't been there, Jarrod would have dragged Catherine off somewhere and made love to her.

"Damn, Cathy," he said to the face in the mirror. "Why couldn't you stay that lanky teenager I played jokes on?"