Bending the Rules by Susan Andersen Page A

time?”
    “Not precisely.” She hesitated, not sure if she really wanted to get into this. But the wine she’d sipped had dissipated the defenses she’d slapped in place in an attempt to convince herself Jason’s kiss had left her unaffected. Plus these were her two closest friends in the world and if she couldn’t talk to them, she was in more trouble than she already feared. “Would you consider me a pretty confident woman when it comes to men?”
    “Absolutely,” Janie said.
    “Hell, yeah,” Ava agreed.
    “I always thought I was, too,” she said glumly. “But with de Sanges…” Making a face, she gave an impatient wave of her hand. “Don’t get me wrong, I can hold my own with the man. But he drives me crazy. He doesn’t interact with the kids at all unless it’s to say something intimidating.”
    “Uh-oh. That’s iron-clad guaranteed to put him on your bad side,” Jane said.
    “Damn tootin’.” And if part of her insisted on drifting to the fact that he’d got it when she’d accused him of being like Boss Godfrey with the kids, she firmly brought it back on track. Because, please. Big deal.
    “I’ve never met anyone so rigid and serious. I doubt he has the first clue how to have fun.” Okay, so he’d displayed a hint of a sense of humor. Clearly it was an aberration and she hardly felt compelled to throw that into the mix. It would only confuse her friends the way it had her.
    “I only met him that one time,” Ava agreed, “but I remember that he never once smiled.”
    Oh, but when he does unbend he’s got a seriously killer smile.
    “That’s the thing, though,” Poppy said, disgusted with her thoughts. “I find myself suddenly making all kinds of excuses for him. All because I lost it when he kissed me.” Boy, had she lost it!
    “He kissed you?” both friends exclaimed in unison.
    They leaned forward, all alert eyes and bristling curiosity, but Ava beat Jane to the punch when she demanded, “And you didn’t lead off with that the minute the three of us were in one room? Why the hell did you let me go on and on about the stupid brie?”
    “Hey, it wasn’t as if it was much of a kiss,” she said defensively. “The thing was so brief I’m not even sure it qualifies.”
    “If you lost it, then I’m guessing it qualified,” Jane said.
    Ava nodded. “Yes, tell us about that. I need a definition, because my idea of ‘lost it’ and yours could be two different things. Or I can just go out on a limb here and speculate it means he made you feel—”
    “Like he was lightning and I was the tallest tree on the prairie? Oh, yeah.”
    Both her friends grinned and Ava wiggled in her chair. “Ooh. Tell us more and don’t stint on the details. It’s been a long dry spell for me, so I have to live vicariously.”
    “It’s embarrassing.”
    “Even better,” Jane said, giving her a lopsided smile. “You’re the girl who always skated when it came to those embarrassing man/woman situations that knock the rest of us on our butts. You were due.”
    “Oh, nice, Janie. I may have been dumped less often than some—but the pain when I am is still my pain. You’re dreaming if you think anyone skates entirely when it comes to this kind of crap.”
    “Oh, kiddo, I know.” Jane reached across the table to rub the back of her hand. “That didn’t come out right. I didn’t mean you’ve never been hurt, just that you never seem to be embarrassed by anything. You’re usually so at ease with men and I used to be so awkward that I just had one of those mean it-was-bound-to-catch-up-withyou-sooner-or-later moments.”
    “Bitch,” she said without heat, then added morosely, “I would’ve voted for later. But I have a feeling hanging around de Sanges for any length of time—which I can hardly avoid, given the terms of the kids’ deal with the city and the merchants—is going to end up being one big kick in the head for me.”
    “By your own account, Poppy, it was merely a brief