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The words werepresumptuous, perhaps, but they were also entirely true. She would have beenfar too scared to get this close to Ander if she’d known he’d retired from hislife as a gigolo.

“Oh.”

“I hope thishasn’t destroyed our friendship,” Ander said, for the first time soundingupset. “I hope you can forgive me.”

Maybe she wasstill in shock. Maybe she hadn’t yet fully processed everything he’d told herand everything it implied.

But Lori wasactually starting to feel kind of giddy.

“Oh, Ander,”she murmured, reaching over to pull him into a hug, “After all the secretswe’ve kept from each other, did you really think one was going to destroy us?”

Ander returnedher hug immediately, wrapping his arms around her with an urgency she hadn’tfelt from him in two months. She squeezed his firm body in her arms, pressingher face into his clean-smelling shirt and reveling in the delicious warmth ofhis presence.

“You don’t haveany other secrets I don’t know, do you?” Lori asked, muffled by his shoulder.

Ander liftedhis head from where he’d had it buried in her hair. And he said a littletentatively, “I...I don’t think so.”

Which impliedthat everything he still left unsaid were things she should already know.

When theypulled away, both of them were smiling.

Then they bothleaned back against the couch, as if this revelation had worn them out.

“Thank Godthat’s out,” Ander groaned, stretching out his legs and looking over at herbeside him. “I can’t tell you how stressful it was trying to hide theevidence.”

Lori chuckled.“I didn’t suspect a thing. I never would have guessed you’d want to go intoarcheology. I still think you should be a sex therapist or write that book. Youknow so much.”

“Yeah. But Iwant...I want to do something entirely different. I have enough baggage. Idon’t want to always bring it with me to work.”

Lori thoughtabout that. Then she nodded, “I guess that makes sense. But why archeology?”

He gave ahalf-shrug. “I’ve always loved history, art, languages, and culture. You knowthat. I actually took a couple of classes last year, just out of interest. Sowhen I was trying to think of what I might like to do, it was what I came upwith.”

“I think it’s agood idea. Combines all your areas of interest.” She grinned at him. “Are yougoing to wear wrinkled khakis now? Or maybe a fedora like Indiana Jones?”

Ander snorted.“I’ll do my best to avoid it.”

“You didn’tthink about going into business?” Lori asked. “I bet you could be a CEO at somecompany in less than a decade.”

Ander’s mouthturned up in a smile that was just a little bitter. “Maybe. But that’s myfather’s thing. And it’s another kind of baggage I didn’t want to bring with meto work.”

Feeling a surgeof tenderness, of protectiveness, of affection, Lori leaned over and pressed asoft kiss on his cheek.

Drawing hisbrows together, Ander asked, “What was that for?”

“That was forbeing so smart,” she said with another smile. “You definitely made the rightchoice about your career. And I’m so glad you’ll be able to do your own thing.”

** *

“So the wedding went all right?”

Lori had pulledout wine glasses from her cupboard and was digging through a drawer for acorkscrew. “Yeah. It was actually pretty fun. Everyone was all into my books.And no one thought anything about my not having a date.”

She recognizedthe quality of the silence from the other room, so she added quickly, “Butdon’t you dare say you told me so.”

She found thecorkscrew and carried it with the glasses into the other room, where Ander was puttingin on the DVD. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he murmured.

Lori wasgrinning like a maniac but she couldn’t seem to help it.

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