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Chapter Sixteen

The real question: What should she do? Send Joe away?

She really didn't want to, and that thought surprised her more than anything.

"Em?" Ben asked, his frown deepening.

She smiled brightly. "Joe's just-"

"A friend," Joe said, standing up. "Trying to convince Em that she needs to eat."

"Are you hungry, Em?" Ben asked, as though confused by the possibility.

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"She's always hungry"-Joe winked at her, his tone overly suggestive-"and I appreciate her appetite."

She gave him a look that clearly told him to shut it.

He just smiled at her unrepentantly and then faced Ben. "Knowing Em, she's your most valuable worker, but tell her she can come have lunch with me."

Ben's frown increased in displeasure. "Do you want to, Em?"

She wanted him to ask her to eat with him, but apparently that wasn't a logical conclusion to draw. Annoyed, she stuck the plant in the new pot and tossed the spade down. "Yes, I do."

She felt vindicated when his face clouded over. She gave him an icy smile as she took off the gloves and handed them to him. "Perhaps you can have the boys finish this."

"Yes," Ben said faintly, as if perplexed by the turn of events.

She faced Joe and gave him a look of retribution. "Shall we?"

"By all means." He held his hand out, motioning her ahead of him.

Like she was the queen, she held her head high and marched out of the greenhouse into the café. She glanced back at him. "Give me a moment to wash up?"

"Of course."

She didn't have second thoughts until she rejoined Joe. He leaned against a wall, hands in his pockets, waiting for her. His face lit with a smile when he saw her, and her belly quivered in response.

That was not good. Neither was the fact that he looked temptingly sexy and available. She should tell him that she couldn't go, that she needed to return home to work on her collage.

Only then he took her elbow. He smelled so good, and he looked at her like she was his sun. How could she resist him?

"Ready?" he asked.

Not at all. She tried to smile, hoping if she looked hungry he'd mistake it for food and not for him.

He led her to a dark sedan parked at the curb, opening the door for her.

"This is your car?" she asked in shock.

"I didn't steal it, if that's what you're asking." He arched his brow, waiting for her to get in.

She'd expected him to have a racy sports car, something sleek and sexy-not something that belonged to a family man. Trying to cover her confusion, she asked the first question that came to mind. "How did you manage to park right here?"

"Parking karma, darling." He flashed her a grin. When she was settled in, he closed the door securely and went around to his side.

She liked having the door opened for her. It was probably very un-feminist of her, but she didn't care. It had nothing to do with needing someone to help her and everything to do with someone showing he cared for her, the way a mother should for her child.

She'd never had that, from her mother or a man.

She wondered if Ben was the chivalrous type. Try as she did, she couldn't picture it.