She jogged up the stairs to find both bedrooms empty. “Where the heck—”

Two figures, one large and one small, came down the hall from the bathroom. “Are you all okay?”

“We’re just fine and dandy.” Dennis was grinning.

“That was so cool,” Theo said, his face bright with excitement.

Miranda narrowed her eyes. “Why were you both in the bathroom?”

“You should know,” Dennis said, steering Theo back into his bedroom. “Forced-air heat.”

Then she remembered. The heating ductwork for the bathroom came up through the kitchen wall. If you sat by the bathroom vent, you could hear everything that was said in the kitchen as if you were there. “So you heard all the stories.”

“Yeah. It was amazing,” Theo corroborated as his father tucked him into bed.

“I’m glad.” Miranda had felt bad that they were missing out on such an experience. She picked up Theo’s tray and followed Dennis into the master bedroom. Putting the tray on the dresser, she started stacking all the dirty dishes on top of it.

“What the hell is going on with you and Luke Archer?” her brother asked as he climbed into bed. “I mean, we have about fifty million dollars of athletic talent working in our barn, not to mention God only knows what Gavin Miller is worth.”

Miranda sighed and Dennis looked guilty. “Patty ordered me not to ask you, but I’m your brother.”

“He feels guilty because there’s been some trouble with my job.” Miranda saw the next question coming and trusted Dennis to keep a secret. “Caused by Luke’s brother. And that’s all I’m going to say about it.”

“His brother must be a real jerk.”

Dennis’s loyalty spread warmth through her. “You’re a good brother. But I’m not going to hug you because I can’t afford to get sick.”

“Yeah, you shouldn’t be in here. I’ll feel like as big a jerk as Luke’s brother if you catch the flu.”

“Your fever’s down, so you shouldn’t be contagious anymore,” Miranda said.

“So why wouldn’t Patty let me come down for lunch?” he groused.

Miranda picked up the stacked trays and walked to the door. “Because she wanted to ogle all the football players without you there to cramp her style.”

Miranda was sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of hot chocolate cupped in her hands, bracing herself as she heard the men’s voices approaching the back door. No matter how many people spoke, Luke’s rumbling Texas drawl stood out like a flow of sweet, golden honey. She wanted to bathe in it.

A tiny choke of a sob surprised her, and she gulped a mouthful of hot chocolate to wash it away.

She heard the door slam open and felt the clomp of their boots through the floor. Rising from the table, she went into the hallway, where the men were stripping off their coats. “What would you like to drink? Cold or hot cider? Coffee? Tea? Hot chocolate?”

They all requested cider. Except Gavin, who asked for tea. “I’ve had enough of being quarterbacked for today,” he said with a glint in his eyes.

Patty bustled into the kitchen. “I’ve got fresh peanut butter cookies, too.”

The men surged for the kitchen door, but Gavin caught Miranda’s wrist and drew her back into the mudroom.

He cast a glance over his shoulder at the empty hallway before he released her and leaned his shoulder against the wall. “Look, I’m the least qualified person on the face of the earth to give advice about relationships. But I couldn’t help noticing a certain . . . tension between you and Archer.”

She felt a flush crawl up her cheeks. “It’s not—”

He held up his hand to silence her. “Clearly, it’s not going well, and I shouldn’t give him any help with his wager anyway, but you seem like a lovely young lady.”

There was that wager again, but Gavin kept on going. “And you seem to be foolish enough to care about him. So let me tell you something that you can use or not—he cares about you, too. He tried to convince us he dragged us up here because he owed you a favor, but I’ve been watching him all day. He’s been like an overwound spring every time you were present. And that is not typical of the famed Iceman.”

That impossible-to-kill hope fluttered to life again.

“He’s a fiercely hard-driving competitor, my dear, not a man you want to take on lightly. But you’ve opened up a chink in his armor. If you believe you can be happy with him, you should exploit it.” He gave her a shockingly genuine smile.

It was a lot to absorb, but the hope was spreading its wings now. “How?” She swallowed. “He’s gone back to football, and I’m just a distraction.”

“Ah, I’d come up with a scenario for you, but I suffer from writer’s block.” The writer straightened away from the wall and strolled toward the kitchen. “I’m afraid you’re on your own.”

Miranda stared after him, trying to imagine a way to deflect Luke from his firmly held decision to banish her from his life.

However, it didn’t matter that she couldn’t think of a way to break through the barrier Luke had built, because he wouldn’t let her get near him. Every time she found a way to approach, he used his quarterback’s skill at evasion to shift away from her. He never made it obvious, but she felt like they were two magnets with the same poles turned toward each other.