7- Hazel's eyes

All three of them turned to stare at Mr. Lee, who was sipping on his drink, his
gaze fixed on Hazel. “He’s not interested in me,” she protested. “Not the way you mean, anyway.”
“That kiss I heard about says otherwise,” Lauren said. “In fact, that kiss
speaks volumes.”
Emma’s eyes widened. “Kiss, what kiss? That man kissed you? Did you
want him to?”
“No,” Hazel said. “Yes.”
A slow grin replaced the indignation on Emma’s face. “Not sure, are you?”
“Of course I’m sure. That kiss was totally inappropriate.”
“We can sue him for sexual harassment,” Emma suggested, looking a little
too eager.
“Settle down,” Hazel advised. “Nobody is suing anybody, and you are not
taking on any casesin the middle of a dance, not after Lauren worked so hard to
make sure you had the night off.”
“I suppose not,” Emma said, clearly disappointed. “But let me know if you
change your mind.”
“Do you look at everything in life in terms of the legalities?” Lauren asked
her.
“Pretty much,” Emma acknowledged.
“That hasto stop,” Lauren said emphatically, then glanced at Hazel. “And
you and I have to see to it. Find this woman someone to dance with. Are there
any eligible males in the room? Other than Hazel’s guy, of course.”
“Mr. Lee O’Donnell is not my guy,” Hazel reminded her. “I’d be glad to turn
himover to Emma.”
“Whatever.” Lauren surveyed the gym carefully. Finally her expression
brightened triumphantly. “There,” she said. “He’ll do very nicely.” She snagged
Emma’s hand. “Come on. Do you know him?”
“No,” Emma said, hanging back.
“Then I’ll introduce you,” Lauren said.
“Do you know him?” Emma asked.
“No, but that’s a technicality. Don’t be a spoilsport. It’s one dance, not the
rest of your life.”
Emma cast a totally uncharacteristically helpless glance over her shoulder as
Lauren dragged her away.
“I see your friend is matchmaking again,” Mr. Lee said, coming up beside
Hazel and startling her so badly she almost dropped her drink. “Think she’ll have
betterluck with those two?”
“Don’t do that,” she said irritably.
“What?”
“Sneak up on me.” She avoided his gaze, pretending that his nearness wasn’t stirring up all sorts of wicked memories of the kiss they’d shared earlier. She
deliberately watched the drama unfolding as Lauren introduced Emma to the
stranger, then left them to their own devices. After an awkward moment the man
must have asked her to dance, because Emma allowed him to lead her to the
middle of the gym. Neither of them looked especially happy about being there,
but Lauren stood by beaming her approval.
Apparently satisfied, Lauren came back to where Hazel and Mr. Lee were
standing. Hazel noticed she deliberately inserted herself protectively between
them. Mr. Lee noted her action with amusement.
“Still protecting your friend, I see,” he said.
“Of course.”
“Trust me, she can defend herself. Did you hear how she doused me with ice
earlier today, then made me hike all the way back into town?”
Hazel regarded him with indignation. “I did not! You decided to walk back. I
tried to stop you.”
Lauren looked from one to the other, lipstwitching. “But the part about the
ice was true? Did that happen before or after the kiss?”
Mr. Lee didn’t seem the least bit surprised or embarrassed by the fact that
Lauren knew about that. “Before.”
“Interesting. I would have thought after.” She grinned. “You know, an
attempt to cool you off, so to speak.”
“It would have taken more than a cup of ice to do that,” Mr. Lee said.
Lauren waved her hand as if it held a fan. “Oh, my.”
Hazel scowled at both of them. “If you two are enjoying yourselves so much,
why don’t I just leave? There are a lot of people here I haven’t spoken to yet.”
Before she could take a step, Mr. Lee grabbed her hand. “Not now. I was
hopingfor another dance lesson.”
She frowned at him. “The band’s not playing country-western tonight. It’s
playing oldies. Surely you can slow-dance. Lauren, you dance with him.”
“Afraid not,” Mr. Lee insisted with a perfectly straight face. “No offense,
Lauren, but Hazel’s a little more patient with my stumbling attempts. Dancing is
one of those social gracesI never had time to learn. Too much studying. It made
me a very dull kid.”
“Then I’m amazed so many women invite you to society balls,” Lauren
chimed in, drawing a startled look from both Hazel and Mr. Lee.
“How do you know that?” Hazel demanded.
Lauren grinned. “The Internet is an amazing thing. You’d be surprised what
you can find out. I only scanned a few editions of the New York papers, and
guess whose name popped up over and over in the society columns?”
Mr. Lee regarded her with admiration. “I underestimated you, after all,
Lauren.”“Many people do,” Hazel said. “Lauren, I think maybe you and I
need to have
a little talk.”
“Tomorrow will be soon enough. There’s a handsome man who’s eager to
dance with you. My hunch is he knows his right foot from hisleft, despite what
he says.”
She winked at Mr. Lee, then added for Hazel’s benefit, “Just keep your
guard up,sweetie. From what I’ve read about him, you don’t want to cross him.”
Unfortunately, Hazel was already well aware of that.