Page 26 of Breathless With Her

“I don’t know if I can actually agree to that.” He helped me into the truck, then went around to his side. As he got in, I frowned.

“Why can’t you agree to that?”

“If I do, how am I going to remember the first time you slept over?”

“Smooth moves.”

“I try.”

We talked about work, mostly his with a little bit of mine. It was nice. It didn’t feel like a first date, maybe because it wasn’t a date. But it didn’t really feel like a first of anything. After all, I had slept at his house already. And I knew him. Even if it was on the periphery.

Devin wasn’t a complete stranger. I just had to keep reminding myself of that.

“We’re here,” he said, pulling up in front of a house. There were a few cars there, and I looked around, smiling at the neighborhood. “You know, I almost bought a house in this neighborhood.”

“Really? It’s a good place. I live two neighborhoods over.”

“I remember,” I said, meeting his gaze.

“I thought you didn’t want to talk about that night.”

“Apparently, I’m not very good at that.”

“I don’t mind.”

He helped me out of the truck, and then pulled out a bottle of wine in a little bag as well as a gift bag from the back seat.

I tugged the card and little gift bag out of my small purse and looked up at him.

“So, I didn’t really know what to get him as a gift, so I got him a little knick-knack for his desk. It’s stupid. But I was kind of out of ideas.”

“You didn’t need to get him anything. I got him something.” He shook the bag. “Plus, I brought wine. I figured you could bring that.”

“That would have been smart.”

“Hey, I gave you like thirty minutes’ notice. I think it’d have been okay if you didn’t bring a gift.”

“Well, we’ll see. This is pretty much nothing.”

“So you say.”

He held out his hand, and I slid my fingers into his, ignoring the way my breath caught.

His hands were working-man’s hands. Considering that he lifted boxes and dealt with letters and God only knew what else every day, I assumed that’s where he got the calluses.

But when he slid the pad of his thumb across my hand, I swallowed hard.

I couldn’t help but picture those hands in other places.

Maybe everyone else was right. Perhaps I did need dick. Because if I was thinking about him like this with just the two of us holding hands? I was in a whole load of trouble.

Greg and Laney were amazing. They not only loved their cake to the point where Greg had picked me up and twirled me around like I was a marionette doll, but they also had incredible food, good beer, and just threw a great party.

They’d built a whole back deck and patio onto their home that had two different floors to it.

They hadn’t put in a pool, but there was a hot tub with a couple of brave people getting in just for kicks and giggles.

I stayed with Devin most of the night since I didn’t really know anybody, and the whole idea that I’d come to check on the cake would clearly be a ruse that nobody would believe.

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