Page 19 of Just One Look

“I can think of a lot of women who would disagree with you.” Not waiting for her response, he stepped out of the car and circled the hood, quickly opening her door.

Liz accepted the proffered hand, and sliding around, she stepped out of the car and stood in front of Devlin. “I’m not like most women.”

“I’ve noticed.”

Her cheeks pulled with a smile. She certainly hoped that was a compliment. “Thank you for a very nice evening.”

“If I can’t make it up to you, at least let me try for another dinner?” He wasn’t moving.

Throwing her arms up, she chuckled. “Who am I to argue, if you insist.”

“I insist.” He took a step in retreat. “How about tomorrow night?”

“Sunday?”

“You don’t eat on Sundays?” He smiled at her.

“Well, yes, but don’t you Barons have a big family dinner on Sundays?”

His brows rose high on his forehead.

“Emily may have mentioned something about that a time or two.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “Yes, whenever possible, many of us show up at the ranch for Sunday dinner, but I can skip a Sunday or two.”

“Then I guess tomorrow will be fine. Thank you.”

Falling into step beside her, he nodded. “Great. I’ll pick you up at six?”

“Sounds good.”

Before they reached the front door, Emily opened it and arms crossed, tapped her foot. “For what it’s worth, I was about five minutes shy of calling Houston PD. Don’t either of you answer your phones anymore?”

Liz pulled hers out of her purse. “Dead. Sorry.”

His phone in his hand as well, Devlin sighed. “I put mine on silent at the hospital and forgot to turn the sound back on when we left.”

“Hospital?” Emily’s voice rose an octave.

“We’re all fine.” Liz turned to Devlin. “Thank you again. I’ll update my baby sister and see you tomorrow.”

“Fair enough.” Devlin gave her a lazy salute, then faced Emily. “Sorry about the phone.”

Emily nodded and smiled at him and as soon as he rounded the hood to the driver side of his car, she closed the door. “Considering it’s two o’clock in the morning, that must have been one heckuvanotdate.”

“If anything ever qualified as not being a date, this was probably it.” Kicking off her shoes, Liz marched into the kitchen and pulled out a wine glass and showed it to her sister. Emily nodded and Liz pulled out a second glass, then poured.

Seated on the sofa with a glass of Pinot in hand, Emily looked at the swirling glass a moment before leveling her gaze with her sister’s. “I’m listening.”

“He really is nice,” were the first words out of Liz’s mouth.

“He is.”

“I mean really nice.”

Emily tipped her head to one side. “What happened?”

“Dinner didn’t go as planned. First, Devlin got called to the spec house because someone set off the alarm.”

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