I opened the door.
And there she was.
Fifi.
Sunlight behind her. Hair a little damp from the post-hike shower. A cherry red T-shirt knotted at her waist. Denim shorts. Zero warning.
Her smile was small. A little uncertain.
“Hi.”
I blinked.
Which felt stupid because it was just a word, but something about the way she said it made my blood heat.
She looked… adorable.
No—dangerous.
Dangerously adorable.
And that was a bad combination for a man who’d spent the last half hour trying to talk himself out of needing to touch her again.
Her gaze met mine.
Then dipped.
Right to the bed behind me.
For a second. A heartbeat.
Maybe even half of one.
But I saw it.
Shelooked.
And that was all it took to throw my brain into chaos.
Because the moment she glanced back up, her cheeks a little pinker, her lips doing that soft parting thing they did when she was thinking too fast, I was already gone.
Utterly gone.
“Hey,” I said, and my voice came out rougher than I wanted.
She bit her lip. “Is this a bad time?”
Only if you plan to stay clothed.
“No,” I said. “It’s fine. Just… recovering from mechanical sabotage and Matchmaker Millie’s wilderness program.”
That made her smile. “She’s going to write a book about us, isn’t she?”
I leaned a shoulder against the doorframe, still not trusting myself to step back and invite her in. “She’s probably already halfway through chapter five.”
Fifi laughed lightly, but there was a flicker of something in her eyes. Something unsure. Like maybe she wasn’t just here to flirt. Like maybeshewas nervous now too.
“You okay?” I asked.
