Page 37 of Her Devoted HERO

She pushed up on her pillows.

“Family?” she squeaked.

“I was going to suggest you come over to my grandparents on Sunday for the family barbeque, but I figured that would freak you out.”

“Well yes, meeting your family would definitely freak me out,” she said weakly.

“Come on over to my place, and I’ll grill.”

“Could we skip the date, and just do the grilling?”

“No way. I thought every woman likes to play dress-up.”

“It’s a dress up kind of date?” Her voice went up an octave.

“If your voice goes any higher, I’ll think you’re auditioning to be a soprano. Yep, it’ll be fancy. How does that sound?”

It sounded good.

It sounded bad.

It sounded scary.

“Kenna?”

“What?”

“Will you go out with me on Saturday?”

She blew out a breath. “This isn’t slow,” she admonished. “How about another lunch date,” she suggested hopefully.

“You’re braver than that, Kenna.”

Damn, he had a great voice.

“Come on Kenna. It’s a date for dinner. I dare you.”

She sank back into her pillows. “Are you always going to dare me SailorBoy?”

“Yes Poppy, if it will get me what I want.”

“What time are you going to pick me up?”

“Six.”

She didn’t have a nice dress. She had presentable. She had PTA. She didn’t have Navy nice.

“Kenna, you with me?”

“I’m here.”

“You won’t bail, will you?”

“You dared me, didn’t you?”

“I would have double dog dared you if necessary. But I was holding that in reserve.”

Shit. “You know about those?”