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“Not normally.” I shook my head. “This is a first.”

Kai squatted down and I got to watch his powerful thighs flex in his jeans.

I needed ice water. Fast.

“Boy or a girl?” he asked as he held out his hand for Chaos to sniff.

“A girl who I swear is flirting. I have never seen her behave like this in my life.”

“How long have you had her?” he asked as he looked up at me.

I had trouble thinking of an answer as those blue-silver eyes focused on me. I stared down at him.

“Marlowe?”

“Uhm. I’ve had her since she was weaned.”

Chaos came out from behind me, wagging her tail. Kai started to scratch my girl under her chin, and the little slut was groaning in delight. What was even worse is, I was envious.

After long moments, Kai stood up.

“Well, we better go. We don’t want to miss out on the apple pie.”

“Pearl’s or Down Home?” I asked.

“I usually do Pearl’s for dinner. I enjoy seeing Little Grandma, so I’ll do breakfast or lunch at the Down Home Diner.” He went to open the door for me, then he paused. “Your girl took me by surprise and I didn’t have a chance to tell you just how beautiful you look in your dress.”

I had to be as red as a lobster who’d just been dunked in boiling water. I tried to will away the blush, but I knew it wasn’t working. At least it was summer, and I’d been getting a little bit of a tan, so maybe it wasn’t quite as obvious, right?

I peeked up at Kai and saw him grinning down at me. Nope, no luck. He’d cottoned onto my blush.

“Umm, thank you.” I muttered.

“Are you going to be able to handle it if I also tell you I really enjoy seeing your hair down? I can’t wait to see what it’ll look like in the sun.”

I shuddered, and he laughed.

“Okay, come on, let’s go. I promise not to tell you what I think about your shoes.”

I hadn’t been teasing about how beautiful she looked in the dress. The side benefit of complimenting her on her hair and shoes, was seeing her blush. It was like no man had ever given her a compliment before.

I refrained from telling her how good her ass looked, but it had been a thing of beauty as she had climbed into my truck before I had shut her in.

For the last four days I tried to make sense of why I had asked her out. This wasn’t part of the plan. I wanted to know more about my mother and brother, and dating someone who was new to town wasn’t going to help me down that path.

She is living in your old house.

So?

If you look inside you might remember more things.

Now you’re reaching.

“Are you okay?”

“Huh?”

“I asked you a couple of times how you knew Lettie.”