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But as their gazes locked once again, he was glad to see that she didn’t mean that any more literally than he had. They were toasting to this. To them. To this risk that she was taking, the connection they’d been fighting for years, and the great times that hopefully lay ahead.

Robin moaned in delight after taking her first bite of the food, complimented him profusely, and then they eased into a light stream of conversation that drifted from her work at the mayor’s office to his actual cases on the job at SHPD to Abby and her ever-growing Christmas list.

As the dinner wore on, Jack couldn’t believe how right it felt to sit together in his home. And on more than one occasion, he found himself relaxing so completely that he had to work to remember this was a first date and not one of many dinners they’d shared together.

Not only that, but he’d even found himself imagining their lives like this from now on but with Abby sitting with them. It felt… like home. Like she and her daughter were the home he’d been looking for all along. Weeks ago, at her place, he’d been surprised to feel like the only thing missing from his new home was the two of them. But not anymore. Things were changing between them, and he hoped she could feel it too.

* * *

When they finished eating,they sat on the wide window seat so they could watch the season’s first snowfall out the window. Jack’s back rested against the frigid window panel that curved toward the house with one foot on the window seat and his arm propped up on his knee.

He watched Robin as she sat on her knees facing the lawn. He tried to watch the falling snow, but it didn’t hold an ounce of appeal when compared to studying the woman before him. He saw the joy in her expression even though he could only see her profile, and it was enchanting.

He rubbed his thumb against the pads of his fingers that dangled over his knee. They itched to swipe over her cheek, brush across her full bottom lip, or tangle in her hair.

“Beautiful, don’t you think?” she asked, her eyes still on the flurries landing in his yard.

But since Jack had been watching her, he didn’t bother to turn his head toward the snow when he replied, “So beautiful.”

Slowly, her gaze met his. It was hard to determine who moved first. Did she lunge toward him, or had he pulled her closer? But suddenly, she was there, pressed against him where he sat straight up against the window, and her hands on his chest caused heat to spread through him in a stark contrast to the icy glass at his back. One of Jack’s hands found the base of her neck, and his other traveled to her waist, securing her there as if afraid she’d slip away.

But they didn’t kiss. He’d been ready—waiting eagerly—for their mouths to connect with as much force as their bodies had. But it didn’t come.

“Jack,” she whispered, his name falling off her lips in a burst of warm breath against his own.

“Yeah?”

“It won’t be easy to go back to being just neighbors… or just, I don’t know, friends?… if we do this.”

He almost laughed, but he was too focused on making sure she heard the truth in his words. “Fine by me.”

A small crease appeared between her brows, so he let go of her neck and slid his hand to her jaw. His thumb grazed her cheek, and he smiled when she leaned into his palm and her lashes fluttered closed.

“I don’t wanna go back to any of that,” he went on, urging her close enough to press his forehead to hers. “I can’t. I’ve wanted this—you—for too long to go back. We’re here now, and we both feel this, right? Whether we kiss tonight or not, that won’t change.”

He waited for her reply, but then her chin tilted forward, and she pressed her lips to his. Her hands skated up his chest and cupped his face, and thoughshe’dbeen the one to kisshim, he felt her freeze up the second it happened. It was long enough to make him wonder if she’d pull away, shame and regret in her eyes. Some part of him knew he’d understand if she did, but then his worries disappeared as her mouth softened and began to move.

He took over, sitting up straighter and holding her close as his lips slid over hers. A low hum coursed down his limbs, and the world around them disappeared. The snow outside, the bench seat beneath them, the glow of the dang Christmas tree that’d placed a soft halo around her hair.

He’d been attracted to Robin the moment they’d met, but since the day he’d been warned to keep his distance, he’d never once allowed himself to imagine this moment. Her taste on his lips, her hands in his hair, this need deep inside of him that gnawed at every cell in his body as if he weren’t already overwhelmed by the feel of her. What good would it do to imagine it if it could never be real?

But itwasreal. It was happening now, and he was so grateful that he’d never let himself go there. The reality was better than anything he could have dreamed up, and as he dragged himself away—but not so far that he couldn’t still feel her breath mingling with his—he knew she’d been right about what she said.

She was right, and he was so,sowrong.

He’d thought there was no going back for him before that kiss, but now that it’d occurred, she was his, and he was hers. End of story.

* * *

The next day at work,Jack couldn’t stop thinking about Robin and that amazing date night. He’d never wanted it to end, but since it was a weeknight—and that meant school for Abby and work for Robin and himself—they’d simply had to take what they could get.

But something nagged at him as he sat in his squad car finishing up a report from the routine call he’d responded to earlier.

At one point last night, Robin had circled back to the talk about Holden’s personal emergency. “Maybe it was something about his brother.”

Jack hadn’t wanted to make a big deal about it or freak her out, but he couldn’t help but push for more information. “What’s the scoop with the brother?”

“He always had some kind of drama going on,” she’d said with a shrug. “I can’t think of what other kind of personal emergency Holden would have had. He was single and didn’t have any kids or anything.”

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