Good thing he didn’t wear the polo shirt to work. It was lethal. Not only did it accent the breadth of his shoulders and chest, it showed off the dark hair beneath it. Made her want to run her fingers through it.
People slept together on first dates all the time.
She never had. And wouldn’t. But if this was going to be her only chance, if she did it before she was in too deep...
Stop it.
“You like your steaks rare?” he asked, standing by the impressive outdoor kitchen he’d built. It had a sink with running water, a small refrigerator—from which he’d taken a bottle of wine—and a bottom cupboard that contained not only the two wineglasses they were using, but various other drinking vessels, as well. Small plastic ones included.
And there was the grill. Infrared. With two burners off to the side.
“I like them medium,” she said. “Kacey’s the rare girl.”
He closed the grill. “You did it again.”
“Did what again?”
“Compared yourself to your sister.”
She hadn’t noticed.
“Why do you do that?”
She shrugged and took a sip of wine. She was having a good time, was alone with a man who was affecting her like none other, was filled with anticipation and a tad bit of naughty. Something more in tune with Kacey than herself...
She’d just done it again.
“It’s natural, I guess, when you grow up side by side with another human being who looks exactly like you do.”
He sat down, touching his knee to hers. Could have been an accident, but he kept it there and took a sip of his wine. A light merlot.
“The curious thing is that you always seem to come off on the bad end of the comparison.”
She could have been back onstage with lights shining so brightly on her that she couldn’t see anything in front of her. He saw too much.
She felt naked. Raw.
A tad bit defensive.
“You know Kacey,” she said, sipping more quickly than she otherwise might have done. “She glows. It’s not her fault. Not anything she even wants. But it’s always been that way.”
“She’s the sunrise. You’re the sunset. Both are equally spectacular.”
Oh, my God. Had he just said that? She stared at him. She loved sunsets, thought them the most stunning of all the natural wonders...
She was going to cry.
“In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m a sunset guy.”
Lacey blinked. And blinked again. He got up to turn the steaks—on purpose, she’d bet, giving her a second.
“I like my steak medium, too, by the way.”
She knew what he was doing. And if she hadn’t already been falling in love with him, as Kacey kept asserting, she started right then. Falling hard. And fast.
People fell in love at first sight. And she...