“Yeah, well. I’m an overachiever.”
He huffs. Might be a laugh.
We stand there, surrounded by strawberry casualties and unspoken things.
“This is complicated,” he says.
“What is?”
He gestures vaguely between us.
Oh.
“Everything’s complicated,” I say carefully. “Doesn’t mean it’s not worth—”
“DESSERT?” Mason yells from the dining room. “You guys get lost?”
The moment breaks. Dean grabs plates. I grab spoons. We don’t talk about whatever just almost happened.
But back at the table, his thigh presses against mine.
And he doesn’t move away.
Chapter Fourteen
Blurred Boundaries
Dean
She leaves right after dessert.
She makes excuses about vendors and early mornings. Hugs Ivy, fist-bumps Mason, and gives me this look I can’t decipher.
“Thanks for dinner.”
“It was just risotto.”
“Well, it was the bestjust risottoI’ve ever had.”
Then she’s gone—back to the guest house, back to safe distances and professional boundaries.
Mason helps clear the plates while Ivy makes tea. It’s a normal post-dinner ritual, except my mind won’t stop replaying the conversation in the kitchen.
“So,” Mason says, too casually. “Poppy seems nice.”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Whatever matchmaking scheme you’re cooking up. Don’t.”
“I’m just saying—”
“She’s leaving Sunday. Flying to Italy. Building her business. She doesn’t need—” I gesture at myself. “This.” Not to mention, she lives in California.
“This? You mean a stable, successful guy who cooks?”
“I mean an emotionally unavailable workaholic with trust issues.”
