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“Happy to be of service.” We fell quiet again, just watching each other, my stomach twisting with desire, when the alarm on Ellis’s phone went off. “Shit,” he muttered. “I have a consultation in a little bit. I need to get back to the shop.”

“No problem,” I said, sadness settling in my chest. We cleaned up our dinner mess and headed out to the parking lot a few minutes later. After I disposed of the pizza box in the dumpster behind the building, we lingered. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. Even though we were technically living together, it felt like something fragile would be broken when I left.

Ellis glanced around before stealing a quick kiss. “Thank you for dinner. I’ll see you at home?”

My chest ached and I wanted to pull him close and kiss him again. Instead, I gave him a small smile. “Yeah, of course.” A few moments later, I climbed into my car and headed back to the house.

Lena was still awake when I got back, sitting on the couch watching some dating reality TV show I hadn’t seen before. I stepped out of my shoes and braced myself for her questions, racking my brain for a story to tell her.

“Kier!” She sat up and paused the show she had been watching, tossing the remote on the coffee table. “You’re home early.”

I shrugged before sitting down on the opposite end of the couch. “Am I?”

“Earlier than I expected. I guess this means you took my advice and you didn’t go home with him.”

I snorted a laugh. If she only knew. “I didn’t go home with him,” I agreed.

“Well, how was it? What did you do? Tell me everything.”

Maybe not everything, I thought. I’m sure she wants me to leave out the part where I sucked off her brother. “It was great. We had pizza and chatted for a while. He told me stories about his childhood. Nothing really remarkable. Your average first date.” Except the mind-blowing sex we had before dinner.

She frowned, her brows pinching together. “You said it was great then you said it wasn’t really remarkable and it was average. Which is it?”

“It was great. He’s funny and he really seemed to like me.”

“That’s a plus. How do you feel about him? Are you going to see him again?”

“I like him a lot,” I said without hesitation. “I definitely think we’ll see each other again soon.”

Lena grinned. “So there were sparks?”

“Absolutely there were sparks.”

She squealed in delight. “I’m so excited for you. You really deserve this. Where is he from?”

“He lives around here, actually. Pine Bluff.”

“Ooh, a mystery man from a small town. I probably know him.” She thought for a few seconds. “Was it Dale from the library committee? No he’s too young for you. Wait, was it Warren, the real estate guy?”

I pressed my lips together tightly for a second. “You know I’m not going to tell you who he is.”

Lena groaned and playfully shoved my shoulder. “Come on, give me something.”

After a moment’s thought, I nodded. “Okay. He’s athletic and creative, and he has one sibling. How’s that?”

“Those clues suck. It’ll take me forever to guess who he is.”

I shrugged. “That’s all you get for now.”

“Okay… He’s tall, with dark hair and dark eyes. Creative and athletic. One sibling.” She tapped her chin a few times with her index finger before naming a few more people from town, mostly names I didn’t recognize. After each one, I shook my head. “Who else is there? Ellis?” Heat flared through me, but before I could respond, she laughed sharply. “Oh, God, can you imagine? I definitely can’t see you two together. You can barely get along under the same roof.”

“You’re definitely right about that,” I said.

Finally, Lena shrugged. “Well, I’ll figure it out eventually. When’s your next date?”

“We didn’t make concrete plans. I’ll probably talk to him tomorrow and see what we can work out.”

She settled back against the arm of the couch. “Well, I’m happy for you, whoever he is. You let me know if you need anything. If he breaks your heart, we’ll run him out of town.”