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They shared a moment of silence where the only sound was the hum of the copier running in the adjacent room. He stood from the drafting table and rolled his pencil between his hands. “I figured sharing the trip was a fair solution. If you don’t mind coming with me.”

Multiple flights. A lengthy vacation. A shared room with Marcus. She tried to make it sound bad in her head but couldn’t. If they went together, did that mean they would be a them? Or would they just be a them on Oahu and then go back to being…whatever they were now?

“McIntire.”

“What?” she asked, half afraid he’d read her mind and might answer her next.

“I was thinking on my feet when I told them we decided to split the trip,” he said gently. “I’m not trying to force you into anything. I can always take my brother instead of you.”

She gasped.

“I’m kidding. If you want to fight me on it, I’ll give up without much of one. You technically won the bet. The trip belongs to you.”

She deserved to win after what she’d gone through. But she hadn’t expected him to offer her the trip she knew he wanted. He had a framed poster of Oahu in his bedroom, for God’s sake.

“We can probably handle the trip together,” she said. “I think.”

“Yeah.” His mouth slid into a slow smile that made her stomach somersault. “I think so, too.”

“Okay.” Nervous, she rubbed her hands together.

“Okay.” He crossed his arms and watched her carefully.

Without saying another word, she turned and scuttled back to her office. Once there, she shut the door. She never shut her door, but right now, she needed to shut the door.

Marcus watched Lily walk down the hall and vanish into her office. Then he heard her close her door. She never closed her door.

Ever.

He hadn’t known if she was going to show up today and hate him or yell at him or kiss him. Instead, she’d returned his tumbler, said she could “probably” handle Hawaii with him, and then shut her door. He’d thought she was done with him on Saturday morning. Now that she hadn’t shot down the offer of the trip, maybe that meant she’d reconsidered.

Or maybe not.

Women were hard.

He faced his drawing again, deciding distraction was the best medicine. He was pretty satisfied with what he’d come up with for the salon. He’d spent the remainder of Saturday and all of Sunday working on it. He’d been forced to occupy his time since he hadn’t had a feisty, beautiful redhead in his bed begging for sexual favors.

Oh, that he could have.

The upside to knuckling down over the weekend, and coming in bright and early at five in the morning today, was that he’d made a hell of a lot of progress. Nothing like pent-up sexual frustration to fuel the creative fire.

He respected Lily and accepted her decision to move forward and forget. But he also wished that she’d been curious. About them and how good they might have been together. He’d never wanted to know the future so badly in his life.

He hadn’t been preoccupied with his and Annie’s future. Her lease was up, and his invitation of “You may as well stay with me” had been an afterthought.

Not remotely romantic.

But with Lily, he wanted—dare he say it—romance. One night wasn’t going to be enough to satisfy his curiosity, in bed or out. He wanted to explore whatever this was. Preferably before the RSD dinner. If she was still willing to show up by his side. Of course that would look like they were together, and she was too ashamed of him to make that public. So…it wasn’t looking good.

Clive stepped into his office and bent over the drawings. “Nice.”

“Thanks.”

“I thought those weren’t due until the fifth.”

“They aren’t. I had a lot of free time this weekend.”

Clive grunted. “Sorry it didn’t go your way, man.”