“Did you get lucky?” he asked as he sat down across from her.
“No. It took all my resistance to walk away when I dropped her offat her house.” She was sure it would’ve been a night to remember if she hadn’t.
“What? Why’d you do that?”
“Because she’s nice and I like her. Besides, she didn’t invite mein.”
“Oh, playing the sweet-girl game, are you?”
“It’s not a game, Brent.” She glared at him playfully. “I amsweet.”
He chuckled. “You’ve forgotten who you’re talking to.” He raisedhis eyebrows. “You guys were together all night. I thought for sure somethingwas going to happen. You at least had a good time, right?”
A young, floppy-haired waiter brought over their sandwiches andswiped the number from the table. Emma took hers and pushed Brent’s in front ofhim.
She nodded. “We spent the day together yesterday too.”
“Doubleheader.” He threw his hand up for a high five, and sheslapped it with hers. “And you still didn’t get lucky?”
She shook her head. “She was even harder to resist last night, butI had work due by noon today, so I needed to get some rest.”
He laughed. “You actually area good girl. I would’ve blown it off and asked you to help me with it thismorning.”
“I’ll remember that next time.”
“I got your back,” he said, then bit off a huge chunk of hissandwich. “When will that be?”
“Sometime this week. I haven’t heard from her yet today.” Shedidn’t want to tell him she was seeing Dex again for dinner tonight. He’d runwith it, and she’d never live it down.
“Yet.” He bounced his eyebrows at her. “That sounds promising.”
She let a big smile spread across her face. “In more ways thanone.”
He licked his finger and swiped it down in the air. “Chalk one upfor the Brentster for setting up the party.”
“I owe you one.” She took a bite of her sandwich. “What was withGrace?”
He gave her a strange look. “What do you mean?”
“At the party? She pulled Dex into the kitchen to help her withthe food. I thought you said she could cook.”
“She can. There was probably just too much food for one person tohandle.”
“And youcouldn’t help her?”
He seemed surprised by the comment. “She didn’t ask me.”
“My point exactly. She seems to depend a lot on Dex instead ofyou.” He needed to start taking care of Grace so Dex didn’t have to.
“You depend on me, don’t you?” He shrugged. “Who helped you movelast year? Who got you a date with someone perfect for you?”
“Yeah, she is kind of perfect for me.” She took in a deep breathand wondered if Dex was too good to be true.
“I told you, I got your back, Em. Now let me have the rest of yoursandwich if you’re not gonna eat it.”
She kept the half she’d been eating and pushed her plate his way.“It’s all yours.”
She hadn’t thought about it that way. It just seemed that Gracetook a little more advantage of Dex than Emma ever had of Brent. She wouldnever have hosted a party with her significant other and expected Brent to helpher with the food. She’d probably put him in charge of the beer cooler, butnever the food. Maybe she was making too much of it. Either way, she wasn’tsure if Grace was in her court on this one. She’d seemed to like having Dex ather beck and call at the party and clearly didn’t like the competition.
* * *
When Emma pulled up in front of Dex’s house, she flipped down thevisor and assessed herself in the vanity mirror. Why was she so nervous? She’dhad an awesome time with Dex yesterday. Who would’ve thought that tacos andMexican wrestling could make for such a delightful date?
She adjusted the V-neck on her sweater, which seemed a little lowright at the moment. It was the highest cut of the three she’d tried on, soshe’d had to go with it. She didn’t want to worry about her cleavage spillingout all night. She’d worn her loosest pair of jeggings, if there even was sucha thing, because Dex was cooking and she actually wanted to eat whatever shemade. She closed her eyes. She hoped it wasn’t fish. She could handle shrimp,but she wasn’t a big fish eater. She probably should’ve warned Dex of thatlittle nugget of information, but she didn’t want her to know she had flawsjust yet.
She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting in her car when sheglanced up to see Dex sprinting out her front door. It was a magnificent sight.Beautiful dark hair flowed dreamily on her shoulders, creating the perfectcontrast against the electric-green sweater she wore. That sweater fit herwell, and everything slowed as Dex ran like Wonder Woman down the pathway, herarms moving effortlessly and the well-defined muscles in them appearing soincredibly touchable. And the flawless athletic legs wrapped in dark-blueskinny jeans were entirely too much for Emma. She needed something cold todrink. Now. She couldn’t take her eyes off Dex as she rounded the car andopened the door for her.
“Hey, you.”
“Hey,” she said as she killed the engine and slid out of the car.
Dex seemed to take in the whole of her. “You look fantastic.”
“Thanks. You look pretty awesome yourself.” Her cheeks warmed, andshe turned to grab the bottles of wine from the front seat. She handed the bagto Dex. “I didn’t know what you were making for dinner, so I brought one ofeach.”
“Perfect.” She tucked the bag to her chest with one hand and tookEmma’s hand with the other. “I made roast chicken.”
The house smelled amazing. Emma hadn’t realized how hungry she wasuntil her stomach let out a loud growl as soon as she took in the scent of foodwhen they stepped through the door.
Emma grabbed her stomach. “Oh my God. Was that me?”
Dex laughed. “Well, I’m glad you came hungry.” She took her coatand hung it on the hall tree. “There’s some cheese and crackers
