“You don’t have a cat.”
“I was cat-sitting,” I lied.
He smiled.
He smiled The Smile.
Fuck, f**k, f**k.
Man, Lee could smile.
Then he said, “All right, I’m all out of patience with this one. You have two choices. Either you talk to me about what’s been botherin’ you for the last decade or I tell you how you’re gonna pay me back for this Rosie debacle.”
“Is there a choice number three?” I asked.
He shook his head.
I slid my eyes to the right, chewed the inside of my bottom lip and thought about my choices. I did my best to forget about the glimpse of hard, muscled chest and six-pack I’d seen in the weak moment I allowed myself to look down.
And, he was wearing faded jeans with the top button not done up.
Yikes.
Okay.
Focus.
Choices.
Firstly, I was never, never, never in a million years going to tell Lee Nightingale that I’d been in love with him since I was five and he sat next to me during my Mom’s memorial service and held my hand. I was never going to tell him it was a Bon Jovi-style shot through the heart when he told me he wasn’t interested in me because I was his little sister’s best friend. And I was never, never, never, ever going to tell him that something had changed in him and he scared the pants off me.
Secondly, no matter what he said, he was Lee and he was right all those years ago, in a way, we were family. We did all our holidays together as family and went to Broncos games with our Dads when we were kids. We had barbeques at each other’s houses nearly every Saturday during the summer, even now. Hell, it was mid-June and I’d just had the barbeque at my house two weeks ago and Lee had been there. Even though he’d changed, he would always be Lee. He probably wanted cheap maid service or something. Someone to do his laundry. Take his car to have the oil changed.
I could do that.
All this business with sleeping together and swiping at my hair and talking in my ear was just him trying to intimidate me. He probably wouldn’t let Ally sleep with Rosie or on the floor either.
“I’ll choose door number two,” I decided.
The smile widened and something happened to his eyes that made my nether regions quiver.
Uh-oh.
Clearly, I made the wrong choice.
“I was hopin’ you’d say that.”
I scrambled.
“Maybe I’ll rethink my choice.”
“Too late.”
I scrunched my nose and narrowed my eyes at him.
“Why can’t you just be a nice guy?”
“I’ve never been a nice guy.”