in that bedroom is my bed. And I can’t stop thinking about the two of us tangled in my cool, silky sheets.
The problem is, my brain knows that this attraction is all kinds of stupid, and I have tried to inform my hoo-ha again and again, but somehow the message never makes it down there. It doesn’t help that he was actually funny, charming and protective tonight. It doesn’t help that he looked at me like I was the Sun and he was in my orbit, basking in my warmth.
Still doesn’t check off most of the boxes on my list, I remind myself.
I could send him away. I could just put my foot down. Instead I find myself opening the door and letting him follow me into the lobby.
“There you are, young lady!” An indignant voice squawks at me. “It’s about time.” Edna steps out from behind the stairwell.
“What the heck are you doing up at this hour?” I splutter.
“I could ask you the same question. Me, I’m an old lady with insomnia. Not sure what your excuse is. Back in my day, we got home before midnight, with a chaperone.”
“This is Thérèse’s Great-Aunt Edna,” I tell him. “The one who got me the job interview. Yes, you’ve got her to thank for the joy of working with me every day.” I nudge him with my elbow.
“I don’t even know how to express my feelings about such a recommendation.” Blake shoots me an amused look, then turns to face her with his most charming grin.
She’s having none of it. She returns his grin with a sour grimace. “Excuse me, I have to go text Clarita.”
“You text?” My eyebrows practically shoot up to my hairline. I’ve never seen her on the Kitchen Krew Bulletin Board.
“I’ll ignore the insulting surprise in your tone, young lady. Isabella has been giving me lessons on the internets.” Oh, that should end well.
“That’s great!” I say gamely.
“Kindly try to get her home a little earlier next time, you hooligan, or I’ll have a word with my great-niece and she’ll put you straight.” That last bit is addressed to Blake. “She had us all worried sick.”
Next time? There won’t be one. That thought is a sharp pin-jab to my happiness balloon.
“My apologies, ma’am,” he says gravely. “It won’t happen again.”
The three of us troop into the elevator together in uncomfortable silence. When we reach Edna’s floor, she pauses in the doorway and gives Blake a warning look. “You see her to her door and make sure she gets inside safely, and then you take yourself on home. Back in my day, I wouldn’t have even had to ask, but these days young men think they can get away with anything.”
He does a little formal bow. “I will do that, ma’am.”
Blake and I ride the elevator two more floors to my apartment. I’m terribly aware of the sound of my own breathing. Can he hear my heart thundering in my chest?
We get to my door before Blake says, “Back in her day, the women wore chastity belts while the men rode off to fight the Hundred Years War.”
I stifle a laugh. “Now, now. She’s just looking out for my virtue, is all. As she frequently asks me, who’d buy a cow when they can get the milk for free?”
“She does not say that. Nobody says that!”
“Scout’s honor. She’s freaking obsessed with my bovine value.”
I pull my keys out of my purse, open all three locks, and fling the door open. “Honey, I’m home!” I sing out.
Blake’s eyes turn the color of a summer storm, and he looks like he just swallowed a bug. Is he jealous?
I burst out laughing. “You know I’m single, right? You seem to know everything else about me. In a not-at-all-creepy way.”
Without waiting for an answer, I step into the apartment. He follows me in. “Anyway, Isabella’s working an overnight tonight, so the only honey I’d be talking to would be Xena.” Why am I telling him that we have the apartment to ourselves?
You know why, a chiding inner voice taunts me.
Xena is curled up on her dog bed in the corner of the living room. She’s useless as a guard dog; she’s still snoring, her chest heaving and her lips fluttering dramatically.
He spares her a brief glance, then turns away quickly. There’s a strange, guarded defensiveness on his face.
Odd. He had the same look on his face when he saw me doing my dog-walking gig. “Did you get bitten by a dog when