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“You’re fine.”

“I know,” she whispered.

He brought one hand to her face and wiped away her tears with his thumb. “Just remember to breathe, okay?”

They were suspended, standing there in the rainbow light of the private dining room, surrounded by her collection of chairs, and she didn’t want to let go. In fact, for a second before she remembered it was Travis she was clinging to, she wanted him to pull her into his lap, make her pancakes, and share the Sunday paper. She wanted to drag him out into their backyard garden with his coffee cup so they could watch Paige chase Popcorn around. It smacked her in the chest and for a moment, she couldn’t possibly take his advice.

“Breathing, right. I will try to remember that.” Kenna went to step back, but Travis brought both hands to her face, held her, and then kissed her forehead.
Holy smokes!
She saw the same Sunday morning right there on his face, too, but then it was gone and Travis reverted to his default—humor.

“Now, I’ll let you get back to that laptop before I offer to help you find your panties.” With a smile that wasn’t helping her find breath, he turned to leave.

She wasn’t sure if they would ever be in this same place again . . . if their guard or sarcasm would ever be this far down, so she needed to get one more thing out.

“Why do you make lunch for Paige?”

“I—I make her lunch because it started off just, and now it’s—I don’t know, I just do.” It was again a simple question and yet he couldn’t answer. His heart was pounding in his chest.

“Is it like a pity thing and you don’t want to say that, so you’re tripping over your words?”

“You think I make your daughter lunch out of pity?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking. Maybe it’s ‘oh, poor single mom, always rushing around, clearly a train wreck in the dating world, let me help her out because I’m Mr. Smooth and nothing ruffles me.’”

Travis smiled. She actually thought that’s why he could barely speak? That it had nothing to do with the fact that she was standing so close to him or that as each day went by, he wanted her more? It didn’t occur to her that she was sexy and beautiful or that her daughter’s lunch was sometimes the highlight of his day. All Kenna could see was that he was smooth and she was a pity case.

“Mr. Smooth?” He stepped into her even though he already felt like he’d gone a couple rounds in the ring with Brick. “Nothing ruffles me?”

Kenna huffed and put her hands on her hips. “See, right there, the way you slow everything down. You’re worse than the damn yoga teacher Sage made me try. I felt stupid and awkward around her too.”

“You feel stupid and awkward around me?”

“Stop it! Stop sexifying everything. Yes, I feel flustered and even more out of control than I normally do when you are around. I know that you have little or no responsibility, but it’s your energy, your flow.”

He stepped closer and she stepped back. Of course she did.

“Makenna.”

“Are you mocking me right now with this prowling cat thing? Because I’m trying to keep myself together and I don’t need you mocking me. I’m simply asking why you make Paige’s lunch. A simple answer would work. Do you do simple answers?”

He took two steps this time and unless she was going to step out onto the main floor, she had nowhere to go. They were inches from one another. He could smell her, feel her breath mix with his.

“I get flustered,” he told her.

“Oh, yeah. I bet. When does that ever ha—”

He took her arms gently, pulled her in another inch or so, and held. Her lips were right there, and if he leaned in just a centimeter, he would finally know what Makenna Rye tasted like, the feel of her lips, whether she drove the kiss or rested on a moan. And that was the problem, wasn’t it? What if once he knew, he couldn’t stop? He let out a shuddering breath and went to ease her back, but then he thought about what Logan had said, thought that maybe it was time, time to go after something more than what he’d learned to settle for. Makenna almost looked scared, but then her eyes softened as if she understood something he hadn’t even said yet. She reached up, touched the side of his face, and he was a goner. She’d figured out why he made Paige’s lunch, why he teased her. She knew—it was right there in her eyes, her touch, and suddenly nothing else mattered. He’d figure everything else out later.

“See? This is what I look like flustered,” he said softly, and then he kissed her.

Chapter Sixteen

I
t was so unexpected, she almost fell back, but he had her. His big warm arms tightened, and Kenna relaxed into a kiss she could never have dreamed up. She’d been prepared for heat. Honestly, there wasn’t a conscious female who wouldn’t notice the heat of Travis McNulty and wow, the man had a mouth. The heat was expected.

What she hadn’t expected, what was currently liquefying her bones, was the tenderness. The way his fingers played with her hair and teased her face. The gentle caress of his lips or the slow dip of his tongue. She and Travis were famous for their banter, but this was more like a whisper. A soft, easy murmur. A sharing of feeling, not just lust. Kenna was lost in the tenderness. His flattened palm smoothed down her spine, and she felt like she was on one of those rides at the fair where the bottom dropped out. Her heart was in her throat just like that. She should have stopped, pulled away, but he was such a surprise that she didn’t want to move. Instead, she wanted to learn more, get a closer look.

“I—I’m sorry about that.” He slowly pulled away and appeared to be searching her eyes.

It was not possible that the man didn’t know the voltage of a kiss like that. Could he possibly need to check for impact?

“Oh, don’t be, but just to be clear, what exactly was that?”

“Huh, maybe I did it wrong.” He pulled her back in.

“No, no, I’m pretty sure you did it right,” she said, laughing.

Travis grinned, still holding her.

“Where did that come from?”

“I wanted to kiss you. You didn’t pull away or smack me, so I kissed you.”

“Right, why?”

“Now that’s a more complicated question.”

“Sort of like the lunch box?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re not about complicated, right?”

“Right. Well, maybe. What was the question again?”

Makenna stepped back. She needed to get her head on straight because this was real. It wasn’t some dream or a date with some dog guy from online. This was Travis, her brother’s best friend, a guy she worked with. Oh crap, wasn’t she just saying she had enough to keep her busy? Okay, it was okay, she could fix this. “It was just a kiss.”

“I’m not sure I’d call that
just
a kiss,” Travis said.

Damn it, why did she keep saying things out loud? Was that one of the first signs of insanity? Maybe Paige could Google that for her when they got home. Paige . . . she needed to leave, now. Makenna grabbed her laptop, threw her purse over her shoulder, and quickly looked at her phone. “Listen, I was super weird today and I’m sorry. I’m sure you do this help-the-damsel-in-distress thing all the time and you were . . . being nice.”

“Actually, I definitely do not do
that
all the time and nice? Are you telling me that was nice?”

Kenna held her laptop to her chest, begging for something to magically transport her to her car. “No, it was, that kiss was, not nice. It was sort of the opposite, maybe like an explosion.”

Travis smiled and she blushed. Damn it, some things never changed.

“I have to go. I have to get Paige.”

“Uh huh.” He was leaning up against the wall now, just leaning there like he was waiting in line. Probably waiting for the next unsuspecting basket case to come along with her weird-ass dream and—
Oh brother. Leave, Kenna!

“I have to go. Bye.” She didn’t wait for him to respond this time and walked as fast as she could without running. She must have looked like the seniors who power walked through her neighborhood every morning. Yes, that’s what she was doing, power walking away from Travis, that kiss, and a whole flood of feelings she didn’t have time to sort out.

Travis knew he had a stupid grin on his face. He couldn’t help it. The kiss played in his mind. Even as he pummeled chicken breasts for the piccata dinner special, he couldn’t shake her. He’d known what he was doing; it hadn’t been just some rash rush of lust, although the rush had almost knocked him over. It was exactly what he’d told her: he wanted to kiss her and he did, but he wasn’t ready for the after. He happily fell into the kiss, but the flood of questions he saw in her eyes, her reaction . . . He knew how she was with something as simple as changing the lunch special. He should have known the questions would be there, but he fell into her and almost forgot his own damn name. She ran away so fast that he didn’t even have a chance to come up with answers, which was probably just as well—he didn’t have a clue what his next move should be.

“You done with those?” Logan asked as Travis breaded the last cutlet and added it to the wax paper.

“Yup.” He handed him the tray, caught his eyes, and smiled. Makenna’s eyes were similar to her brother’s, but where his were green and gold, hers were mostly green. Shit, he was standing in the kitchen waxing on about his best friend’s eyes like one of those poets in a flowing white shirt. If his father were there, there was no question he’d be called a pansy.

“What’s up with you? Why are you staring at me?”

Travis kept smiling but looked away. Everything felt different. It was sort of like being drunk, but without the stupid. It was more of a recharge as if everything was clear, almost raw.

“Sorry, I’m just a little wired.” He wanted to tell his best friend, but how did a guy go about telling his friend he couldn’t stop thinking about a hot kiss with a beautiful woman when that woman was the friend’s sister? Yeah, you didn’t. You kept your mouth closed and sliced lemons, so that’s what he started to do as Logan turned and walked to the front kitchen with the cutlets.

“Okay, I’ve never seen that stupid look on your face, so I’m guessing my sister has something to do with it,” Logan said, pushing back through the door a few minutes later. “Now, if that’s the case, I really don’t want the details. At the same time, you’re my friend and I want to know, so let’s talk about this but on neutral terms. Like . . . food. Let’s use food.”

Travis wasn’t sure this was such a good idea, but he agreed.

“Okay, I need to make this quick before Todd burns the hell out of your cutlets, so . . . I’ve got it. Remember those really great strawberries we saw when we were at the market last week?”

“The ones you said we should do something special with, like shortcake?”

“Yes, those are the ones.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“If I were to go back to the market and get those berries, would there be a reason to celebrate? Like something out of the ordinary that would warrant making strawberry shortcake?”

Travis laughed. It probably would have been easier to just tell him that yes, he’d kissed Makenna and watch him squirm, but this game was sort of fun, too.

“Yeah, I’d say we could use them today. Something out of the ordinary did happen that would call for special strawberries.”

Logan nodded. “Good.” That was all he said. Before he got to the door, he turned back. “Just make sure you don’t waste the strawberries, or I’ll kick your ass.”

Travis shook his head because that made absolutely no sense, but he understood the warning.

“I’ll do my best.”

“That’s all I ask. We need more lemons.”

“I’m on it.”

They sold out of the dinner special and closed just after ten. Travis was walking out to the parking lot when his phone vibrated with a text from Makenna. He read it and realized it was coming from Makenna’s phone, but Paige had sent it. He had a stupid grin on his face all the way home.

Chapter Seventeen

S
undays were normally set aside for coffee with Aunt Sage and then the library, although last Sunday they’d given up library time for a
Jack and the Beanstalk
puppet show. This Sunday, they were supposed to get back on track because they had lots of books to return and not much left to read. Their library, or “li-bary” as Paige often called it, time was way overdue. Last night, when they’d arrived home, Makenna had ordered pizza while Paige took a bath. Once they were snuggled in their pajamas, Paige asked if they could skip coffee and the library because she wanted to leave plenty of time to make cookies for her school bake sale.