I love him with everything that I am and there isn’t much I wouldn’t give to make him love me back. In that way. The reason I don’t push him for answers is that I know what he’d say. Or something close to it.

I care about you, Dixie. You’re like family to me.

Basically, “I love you, too, but not in that way.”

My Nana used to say for everything there was a season. My season with Gavin wasn’t a season at all but more like a sunny spring day that appears too early, promising sunshine and warmth, only to tease you before an avalanche falls on your head and buries you in the cold, unforgiving snow for the foreseeable future.

“So, um, who was that guy? The singer that showed up and sang and then monopolized all of your friend’s attention?”

It takes me a second to catch up. My friend meaning Cassidy.

“Afton Tate. He’s a nice guy. I met him in Austin, and Dallas toured with him for a bit. Robyn’s a big fan.”

Jag’s mouth twists into a sneer. “I gathered that when she nearly fell over. Nice of him to come all this way.”

“Mmhm.”

The silence feels heavy and suffocating. I’ve kept quiet about so much for so long and I feel like I’ve outgrown the need to be a weed in the breeze. I want to sway and move of my own accord. I want to grow. So here goes.

“Jag?”

“Yeah?”

“True or false, you have a thing for Cassidy?”

Wide hazel eyes regard me as if I am a foreign species in his vehicle. “Um . . . true. I guess. Sort of.”

“No. Man up and grow a pair. It’s simple. I’m super tired of half-ass answers and folks hemming and hawing around. You’re either interested in her or you aren’t. Which is it?”

“I am,” he answers, like a soldier on command.

“So. What are you going to do about it?”

He scratches the light scruff on his jaw. “Um, ask her out sometime?”

“Are you asking me?”

He chuckles low and the sound reverberates like the car engine. “No. I’m going to ask her out. I should, right?”

“Stop asking me and decide. For the love of God, man.” We laugh and I mimic ringing his neck. “Guys kill me. You’re all tough as nails and manly men but then when confronted with a woman, particularly one who is openly interested in you, suddenly you’re mute and confused.”

“She’s probably too good for me. I mean, Ivy League? And then that Tate guy makes a beeline to chat her up. If Robyn nearly fainting dead away was any indication, dude is a big damn deal. I can’t compete with that.”

I roll my eyes. “Who says it’s a competition? Ask her out. If she’s into you she’ll say yes. If she’s not, she’ll say thanks, but no thanks. What’s so complicated?”

“Rejection is complicated, Dix. It messes with your head and confidence and self-esteem and all that shit. I feel like she got what she wanted tonight, then she moved on to the next guy. Seems to be a pattern with me.”

“Whoa there, cowboy. Do not hang your wussing out on me.” I jab a finger in his direction.

“It’s not just you. I’ve dated other girls, you know. I didn’t just sit around and pine for you, Lark.”

“Good. Life’s too short to pine. Believe me.”

Jag nods as we pull into my driveway. “Seems someone else got tired of it also.”

Standing under the golden glow of the porch light is Gavin Garrison in all of his half-removed-tuxedo-clad glory.

“He must’ve hauled ass to beat us here,” Jag remarks under his breath, and I know he’s wondering about the size of Gavin’s engine compared to his. Boys.

“Wonder what’s wrong.” I don’t make a move to get out of the car. I can’t. I’m not ready to face him unexpectedly. He missed the rehearsal dinner because he had to work and I was braced to deal with him at the wedding, but this, this beat-down yet still beautiful and sure of himself version currently lowering himself onto my weathered wooden porch swing, I’m not ready for him.

“If you’re waiting for a good-night kiss, I’m going to have to take a rain check. You’re a great girl and you know I’m always here for almost anything you need, but I’ve grown pretty attached to my teeth. All of them. So . . .”

“Shut it, McKinley. I’m thinking.”

“About?”

Getting him to admit he was interested in Cassidy was like pulling teeth. When it’s my business he’s chatty all of the sudden.

“About what he’s doing here. What he wants and why it couldn’t wait. About what I should say to him and how I should approach this particular—”

“You’re overthinking it.”

I make a noise of agreement in my throat. “I do that.”

“Get out of my car, Lark. Man up and grow a pair, as you said.”

I shake my head. “That advice doesn’t work on women.” I stare at Gavin as he leisurely begins to swing back and forth, swaying slightly. A man on the outside, still kind of a little boy on the inside.

I love them both. All of him.

Probably not going to lead with that, though.

“All right. I’m going.”

“Later, babe. Good luck with . . . that.”

“Good night, Jag. Good luck with Cass. Oh! She likes that Greek place, the one with the awesome hummus.”

He laughs gently. “Thanks. I’ll make a note of it.”

Maybe my tip earned me some gentlemanly behavior or maybe he’s delaying calling Cassidy, but Jaggerd gets out of the car before I can and walks around and opens my door.

“Wow. Now it’s like a real date.”

His cheeks pink just a little. “Nah. Like I said. Old habits.”

I smile as he nods curtly to Gavin, who nods slowly back while stretching his arms across the back of the swing. How Gavin Garrison manages to exude such constant calm, I will never know. Even in the bathroom tonight, he totally had his shit together while I was coming apart at the seams.

Wait. No. Seams.

He did tear my panties completely off, so maybe he didn’t have it as together as I thought.

Walking with carefully measured steps up my front walk toward him, my body heats at the memory.

Is he here to finish what he started?

Do I want him to be here for that?

“Hey,” I say in greeting when I step onto the porch and remove my heels, holding the pair in one hand.

“Hey.” He rolls his lower lip between his teeth and every memory I have of his mouth comes flooding to the forefront of my mind.

I wonder what his lips taste like right now. Do they taste like me? Like wedding cake? Like liquor?

My attention has dropped noticeably to his mouth and when I recover my sanity his eyes gleam as he takes notice of my slip.

He stands, rattling the porch and causing my entire body to vibrate with need. My cheeks flare with the same heat that spreads across the rest of my flesh from the inside out.

The glow of the dim porch light catches the glint in his eye. The darkness surrounding him makes him look even more like a threat to my sanity. I finally see what other people see now, people who don’t know him or don’t know what he’s lived through.

Gavin Garrison is dangerous. Seductive and complicated and made entirely of muscles and ink and testosterone. Or at least it seems that way at the moment. Because he exudes maleness the way some women leave traces of their perfume everywhere they go.

“Can we talk?” Even his voice is a low rumble laced with the promise of dark pleasure.

I nod dumbly. “We can try.”

“Want to stay out here or can I come in?”

My thighs want to clench and give me away. I want him to come inside. Deep, deep inside. I want the dark pleasure and the pain only he can give me. I want it badly.

“Um.” I swallow and attempt to moisten my mouth as all of my bodily fluids seemed to have fled to a locale farther south. “It’s up to you. You’re the one who came by to talk, so you can decide.”

He glances at the door with a wistful expression on his face. “I should stay out here. For now.”

Disappointment weighs on my chest. “Okay.”

“Come,” he says evenly, making his demand sound more like a request for a favor while stepping backward in retreat toward the swing. “Sit with me?”