Ten minutes later, they found themselves soaking in a bubble bath in Hayley’s large clawfoot tub. When she went to the bathroom to get cleaned up and bring Josh a towel, he followed and stopped short when he saw the tub. He didn’t say anything, but Hayley caught his jaw-dropped look.

“I take it you don’t have the world’s most awesome bathtub like I do?” she said.

Josh shook his head. “We’ve got a forty-year-old piece of crap in avocado green. This—this is a work of art!”

It really was. Claire had renovated the apartment a year or two before Hayley moved in and spared no expense to make it comfortable. The tub was set off from the wall so it had room on all four sides, not to mention the exterior of the tub was black and the inside copper. Both ends rose in a double-slipper design, and with the faucet in the middle, the tub had a pleasing symmetry. The look was completed with an iron enclosure hanging from the ceiling, from which Hayley had hung two simple white shower curtains, set on opposite sides when not in use. She’d placed candles on the windowsill and collected luxury bath oils.

“How often do you take a bath?” Josh asked.

“Every day, usually.”

His jaw dropped in envy. “No wonder you always smell so good.”

Hayley grinned. “Do you want to take a bath, Josh? Because I get the sense you do.”

“I do,” he said. “I really do.”

So she drew a bath for them, and as the tub filled she had him smell her various bathing products and choose the one he liked best, which turned out to be a mix of lavender, orange blossom honey, and sweet almond oil. She had him step in the tub first and enjoyed hearing his groan of pleasure as he sank into the water, which came more than halfway up his chest.

“I’ll go get our wine and put some music on,” she said, lighting the candles before she went. She usually played classical piano music, often Mozart, when she bathed and so went with that. Part of her expensive settling into her apartment had been the purchase of Bluetooth speakers in all three rooms, including the bathroom, and when she got back to Josh, he looked at her with a new appreciation.

“You really know how to live,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been more relaxed.”

“Like I said, my little apartment is my happy place.”

“Why do you need a happy place?”

“Don’t we all?”

She handed him both glasses of wine. As he sipped from one, she pinned her hair up, stepped into the tub, and sank into the water, her back coming to rest opposite his so they faced each other. Even though they’d just had the most intense sex Hayley had had in years, if not ever, she felt—and Josh acted—companionable and comfortable, with none of the usual post-first-sex awkwardness. It was like they’d been together for years.

“I’m pleasurably spent.” She sipped her wine, then set it on the windowsill and sank into the bubbles, leaving only her head exposed. She inhaled the lavender scent and let pictures of her day pass through her mind like a slideshow. What a day it had been—working at a job she loved, having a fun and flirty day shopping with Josh, meeting new and old friends at the business mixer, and scoring a date with Golden Falls’ newest bachelor. Best of all, coming home to find Josh waiting for her. Coupling with him after wanting him since the moment they met.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“How much I love my life.”

His legs were on one side of the bathtub and hers were on the other, touching. Beneath the water, he reached for her hand.

“You do seem to have it all figured out. After today, my amateur assessment is that you don’t even need a dating coach. You just haven’t met the right guy for you.” His mouth opened, as if about to say something else, but then changed his mind and said nothing.

Hayley considered. “I don’t know about that,” she said. “You said something interesting today at the bar. How you were wondering if I give enough of myself in relationships, and I don’t think I do. Not with men—with my friends is another story. But the idea of being vulnerable with a man—I’ll admit it scares the heck out of me.”

He nodded that he felt the same. “I haven’t felt like previous girlfriends would really get me. Understand me.” He looked deep into her eyes. “I want to be understood—I do. But anytime I’ve thought of sharing, I think I’ve thought I’d feel disappointed afterwards, like I didn’t get the result I want. Like I wouldn’t be truly understood no matter what, so why try?” He paused. “Or maybe what I feel is too depressing and I don’t want someone to try and talk me out of it.”

“You’ve been through war,” Hayley said.

“Yes, I have.”

“And you lost your mom at a young age.”

“I did.”

“And you see horrible, shitty things happen at work every single day.”

“That’s true as well.”

“So you don’t see the world through rose-colored glasses,” she said.

Josh laughed. “That’s an understatement.”

“All I can tell you, Josh, is that bubble baths do make things better.”

He laughed harder. “I’m realizing that! I think I’m gonna rip out my old tub and make my bathroom as nice as yours, and take bubble baths every night, and then the world won’t seem so bad.”

“Or you could come here.”

In the heavy silence that followed, she saw him flinch.

“See, that was me being vulnerable,” she said. “And don’t worry, I’m not trying to get you to stay. I’m just saying I wish it was something you wanted on your own.”

His chest rose and fell as he looked at her and then looked away, at the flicker of candles in the windowsill.

“I wish I did, too,” he said.

Hayley’s heart clenched with a wistful sort of pain. And this is why I don’t let myself be vulnerable with men. Tears pricked at her eyes, tears she’d told herself she wouldn’t shed over Josh. He’s been nothing but honest about his intentions, she reminded herself. This was your idea in the first place, so own it and respect the rules.

Making a focused effort to turn her thoughts away from the compelling, amazing, so-out-of-reach man in front of her sharing her luxurious bathtub, she said, “I was asked on a date tonight. By the new manager at the Moondance. Guy named Evan Taylor. He’s attractive, seems really nice.” She forced a bright smile. “The emerald dress really did the trick.”

He looked back at her, smiling too, but with sadness in his eyes. “I knew it would.”

“Josh.”

She held out her hand and he pulled her toward him. She parted her legs, one on either side of him, and straddled herself on his lap with her breasts tantalizingly close to his face. The candlelight made it appear as if sparks of copper danced in his eyes, and she saw the beginnings of lust in them, too. Which was good, but now she knew he was only practice for her, practice for the real thing.

“So,” she said, bracing herself for the constructive criticism she wanted, that she’d asked for. “Let’s hear it, dating coach, since I’m on a timeline. What are my blind spots? What do I need to work on?”

“Nothing,” he said. “You’re perfect.

Then why are you letting me go? she thought sadly.

“Are you ready to get out?” She gestured to the towel rack. “I’ve got a heated towel rack, so the towels should be nice and toasty.”

“A heated towel rack?” His look was of near disbelief. “You really know how to live, Hayley.”

“I’m working on it.”

They got out, dried off, and wrapped themselves in the warm towels. Josh took her hand and held it.

“This is our only night together, isn’t it?” he said.

She nodded. “I don’t think it would be fair otherwise.”

“Fair?”

“Fair to the next guy who comes along,” she said. “I can’t be with him and thinking of you.”

Josh’s brow furrowed when she said it, almost as if hurt. But then he smiled gently and pulled her forward.

When he softly kissed her, she tasted the blackcurrant on his lips and decided even when she was happy and married and raising a litter of kids, she’d sip Bordeaux sometimes in the evening and remember the perfect day and the perfect night she’d shared with Josh one cold November night long ago.

“Come on,” she said gently. “Let’s go to bed and make some memories.”