Leaning my weight against the deck's wooden railing, I twirl my empty beer bottle around between my fingers. I steal a look over at the picnic table across the yard. My eyes collide with hers.

Again.

She freezes like a deer in the headlights when I catch her. Then she blinks half a dozen times in rapid succession, snaps her head away and stabs at the salad on her plate with her fork. 

Again.

And a smile unfolds across my face. The chemistry between us is still there, that lust simmering right beneath the surface. I haven’t forgotten what it was like between us when we first met. Her touch. Her kiss. The electrical storm that danced in the air all around us.

This thing between us is half-finished and I have every intention of getting right back into it while I’m here in Copper Heights. She isn’t going to make it easy, though.

After our awkward “introduction” in the kitchen, Sophia was eager to escape into the backyard. Now she’s sitting with the group of women eating, laughing and gossiping under the shade of the huge white oak. But she can’t stop her gaze from repeatedly drifting over to me and I can’t take my eyes off of her.

She looks gorgeous. So pretty and demure in her girlish denim dress with her dark hair parted down the middle and carefully tucked behind her ears. She’s more curvaceous than when we met. Two years ago, she’d been slim and athletic with long, slender limbs and a slight slope to her ass. Now, she’s filled in in all the right places. Her plump breasts swell against the neckline of her dress and the denim she’s wearing flutters around her widened hips.

And I’m a man, so of course I want to get my hands on that luscious body. But beyond all that, I freaking missed the girl.

It’s weird to admit that to myself because the way we left things, we were never supposed to see each other after that night. But the moment I laid eyes on her again, it hit me just how deeply I’ve craved her presence all this time.

But she pretended not to know me when Charlie introduced us today. No one realized that she was lying. 

It's our little secret. 

If that's the way she wants to play it, I'm game. A little plausible deniability is always fun. But I’ve got to admit, it kind of stings that she hasn’t mentioned me.

I mean, even when I was halfway around the world, in a dense, mosquito-infested jungle, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I was scribbling out postcards to Leo and Charlie, gushing about the unforgettable woman I met just days before shipping out.

Of course, I didn’t tell them she’d been at a bar in a wedding dress, because they’d just chalk it up to Archie being Archie. Impulsive, reckless, always looking for trouble.

It was more than that, though. It was more than me being up to my usual shenanigans.

When I saw Sophia sitting alone at the bar, crying quietly, invisible to everyone around, a part of her reached out to the deepest part of me. I couldn’t just look the other way. She needed a hero that night. And approaching her may just be the craziest thing I’ve ever done, but I regret nothing.

On the edge of my consciousness, I hear Charlie yapping away. "...And I know they may not be the type of guys you'd grab a beer with on the weekend or have a deep, meaning-of-life conversation with. But business is business. They're your coworkers. On the worksite, you're gonna have to put your differences aside. Because at the end of the day—"

Leo's gruff laughter cuts through Charlie’s monologue. "I'm willing to bet Archie hasn't heard a word you've said over the past five minutes." My eyes snap away from Sophia and shift back to the grill where Charlie is flipping the burgers. Leo grabs my empty bottle and slips another cold beer into my hand. "He's too busy with his eyes on Sophia." Leo bounces around as he speaks to entertain the baby strapped to his chest.

I toss a cursory glance in Charlie's direction. "I get it, man. I won't cause trouble on your worksite. Now, give me a break." My attention wanders back to Sophia at the picnic table across the yard. I tip the neck of my bottle in her direction. “Is she seeing anybody?” Gulping from my beer, I try to mask how deeply I’m invested in the answer to that question.

Leo sees right through me, anyway. “Nah, she’s not seeing anyone,” he tells me with a sly grin. “But that’s all the information I’m giving you. If you want any more details on her, you’re gonna have to ask her yourself.”

I glare at him.

He stands firm in his position. “I’m a grown man, Archibald. This isn’t some Friday night sleepover in the 4^th grade. You won’t get the gossip from me. Go talk to her.”

Charlie nods in agreement.

These assholes won’t budge an inch. All afternoon, I’ve been trying to grill my friends for information about her but they won’t give up the goods. They keep saying that if I want the details about Sophia, I have to get those details myself.

They’re trying to push us together and I’m not opposed to that idea one bit. It appears that she, on the other hand, is less than willing. And she’d rather pretend that we don’t know each other at all.

My chest squeezes when I glance at her and again, our eyes meet.

I grin. She looks away.

You're killin' me, Daisy.