Damon and Ian were down by the lake shooting the shit with Pop when I got out there.

“About time you got here, I’m starved,” Damon bitched. “Now if Tristan would hurry his ass, we could eat.”

“Sorry, I was talking to Ariel.”

“Ooooh.” Damon had a shit-eating grin on his face. “Is that where you were last night? I came by, but you weren’t home, came by this morning and you still weren’t home. Too ‘hard’ to leave her.”

“Ha-ha, very funny.” He thought he was hysterical.

“Come to think of it,” Ian piped in. “I came by the other night, and you weren’t home. It was close to ten.”

“What? Can’t I have a life that you don’t know about?”

“Admit it, Kayson; It’s that girl. You’re whipped,” Damon said.

“Let’s don’t go there, I’m not whipped. Hell, it’s only been a week.”

“Any clues on who attacked her?” Pop asked, trying to intercept the conversation before we were back to being ten years old and rolling on the ground fighting.

“Not yet.”

Un-fuckin-fortunately my peace didn’t last long because we were interrupted when the door opened. “Mana’s in heaven!” Tristan shouted.

“Why’s that?” Damon and Ian asked in unison.

“Ah shit,” I said in an undertone. “Wait,” I hollered.

But Tristan didn’t listen to me.

“Kayson didn’t tell you? There’s a smoking hot redhead inside. Her name is Ariel.”

Damon, Ian, and Pop jumped up and ran for the door. “Don’t be a bunch of asses,” I called out after them. “You’ll scare her off.”

It was too late. I turned to Tristan and glared.

“Thanks a fuckin’ lot.”

“How was I supposed to know you didn’t tell them you brought her?”

When I got inside, I took a seat at the bar and listened as my brothers peppered Ariel with questions. Thankfully, she handled them like a champ.

“Do you have a sister?”

“Nope. Just me.”

“You and Kayson are just friends, right?”

“Yes, we’re friends.”

“Then why not go out with me, I’m the best looking,” said Damon.

“How about me? I have brains and looks,” said Ian.

“Excuse me?” Tristan added. “I don’t think either of you has ‘doctor’ by your name.”

“You’re not a rocket scientist, either,” Ian cut back.

“And we wonder why they’re still single?” Pop added. “Ariel, I’m George. You can call me Pop.”

“Hi, Pop.” I was surprised that Ariel came around the kitchen counter and gave my father a giant hug. I wasn’t surprised when all three of my brothers turned and checked out Ariel’s legs.

There was something about a woman in cowboy boots that drove men nuts.

Damon turned to me and mouthed, “Damn.”

“Shut the fuck up,” I mouthed back.

Dinners were always loud at our house, but for the first time in my life, I realized it was also calming. This was home, family, what I wanted. We sat watching as Mana and Ariel worked in the kitchen. Ariel had no trouble making herself at home. She wore a spare apron and tasted everything Mana put in front of her mouth.

“She looks good,” Pop said. I looked up and over my shoulder to meet his eyes. “Your girl, she looks good with your mother in the kitchen. They get along like family.”

Pop supported Mana in whatever she wanted or didn’t want to do. But he liked the fact that she stayed home to raise us and that he came home every night to dinner on the table and a beautiful wife. Pop calling Ariel family was like him asking me what I was waiting for and then telling me to get a ring and get to making babies for Mana to spoil. Ariel had the George Christakos seal of approval mainly because she made Mana happy.

My family forgot one big thing—to them, I had known her for months because they had heard me talk about her for months. To Ariel, we had known each other for just over a week. She said that she didn’t want a relationship, and I was trying to change her mind by hook, crook, or lick.

After dinner, Mana pulled out a tub of sweet cream ice cream and Ariel sliced apple pie on to plates that we carried outside and sat by the pool. The sound of the trickling from the water fountain added the perfect peace to the night.

* * *

“I liked being with your family tonight. Your mother is lovely,” Ariel said as she clicked her seatbelt.

“They liked you. You know that we get together every week. The day changes depending on my and Tristan’s schedules, though. You are always welcome. My mother would love it.”

Ariel avoided answering me by changing the subject. “Will you still show me your home?”

Trying to figure her out was like putting together a five-hundred-piece jigsaw puzzle. She said one thing, acted one way, reacted a totally different, then when she didn’t think anyone was watching she would let down her guard and show me an entirely different person.

Until I figured out which was the real Ariel, I would give her what she said she wanted. Right then, she wanted to see my house. I drove up my driveway and pushed the garage door opener so I could pull in.

I led her inside and up the stairwell, figuring starting upstairs and circling back down would be best.

“Holy cow, this place is large.”

“You’ve met my parents. Need I say more?”

I made fun of them, but they were the best. We were raised in a house where we were expected to make mistakes provided three things: we learned from them, we didn’t make the same mistake twice, and we said sorry.

We were respectful to our parents, which was evident since we all still had our teeth. If we had been disrespectful, Pop would have kindly removed them for us. And we were always gentlemen. Other than that, our house was a zoo, and on any given day, there were at least five or six friends over.

“Both sides are identical,” I said, pointing to the left and right side of the second-floor landing.

Heading left where three doors sat closed in this part of the house. “Straight ahead is the linen closet, and to the left and right are bedrooms.” I led her through the first room, which was empty, and showed her the Jack-n-Jill bathroom, which led to the second bedroom that held my childhood bedroom furniture.

“I grew up on reruns of The Brady Bunch. I thought it was horrid that all those kids had to share a bathroom. I especially felt sorry for the girls. I remember the fights we used to have as kids about who had the poor aim on the toilet seat.”

“Eww.” Ariel groaned. I laughed as we walked back into the hallway and to the right side of the landing.

“There’s my room, it has an en suite bathroom.” I pointed but didn’t take her in there. I needed to get her back downstairs. The mere thought of this woman being feet away from my bed had me ready to jump her. Think, Kayson, think—paper cuts, those pitiful Sarah McLachlan commercials, YiaYia. Yeah, my Greek grandmother, that was so fucked up, but it worked, my erection wasn’t as noticeable.

When we hit the landing and turned the corner, I felt a bit less like a caveman. “So, that’s the living room, kitchen, dining room,” I said as we walked through each room respectively.

She had moved her hand into mine, and I loved it. Her hand was so small that it fit entirely in my palm. Maybe I wasn’t as firm in the friend zone as I thought I was.

“These two rooms are his and her offices, and finally, we have the pool bath that leads to the outside for if I ever want to add a pool.”

“Are you planning to install a pool?”

“Some day. I just haven’t been able to justify the cost since I hardly have time to swim.”

“Are your brothers’ houses just like yours?”

“They are all different styles but, yes, they are around the same size. She calls it her insurance policy,” I said as I laughed.

“What do you mean?”

“Family sized houses encourage . . .” I let that last word dangle in the air unsaid.

Ariel caught my meaning. “Grandbabies.”

“Bingo. The woman is unrelenting.”

She was still laughing as we climbed back into my truck and headed to her house. Outside her door, I rubbed my thumb against her lower lip before leaning in and giving her a gentle kiss. It was difficult to pull away, but I had to be up for work at six in the morning, and one more breath of her perfume would have me carrying her to bed and ravaging her the entire night.

Not a bad idea, if I were to be honest. That wasn’t my plan, though. I wanted more from her, and I wouldn’t get that if I proved I was just every other guy in the damn world. I had to find that fucking door hidden in those walls she had built. Once I did? I wasn’t going to leave.