On Saturday morning, Emma knew that Noah had gone fishing with Patrick and Ryan, so it was safe for her to go over to Nan’s house to hang out with Ginny.

She’d seen Noah a couple more times that week, but always in the company of the others. They’d acted normal, natural, like nothing really had changed from when they were all kids together, except she’d been a lot cooler and more composed than she’d ever been as a girl.

It felt like things had changed for her, but she was working through that.

She was on a Man-Fast to retrain herself to want the right kind of man.

Noah—with his inability to stay in one place and his resistance to commitments—was entirely the wrong kind of man for her.

She was doing better at remembering that, but she still didn’t want to see him any more than she had to.

It was safe to visit Nan and Ginny this morning, though, so she headed over at about nine-thirty with a bouquet of daisies for Nan, since they were her favorite flower.

Ginny was still in her pajamas and glasses, drinking coffee and working on her tablet in the kitchen, her blond hair a thick, wild mess around her face, but she grinned and greeted Emma with obvious pleasure.

“One more week! Can you believe it?”

Emma knew she was talking about the opening of Tea for Two. “I get jitters in my stomach whenever I think about it, and I’m not even involved.”

“Yes, you are. You’re an Honorary Partner. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without you. You should have heard Noah raving about how good the business plan was.”

“Really?” Emma asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee and trying to stamp out the sliver of pleasure at this piece of information.

“Yes, really. He thought it was fantastic.” Ginny was now giving her a sly, knowing look.

“What?” Emma demanded.

“Oh, nothing.” Ginny’s mouth was twitching just a little. “Just wondering about your Man-Fast.”

“What about it?”

“How’s that going?”

“It’s going just fine.” Emma knew what her friend was hinting at, so she confronted it directly. “Why does everyone assume I’m interested in Noah, just because I had that silly crush on him when I was a kid? People do grow up.”

“I know. But crushes don’t always go away just because we want them to.”

“I get that. But I really have grown up. I’m not stupid, you know. He’d never be interested in me, even if I did still have feelings for him.”

Ginny’s features twisted strangely for just a moment before they returned to normal. “Maybe. Maybe not.” She cleared her throat. “Look, you know I’m just teasing.”

Emma was startled by Ginny’s abrupt shift in mood. “Of course I know.”

“You know I love Noah. I’d love him even if he wasn’t my brother. He’s a great guy, and he has a bigger heart than he ever lets on.”

Emma frowned, confused by where this was going. “I know that. I’ve known him since I was ten. That cool, heartless guy he pretends to be isn’t the real him.”

“Yes. It’s really not. But I still… I still wouldn’t ever encourage a friend of mine to look in his direction.”

Feeling kind of sick all of a sudden, Emma sipped her coffee and made a wordless, humming sound that might be taken for agreement, understanding.

Ginny looked like she’d prefer to be having any conversation instead of this one. “He’s not good with women. He’s afraid to commit. He’s never going to let himself get hurt the way he was hurt when Dad abandoned us.”

“I know that, Ginny. You don’t have to tell me.”

“I don’t want you to get your heart broken when he leaves. And I know he will. He’s going to leave eventually.”

Ginny was absolutely serious, so Emma didn’t groan with outrage the way she wanted to. She took a deep breath and replied soberly, “I’m not going to get my heart broken. I know I always choose the wrong men, but I’m really not as stupid as all that. Noah is as emotionally unavailable as a man can get. Yes, I might occasionally feel a lingering of that silly old crush, but I promise I’m not looking in his direction. I promise.”

With a sigh of visible relief, Ginny smiled again. “Good. Then I can have fun teasing you again.”

“There’s nothing to tease about. I waited until I knew he was gone before I came over, didn’t I?”

“I did notice that.” Ginny flashed her dimple. “I’m proud of you for sticking to your Man-Fast for a whole week.”

Emma might have had a few mental slip-ups, but she was proud of herself too. She finished her coffee and stood up. “I’m going to give Nan these daisies and chat with her for a while.”

“She’ll love them. I’m just going to clear out my email, and I’ll come in too.”

Emma went into the living room, where Nan was sitting in her recliner by the window.

She still felt a little rumbling in her stomach, but that was a good thing. It proved she was smart now, more grown-up.

When she saw Noah again, she’d be able to greet him with the right kind of emotional distance.

She’d be cool, composed, untouchable.

And she wouldn’t think about how much she was attracted to him—not just to his looks, but to all of him, especially that vulnerable heart he tried so hard to hide—ever again.

***

Noah had had the best morning he could remember, fishing in a light rain with Patrick and Ryan.

He’d forgotten what it was like not just to have friends somewhere in the back of his mind, but to actually hang out with them. For the first time in ages, it actually crossed his mind that it would nice to be closer to them, so he could see them more often.

It was almost ten thirty when he got back to his grandmother’s house, and he was surprised to see a little red crossover SUV in the driveway.

He didn’t know whose car it was, but a little spark in his chest hoped it was Emma’s.

The pretty little vehicle looked like it might belong to her. She’d been driving Patrick’s car when she gave him a ride from the airport, so he’d never actually seen her car.

As he started toward the side door, motion from the garden beside the house caught his attention. He looked carefully and saw a small woman leaning over in a strange position.

He automatically started toward her. It only took a few seconds to realize that the round little ass in the tight jeans belonged to Emma. His body immediately made note of that fact, clenching with a physical response he couldn’t possibly control.

Her back was to him, so she hadn’t seen him yet. When he got closer, he realized she was trying to move a wrought-iron table that must have been quite heavy. She was trying to drag it, and it wasn’t moving across the dirt—now mud from the rain—very easily.

She was tiny. What the hell was she doing trying to move a heavy table in the garden by herself.

He strode over without thinking and reached out to grab onto the table from behind her. “Why are you trying to move this thing?”

Evidently, he surprised her. A lot.

She squealed and jumped, stumbling back against him and then flinging herself forward, away from his body, and then ending up in an awkward heap on the ground.

Unfortunately, the ground was very wet from the rain. And the grass here had been walked on so often there wasn’t much of it left.

She’d landed in the mud.

Noah stepped back, startled by her extreme reaction, and then leaned over to try to help her up.

She jerked away from him, flopping down into the mud again, this time falling forward, so both her front and back were covered in mud. “Damn it, Noah!” she cried. “Why did you do that?”

He blinked. “What did I do?”

“You scared me! Why did you sneak up on me like that?”

Noah was still startled and controlling an instinctive fight-or-flight response to the surprise and her fall. He stared down at her speechlessly.

She was covered with mud—front and back, top to bottom. Only her hair and face had escaped it.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice slightly hoarse. “Can I help you up?”

“No!” She managed to haul herself to her feet, and she glared down at the mess on her jeans, her top, her hands, her bare arms. “Look at me.”

He was looking. And ridiculously his body didn’t at all care about the mud. She was flushed and panting and little and curvy and absolutely delectable. He felt a stirring of interest in the vicinity of his groin.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, trying to focus on anything except the involuntary response in his body. “Why were you trying to move that table?”

“Because Nan said she wanted it closer to the dogwood trees.”

His eyes widened. “She asked you to move it?”

“No. She said she was going to ask you to move it, but I was doing it myself.”

“Why the hell didn’t you just wait for me to move it?”

“I was trying to be nice. What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were fishing.”

It was quite clear from her expression that she hadn’t expected to see him and that she wasn’t pleased by his appearance.

Noah was used to women appreciating his arrival. He wasn’t used to them glaring at him like they wanted him to evaporate from the face of the earth.

He frowned at her sternly. “We left at six this morning. It’s almost eleven. How long did you expect us to fish?”

“I thought it would be longer than this.” She pushed her hair back from her face in a gesture that looked impatient, frustrated. But this was a mistake. Now she had mud smeared all over her smooth pink cheeks. She burst out with an exclamation that sounded like, “Urgh!”

Not a happy sound.

“Damn it, Noah!” she added.

For some reason, despite an arousal that simply wouldn’t go away, he felt a rising of amusement at the incongruity of her dramatic exclamation and the awkward way she was holding out her muddy arms, like a clumsy bear considering a hug. He bit his lip to keep the amusement from showing.

He was obviously unsuccessful.

He hadn’t been at his best lately, but he knew better than to laugh at a woman in such circumstances.

“Don’t you dare laugh,” she growled. “This is your fault!”

He had to turn his head to hide his face, but a huff of laughter escaped his lips.

“Bastard,” she rasped. But something was happening on her face too, and he saw the outrage and annoyance flicker into a responding amusement. “This isn’t funny.”

He felt his mouth twitching irrepressible. “Right,” he managed to say with impressive sobriety. “It’s not funny at all. And it’s entirely my fault.”

“It is!” She was visibly trying not to laugh now. Her soft brown eyes were dancing, although she still had a frown on her face. “And now I’m going to have to get my car all muddy going home.”

This lessened his amusement slightly. “You can’t get in your car like that. Come inside and clean up. Maybe Ginny has something you can wear home.”

Ginny was a lot taller than Emma—and a bit slimmer—but surely they could find something that would fit.

Noah couldn’t believe when he saw that she was actually hesitating. What the hell? She’d obviously come over this morning to see Ginny and Nan, so it must be him she didn’t want to see. Did she really resent him for his mistake at the airport so much? She’d acted mostly normal this week, although with a cool distance he didn’t like. Was she still holding a grudge?

“You’re not going to get mud all over the interior of that nice car because you don’t like me, are you?”

The indecision on her face cleared. She gave him a cool, aloof smile. “Of course not. I’ll go clean up. And, of course, I don’t dislike you.”

He narrowed his eyes, studying her face. “I said I was sorry about the airport.”

“I know that.” She looked surprised, so obviously her behavior wasn’t about that.

He had no idea what it was about, but he had a strangely intense desire to change her impressions of him. He gave her a small smile. “I’ll fall in the mud myself, if it will make you feel better.”

“It will,” she said, arching her eyebrows. “Go ahead please.”

He blinked at her twice, until he saw her mouth wobble just slightly. “Damn it, Emma,” he muttered, realizing she was teasing him.

She laughed, and he was momentarily transfixed by how warm and pretty she looked, despite the mud.

He had the strongest desire to lean into a kiss, and the only way he managed to stop himself was to imagine what Patrick would say if he knew Noah was entertaining such wrong thoughts about his little sister.

Noah was going to be good, for once. He wasn’t going to give in to that desire.

To remind himself of the nature of their relationship, he said, “Come on inside, Pudge. You need to get cleaned up.”

***

Emma was torn between amusement, embarrassment, and disappointment, and she wasn’t sure which was the strongest of the emotions.

Leave it to her to make a complete fool of herself in front of Noah Hart, and then stupidly think he was going to kiss her anyway.

He’d called her Pudge.

She’d obviously been imagining the look she’d thought she’d seen in his eyes.

She was in Ginny’s bathroom, washing up and changing into the oversized T-shirt and cut-off sweats her friend had given her to wear. She was going to look ridiculous in these clothes, but it didn’t matter.

All she was going to do was go home.

She should have left earlier instead of stupidly trying to move that table. If she had, she wouldn’t have been around when Noah came home.

And she wouldn’t have fallen into the mud.

She was still torn between conflicting emotions as she walked down the hall toward the living room. She was almost there when she heard voices.

Nan was saying, “Tell me how you let that sweet girl fall into the mud, young man.”

Emma stopped automatically, wondering what Noah would say in response.

“I didn’t let it happen, Nan,” he said. “It was an accident.”

“And you couldn’t catch her?”

“Catch her?”

“Yes, catch her. Isn’t that what a gentleman would do when a young woman starts to fall?”

Noah chuckled softly. “Probably. But I’ve never been a very good gentleman. It all happened so fast. She was down before I realized what was happening.”

“Hmm.”

“I’m sorry, Nan. I guess I’ll always be a disappointment.” Noah’s voice was slightly amused but also soft, fond.

Emma really liked the sound of it.

She liked that he cared about his grandmother so much, so openly.

He didn’t let himself feel or express affection very often.

“Is that you, Emma?” Ginny’s voice, coming from closer to the doorway. “Did the clothes fit?”

Emma pulled herself together and walked into the room, hoping they didn’t know she’d been eavesdropping. “They’re okay. They’ll do until I get home.”

She glanced down at herself and was acutely aware of Noah’s eyes running up and down her body.

It would be nice if she was wearing something more attractive than this.

“Thank you for moving the table, dear,” Nan said with a smile. “You always did have a generous heart. Noah will walk you to your car to make up for his sins.”

“They weren’t sins,” Emma said, dropping her eyes and feeling very uncomfortable for no good reason. “It was an accident. I was just clumsy.”

“Nonetheless. Noah, walk her to the car. And try not to knock her over into the mud again.”

Noah shot her a slightly rueful look, but he stood up obediently and joined her in the doorway.

Emma said goodbye to Ginny and Nan and walked silently out the side door of the house.

“I am sorry about all that,” Noah said at last, gesturing toward the garden.

“It wasn’t really your fault.”

“I surprised you.”

“Yes. You did.”

“I’ll do better next time.” His expression was quiet, almost serious, although there was a glint of amusement in his green eyes that made her want to smile.

How could this man make her feel so many different things all at once?

“Somehow, I doubt it.”

He gave her another smile and a half shrug. “And thanks for helping Nan out. It’s nice of you to bring her flowers and everything.”

Emma blinked in surprise. “Oh. I do it because I want to. I love her.” She sighed. “And I don’t have any grandparents left, so it’s nice to borrow yours and Ginny’s for a little while.”

“When did your grandfather die?”

She was vaguely surprised he remembered that her grandfather had been alive and living in the area when they were kids. “Two years ago.”

“How are your parents doing?”

“They’re good. Both of them are still working at Tech and still always trying to fix up the house. They’ve redone the place about three times since high school.”

He gave an almost wistful smile. “Nice.”

She suddenly remembered that his mother was dead and his father had treated him horribly. She swallowed hard and heard herself asking before she could think it through, “Have you been to see your Dad yet?”

Noah’s soft expression hardened slightly. “No.”

“Are you planning on it?”

“No.”

Her chest ached slightly—for him, not for her. She still remembered how crushed Ginny had been when her father walked out on them and then a few months later married another woman and started having kids.

He’d committed himself to his new family in a way he never had to Noah, Ginny, and their mother. Ginny had cried so much about it as a teenager—how her father had forgotten she’d existed because he evidently preferred a different family.

Noah had never expressed emotion about it in any way, at least not in Emma’s presence. But he must have been just as devastated as Ginny.

“You think I should?” Noah asked, a throaty edge to his soft voice.

“I don’t know,” she said, telling him the truth. “I’ve never dealt with anything like that, so I can’t pretend to know how you feel. I just wonder…”

She was leaning against the side of her car, and he leaned a little closer to her. “You wonder what?”

“He doesn’t deserve a visit from you. That much is clear. But I wonder if you should do it for you.” She swallowed, suddenly filled with emotion that was years old but somehow also utterly new. “You’re a better man than he’ll ever be.”

A deep, almost tender expression transformed his face. “You think so?”

“Of course I do.” She was surprised he could even ask something like that. “Of course you are.”

“I don’t always think so.”

“Well, that just shows you don’t know very much.”

His expression changed again, and it was like something cracked, flooding his face with feeling that looked like tenderness, appreciation, longing.

Her breath caught in her throat as she gazed up at him, and she kept staring as his face lowered slowly toward hers.

She had no conscious thoughts at all—just a wave of pleasure, excitement, emotion—as his lips brushed against hers very lightly.

It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough. She pressed her mouth toward his again, and the kiss deepened for just a moment.

She was flushed and breathless and tingling all over when he pulled back, that same soft look in his eyes.

Then she realized what had happened.

She’d kissed Noah Hart, when she was supposed to be on a Man-Fast.

He must have been hit with reality at the same time, because he took an awkward step backward, rubbing his face with both hands.

“Where did…” She had to stop to take a full breath. “Where did that come from?”

“I don’t know,” he said, breathing just as unevenly as she was. “I…wasn’t thinking.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Can we just pretend it didn’t happen?”

Sure. She could just pretend that amazing kiss—the best kiss she’d ever had—had never happened. It was already forgotten. It would never cross her mind again.

She cleared her throat. “Yeah. We better just forget about it. It was… a mistake.”

“Yeah. Let’s just forget about it.” Noah looked tense and uncomfortable and very strange, but he wasn’t soft and affectionate any more, and he obviously had no further desire to kiss her.

It was probably just a random response to his emotions in confiding to her about his father.

Unless his feelings for her had totally changed.

“Is that all right, Pudge?” he prompted.

Pudge.

His feelings for her had clearly not changed. It was just one of those things that happened.

She gave him a cool smile. “It’s fine. It’s already forgotten.”