A few days later, Emma was sitting in Tea for Two after work, watching her friends make some last-minute touches to the décor. They were debating how quaint they could be without getting fussy. Carol supported very quaint, while Ginny preferred a simpler style.

Emma was doing her best to stay out of the argument.

Patrick was still in the office, but Ryan had stopped by to check out the shop and make the occasional teasing comment. He was big and handsome and had the same reddish brown hair as Carol. Emma had known him most of her life and loved him like another brother.

“The ribbon is too much,” Ginny said, her eyebrows shooting up as she came into the main room from the back and saw that Carol was threading some thick lacy ribbon through the curlicues on the big tea shelf.

“No, it’s not. It’s pretty.” Carol stepped back to admire her handiwork.

“Please tell her it’s too much,” Ginny begged, looking over to the table where Emma and Ryan were sitting and drinking a new White Peony tea that Carol wanted to try before putting it out for sale.

Emma met Ryan’s eyes, and they shared a conspiratorial smile.

“I could go either way,” Emma said.

“Yep.” Ryan nodded with exaggerated vigor. “Either way.”

Ginny rolled her eyes and walked over to give Ryan a sharp poke on the shoulder. “Tell her the truth, doofus.”

Ryan looked momentarily torn, since Carol was glaring at him too. But evidently the truth won out over loyalty to his sister’s taste. “It’s too much,” he admitted. “You’ll never get guys in here if it’s all girlified.”

“What’s girlified?” a new voice came from the doorway.

Noah had just walked in, and Emma’s whole body gave a little clench. He’d finally gotten his luggage at the end of last week, so he was wearing his normal clothes. A little more professional than he’d been lately in black trousers and a charcoal gray dress shirt.

He looked sleek and sexy and expensive, and it was enough to make Emma gulp.

Noah had evidently taken his assessment of the new decoration because his eyebrows went high. Before anyone could answer, he said, “Oh, no, that ribbon is way too much.”

“Ha!” Ginny said victoriously. “I told you! Both my brother and your brother agree. Please take it down.”

Carol put on a pout, although she was already removing the ribbon. “Fine. Patrick needs to be here. He’d agree with me.”

Emma chuckled. “Do you want to bet?”

“No. Not really. I thought it was pretty.”

“It was pretty, but maybe too pretty for everyone’s taste.” Emma was trying to be nice, but the shelves looked far better without the fussy ribbon. She was glad to see it go.

“Why are you all dressed up?” Ginny asked, peering at her brother as he sat down at the table next to Ryan and Emma.

“I video-conferenced a meeting,” he said. “They don’t appreciate it if I show up in my pajamas.” He glanced over at Emma, but his gaze didn’t linger.

There was no sign in his demeanor that they’d kissed on Saturday. She wondered if he even remembered.

She sure wished she could forget, but it kept coming back to her every night when she closed her eyes.

And every morning when she opened them.

“How’s the Man-Fast going?” Ryan asked, when Carol and Ginny started discussing what to display on the front counter.

Emma felt her cheeks warm—not at Ryan’s question but at the fact that Noah was hearing it.

“It’s fine,” she murmured, hoping he’d drop the subject.

“What’s this?” Noah asked, turning around.

“She’s on a Man-Fast,” Ryan explained, his mouth turned up in a suppressed amusement that was part of his nature. “Hasn’t she told you?”

“A Man-Fast?” Noah’s eyebrows were sky-high again.

“It’s no big deal,” she mumbled.

“Six months without men—to teach her how not to be attracted to assholes. I’ll be impressed if she can do it.” Ryan was smiling at her with the teasing affection he always used.

“Are you attracted to assholes?” Noah asked her.

She didn’t know what to say to that, but she didn’t have to. Ryan answered for her. “You should see the string of guys always hanging around her. I’m always having to swat them away like flies.” He grinned as he reached over to flick her chin slightly. “Sorry. Am I embarrassing you?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “No. You’re annoying me. Go away.”

Ryan laughed and got up. “See how she treats me?” He strolled over toward Ginny and Carol.

Emma should have thought things through before she got rid of Ryan because now she was alone with Noah.

He was still watching her, and a slight coolness had entered his eyes as he glanced over to Ryan walking away.

“Does Patrick know he flirts with you like that?” he asked with a frown.

Her shoulders stiffened at the presumption of the question. “Does Patrick know that you kissed me on Saturday?” she whispered indignantly.

Noah’s face went still. “I thought we were going to forget about that.”

“We are.”

“Then don’t bring it up again.”

“Then don’t try to interfere in my life.”

Noah’s frown had deepened. “So you like Ryan flirting with you like that?”

“He’s not flirting.”

“Uh, I’m not blind, you know. That was definitely flirting.”

She made a soft, exasperated sound. “He flirts with everyone female. It doesn’t mean anything. Don’t you dare say anything to Patrick about it. It’s not your business.”

“He doesn’t flirt with Ginny like that.”

Ryan didn’t flirt with Ginny. Emma had noticed it herself. She had no idea why, since Ginny was quite a flirt herself, unless maybe it had something to do with the fact that they’d gone out for a while in college. But Emma knew Ryan’s flirting with her didn’t mean anything. She would have worried if he hadn’t, since it seemed to be how he expressed affection.

She wasn’t going to bring all that up with Noah right now, however. She asked coolly, “How would you know? How often have you seen Ryan around Ginny in the last seven years?”

The answer was almost never—not until a week ago.

Noah was still frowning, like he was silently bristling, but he didn’t pursue the subject. Instead, he asked in a different tone, “So you’re really on a Man-Fast?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

She was feeling very uncomfortable—like Noah could see into her soul and discover all kinds of things there she didn’t want him to know. Plus, he was looking way too sexy, leaning back in his chair in his expensive, sophisticated clothes.

If she didn’t end this conversation too, she was going to reveal something truly mortifying about how she was still thinking about him.

So she said, “I’m on a Man-Fast so that I don’t kiss any more assholes.”

As soon as she’d said the words, she heard how they sounded, and she saw an expression flicker across Noah’s face.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a rush. “That wasn’t nice. I didn’t really mean you.”

“Yes, you did.” He sighed and stared out at the sidewalk through the front window. A group of college students were walking by, carrying backpacks. “And the truth is, you’re probably right.”

***

On Thursday, they all had lunch at Tea for Two to go over the final plans for the grand opening and celebrate the end of the two-year-long preparations.

It was a good lunch, and things weren’t as awkward between Emma and Noah as she’d feared. They could interact with their friends and smile at each other without obvious tension or undercurrents.

There was tension—at least Emma felt it every time she looked at him. She still wanted to do more than just look at him. But that was inevitable and not the end of the world.

Eventually, she would get over it.

Noah still seemed to have more in his eyes than he ever said out loud, but he clearly wanted to keep all that to himself. She wasn’t going to push. She wasn’t going to assume that they would ever be close—just because she felt that way.

She was going to be a mature, reasonable person and move on from one little kiss.

Things were so fine between them at lunch that she didn’t even worry when she and Noah ended up leaving the shop together. He was going to his car, and she was walking a block over to her office building, so it wasn’t like they were actually together.

She turned back to give him a wave and a friendly goodbye, pleased that she’d felt composed the entire time today—unlike all the other times she’d seen him—when she noticed him standing strangely.

He should be walking, heading to his car, but he wasn’t. He stood perfectly still, staring across the street. Absolutely no emotion was visible on his face, but something was wrong.

She could feel that something was wrong.

“Noah?” she asked, taking a few steps closer to him.

He didn’t reply. She wasn’t sure he even heard her.

She peered across the street, searching for what had caught his attention. It didn’t take long for her to find it.

There was an attractive, middle-aged woman standing on the sidewalk with a shopping bag in one hand and a very expensive designer purse over her shoulder. Emma hadn’t seen her in a while, but she recognized her immediately.

Noah and Ginny’s stepmother. The woman their father had married after he’d walked out on them fifteen years ago.

Emma sucked in a breath and turned back to Noah.

He didn’t look devastated or angry or upset or anything really.

He just looked… empty.

Her chest hurt, and her throat hurt, and she wanted to do something—anything—to mend this wound in his heart, even just a little.

She took his arm. When he didn’t walk with her immediately, she pulled, and she was relieved when he finally fell in step with her.

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t even look at her. But she was glad to at least have gotten him away.

When they reached Nan’s car—a Cadillac in the ugliest shade of green Emma had ever seen, complete with tinted back windows and a gaudy license plate surround—Noah finally shook his head hard and met her eyes. “Sorry,” he said, rubbing his jaw briefly and looking a lot more like himself. “Sorry. I was out of it.”

Emma wasn’t sure if he was going to admit what had thrown him, and she wasn’t going to bring it up if he didn’t. “It’s fine,” she said with a little smile.

His expression changed slightly, softened in that way it sometimes did, the way that made her heart stop for a few seconds. “You saw her, I guess.”

“Yeah.”

He shook his head, more slowly this time, and stared at a spot in the air to his right. “I don’t know why I was surprised. I know they still live in town.”

“Ginny sees them on and off.”

“I know.” His mouth twisted strangely. “I used to hate her so much when I was a kid. I wanted to blame her for taking my dad away.” With a dry little huff, he added, “I didn’t want to hate him.”

Emma couldn’t resist the urge to put a gentle hand on his chest. “That’s got to be normal. He’s your dad.”

“Yeah.” He glanced behind him, back in the direction they’d come from. “She’s just a… a normal woman.”

Emma nodded, not sure what to say, not sure what was happening on Noah’s face.

“And I should really be over this by now,” he added.

“That’s ridiculous. Some things you just don’t get over—not all the way, I mean. Some things are always going to hurt. This has got to be one of them.”

He was still shaking his head, as if he were mad at himself, as if he didn’t believe an old wound should still have the power to harm him.

Emma had her hand on his chest, and what she really wanted to do was stroke him, caress him, make him feel better.

She dropped her hand.

Noah met her eyes again. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“You know what. Thank you.”

She gave him a small smile. He felt more human to her right now, standing on the sidewalk next to the old car, than he had since he’d been back.

He was older now, but not that much different. He still had such a sensitive soul beneath his cool exterior.

She’d always known that about him. She’d always loved it.

The first day she’d met him—back when they were kids—he’d rescued an injured bird because she’d asked him to. She’d called the bird pudgy, and he’d thought it was such a funny word to use. He’d called her Pudge ever since.

She sighed as she said goodbye and walked back to her office.

Those soft, fond thoughts about him were going to do her no good at all.

Things were already settled between them, and nothing was going to happen.

All that was going to happen was her Man-Fast—and Noah leaving town again.

***

Friday evening was the grand opening of Tea for Two, and Noah was relieved to see that the turnout was really good.

His sister—and Carol and Emma—would all have been crushed if no one had shown up.

They’d done a good job with advertising, though, and they’d also invited everyone they knew. So the shop was packed by eight o’clock, and people were spilling out onto the sidewalk.

Noah hadn’t realized he was nervous about it, but his relief at the success of the opening was palpable. He felt almost giddy with it, and more so when he saw his sister’s happy face.

He would have been having a very good evening if he hadn’t had to watch a bunch of guys hitting on Emma.

That was really getting on his nerves.

She looked absolutely stunning this evening in a little dress that showed a lot of skin. Instead of the more typical black, her dress was white, and for some reason, the fact that it was a little white dress made it seem even sexier than it should have. She wore high heels, and her hair was loose, and she looked so good he got a little hard just watching her.

She hadn’t bothered to notice his existence all evening, but she was sure paying a lot of attention to all these other guys.

Ryan had said she always had guys hanging around that needed to be swatted away like flies. Noah was understanding that now.

He wanted to swat all these other guys away. Maybe then she would look at him again.

He’d gotten here early and taken a tiny table in the corner, where he could sit with his back to the wall. Occasionally, people he knew would stop by and sit with him to chat for a while.

Blacksburg wasn’t really a small town—it was actually large for a town, although it wasn’t a city—but most of the population was the university, so the locals felt like a small community. He’d been raised here. He knew a lot of people in town.

It was strange being back. It made him feel vulnerable. Like seeing his father’s wife yesterday and embarrassing himself over it with Emma.

She’d helped him yesterday. A lot. It was giving him even more thoughts he shouldn’t be having about her.

And other kinds of thoughts still hadn’t gone away either. Hot, vivid pictures of them together in very carnal ways.

The way he couldn’t stop lusting after Emma made him feel vulnerable too.

He was used to being able to control himself better than this.

What the hell was happening to him here?

He kept watching Emma. She was sitting on a stool at the counter, and her legs were crossed in a way that made her short skirt slide even higher up her thighs. Her thigh looked soft, touchable.

His body went hard as he thought about touching it.

He diverted himself by watching her smile at the guy hovering almost on top of her. Noah didn’t recognize him, and he didn’t like the guy’s wolfish smile.

Emma should know better.

She was supposed to be on a Man-Fast.

And this guy definitely wanted to take her somewhere and screw her.

Noah did too, but that was an entirely different matter. He didn’t see her as an object like that guy clearly did.

She was a whole person. A whole, beautiful, intelligent, sensitive, generous, kind-hearted, gutsy person.

A gorgeous, sexy person.

Whom he wanted to take to bed and kiss, touch, claim until she was exhausted and hoarse with screaming from pleasure.

That was not an image he should indulge. Nowhere—and certainly not here in a tearoom full of people.

He really needed to pull it together.

When a hand clamped down on his shoulder, he jerked in surprise, feeling like he’d been caught doing something naughty.

He felt even more guilty when Patrick sat down at his table. “Good turnout,” he said.

Noah nodded. “It is. The girls should be happy.”

“Hell, I’m happy. I put some money into this place.”

“So did I.” Noah didn’t care about the money. He did care about Ginny, though. And Carol.

And Emma.

Noah tried to look around in a casual way, but his eyes strayed back over to Emma.

Patrick must have followed his gaze. “That’s Ken Franks she’s talking to. She went out with him a few times—a year or two back.”

“He obviously wants to go out with her again.”

“She was never really into him.”

Noah was pleased to hear that, but he would have felt better if she hadn’t been smiling at him in that irresistible way. “I thought she was on that Man-Fast thing.”

“That’s what she says.” Patrick let out a breath. “I think she really just wants a nice guy, and all she ends up with are losers. The last guy she dated…” He shook his head, looking grim.

“What?” Noah asked.

“Cheating on her. Lying about it. Cheating on her some more. Lying even more. I wanted to beat that guy to a pulp.”

Noah felt an intense wave of outrage that almost made him rise to his feet. “I would have.”

“And you would have faced Emma’s wrath too. She doesn’t want us interfering in her personal life. And I can’t say I blame her.”

Noah noticed that Patrick had grouped the two of them together—as if they were both her brothers.

Noah wasn’t Emma’s brother.

Noah wasn’t anywhere close to Emma’s brother.

Noah didn’t want anyone to mistake him for Emma’s brother.

And he definitely didn’t want Emma thinking about him like a brother.

He could hardly say that to Patrick, though. He just made a wordless sound.

Fortunately, Patrick took the sound as agreement and didn’t pursue the topic.

***

An hour and three more guys flirting with Emma later, Noah had had enough.

He’d been swinging between desire and arousal for too long. If he had to watch another guy come on to Emma, he was going to either scream or hit something. Neither one would be ideal in the current circumstances.

Better to just leave.

He looked around the crowds for Ginny, so he could let her know he was leaving, and he finally found her carrying a tray of empty dishes toward the kitchen.

He followed and saw her slump slightly as she put the tray down on a counter.

“Are you okay?” he asked, a sliver of worry distracting him from his obsessive thoughts about Emma.

She jerked in surprise, but smiled at him as she turned around. “Yeah. Fine. It’s all going great, but I feel like I’ve done nothing but run around for three hours.”

“It won’t always be this busy.”

“I know. If it is, we’ll have to get a bigger place and hire about three more people.” She grinned at him. “Are you having a good time?”

“Yeah. Sure. But I was thinking of taking off.”

“No! Not already.”

“I’ve been here for a long time already.”

“I thought you were having fun. I saw you talking to a bunch of people.”

“I was, but I’ve talked to people enough. Will you be mad if I leave?”

She shook her head with a little smile. “I guess not.” She wiped her hands on her short black skirt and then stepped over to him. “I’ll walk you out.”

Noah was relieved about his escape, but he shouldn’t have counted on a quick exit. Ginny stopped by the counter where Emma was sitting as she passed by it.

“Noah’s leaving already,” Ginny complained to her friend. “Try to convince him to stay longer, will you?”

“I don’t need con—”

Before Noah could finish his automatic response, Ginny gasped, “What on earth!”

There was some sort of commotion across the room, and she hurried toward it.

Noah looked over at Emma, who met his eyes for the first time that evening.

“Things are going pretty well, I guess,” he said, hoping he sounded casual.

“Yeah. I think so.” She swung her leg, and Noah had to fight not too leer at her soft, bare skin. “So you’re leaving?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Did you have a good time? I saw you talking to a lot of old friends.”

Noah hadn’t even realized she’d noticed him at all. He couldn’t repress the sliver of pleasure at the knowledge that she’d been keeping track of him—at least a little. “Yeah. There are a lot of folks I know here.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

He thought back. “Oh. Yeah. I guess I had a good time.”

“Why do you guess?” She met his eyes evenly, almost challenging. “Don’t you know?”

“No,” he admitted. “I really don’t know.”

She seemed to understand what he meant. She nodded quietly.

Noah felt an emotional pull toward her, that she seemed to understand him so well, even when he wasn’t sure he understood himself.

But he shouldn’t—he really shouldn’t—be feeling that way.

He cleared his throat. “And I noticed your Man-Fast flew out the window.”

She gasped and straightened her spine, which unfortunately called attention to the curve of her breasts. “What are you talking about?”

Struggling not to gaze too fixedly on the slight outline of nipple he could see beneath the white fabric of her dress, he managed to say, “Your Man-Fast. With all the flirting you were doing, I figured you’d given up on it.”

“I was not flirting!”

He lifted his eyebrows.

“Don’t you give me that snide look,” she said, her lush lips turning down in a frown. “I was talking to some people I know, same as you.”

“There was definitely more than talking going on over here.” He had no idea why he was pursuing this. It was stupid. Futile. It would just make things worse.

But he’d been bristling for too long about all the guys falling over themselves around her, and it was going to come out one way or the other.

“What are you talking about?” she demanded. “I didn’t do anything but talk.”

“Right. You didn’t smile at them and show them all that skin and make them think they might be getting lucky later on.”

She gasped again. “I did nothing of the kind.”

“Okay.”

“I didn’t! I was talking. A girl can talk to guys without being accused of leading them on. I could say the same thing about you—every time you talk to and smile at women.”

“I haven’t been talking to women tonight.”

“You talked to a few.”

He tried to remember back to the people he’d chatted with and only remembered two young women. “They were married. I knew them from high school.”

“So? What’s your point? You can flirt with married women, you know.”

“Are you saying you think I’m the kind of guy who would do that?” His voice was now as angry as hers was.

She opened her mouth with some sort of sharp reply, but she must have rethought it. She slumped slightly. “No. I know you’re not.”

“Good.”

“It would be nice if you’d know I wasn’t like that either.”

“I’d never think you’d come on to married men.”

“You just think I’m some kind of tease, torturing men for fun.”

Noah sighed and leaned against the counter. “No. I really don’t.”

“Then why were you acting like that then?”

Good question.

And a question he couldn’t possibly answer honestly.

“I was just being an ass.”

“Yes. You were.”

“Sorry.”

Her frown was relaxing slightly, and she was peering at him closely. “Okay then.”

“Okay?”

“Yes. Okay.”

He felt a little better, now that she wasn’t so mad at him. But it just made him want to touch her even more.

He really needed to get out of here.

“I already have an older brother,” she said, still scrutinizing his face. “I don’t need another one.”

Damn it.

She thought he was acting like an older brother.

She had no idea he felt like a jealous boyfriend, resenting the fact that any other guy was thinking about what was his.

Could things be any more of a mess for him?

“I know,” he said thickly. “I don’t think I’m your older brother.”

He’d said that wrong. It had sounded way too husky, way too much like he was thinking about sex.

Her cheeks grew very pink.

He needed to fix this. Right now. He needed to say something—anything—to change the mood between them.

Finally, he thought of something that had worked a couple times before. “I already have a sister, Pudge. I don’t need another.”

That did it.  The soft confusion on Emma’s face disappeared completely.

And Noah felt like even more of an ass than ever.

She didn’t reply, and Noah took that opportunity to get out of there while the getting was good.