Gabe strode through the doors of The Walton and scanned the room for Bex’s familiar face. In the red glow of the bar lights, she looked like something out of a dream.

Bex cocked her head when she saw him, an amused smile gracing those pretty lips of hers. He was too far away to talk, but he could almost hear her quiet chuckle.

A good reaction.

Thank god.

He had taken a gamble she was going to be here, but he had a feeling that when Bex made a commitment she saw it through. And now he was glad he’d come.

Emma intercepted him before he crossed the room. “Glad you showed up, cowboy.”

“Cowboy? Is that really what this outfit screams to you?” Gabe gestured at his crisp button-down shirt and dark denim. He’d completed the look with a pair of Vans.

“No. What it screams is, ‘I’m trying to look casually cool to impress the girl I like.’”

“Is that a problem?”

Emma grinned. “No. You definitely get bonus points.” She led him by the elbow to deposit him at Bex’s table before she headed back toward the bar.

Bex smiled up at him. “Look who’s here.”

“I figured you wouldn’t dare risk another Trivia Night without your ace player,” he said.

“Ace, huh?” Bex tapped her lips. “I’m pretty sure that you answered one question correctly.”

“Ah, but the important part is which question I answered.” He leaned close to her ear. “And it was the winning question.”

Bex rolled her eyes but smiled. This close, the bright and fruity scent of her shampoo wafted in his nose. She smelled like tangerines and summer. “Yeah, well, I guess we’ll keep you.”

He certainly hoped so.

Gabe settled into the seat next to her, his shoulder brushing hers. Around them, the room was getting in order—trivia players settled at their tables and clapped each other on the back with a happy hum of voices, and Aderyn flitted around the room to distribute answer sheets and little golf pencils. He could see why Bex liked to come here, and it wasn’t just because it was her brother’s place. It felt like a community, like a family. People who teased each other and loved each other and showed up for each other.

He could get used to it.

Bex reached for a golf pencil. Her fingernails were painted shiny gold, and they flashed in the flickering candlelight like sparks. “So what do you think, ace? Are you going to deliver again, or was your first win just luck?”

He held her eyes and lowered his voice to a rumbling growl. “Oh, I plan to get lucky.” A tiny breath puffed out of her, and her eyes went wide. “But I also have the skills to deliver.”

Aderyn set down a pint glass of beer in front of Gabe, its sides sweating. She looked at her sister-in-law, who was still installed right next to Gabe, much to his relief. “If you keep this up, Bex, people are going to think the game is rigged.”

Bex lifted a shoulder, her hair spilling down. “Maybe it’s a good thing I always win. I’m keeping them on their toes.”

Aderyn shook her head with a smile, heading off to check on other customers.

Gabe turned to Bex with a grin. “I can’t believe we won again.”

“I can.”

“I’m glad your ego is intact.”

She nodded. “I’m not bragging. I just have a healthy confidence in my abilities.”

He cleared his throat, and she corrected herself. “In my team’s abilities.”

He laughed, lifting his cup in a toast. “Cheers to that.”

Tonight’s trivia prize had been an extra pint of beer, and while everyone else on the team had bowed out, he and Bex stayed late together to share the pint. He didn’t have a shoot scheduled for tomorrow, and his day stretched like a roll of undeveloped film. Maybe he’d do some editing, maybe post a few photos to social media. But otherwise, he could do what he wanted.

And tonight he wanted to stay up late with Bex. If he could stay up late with her in her bed, all the better. Sure, she’d taken that possibility off the table for now, but he hadn’t just imagined the attraction sparking between them. Even now, she looked at him like she was making a decision, her teeth pressed into the soft curve of her lower lip, her eyes narrowed.

“You know, you impressed me again,” Bex said.

“With my trivia skills?”

“Yeah. I didn’t see it coming.”

“Well, I aim to please. You weren’t so bad yourself. How’d you get so good at trivia?”

Bex smiled, a small, pleased thing. “I stay curious. You never know when something’s going to be important. And the more you pay attention to things, the more you can make connections. And when you can connect things together, you find you know more than you think.”

It was so nice to see her like this—happy, smiling, engaged.

“But what if the questions are hard?” Gabe asked.

“Every question is hard if you don’t know the answer.”

Fuck. That was profound.

“So how did you get so good?” Bex shot back at him.

He didn’t want to scare her away again, so he told half the truth. “A few years back I had some extra time on my hands, so I watched a lot of Jeopardy. That led to picking up books with random facts.”

“Don’t tell me you’re a big Alex Trebek fan?” Bex teased.

“We’re pals. But it was the theme music that did it for me.” He started humming the tune under his breath, and Bex giggled.

“No! Don’t do that. It’s totally going to get stuck in my head.”

Gabe laughed. “Tell me more about this design competition.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you trying to get into my pants again?”

He held up his hands. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

Bex rolled her eyes. “The deal is my company hosts a design competition for the best sex toy, and the winner gets a huge bonus.”

“Aren’t you already their best designer?”

“Yes.” He liked that she didn’t downplay her talent, that she was honest about her skill. “But they started this competition after the CEO’s fiancée designed this prize-winning toy, and now it’s open to anyone in the company. So there’s more competition. And I want to win that bonus to help Sam.”

“Help Sam?”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “Don’t let him hear it from you, but he has a whiff of prostate cancer. Slow-growing, so the doctors are doing active surveillance.”

Gabe winced, and a familiar pang of sadness coursed through him. “Tough break. Cancer’s a real bitch.”

She frowned at him, her face serious. “You sound like you know firsthand.” It was a question and a statement.

He was going to scare her away if he told the truth.

He was going to shoot himself in the foot if he lied.

Gabe forced himself to answer, his throat thick. “I had a whiff of thyroid cancer myself, Bex.”

Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open. “No.” Her hoarse whisper scraped him raw. “Are you okay?” she asked, reaching for him.

He squeezed her fingers, grateful for her touch. “I am. I had surgery a few years back, and spent a while recovering, which is when Alex Trebek and I became such good friends. Now I take a handy little pill each day and life keeps on cooking.” His chest was tight. “Is that going to scare you away?”

Bex shook her head, her eyes wet with unshed tears. “No, Gabe. Sometimes I scare me away. But you? You are golden. I’m just sorry you had to go through it.”

“Thank you.” He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. God, it felt good to touch her, to hold her. “I didn’t mean to jump the tracks there. Tell me about Sam.”

She sighed. “Supposedly the type he has is rare in people under forty-five, but Sam’s just special. At least there’s a five-year survival rate of ninety percent or more.” Her voice grew rough, and a single tear spilled down over the freckles on her cheek.

Gabe reached for her face and swiped away the tear with his fingertip. Bex blinked at him, and they were trapped, staring into each other in the middle of this bar in the middle of this night. But then Bex pulled herself together enough to continue. “Anyway, Sam’s doing pretty good right now, but the cancer is more likely to be hereditary than other kinds, and he doesn’t want to pass it on to his kids. He was also advised not to try to have his own. So he and Aderyn are trying to adopt.”

“Which, I’m assuming, isn’t cheap?”

She shook her head. “Not at all. There are a few agencies who will work with cancer survivors, but it’s a long and expensive battle.”

He nodded. “And now your contribution is going to make their adoption possible.”

Bex’s mouth flattened, and she blew out a breath. “I mean, not entirely. They’d probably be just fine without me. But there’s so much that’s happened to them with the cancer and the adoption that I couldn’t control or fix. Giving them my prize money, at least, is something I can do.”

“That’s really kind of you, Bex.” He smiled, and her face softened. “What if we could find a way to help you get some more inspiration? Partner up so you could win this competition?”

Bex tilted her head. “In bed?”

Gabe reached for her hand again. “I’m not going to hide my desire from you, Bex. But if you want to be friends, for now, we can work with that, too.”

“For now?”

He held her gaze, and her eyes widened. “For now.”

“Okay.”

Bex pulled her hand from his and took a swallow of her beer. She drained the pint, licking her lips in a way that made him want to drag her into the back room and lick them, too. She set the pint back on the table and brought her hand to her mouth. “Oh fuck.”

“What?” She nodded over his shoulder, and he followed her eyes to the clock by the door. “I’ve got to go. I’ve got work in the morning.”

“Can I walk you to your car?” He stood and reached for his keys.

“Yeah. All right.” Bex gathered her purse, then pushed back from the table. When she stood, she stopped short and grabbed his arm.

“Gabe?” A drift of her perfume washed over him, and she was so close and soft and warm. Why did she have to be so scared of this thing between them?

“Yeah?”

She looked up at him with those big eyes. “I might be a little more drunk than I thought.”