I must be crazy, it was the only rational explanation for why I was up so damn early on a Saturday morning and on my way to Talia’s place. With breakfast. The woman was in my head and had me all screwed up in ways I couldn’t possibly understand, so I decided not to try and just go with it. For now.

When I pulled up to her place, I expected to find her sexy and rumpled in a pair of barely there pajamas, instead she was behind the wheel of her car with her gaze focused on her phone. She screamed when I tapped on the passenger window, completely oblivious to my arrival. “What is it, Luke?” The question was laced with annoyance but I wasn’t bothered.

“Where are you headed?”

“I need to head up to Bend to deal with problems with some of our signs.” She didn’t say it, but the signs had been my responsibility and any problem with them meant it was my fault.

“You weren’t going to tell me?” The blank stare she leveled me with was all the answer I needed. “I’m coming with you,” I told her, hitting the lock on my car and jumping into the passenger seat. “Want me to drive.”

“No.”

Okay, then. I spent the first hour of the drive listening to Talia sing along to Whitney Houston’s greatest hits. She wasn’t the greatest singer but she wasn’t bad either. What she lacked in talent she made up for in enthusiasm. And volume. It was kind of adorable to see this tough as nails chick, cranking out ballads with all her heart.

But buy hour two, I’d had enough. “What’s going on with you, Talia?” She’d been acting strange for some time and even Poppy was starting to notice.

“I don’t know what you mean, nothing is wrong.” She sighed like even answering the question was an imposition but her gaze never slid to mine, a clear sign she wasn’t being honest.

“Cut the shit, Talia. Everyone has noticed, even Poppy with her pregnancy brain has noticed. The only reason she hasn’t said anything is because Blake keeps reminding her of how much you have to do these days.”

“Because my days weren’t busy before,” she mumbled. “Look I’m busy and I’m tired, okay? Besides that, when I’m not at work I’m allowed to do whatever the hell I want, okay?”

Hell no it wasn’t okay. The more she protested the more certain I was that something was wrong. “No one said you’re not but that doesn’t mean people who care about you aren’t allowed to ask.”

“If people gave a damn, they’d mind their own business.”

“That’s not how family works,” I told her with a frown. “If I had a nickel for every time Blake or Lacey were all up in my business I’d be a very rich man.”

“You are a very rich man,” she shot back drolly. “And I don’t have any family.”

“You have Poppy and Maple.” She didn’t say anything to that, clearly she really was done talking about this. “Want to pull over and have sex?”

She laughed just as I’d hoped, shaking her head and looking at me like I was an alien life form. “Maybe but not now. If those signs are screwed up we’ll have to do a rush order since the event starts next Sunday.” Already her mind went back to the never endling list she kept in her head, eyes glazed over as she pushed her sedan down the expressway. “Maybe on the way back.”

I smiled at her words. Even though it was just a maybe, I could easily turn Talia’s maybe into a hard yes. A very hard yes.

It was just past noon when we arrived just outside of Bend where they were already doing most of the work for the tournament. There were signs and flags up everywhere, telling the world there was an outdoor sports event happening soon. “Shit,” she said when we came around the first real curve on the property and caught a glimpse of the sign. “That’s too small.” Shoulders slumped, she pulled out notepad and began scribbling furiously before she lifted her head and we kept going. “Misspelled,” she muttered under her breath as we passed another sign.

After we did a quick circuit of the property, we found the event organizers and had a quick talk with them and by ‘we’ I mean Talia. Turns out she really didn’t need my help because I was the one who’d screwed everything up. “Sorry,” I told her as we headed back to the car.

“Doesn’t matter now, it’s handled.”

“You’re not very forgiving, are you? That must mean you make very few mistakes. Must be nice.”

She glared at me. “I make mistakes all the time and I own them when I do because I’m not a fucking child. If you couldn’t or didn’t want to do them, you should have just said that.” She stomped away, annoyed as ever with me but I didn’t care because she had on another pair of jeans, black this time and they were molded to legs and an ass I knew very well.

I widened my steps in case she got the idea to take off without me, but I shouldn’t have worried because Talia was hard but she wasn’t mean. And when I slid into the passenger seat, she was already on the phone with the print shop. “Tell them to rush it.”

Talia held up a pearl pink nail to shut me up. “I expect them completed by and delivered on Monday. Before noon.” She sent me a look that said she wasn’t impressed with me. “Yes, I understand that the mistake wasn’t yours, however I explicitly asked for confirmation and I have yet to receive it.” She nodded, a solemn expression on her face as she listened and turned over the engine. “Yes, thank you. Enjoy your weekend.”

“Want to stay the night here?”

“Nah, I got stuff to take care of at home.” It was vague as hell and I had a feeling she was lying.

“What?”

“It’s personal.”

I laughed. “I’ve tasted every sweet inch of your body, Talia. That’s personal, this is just some shit you don’t want to share.”

“Exactly. You’re not my boyfriend Luke and you don’t want to be so stop acting like I owe you anything!”

She was right. Mostly. “What if I do? Want to be, that is?” Wait, what the fuck did I just say? I didn’t feel sick or panicky, my heart rate was as normal as it ever was around Talia, instead of near heart attack level at the idea of being someone’s boyfriend. It was a title I avoided at all costs.

Judging by the shock in her honey brown eyes, I’d shocked Talia too.