I was so sick of it. The woman left me no choice.

“You aren’t going to keep doing this to him,” I warned her when she raised her hand at him, ready to strike. “Leave him alone. And stop drinking so much around him. If you keep this up, the whole damn town will know about you and him. I know about the pool boy, Mother. And I’ll tell Jack.”

She slapped me for that last part.

I had some leverage for now. She acted like she was above reproach, yet she was sleeping with the pool boy when my stepfather, Jack, wasn’t in town. And now, she knew that I knew, yet she still felt the need to mark me.

I didn’t care.

The woman needed to get it through her head that no way was I about to let her take her problems out on Nicky. She couldn’t stand the thought of having brought my brother into this world. But Nicky was my blood. I adored him. Now that I was old enough to fight back, I’d be damned if I let her keep hurting him.

The next day, I spent twenty minutes covering the handprint and considered it a win, because I wasn’t bluffing. Head down, mind still whirling from yet another early morning confrontation with her, I left for work. As I hopped up on the curb and started walking to the boutique, the only thing that gave me some comfort was I left Nicky in the care of our housekeeper’s daughter, Grace. I didn’t have to worry when she was around to watch over him.

Mother didn’t like it.

She was starting to freak out again about having strangers in her house. But Grace was no stranger. I made sure to remind Mother that the day she stopped Grace from caring for Nicky, I’d be the one to tell the whole damn town about her indiscretions. Starting with her husband. One thing I knew about my mother: she didn’t do well with being a single woman. She was afraid Jack would leave her. I thought it was just a matter of time. Jack might no longer be as bowled over by Melody as he once was, but he still had feelings for her. Finding out that she was screwing the pool boy on the side would be the nail in the coffin.

I almost called in sick. Listening to her rage at me for over an hour gave me the worst headache. Taking a deep breath, I squared my shoulders, told myself I could get through the day, then the next and the next—

And I crashed right into a tall, lean, muscular form.

Only a strong pair of hands kept me from ending up on my ass—again.

Dazed, I tipped my head back and found myself staring into LeVan’s tiger-stripe eyes.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” he said, a slow smile curving his lips.

Man. I really wanted to kiss him.

That was the first thought I had.

The second thought—I was going to be late.

Jerking back, I said, “I’m sorry. I’m a klutz. I’ve got to go.”

“Hey, hold up…”

“I’m going to be late,” I said over my shoulder, striding into The Boutique on Bank Street—such a clever name. Tammy stood at the counter, chatting merrily on the phone, waving at me when I came in.

But then the bell behind me chimed a second time.

Tammy paused, head cocked. “Hello, LeVan.”

I spun around, staring at him.

In here, without his mother at his side, he looked…out of place. Not wrong, per se. He was just too much of a guy to fit in the fuss and frills and beads and sparkles of Tammy’s boutique.

“What are you doing in here?” I said, the rudeness of the question lost on me.

“I wanted to buy something for my mother.” That same smile was still in place, undimmed by my rudeness.

“Oh.” Turning back to Tammy, I saw that she had turned her back on me. It was up to me, apparently. “I…ah…I have to clock in.”

“I’m not in a hurry.”

And he wasn’t.

LeVan took his time roaming through the shop and when I tried to guide him—or at least figure out what he was looking for—he told me that he’d know it when he saw it.

So far, he hadn’t seen it and he’d been looking for almost twenty minutes.

Clever hands turned over hats designed by a local lady. Those same hands inspected brooches and necklaces, pendants and earrings.

It wasn’t until Tammy disappeared into the back that he finally said much of anything.

“I was wondering if maybe I could take you out to dinner.”

The question was so far from what I’d been expecting, I damn near dropped the stack of blouses I’d brought out to stock. Fumbling with them, I finally managed to catch them and turned to a counter to straighten the pile—it was just sheer luck that the one I picked gave him my back. Dinner. Had he just asked me out to dinner?

“I like Savon’s on the River. You been there?”

It was such a silly question, I found myself answering without thinking about it. “Who hasn’t?” In a town with fewer than four thousand people and only a handful of restaurants in said town, I’d been to every single one so often, I had the menus memorized. Savon’s was the best by far.

“Would tomorrow work for you?”

Spinning around, I stared at him. “Why are you asking me out?” I demanded.

“Is there a reason I shouldn’t?” he countered.

“I can think of five, easy.” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. Nobody asked me out. Between my job, dealing with my brother, my own foul temper, and everything else, why would anyone want to?

“Just five?” He clicked his tongue. “Sorry. Five reasons…that isn’t enough for me. I need a list, alphabetized, of at least twenty reasons.”

I frowned at him.

“What, no answer to that?”

“Are you always this difficult?”

“You’re the one getting upset because I asked you out to dinner,” he said simply. “Am I being difficult?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it. He was actually quite right. But how was I supposed to tell him that I couldn’t really date? I had no idea how my mother…

My mother.

Screw it.

I don’t know when I started to smile, but at some point, I had.

Maybe it was rude. Maybe I was being a disrespectful daughter. But I’d spent the past fourteen years doing nothing but trying to please her and it had gotten me nothing.

“You know what? I think I’d love to go out to dinner.” I smiled at him. “But…I’ll have to meet you there.”