She never thought she would get used to the idea of guards following her everywhere. Thanks to Luc and even Houghton, Ari had adjusted. Since what had happened with Justin Albright the year before, Marc had privately employed guards that followed him everywhere. Ari understood the precaution.

He had Katie and Isaac to think about.

She recognized the two that usually worked his day shift as guards she’d seen before. As far as she could recall Lacy telling her, Marc had six guards that rotated guarding him, two on during business hours, and one on shift of the evenings.

His guards were waiting outside the building when the two of them exited long after Rafe and Travis had spirited Lacy and Jillian away. She and Marc had ended up with the task of cleaning up their supplies.

Once the others were gone, some of the tension filling her lessened. She didn't want to admit it, but having her older brother around still made her nervous. Even Zoey and Pen didn’t make her as nervous as Rafe still did. Which was ridiculous, because Rafe was marrying her best friend. It was time she got over it.

There was a lot she needed to just get over and move past.

But sometimes that was so much easier said than done.

It was hard to forget their earlier meetings, and how unpleasant Rafe had been. She strongly suspected the only reason he was trying harder with her was because of Jillian.

If he wanted to be her brother and have even a small role in her life, she wanted it be to be because of her, not because he was sleeping with her best friend. Would she ever know if it was genuine on his part? Probably not.

She'd already lived nine years of her life with someone who only tolerated her because of someone else. Her former step-mother had left a lasting impression. Ari wasn't about to do that with this half-brother that she didn't really know.

Marc came up behind her. “Would you like to grab something to eat with me this evening? Rayne’s taken the kids to an old friend’s and I’m on my own. And I’m not certain my brothers want me around tonight.”

“I’m not dressed for anything fancy.” She’d told herself in the middle of the night that she didn’t want to know why he had kissed her like he had. She wasn’t going to allow herself to be distracted by him. Nothing could ever come out of it. His life and hers wouldn’t ever mesh well.

It just wouldn’t. So she’d just chock it up to an aberration. One kiss in the twilight. Nothing more.

“I think you look perfect. Mamaw’s Place? I try to hit it up at least once a visit.”

Some of her tension lessened. Mamaw’s was one of her and her friends’ favorite restaurants. Good southern comfort food—with plenty of veggie choices for her. Relaxed and friendly, casual. Nothing about Mamaw’s said pressure to her at all.

Marc had a limo waiting. He must have texted his guard to have it brought around. Ari felt like a grubbling when she climbed into the back with him. “I’m filthy.” She looked at the man next to her. “You’re just as bad.”

"The seats are washable. You’ve met my children, Dusty and Dirty, right?”

As they settled onto the limo seats, exactly what she’d wanted not to happen happened—she found herself unsure what to say. That never happened with Marc. It didn’t. Which was one reason she’d actually considered him among her male friends.

This felt a heck of a lot different than friends.

She’d envied Jillian and Lacy’s ease with the opposite sex. Before Travis and Rafe there had been men who had been interested in the three of them. Even before that. But she had never quite known what to say or do, and nothing had ever come out of those times. Then there had been the men who had wanted her connections to Luc, and even to Houghton, tenuous though that connection was.

It had made it very difficult to trust.

She had trusted Marc. As a friend.

She just wasn’t certain she trusted the way he was looking at her tonight.

But this was just Marc, and she was safe with him. She could relax. Marc would never push her into something she didn’t want. Period.

It was just dinner.

He wasn’t the big bad wolf about to gobble her up.