I looked up from my computer when Owen walked into my office with that shy smile of his. He'd been strangely quiet after he’d returned from brunch, but I hadn’t wanted to pry, so I was happy to see him be the first to break the silence.

"Um… I know you're not a big fan of surprises, so I'm just going to put this out there. You might want to shower and shave, because Lukas will be dropping by after Jay's nap to take him for the night so you and I can have a date." He took a deep breath and nodded as if reassuring himself as he backed toward the doorway. "Yes. We're going to have a date tonight."

Before I could respond, he turned around and dashed out of the room. I smiled after him, intrigued by this sudden change of pace. But hey, if my husband wanted to take me on a date, I was on board. With that in mind, I shut everything down and headed upstairs.

What the hell is happening to me? I slowly turned my jaw from left to right as I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror. I was horrified to see that my beard was at least several days past due for a trim. Between keeping my normal schedule and pitching in with Jay, I’d apparently been letting myself go.

Opening the medicine cabinet to get my razor, I was appalled to see that several things were out of order. Was it that I was so tired from being a new parent that I'd started to slip in my organization, or was I maybe changing and loosening up a little? I thought about that for a second. Did I really care why things weren’t quite as tightly structured as they’d been in the past? And should I take a moment to rearrange the medicine cabinet?

I stared at it for a long moment then decisively closed it with a quiet click when I realized that no… I didn't care. If getting a little sloppy in a few areas like whether or not my medicine cabinet was arranged in alphabetical order was the trade-off for having a family, I definitely didn't care.

After I'd taken a quick shower and trimmed my beard, I went back into my bedroom where I spent way too long in the closet obsessing over what I should wear. If only Owen had given me more information. Where were we going? Did I need to wear a tie or bring a jacket? Finally, I thought about Owen and who he was as a person. When it dawned on me that he wasn't the kind of guy who would arrange a date at a fancy restaurant, my decision was easy.

I walked downstairs a few minutes later in a button-down and slacks, and followed my nose toward the delicious aromas wafting from the kitchen. I paused in the dining room and smiled to see that I'd made the right fashion choice when I noticed the leaves had been removed from the table to make it a more intimate size.

The table had been nicely dressed with a white linen tablecloth and my mother’s best china that I’d kept out of sentimentality. Soft music played in the background while the only lighting in the room came from dozens of lit candles.

"What are you doing in here?" I looked up to see Houston standing in the doorway to the kitchen. He was wearing black slacks and a white dress shirt with a skinny black tie, along with a green apron folded into a rectangle around his waist—Kyle’s standard uniform for the waiters at his catering company.

"Go on now, get out of here.” Houston made a sweeping motion with both hands as he spoke, kicking me out of my own dining room. “It's not time for you to be in here yet. Take your happy little ass into the living room where your date awaits. Gid and Lukas are about to leave with the munchkin if you want to say goodbye."

I ran into my brothers-in-law on my way to the living room, as they headed toward the front door with Jay tucked into his carrier. "Hold on, let me kiss my son goodbye."

Lukas gave an overly dramatic sigh while Gid smiled sweetly and held the carrier up. I leaned over and kissed both of Jay's cheeks. "Good night, baby boy. Be good for your uncles. Except for Uncle Beau, feel free to piss on him if you get a chance." I crooned at him in the baby talk that Owen loved to tease me about.

"Don't be telling him to piss on your brother, what's wrong with you?" Lukas smacked my arm with the back of his hand. "I can't believe you're trying to teach watersports to infants. You're messed up, Austin." He snickered and smacked my arm again. "Just teasing. Don't think that Beau hasn't told all of our kids the same thing when he ships them off to your house. You and your brothers really need to find better ways to screw with each other. Maybe ones that don't involve innocent babies?"

"Where's the fun in that?" I grinned and bent to give Jay one last kiss. "Okay, you guys better get him out of here before I decide I can't bear to watch him leave."

After they’d left, I found Owen in the living room. Once again, the room was only lit by candlelight while soft music played. He was seated on the loveseat with two glasses of white wine and a tray of appetizers on the coffee table in front of him.

Okay. You can do this. There's no need to be nervous, he's a sure thing—you have the marriage certificate to prove it.

I took a deep breath and walked over to join him on the loveseat. Instead of stopping to second-guess myself, I went with my first instinct and slipped my arms around him for a quick hug and a soft closed-mouth kiss. When I leaned back, my arms slid slowly down his until I’d captured his hands in mine. "You look handsome tonight," I said honestly. The pale blue shirt he wore made his eyes shine like liquid silver.

Owen lowered his gaze then glanced up at me from beneath a fan of lush, dark lashes. "You're looking pretty good yourself." He took a breath as if to steady himself and motioned toward the coffee table. "Would you like a glass of wine? I’d almost forgotten how nicely an adult beverage goes down until I had a sip of my own. It's been so long since I've had anything like that to drink."

"Then by all means, let's have a drink together.” As I lifted my glass, I looked at him expectantly. "Would you like to make a toast?"

Lifting his own flute, Owen nodded. "What should we toast to? The coming year? Good health?"

I raised my glass. "I have a better idea. How about we toast to new beginnings and broken prenups?"

Owen threw his head back to laugh, revealing the long line of his throat. As he laughed, I watched his Adam's apple bob. For the first time in my life, I realized how sexy a neck could be. I was tempted to lean over and suck on it, then maybe nibble a little further along that creamy expanse, leaving marks that would announce to the world that I’d been there.

I was startled from my lustful thoughts when Owen sobered and raised his glass. "To new beginnings and broken prenups," he said softly, his toast echoing mine. As we touched our glasses together, the ringing chime of the crystal sent a shiver down my spine. Taking a sip of the dry, almost woodsy Chardonnay, I couldn’t help but wonder if it had been the crystal or the company I’d reacted to just then.

One of my favorite Kenny G numbers came on, so I set my glass down and stood, holding a hand out to Owen. "Would you care to dance?"

He slid his hand in mine, looking curious as I pulled him out to the middle of the floor and took him in my arms. "I didn't know you danced."

I spun him around under my arm, flinging him out before twirling him until he was fitted snugly against me, with his back against my chest. Before I spun him out again, I stroked the back of my hand along his side as I paused to whisper in his ear. "Apparently we have a lot of new things to discover about each other. As for dancing, never underestimate good ol’ Texan parenting." I grinned and twirled him under my arm before pulling him back, this time bringing us chest to chest. "The dancing skills you're seeing on display are thanks to a childhood hell known as cotillion classes."

After a few more spins, I dipped Owen low over my arm and bent to kiss him. Our lips were barely a hairsbreadth from touching, his hot breath fanning over my face as we caught each other's gaze. Just as I was about to move that last millimeter to press my lips to his, Houston's voice rang out from somewhere off to the left as he rudely snapped his fingers.

"Sorry, boys. Dinner is served." He snickered under his breath and watched as I stood a blushing Owen back onto his feet. I loved the way Owen blushed over the slightest things. I couldn't wait to get to a more intimate level of our relationship to where I could ask him if he really was that embarrassed all the time, or if his body just liked to betray him anytime he felt the slightest emotions. And if that was the case… I pushed away the naughty thought when my mind started to go to more interesting areas.

I tucked Owen's hand around my arm and guided him into the dining room. Owen smiled at the table as he took his seat. His eyes were shining with happiness as he looked up at me. "Kyle is amazing, isn't he? I can't believe the meals he pulls together. And at the last minute too!"

"Can I offer you boys an upgrade on your wine? According to the chef, this will pair nicely with your meal." Houston walked in with a bottle of merlot displayed over the back of his forearm, obviously taking his role of sommelier seriously.

Owen shook his head. "No, but thank you for offering. I think I'd rather be levelheaded tonight."

Houston forgot his role for the evening as he fell out of character. "Levelheaded? Where's the fun in that? Oh, honey. We need to talk."

I lifted a brow as I tipped my chin toward the kitchen. "I think I hear Kyle calling you, brat."

"Funny, I don't hear anything except the sound of you trying to get rid of me," he huffed, flashing us a wink and mercifully leaving the room.

Owen and I flirted lightly as we ate our delicious meal. We'd just finished the main course when I decided I needed to taste Owen's lips again. As I leaned forward, he stretched to meet me in the middle. Our lips had barely brushed when I heard Houston again.

"Excuse me! I need to clear this table." He started stacking dishes and clattering silverware together.

Rolling my eyes, I sat up straight in my chair and motioned toward Owen. "Houston, can I ask you a question? Why are you going to all this trouble to give us a romantic evening if you're determined to keep us from actually enjoying said romance?"

Houston paused long enough to flip me off. "Bitch, please. It's not my fault you're too slow. If you'd pick up your game, I wouldn't keep accidentally cockblocking you—or should we call it kiss-blocking?” He waved a hand before lifting the stack of dishes and scooting around the table to head back to the kitchen. "Now just hush up and behave yourself, or there will be no dessert."

"I'm pretty sure that I'm the one who decides who gets dessert." Kyle winked as he walked in pushing a dessert cart. He was dressed in full chef regalia, complete with the white coat and hat. He pushed the fancy little cart right up to the table and set a pretty glass dish containing a perfectly rounded scoop of vanilla ice cream in front of each of us.

I leaned back when I saw him turn to the cart and pick up a torch. While we watched, Kyle deftly set the cherry sauce on fire. I wanted to ask if we should be worried about the flames, but Owen was clapping and looking too entranced for me to interrupt.

Setting the torch aside after he turned it off, I held my breath while Kyle efficiently spooned the sauce in the pan over the flames until the fire was out. As he spooned the heated sauce over our ice cream, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was amazing." Owen smiled up at Kyle as he garnished our dishes with a sprig of candied mint before stepping aside. "You are just full of tricks, aren't you?"

Kyle blushed as he shrugged. "I get by, I suppose. Anyway, this is your night. You guys enjoy your dessert while Houston and I get the kitchen cleaned up so we can skedaddle and leave you in peace."

We’d no sooner finished our desserts than Houston was back to remove the dishes and replace them with small glasses of plum cordial. I scrunched my nose at the overly sweet dessert wine, but kept my thoughts to myself when Owen took a sip and immediately gave one of those porn star moans he instinctively did whenever he tasted something that he truly enjoyed.

Houston flashed me a wink on his way out of the room, no doubt reading my mind as I wondered how he might moan at the taste of something slightly saltier. After we finished our cordial, I tipped my head in the general direction of the living room. "Would you care to go dance a little more, or are you too full to move?"

Owen took my hand as he stood. "New Year's is in two hours, let's see how much fun we can pack into what's left of this one. But first, I think we should go thank Kyle and Houston."

Before we left the room, I took a moment to put out the candles. The idea of leaving them burning while unattended made me slightly twitchy. Rather than teasing me like my brothers would've done, Owen simply got right into action as he moved around the room helping me put them out.

By the time we went into the kitchen, all we found was a clean room with a running dishwasher and no sign of the guys.

Finally. I was alone with my husband.