I need time to relax. After work and walking Oliver, I head down to the hot tub around eight and take a bottle of wine with me.

I’m down there all of ten minutes when Tathan shows up wearing his black-and-white swim shorts, a towel hung over his shoulder and two beers in his hand.

I swear, I can’t get a moment alone anymore. Though after today and that article, I’m strangely okay with him coming down here.

He says nothing as he gets in across from me. I shamelessly watch his every move and the way his defined body flexes as he sits down.

Casually and relaxed, he opens his beer next and then tips it up to me. “Thirsty?”

I raise my wine glass an inch and smile.

I notice his phone in his hand. He swipes his finger over the screen, and then sets it down beside his towel as music from The Eagles begins filtering softly through it. Oh, look at him setting the mood. Clever.

“Where’s your dog?” he asks, keeping his knowing smirk at bay.

“Sleeping on my kitchen floor.” Not looking at him, I stare at the hills and the way they’re glowing from the city lights, breathing in slowly and steadily. I love his choice of music. “He’s lazy. Must be all this wedding planning wearing him out.” I think I’m funny, but I’m not sure. Wanting reassurance, I peek up at Tathan to see the corners of his mouth slightly quirked.

“How’s the wedding planning going?”

I don’t answer right away. Instead, I take a sip of my wine. “Good. The wedding’s next weekend.”

His brow raises. “Big plans for the bachelorette party?”

Of course he wants to know what we have planned.

“Not really.” I’m not sure what he’s getting at, but Casey gets asked this a lot. Everyone assumes we’d go to Vegas, though we’re not. She’s not much of a Vegas girl, and neither am I.

“So,” he begins with a smile, never making eye contact with me, “I hear Casey has been trying to get me to do her photos for her wedding?”

I say nothing because I know exactly where this is going, and I don’t like it. “Hotel California” starts playing and I smile. This song and this scene make me smile, only for a moment though and I’m back to reality.

Tathan smiles too, and his eyes give away a little side I hadn’t seen before. Just a glimpse into him as a person, and it’s nothing like I think it is.

Then he speaks.

“I might be inclined to say yes, if you will go out with me.” His voice is softer than I expect it to be. Shy even.

“Why would you want that?” I’m not mean when I say that, but I suppose in some sense, the remark is mean, insensitive, perhaps demeaning. “I wouldn’t be going because I like you. It’s just a bribe.”

“All I need is one date to show you the person I am is not the person you think I am.”

I laugh at his bluntness. “Are you always so confident?”

“I can be, sure.” He looks at me after taking a drink of his beer. It’s a quick glance before his eyes shift to the bottle in his hand resting on the concrete ledge. “Or maybe I just see you and know that all you’re really looking for is a friend. Not a boyfriend. You’re looking for a best friend. Someone you can trust.”

I hate him.

“Stop talking.” I’m about to cry, and I think he knows it. How could someone peg me so perfectly in one sentence?

Tathan could.

I’m about to tell him no, again, when I think about Casey and how much it means to her that she has Tathan take her photos.

“I have one rule.”

“Okay. . . .” He waits patiently, a smile tugging at his lips.

Deep down this one rule—no matter what it is—means nothing to him. I know that before I say it. There is something about Tathan. Even if you hate him, even when you don’t know him, there’s an easiness to him you can’t ignore. A comfort.

So, for my one rule, I protect myself. I have to.

“You only get one date. No more. No matter what.”

He looks at me like I’m joking, but quickly agrees despite the apprehensive expression. “Deal.” He holds out his hand, which I don’t take.

I stand there for a moment drying off and slip my flip-flops on. “Let me get this straight. . . one date, and you’ll take Casey’s photos?” He nods, getting out of the hot tub too. “And then you’ll leave me alone?” He nods again, and I have to add, for the sake of him staring at me and making me nervous, “Because we know damn well you and I won’t work.”

“That sounds about right,” he says, lifting the towel in his hands to wipe the water from his face, but there’s some amusement behind his words, like he’s about ready to make a joke.

I wipe my hand on the towel, because it’s sweaty, and reach for his. “Deal,” I say, finally shaking his hand.

He holds it tighter when I let go. “Oh, and Amalie?”

“Yeah?”

He pulls me closer, our chests touching. “You’re wrong.”

I breathe out, long and exaggerated. “About what?”

“About us not working.” And then he lets go of me and walks ahead, leaving me standing there, unable to argue with him.

I suck because I have feelings for him and I know it. Shitty emotional feelings. And he knows it, too.

Without another word, Tathan walks me to my door and see’s Oliver waiting for me, growling at him. “Why does your dog hate me?”

“He doesn’t like men.”

“But he doesn’t growl at Zane.”

“He’s not trying to get into my panties and Oliver feels he’s of the female species so there’s no challenge from him.” I pick up Oliver so he won’t attack Tathan. “He protects me from men.”

“Protects you from me?”

I watch his face as I reply, every single reaction, but he gives me little to go on, brown eyes searching mine. “Yes,” I answer. “He knows you’re trouble.”

“I’m not trouble.” He blinks. “My brother Kelly, he’s trouble. I’m the nice guy who’s taking your best friend’s photos for free, in exchange for a date with a girl I can’t stop thinking about.” He smiles as he backs away toward his own door. “Night.”

“Night.” Oh God, that came out like a sigh, didn’t it?

Shit.

I close the door and sink down to sit on the floor, covering my heated face with my hands.

Oliver finds me and jumps on my lap. I hold him up so our faces are inline. “What did I just agree to?”

He wiggles.

I can’t believe I agreed to this for Casey. She owes me big time now.