The house is silent again, but every room seems charged with energy. Mom has plans to stay the night, but when I came out in a sundress I haven’t worn since last summer, she looked me up and down.

“Expecting company?”

I’d just nodded. There were no words to explain the shame and excitement roiling in my gut. I hadn’t wanted to text Levi—I’d hesitated over every word—but her words rang in my ears in the shower, over and over until I couldn’t ignore them.

Forgiving him is an option.

If he’ll let me do it, that is.

The text message seems like a good indication, though. Even if there’s no way to get back on track, like we were before—the thought makes my heart ache—at least there won’t be such a raw, unresolved wound in the center of my chest. 

I don’t know where to stand. 

I sit in one of the chairs I bought, but sitting seems ridiculous, like I’m some kind of dowager queen waiting to be tended to, so I stand up and go back to the foyer. The sunlight is gentler than it was when I was by the pool. 

Should I turn on music? Play something on my phone, just to cover the quiet? My heart beats in my ears in the tense silence.

Then there’s the sound of tires on the driveway outside the front door, and the jitters take over. I don’t want to be in here, waiting like some strange ghost haunting the house, while he comes in. My sandals make soft slaps on the tiles. Five steps and I’m at the door, pulling it open and stepping out into the sun. Levi is just climbing out of his car—not the town car, something sleek and powerful. 

He drove himself.

The lines of him, hard and muscular and somehow graceful, take my breath away. He’s wearing dark charcoal slacks, summer weight and obviously custom-made for him, and a white dress shirt. No jacket. His sleeves are rolled up to his elbows. One look at his hands, and it’s like they’re on me already. Jesus. Why did I ever think I could move on from him? Why did I ever think—

“Ruby.” He comes up the stairs toward me, no hesitation in his stride, his gray eyes bright and focused, his hands in his pockets.

Six inches away, and I can’t remember why I was angry at him. I can’t remember what he did to make me feel such a sickening disappointment. I just want to be in his arms. That’s all I want.

Well...maybe not all.

The words I want to say stick in my throat, so I end up with the unbelievably lame: “Thanks for coming.”

He grins, and something melts in my chest, a hard freeze breaking in the first spring thaw. “When a lady needs my services…”

“I don’t need any more services. I think we’re—” I take a deep breath. “I think we’ve put all that to bed.”

At the word bed his eyes narrow, just slightly, his gaze burning into mine. “I have to apologize, Ruby.”

I shake my head. “You don’t—that’s not necessary. You were just doing what I hired you to do. I should have been prepared for all those things to be gone the moment we struck a deal.”

“And I should have been less of a prick about it.” 

I can’t help laughing. “Anyone else would have done the same.”

Levi crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m not anyone else. And the way I feel about you—it’s not like anyone else, either.”

Feel. Not felt. My heart leaps. “I overreacted.”

“No. You absolutely did not.” Levi steps closer, his voice low and urgent. “You didn’t. I’ve been blind and reckless with the way people feel about pieces they’ve kept, the homes they’ve built, and I should have realized that you’d take it hard. I should have talked to you about every single piece before I had it moved.”

I cover my face with my hands. “Oh, God, I’m glad you didn’t do that.”

Levi gives me a look. “You are?”

I take my hands down. “My mom said something to me today.”

He looks behind me, at the closed door. “Is she here? I’d love to meet her.”

I laugh out loud. “You want me to introduce you to my mother? Now?”

“You’re right.” He chuckles. “I’m getting ahead of myself.”

“Anyway, what she said—”

“Sorry, sorry. Go on.”

“She thought that it wasn’t the things I’ve been upset about, and she was right. It’s not the things.” That’s not entirely true. “Well, not all of them. There are a few things that I—” I roll my eyes. “That doesn’t matter. She thought it was really about trying to keep my family’s security together. And she’s right. It was. But—”

Levi takes the last step between us, raising one hand to my cheek. His skin against mine is pure heat, pure comfort, and I lean into it without a second thought.

“Things are going to be fine,” I whisper, putting my own hand over his. “The only thing left to do, once I realized that, is—”

“Come with me.”

He cuts me off, dropping his hand to my waist and tugging me forward, away from the door of the house. 

“What?”

“Come with me. Right now. There’s something I have to show you.”

I laugh, and my heart is light and free, pounding with a giddy happiness. “Where is it?”

He takes me by the hand, propelling us both across the driveway, and yanks open the passenger door of the car. “That would ruin the surprise, don’t you think?”

I slide into the car. It’s an Audi, and even the seats feel like they’d be worth a fortune on their own. But I don’t care. All I care about is Levi shutting the door, jogging around the front of the car, and getting in beside me, a wide grin on his face. He reaches for my hand, then hesitates.

I grab his hand out of the air and thread my fingers through his. “Let’s go. I don’t think I can take the suspense.”