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house a light blue, like Liz’s eyes.”
    Man. His brother was a goner.
    Seth must have seen the look on his face. “Hey, I know what you’re going to say.”
    Wes raised a brow. “You do?”
    “You think I’m pussy whipped.”
    “No, I don’t think that.” Wes paused. “I think that you’re ball and chained to that pussy.”
    “I was like you once.” Seth placed the lettuce into a bright green bowl. “The only thing I was committed to was baseball and football. I never believed in love, you know because of how Dad’s marriages never stuck. Love didn’t seem to last. Then I met Liz. She changed everything.”
    “Sap.”
    Seth headed to the fridge and took out some tomatoes and an onion. “Maybe I am. It doesn’t make me less of a man because I want to do things for the woman I love.”
    “Oh, Jesus.” Wes groaned. “I feel like I’m in a Hallmark commercial.”
    “Hallmark commercial or not, I think it’s time you added the macaroni, Gordon Ramsay wannabe.”
    Wes turned down the heat on the water a little and poured the shells in. “I’m not knocking what you have with Liz. You just don’t want to get so wrapped up in her that you lose yourself. That’s all.”
    “I’m not insulted. However, that’s not what Liz and I have. We respect each other. We accept each other as who we are and don’t change the other.” Seth leaned against the counter. “But you should have a Ph.D. in avoiding commitment.”
    Not this argument again. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
    “Not family type of commitment. You have to do that. Blood and all. I’m talking about love.”
    “I have other things to concern myself about right now. I don’t have time for that sort of thing.”
    “Whatever you say.” Seth watched as Wes drained the shells and added the cheese. “How is everything with you?”
    “Huh?”
    “The move and coming back here?”
    “It’s fine,” he said automatically. “It’s not like it’s permanent. Jake’s got some issues.”
    “Jake always has issues,” Seth said affably. “He’s had to deal with Dad more than we have. You know, he’s the one who brought TJ and me together to take over the business five years ago when Dad’s health went south. Jake’s been stressed with all of it.”
    “He didn’t seem too happy with me.”
    “Jake is just Jake,” Seth said. “Just give him time. I’ll work on him, too.”
    Give his brother time. Sure. Wes could do that. Except he was only here for three months. Hopefully that would be enough time to heal any existing rifts.
----
    S he was not going to call him. She was not going to call him. She was not going to call him.
    Ginny kept repeating that to herself on the way back to her apartment. As she put away her groceries. Even when she called her mom back and surprised the both of them by accepting her mom’s dinner invite for that evening. She’d stared at his business card, which was just his name and cell number in black font on expensive cream vellum. She wrote “Mr. Dangerous” under his name, then drew devil horns and a tail. But when she headed out to her mom’s, she couldn’t resist tucking his card into the pocket of her jeans.
    Although, she wasn’t going to call him.
    His idea was ridiculous. She didn’t know what had driven him to offer that in the first place—to play pretend as if they were little kids. She didn’t like him, and he just wanted to use her. She was sure that in his book sex would still be on the table. Friends. Ginny snorted.
    Except the thought of not having to put up with another bad date was very tempting.
    She pulled up in front of her mom’s place—a large, sprawling, gray four-story house that also operated as a bed and breakfast, The Gray Lady—and saw that her sister was already here. Ginny walked up the porch steps and waved hello to Grant Wallis, the new gardener and all-around handyman their mom had hired in April. Grant was from Scotland, had a deep burr of a voice, and was always