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“Who?”

“Eli.”

I had to think a minute.

Will’s friend.

“The guy from the park,” I said.

Reese grinned, apparently forgiving me for alluding to the singing thing. She told me about how Eli had been having dinner with an older guy in an expensive-looking suit. Eli had looked stressed; he kept gesturing emphatically.

“I only heard part of it—something about a deal or a sale. Anyway the older guy left eventually and he asked me when my shift was over.”

“And?”

“And we went out.”

She was being obtuse on purpose. “Reese, did you—”

“What, take him home?”

Not anymore.

“Maybe.”

I gaped. “Damn, Reese. I’m impressed.”

Not to mention a little jealous.

It had been a while since I’d hooked up with anyone like that. I couldn’t even remember when. Could I do that now?

Never mind that the logistics with the girls made it kind of impossible—what would it be like?

Would that put to rest the heat I felt when I thought of a certain single dad?

I tried to picture some random stranger, some faceless man I’d never see except in the shadows. But that face kept changing, coming into the light. Growing silver temples and a bunched brow. A hard jaw and a smart mouth.

Will.

I remembered the hard press of Will’s chest under my hand at the coffee shop last night; the feeling of his breath in my ear as the lights dimmed.

I want you, Michelle.

A tingle, over my skin. The press of his lips against the side of my stomach, the inside of my hip.

“Michelle?”

Reese’s voice cut through my runaway thoughts. Oh god.

“Sorry—did you ask me something?”

“Yeah, if you could ask your friend about Eli? Like, if he’s a… decent guy?”

“So, you’re going to see him again?”

“I hope so. I mean, we had chemistry anyway. Lots of it.”

“Um…”