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He parted his lips to get onto her. Here it went. “Do you want ranch?”

What the heck? “Uuuh, yes please.”

He chuckled and popped the top of a little plastic ramekin of ranch dressing, then handed it to her.

She took another bite of pizza—a big one this time. The tomato and sausage flavor exploded against her taste buds, and she stifled a groan. “Is this pizza place in biking distance?” she asked.

“It sure is. Are you already planning your next meal?”

“Maybe. I love pizza.”

He popped the top on a soft drink and handed it to her, and she took a long, bubbly sip, and set it on the little table next to her chair. Oh, that was a crispy soda.

“I tried to turn the firepit on but couldn’t figure it out. That’s where my tantrum started, I think.”

He had taken a huge bite of pizza but tossed a glance over his shoulder at a propane tank that sat by a barbecue grill. He checked the connecting tube and then tipped the tank to check something, then turned a dial on the tank, and then returned to the firepit and cranked the key. Flames jumped to life in the dark rocks. Jess startled at how big the flames were, but he adjusted it down to just a subdued flicker of six inches or so.

“How did you know how to do that?”

Kade shrugged. “I picked up a few things I guess.”

“Since you got out of prison?” she asked carefully.

“You mean since I escaped prison? Yes and no. I was handy before I went in.”

She frowned as that admission collided with her memory of him. “I thought you worked in a corporate office,” she said.

“When I was in Sister’s Edge? I worked in an office for a construction company, but I had to work my way there. I started at the bottom. Now I’m at the bottom again.”

Her curiosity was piqued for sure now. “You’re in construction?”

“Nah, I tried, but they aren’t hiring felon’s around here. I work at a cabinet company. Woodworking isn’t my favorite thing, but it pays the bills.”

“This place is really nice,” she said, jamming her thumb at the house. “How did you afford to pay it? Will the rental payment put you behind on your own payment? I have some savings. I can help.”

He shook his head and swallowed a bite. “I’m good but thank you. I think you need to stop overthinking and just relax.”

She snorted. “Relax. I don’t even have a spare bra to my name and you’re telling me to relax. I feel like I have a checklist in my head that needs to be taken care of before I relax.”

“Okay. Lay it on me. What’s the checklist?”

She looked at him suspiciously. Was this a game? “Why do you care?”

He puffed air out of his cheeks and shrugged again. “Boredom, maybe.”

“Thanks a lot,” she muttered.

He cracked a grin. “Or maybe not. Who knows with me? Checklist. One, two, three, go.”

“Well…I need clothes.”

“Cool. Raynah sent me with three brown paper bags of clothes. They’re hand-me-downs, but beggars and choosers and all.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, I left them in the living room. I don’t know if there’s any bras in there, but there’s for sure some hoochie shorts. I looked.”

She pursed her lips against a pleasantly surprised smile. “How did Raynah know what sizes?”