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“Oh.” His voice was soft. My gaze caught his. Was that disappointment in his eyes? Did he want to meet my family? He was a special kind of brave—or stupid, but I didn’t really think that was the case. My family was wonderful, but they’d have questions. So many questions. None I was prepared to answer. It was safer to wait and see if this would stick. If things didn’t work out, they never had to know.

“What about you?” I asked.

His gaze shifted around the room before returning to my face. “Ah, I don’t know. Probably my sister, Andi. She’s local.”

“What about your parents? You haven’t spoken about them much.”

“They’re overseas. Both are career military now. I doubt they can get leave on such short notice.”

His expression didn’t give me any clues about how they’d react to missing the ceremony or his own feelings. My parents were going to skin me alive when they heard, but that was a problem for future Melena. “Are you close?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Andi and I are grown. Our parents have had assignments around the country and overseas for years. We’re used to them being absent. Communication has always been sketchy, and they get wrapped up in work. I understand.”

It was impossible to tell if he was disappointed. His face remained carefully blank. Flat eyes, flat mouth, no twitches giving away his emotions. Jimmy was usually so animated, seeing this other version of him spooked me.

“Are we rushing this? Should we wait until your family can be here?”

He shook his head. “No, it’s okay. I’m used to them missing things. We’ll have a celebration next time they visit.”

Ouch. There was a story there. But his expression wasn’t open to questions. His soft brown gaze met mine again, warming with excitement and turning him back into the Jimmy I’d come to know. “So, Saturday, huh?”

I gulped, then smiled in return. “Saturday.”

We cleaned up our dishes, then I proceeded to show Jimmy who was boss in Super Mario Kart. I sailed into first place easily on our first round, and Jimmy glanced at me with new respect. He clearly hadn’t expected me to win but I shook my head. Brothers. They were good for something. Ivan and Zander would be proud.

Round two, Jimmy refocused on the screen, and I could see his tongue peeking out from between his teeth. If he’d had any plans to let me win, they’d evaporated when I beat him handily in the first round.

“How do you keep beating me? I’m a trained fire engine driver,” he groused after I won again.

I chortled. “Brothers. I learned to win so I could bend them to my will. I went a full year without unloading the dishwasher.”

Once I’d trounced him thoroughly, Jimmy finally threw down his controller in mock defeat. “I can’t take it anymore. Are you ready for dessert?”

I glanced at him quickly. He’d been hands off all evening, I wondered if he meant it the way I hoped. I’d been admiring his nimble fingers on the controllers. Dexterity and finger speed were both highly underrated life skills as far as I was concerned. Alas, his expression exuded earnest. I glanced again at his capable fingers with their short nails and blunt tips before meeting his gaze. Given his earlier kitchen expertise, I bet he’d really made me dessert.

“Sure, what do we have?”

“I made brownies. A new recipe. They’re chili chocolate.”

My stomach growled. I didn’t think it was possible after the meal he fed us earlier. “Those sound amazing.”

I followed him into the kitchen and got out the ice cream while he dished out squares of chocolatey goodness and warmed them in the microwave. I plopped a scoop of vanilla on each, and we settled back on the couch to eat. There was the slightest edge of heat in the air drifting from the warmed brownies. If my eyes were already stinging, maybe not a good sign. I could handle most spicy foods, but I wasn’t expecting heat from my dessert.

Gamely, I tried a big bite. Spice from the chiles flooded my mouth, instantly burning my tongue. My eyes watered and every mucous membrane in my body rebelled at the same time. I tried to catch Jimmy’s reaction through my tears, but my eyes blurred, trying to alleviate the overwhelming heat. I shoveled a bite of ice cream in my mouth quickly to disperse the burn.

Swiping a napkin under my eyes, I caught sight of Jimmy sweating but doing his best to maintain his cool. He managed to chew and swallow without flinching. Then he ruined it by grimacing. “Sorry. I might have gone a little heavy on the chiles.”

“You definitely know how to bring the heat.” I grinned. “I usually appreciate that in a man, but for the sake of my heart, I’m going to stick with the ice cream.”

His face blanched, and I felt terrible for teasing him. “Are you okay? Do you need your medicine? Do we need to go to the ER?”

I hadn’t meant to trigger this kind of response. “No, no. I’m joking. Sorry, it was in poor taste. I’m fine, I promise.”

He didn’t seem convinced. He kept checking me over, watching me like a hawk after abandoning his own fiery brownie. I finished the last few bites of my ice cream.

“Jimmy, I’m fine,” I insisted.

He was never going to kiss me again now. I could sense it. He examined me like he expected me to pass out at any moment. We’d been having a nice evening, technically gotten engaged, and I had nothing to show for it. Any hopes for more of his kisses were fading fast.