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He narrowed his eyes at her. “Unless it offends you – and if it does, you tell me – I’m going to keep doing it. I’m also going to open doors for you wherever we go, and when we walk down thestreet you can bet your ass that I’ll walk on the outside, closest to the traffic. If you tell me that you don’t want me to, I’ll respect your wishes. Other than that, my mama would turn in her grave if I didn’t treat you with the respect that a lady deserves.”

His heart was pounding when he finished – he didn’t even know where that little speech came from. It was true, but…

She held his gaze for a long moment and then nodded. “Okay. In that case, I’ll just say thank you.”

“Alrighty then. Are you good?”

When she nodded again, he closed the door and jogged around to the driver’s side. Once he was behind the wheel, he gave her a smile. “Sorry if that came off a bit strong, or weird, or something. What I said about my mama? It’s true. And apart from that, I don’t want you to go thinking that I’m putting on an act – you know, like last night you thought I was feeding you lines. I’ll tell you right now, neither of those is true. I don’t mind telling you that I don’t really know what I’m doing; this isn’t a situation I’m familiar with. But I’m not going to try to bullshit you in any respect. Whatever I say and do, it’s just me being me.”

He felt himself relax a little when she smiled. “Okay. You made your point – and I appreciate it. More than that, I apologize. It didn’t occur to me before, but I can see how – if you’re being straight up with me – me accusing you of putting on some kind of act is kind of insulting.”

“I wouldn’t have put it that way. I’m not trying to protect my feelings; I just want you to know where I stand.” He chuckled. “If I only wanted to get into your pants, I would have taken a different line last night.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Go on, what line would you have taken?”

“I would’ve fed you lines. Except, no, that’s not true. I wouldn’t have done that because you weren’t looking to play that game.”

“Are you saying that you only play players?”

“No. That sounds bad. And I don’t play anyone – at least I don’t think so.” He had to think about that for a moment. “No. I don’t. I play the game but only with women who are playing by the same rules.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“You don’t have a thing to apologize for.” He gave her a rueful smile. “But I’m more interested in talking about how things are going to go between us than I am in talking about my sordid past.”

She laughed. “It’s not sordid. I’m really not judging you.” Her smile faded a little as she added, “And it’s not your past – it’s your normal.”

“Right,” he said as he started the engine and backed away from the lodge. He wanted to say more, but he didn’t know what words to use. All he knew was that she had a strange effect on him. She made him want to leave his old ways in the past. Made him want to figure out what his normal might look like with her. But that was crazy. She was only here for a week – and there was no guarantee that she’d even stay for that long.

He couldn’t wrap his brain around any of that, so instead, he glanced over at her and asked, “Do you drink coffee?”

“I do, why? Oh, please tell me that there’s one of those little drive-thrus nearby or something? Is that what you mean?”

He jerked his chin toward the travel mug sitting in the console. “I brought that for you. I know whenever I’m staying at a hotel, even if the coffee in the room is decent, there’s never enough of it.”

“Oh my God, thank you! Aren’t you the sweetest?” She reached for the mug with a big smile on her face, making him laugh.

“Whoa! Slow down. That’s just straight black coffee. I didn’t know how you’d like it.” He retrieved the little baggie of cream and sugar packets from the door pocket and passed it over to her.

“What’s this?”

“Everything I thought you might need to doctor it up.”

“Wow! That earns you a doubleaww. How sweet is that? What a thoughtful thing to do. Thank you.”

He chuckled, even as he sat up a little straighter, feeling as though he grew a foot taller from her praise. “You’re welcome.”

He glanced over at her again as she took a sip from the mug.

“You don’t need the cream or sugar?”

“No. It was so sweet of you to think of it, but I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to my coffee. I don’t like to contaminate it.” She took another sip. “And this is some good coffee; it’d be a shame to mask the taste with anything else.”

He laughed at the way she put it. “I’m glad you like it. The guy who owns the local bakery also owns a coffee shop in LA. I don’thave a clue about what makes coffee special or not, I only know what I enjoy. I enjoy that stuff. I’ll have to take you to the bakery one of these days.”

“That sounds like the kind of place where we could get breakfast.”

“We could,” he said slowly. “But another day, if that’s okay with you. I have something else in mind this morning.”