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“ T urn around.” Mullens leaned across the console between himself and Athena, who was pressing down hard on the gas pedal of his zippy little sports car as they hit the outer limits of Sweetheart Creek, the expanse of highway opening up in front of them.

“No way. You said I could drive.”

“It doesn’t make sense for you to chauffeur me all the way home.”

Athena gave a playful pout. “You just don’t want me driving your beautiful baby.” She dropped her chin and batted her eyelashes in a flirtatious way that had his heart gasping in shock. “I thought you were supposed to be fun.”

Hello, sweetheart.

No, he reminded himself. This was Athena.

She might be flirting, but she’d turn as quickly as a spooked mare if he wasn’t careful. He needed to be nothing like that dunce who’d almost barfed, trying to get her attention back there.

Then again, she was driving him home, which meant being stupid might finally give him a chance.

Although he was currently trying to convince her not to take care of him tonight. That, too, was stupid.

This woman got him so twisted up he couldn’t even think straight. Her driving his Corvette was brilliant, and gave them time together. And tomorrow she’d need to return the car, and see him again. It was perfect, really.

“How are you going to get home if you drive me all the way back to San Antonio?” he asked, unable to help himself.

“You have three cars, don’t you?” She looked gorgeous wearing that wide smile.

Yeah, there was no way he was going to do anything to pull that grin off her face.

“If you stay the night, I can drive you home in the morning.”

She laughed. She might be relaxing around him, showing her playful side, but he knew she would never step across that self-imposed line and do something that crazy. At least not with him.

“So, besides letting you drive my car,” he asked, “how else can I help you have more fun?”

“Actually—” she cut a quick glance in his direction “—watching you destroy yourself kind of made my day.”

Mullens ran the heels of his hands down his quads and arched his back. The antacids and time were helping to settle his stomach, but he didn’t exactly need reminders. Especially since his pride was in the process of catching up with him and his stupidity.

“It shouldn’t matter to me whether or not you follow my dietary advice,” she said, her tone perfectly level, “but it means a lot that you do.”

She cut him another glance, this one assessing. Approving, even?

“Yeah, I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot.”

She snorted. “Understatement.”

He could tell that his behavior confused her, and that she didn’t quite trust him. He needed to show he was trustworthy, even if not entirely worthy of her forgiveness.

“Hey, why don’t we go out on a date?” he asked, shifting in the passenger seat before she could ask him why he’d been such a jerk the day they’d met.

She kept her focus steady on the spool of straight highway unwinding in front of them.

“Tina?”

Her head began shaking back and forth.

“What? It would be fun.” He dropped his voice. “And I bring delightful gifts.”

He studied her earlobes. She was back to wearing the tiny emeralds he assumed were her birthstone.

“I am sure you’d be fun, but your lack of respect at work isn’t exactly something I look for in a potential boyfriend.”

“Right.” He contemplated how to fix that, while his brain roared the word boyfriend in his ears. “I’m sorry about that.”

“Sorry isn’t enough.”

“I know,” he said in a low voice. “I do follow your diet, though.”

“You cook?” She glanced over at him, her eyes unreadable.

“Yeah.”

“So being cool is more important than showing me respect?”

“No, and the way I’ve treated you is unforgivable and awful,” he admitted, feeling about as big as an ant.

She sighed. “Yeah.”

They rode in silence for a few minutes. Finally, she said, “We want different things.”

“Why? What do you want?”

She shrugged, a shadow crossing her face.

“Love?” he suggested.

“You don’t?” Her tone hinted at disapproval. “No, you probably want action and adventure. Something short-lived.”

“I really do have an excellent business manager, don’t I?” He tried for a smile and she rolled her eyes.

“Fine. Change the subject, Mr. Cool.”

“I wasn’t. He does a good job of making sure that the image I put out there is the one that sticks.”

“What does that mean?”

“I wouldn’t say no to love.”

She gave him an assessing glance before turning off the highway and onto another. “Marriage?”

“You proposing?”

“Well, apparently you got me pregnant with just one look, so you’d better make an honest woman of me.”

He gasped. “Tina! Are you flirting with me?”

She laughed, a rich sound filling the car. “If I am, what are you going to do about it?”

He wasn’t sure, but he had some ideas. “Okay, so you won’t date me. Yet.”

“I never said no.”

Hope rose like waters during a flash flood. “Do you wanna go out with me? Supper tomorrow night?”

“No, thanks.”

“Seriously?” He threw his hands in the air, knocking his ringed fingers against the side window. “You make me go through all of that just to turn me down?”

“Actually, I was thinking about what you said the other day.” She pushed a strand of hair from her eyes.

Oh boy. What had he said now?

“I’ve taken on a lot lately. I basically have three jobs and I’m crazy busy—like you. It’s a bad time to start a relationship. I might let someone down, you know? Leave them hanging.”

He grumbled to himself. Her argument against dating him was the same one he’d used against her going out with Glenn.

“Fine. How about this? We are now officially friends.” His tone was firm, and he hoped she wouldn’t fight him.

She paused for an uncomfortable length of time. Probably only a second, but long enough for his heart to drop. “I guess.”

He pressed on, despite her lack of enthusiasm. “And because you’re busier than a sparrow making its spring nest—”

“I’m not nesting,” she said hotly.

“—I’ll surprise you one night by bringing you supper at the store.”

“That sounds an awful lot like a date.”

“Friends do nice things for each other,” he explained. “I’ll bring enough for your sister. So technically, it’s just us being friends.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You want to have supper with my sister?”

“She’s part of the Tina package. Besides, I love how she gives you a hard time.”

“She can be such a little brat.”

He nodded, suddenly missing his own sister. The jokes. The endless agony of being a sibling, but also the unparalleled joy of having someone who’d always forgive you, always take your side when it mattered.

“Fine,” he said, after clearing his throat. “We’ll excuse her, and you’ll squeeze out a half-hour break with me.”

“So, you’re making it a date?”

“I don’t care what you call it or if we’re eating on top of boxes of books or sitting on the floor,” he declared. He hoped his take-charge tone wouldn’t make her dig in even further. “You need a break, and so we’re doing this. It’s for your own good.”

She was fighting a smile, clearly charmed.

Truthfully, he didn’t really want to sit on the floor eating out of take-out containers. But if that’s what it took to get Athena on a semblance of a date with him, so he could prove he was in fact a gentleman, then he was all in.

Athena hovered in the doorway of Chad’s penthouse, having turned down the offer of a drink when she’d dropped him off. She had asked to use his washroom, though, curious to see his home.

She’d imagined dark, masculine colors and showy décor lacking in personality or homey touches. A man cave built around the blatant masculinity he projected. Basically, an architectural version of Chad’s fancy cars and alpha reputation.

“You coming in?” he asked, his usually healthy glow having pretty much returned during the drive.

She crossed the threshold, clinging to the purse strap hanging over her shoulder as she looked around. Beneath her feet was a well-worn area rug covering polished black stone streaked with white. The entry was huge, bigger than her own apartment’s living room.

Chad’s penthouse, a jutting square at the top of a downtown building, had twelve-foot-high ceilings, giving it a very grand feel.

From where she stood she could see through to the living room, airy and spacious and overlooking the city.

Streetlights, building lights and cars below winked at her through tall windows as the January evening settled in.

This apartment in the sky, from what she could tell, had a million and one upgrades, and screamed money . And yet as she glanced around, she noticed the personal touches and gentle wear that made it a real home.

“Powder room’s there,” Chad said, pointing toward a door to her right.

She held back a smirk at hearing a man so large and in charge, covered in rings and a big tattoo, calling the bathroom by such a dainty name.

Covering part of the wall outside the bathroom were framed candid shots. Beneath, a long table was covered in a jumble of unopened mail and shipping boxes, gum wrappers and car keys.

She took in the photos, her gaze dancing over them before settling on one.

There was a much younger Chad, a handsome boy without the rings or tattoos, but clearly him.

His arm was around a girl in an electric wheelchair and they were grinning at the camera with that same perfect row of front teeth. Happiness.

“Who’s this?” she asked, pointing to the photo.

Chad, who’d been hanging his jacket in an enormous entryway closet, turned her way. His face became expressionless, locking her out just like he had on that first day in the dietary clinic. He turned back to the closet, carefully shutting the doors. “My sister.”

“I didn’t know you had a sister.”

“I did.”

“Oh.” She looked back at the photo, noting the joy, the closeness.

Did.

This young girl was gone.

Athena glanced back at Chad, but the stiffness in his shoulders made it clear he was done talking. “I’ll be in the kitchen.”