“Can you just wait here a minute?” I asked the cab driver as Fiona climbed out, and I followed her onto the pavement. “Thanks for a lovely evening,” I said as we walked toward her building.

“Thank you. I had a really good time, Luke.” She smiled a half smile at me as we came to her front door.

“So, I’ll see you at work on Monday?”

She nodded. This was when I was meant to kiss her goodbye. She definitely gave the impression that it wouldn’t be unwelcome, but it had been so long since I’d been in this position. I got that same consciousness in my limbs that I’d had at the beginning of the evening. I liked her, and it was just a kiss. Glancing at the ground, I took a half step toward her, put my fingers under her chin and tilted her head. My gaze flicked between her mouth and her eyes once, then twice and then I bent, pressing my lips to hers. Her body swayed toward me, and I caught the scent of her for the first time that evening. It was unfamiliar. She ran her hands down my arms, but before it could turn into anything more, I pulled away and whispered, “Good night.”

I tried to remember the first time I’d kissed Emma. It had been similar. Nice. There’d been an awareness that we didn’t quite fit yet, but that we might. With Fiona it was the same. She was a nice girl, easy to be around and we had a lot in common—more than Emma and I ever had.

But she wasn’t Ashleigh.

Ashleigh

“This one is super comfortable,” I said to Richard as I rearranged myself on the sofa. Richard had moved into a new apartment and had asked me to help him find some new furniture.

“You don’t like the brown leather?”

My stomach churned. Brown leather sofas always reminded me of Luke, even if he had finally thrown his away.

I shook my head. “Leather is cold in the winter and sticks to you in the summer. I’ve never understood its appeal. And it squeaks.”

“Squeaks? Like talks to you? Have you seen a doctor for that?” Richard’s eyes were wide.

“They do. You know—when you move around on them.” I blushed and looked away. I had totally imagined having sex with Luke every which way on his battered old sofa¸ and every time I had, the squeaks had been off-putting, even in a fantasy.

Richard collapsed next to me. “Yeah, this one is comfortable. And it’s nice and deep. Do you think two people could lay on it together? I think we should spoon. Just to be sure.”

I elbowed him in the ribs. “Stop it.” Richard had been flirting with me all morning, teasing me by saying we were going straight to the bed department to test out mattresses.

“You’re meant to be here to help.” He slipped his hand around my shoulders and stuck his feet on the low table in front of him. “This works. But if you’ve vetoed leather, can I at least get a corner one?”

What was it about boys and corner sofas? “If you have the space.”

“Yeah, you’ve not seen it, have you? You should come round. I can cook. What about tonight?”

My heart sped as I remembered the evening at Luke’s new place. I’d never gotten to taste the duck he said he’d cooked.

“It’s no big deal. We can go straight to mine when we’ve finished here.” He clapped his hands and rubbed them together.

We’d been firmly in the friend zone for weeks now, so I’d expected the flirting to stop. But it hadn’t, and I was beginning to enjoy it. It was attention that felt safe.

“Maybe. Let’s see how we get on.” I appreciated his company, but the last thing I wanted to do was be a prick tease. I pointed across the showroom. “Let’s try that gray one. I like it because it’s a corner but not a corner with the bit that sticks out on one end for your feet.”

“Very eloquent, Ash. Really.” He squeezed my shoulder and stood, then offered to pull me up.

“I’m not an old lady. I can manage standing up just fine.”

“Okay, Miss Grumpy Knickers. I was trying to be a gentleman.” He turned and headed to the other sofa.

God, I was a witch sometimes. I was clearly channeling Haven. “Sorry. And you don’t need to try. It comes naturally to you,” I said as I caught up with him.

“That’s better.” He nudged my shoulder. “You see? You can be charming when you put your mind to it. Now, this I like.” He flung himself full length across the cushions of the sofa. “I’m going to ask some random stranger to lie with me and test out the spooning capabilities of this sofa if you’re still refusing to cooperate.”

“Yeah? Good luck with that. You wouldn’t dare.”

He rested his head on his elbow and raised an eyebrow. “You’re daring me? You’re actually daring me?”

Richard seemed to have loosened up in the last couple of weeks. I suppose without the pressure of a relationship, I had too, and we were getting on better than ever. I’d started to see his fun side. My feelings for Luke had led to me label Richard as not being the one. I’d thought Luke was . . . but I hadn’t made that work either.

Perhaps I’d been wrong to write off Richard too soon.

“Excuse me, Miss.” Richard leapt to his feet and caught the attention of a woman with a pushchair. I watched, open-mouthed.

“My wife,” he said, pointing to me, “doesn’t like public displays of affection. She won’t spoon with me on this sofa to see if we fit. Would you mind standing in for her?”

The woman turned her head toward me, and I could do nothing but shrug. She looked as if she were in pain, but replied, “I’m sorry. I’m running late.” She scurried to the opposite end of the show room, toward the lifts.

Grinning, Richard turned to me. I rolled my eyes. “For the record,” he said, “it’s not a good idea to dare me to do anything. I find it impossible to pass up a challenge.”

He winked at me as if I were next.

“Pinot noir, right?” Richard asked as he passed me a glass of wine.

“Perfect, thanks.” How had he known which wine I liked? I’d had a really good time shopping with him. He’d bought the gray corner-not-a-corner, sofa, despite him being unable to spoon before he purchased. He’d been funny and laid back and all the things I’d wanted him to be when we’d dated. I genuinely didn’t want our time together to be over, so when he asked me again to go back to his flat for dinner, I’d gone along with it.

“How come you moved?”

He joined me on his old sofa and rested his sock-covered feet on the table in front of him. “I think I was holding off until I found someone to share a place with. And then, after we . . .” He paused, and I took a sip of my wine, trying to ignore the discomfort that pushed between us. “I just thought I needed to get on and live in the place I wanted to.”

I nodded, struck that he hadn’t simply moved on to the next girl when I’d ended things. He’d got on with his life, but kept the door between us open. He’d basically done what I’d asked Luke to.

He turned toward me, rearranging his body so he was sitting with one leg hitched on the cushion, his arm resting on the back of the sofa and his hand just behind my head.

“It’s a nice place.” I glanced around the room. Everything was neat and matching in various tones of gray. I turned to look at him.

He was watching me. “It’s not very family friendly, but I reckon I can move again when the time comes.”

“You feel ready for a family?”

“Yeah, I want to find that special someone and have a bunch of rowdy kids. Don’t you?”

I thought about Luke, Haven and I sitting under the magnolia tree, reading, fighting, laughing. “At some point.”

“I thought that maybe you and I were right. I think that’s why I was so tense when we were dating.”

“You were tense?” Had I not seen the real him?