I love ruffling his feathers, and I’m just messing with him, knowing I’d never touch Jace with a ten-foot pole. Not that he’d let me.

“Hey, Kale. Have you talked to Lucy lately?” I ask, hoping to maybe get some insight on their relationship.

He gives me nothing when he just shrugs, picking at a loose thread on his towel.

Jace interrupts, grinning at me like he has a secret to share. “That’s such bullshit. Our boy Kale here made a special trip to visit your friend last month for the Fourth of July.”

Kale glares at him, and I’m wondering why Lucy never mentioned it to me. We talk almost every day. Come to think of it, I remember that I wasn’t able to get ahold of her except through text around that time.

He quickly changes the subject to rag on Jace about Lexi, but it’s obvious that he doesn’t mind as he starts telling us a funny story about her niece, Ava, who apparently loves to make Jace watch Finding Nemo every time he sees her.

“I swear, if I hear “Let’s Keep Swimming” one more time, I might throw something at the damn TV.” He says that, but the way he smiles when he talks about her lets me know that she probably has him wrapped around every single one of her little fingers. We make small talk for a little while longer before Jace gets all serious faced on me.

“He doesn’t want her anymore, you know. He just hasn’t been forced to move past it. Until now.”

Looking back at him, I’m wishing beyond hope that he’s right. “I guess we’ll see.”

A strange look crosses his face, and I can’t decipher it. “Yeah, I guess we will.”

Knox

I COULD literally strangle Megan right now. Okay, not literally, but I’m pretty fucking pissed that she showed up at my gym. I don’t even know how the hell she found me, but she ruined probably the best first kiss of my life. And now, three days later, things have been weird as hell with Charlie and me. I swear she’s avoiding me, and I don’t get it. That kiss was only the beginning of something between us and I’m anxious to find out where it’s going to lead. Until Megan showed up, I had planned on throwing her into Evelyn, taking her home, and trying my hardest to get to her into bed before pulling her shorts off and impaling her before we can even get inside.

Instead, Megan was there with an invitation to the annual Labor Day party at my parents’ place. Apparently, she’s even more delusional than I thought. I didn’t even know they still did that thing, and the thought that they actually want me there after no contact in so long baffles me. By the time I got her to leave, telling her that maybe I’d go, I had to go searching the gym for Charlie. The last place I looked was the sauna, and I found her there, sandwiched in between Jace and Kale, laughing her ass off at whatever it was they were saying.

Clearing my throat, I interrupted their cozy, little moment. She stood up quickly and sauntered towards me.

When she stopped right in front of me, my eyes traveled down the length of her body, hot, sweaty, and it took everything in me not to rip the towel off her and take her right there. If it weren’t for Jace and Kale, I probably would have.

“Everything good?” she asked.

“Perfect. That was nothing. Some stupid invitation from my parents,” I told her in a clipped tone, not wanting to talk about it. “Ready to go?”

After she changed, the ride on the way home was silent. I was still wondering why in the hell Megan—or my parents for that matter—would think that there’s any way I could possibly want to attend any sort of party they’re having. As much as I wanted to revisit that kiss, I was way too pre-occupied with the thoughts swirling around in my head, and I made a mental note to give Cohen a call later.

When I saw Megan, I felt absolutely nothing. Well, that’s not entirely true. I was pretty freaking pissed. Not because of her or what happened in the past, but because there she was again, fucking up my life. The moment should’ve been the perfect time for me to finally let Charlie know how much I want her, but now it’s tainted, and it irritates me to no end.

So here we are, three days later, with a weird tension in the air. I know she said she’s been busy due to students registering for classes and making sure that they’re getting all their benefits, but I feel like I’ve barely seen her.

This week she’s had frozen dinners every night, claiming to be too exhausted to cook, so I decided earlier that I’d have something ready on the table by the time she got home. Although I’m no gourmet chef, I know my way around the kitchen. It comes with the territory of bachelorhood.

Finishing up the final touches just as I hear her car pulling into the drive, I’m happy that my timing is perfect. She walks through the door, and I take a moment to admire her as she greets me before heading down the hallway. She’s wearing a sexy charcoal pencil skirt with a fitted red blouse tucked into it. The heels she’s wearing makes her legs look even longer, something I had no idea was possible. It’s almost painful that I know in less than sixty seconds she’s going to emerge in a different set of clothing.

I’m setting the table when she walks into the kitchen.

“What’s all this?” she asks, motioning towards the spread in front of her. It’s nothing fancy, but I make a pretty mean Drunken Spaghetti, and one of the local bakeries not far from me has the most amazing garlic bread. Paired with a tossed Italian salad and two glasses of Chianti, I’m pretty damn proud of this meal. I gesture for her to move towards the table, and she sits after I pull her chair out before moving to sit directly across from her.

“You’ve been crazy busy this week and haven’t had a decent meal. I thought I’d fix that for you,” I tell her, and I’m treated to the sweetest smile. All right. So far, so good.

Looking at her plate, she then looks back up at me. “Umm, Knox, I really appreciate the gesture, but why are these noodles purple?”

Ah, the question that always gets asked when I make this dish. I love to watch people’s initial reactions when I serve it. “It’s called Drunken Spaghetti. You boil the noodles with a red wine, water mixture. The meat is pancetta sautéed with butter, black pepper, and a little bit of the liquid. Once the spaghetti's finishing boiling, you add it to the pan with the pancetta and add ricotta cheese, mixing well. It's pretty damn delicious if I do say so myself.”

“You lost me at cooking with wine. I never understood how people could waste it when cooking. Or at least I’ve never had a dish so amazing that it made wasting the wine worth it. I don’t think I’d even get any in the pot before I drank it all.”

Shaking my head, I’m not surprised she has an issue with cooking with wine, knowing how much she loves the stuff. Lexi protested the same way when I made it for her and Jace. “Just try it, Charlie. Trust me.”

She shrugs and gathers a good amount on her fork before pushing it into her mouth. After placing the fork between her now closed lips, she pulls it out slowly, getting every single bit of flavor. She chews, swallows, and immediately goes for another bite.

Mouth still full, she places her hand across the table and grips my wrist. “Oh my god, I take it back. This is so freaking good, Knox!” Or at least that’s what it sounds like, but I’m distracted by the moan that follows.

“Told you,” I grin at her and get a balled-up napkin thrown at my face. Yes, this is definitely going as planned.

She starts telling me about her day, and even though she’s been so busy, I can tell how much she loves her job. I love the way she’s so passionate about it—just like she is with her volunteering gig.

“How’s being back at work?” she asks, knowing that this is my first week back full time, which is probably another part of the reason we haven’t been able to spend much time together.