Holden showed up with a couple of other guys, but broke from the pack when he saw them. Well, not them, exactly, because he didn’t seem to notice Lanie or Alyssa at all.

Just River.

He’d changed from his work gear. Clean jeans, cleaner boots, and an untucked button-down shoved up on his forearms. His cowboy hat had been traded in for a baseball cap, which he took off. “Ladies,” he said. “Looking good.”

River rolled her eyes. “I’m big as a house.”

He shrugged. “I stand by my statement.”

River didn’t seem to know how to take that so Lanie kicked out a chair for him. “Want to join us?” she asked, purposely not looking at River shaking her head no-no-no behind his back.

“Thanks.” Holden sat and looked at River. “Wanted to know if you’d have dinner with me.”

“I already ate.”

“I meant another night. Any other night.”

River flushed. “Are you asking me out in front of Alyssa and Lanie?”

“Trying.” He slid them an apologetic look. “I’ve been trying to catch her alone to ask her, but she’s surprisingly sly and fast on her feet given how pregnant she is.”

Lanie smiled because River was beet red now.

“She’d love to go out with you,” Alyssa said.

Holden gave a rare smile, reminding Lanie just how good-looking a kid he was. “Great. I’ll pick her up tomorrow after work.” He rose, winked at Lanie, and stroked his fingers once over the back of River’s hand before walking away.

River gaped at them. “I can’t go on a date!”

“Why not?” Alyssa asked. “You’re single, right?”

“Yes, but look at me! I weigh as much as a two-ton cow. And I’m pregnant. And I don’t even know him!”

“You’re not even close to two tons,” Lanie piped in. “I’d be shocked if you were much over a hundred pounds. And being pregnant doesn’t mean you’re dead. As for not knowing him, that’s easily fixed by going on a date.”

River stared at her. “Why do you care?”

Lanie shrugged. “Maybe I want to see you happier than I am.”

“I don’t need a man to be happy.”

“Well, ain’t that the truth,” Alyssa said. “Look, you work hard, but you seem a little lonely. Holden’s a good guy with a good job and it’s clear he’s interested in you. What could be the harm in that?”

River shook her head and opened her mouth, but then closed it again. Lanie wondered what she’d been about to say, but it was really none of her business. And an hour later, when Mark still hadn’t returned, she drove herself back to the winery. Turned out that the bedroom they’d procured for her on the second floor at the end of the hall was . . .

Mark’s.

He would apparently be taking the twins’ room, who were having a sleepover in Aunt Mia’s room. Lanie stood in the middle of his bedroom looking around at the dark, masculine furniture and lush bedding and tried not to picture him lying in that bed wearing nothing but luxurious sheets.

Shaking off the image, she stole one of the T-shirts from his dresser for PJs and used the toothbrush someone had thoughtfully left for her on the bathroom counter. When a knock came, she debated whether to chicken out by turning off the lights and hiding under the covers—or running for the hills.

“I can hear you breathing,” came Mark’s low, amused voice. “Open up.”

Said the Big Bad Wolf . . .

Chapter 15

Why limit yourself to panicking in a crowd? Panic everywhere. Follow your wildest, most anxious dreams.

Lanie rolled her eyes at both herself and Mark and cracked open the door. “Yes?”

He hadn’t changed his clothes and his hair had dried a little crazy, as if he’d shoved his fingers through it a lot. “Try out my bed yet?”

Oh boy, she thought. Her body liked the low velvet in his voice way too much. “No. How did you know the bar needed a cop tonight?”

“The bartender’s an old friend. Boomer called me instead of 9-1-1.”

“That seems like a huge risk. What if you couldn’t get there in time to stop the trouble?”

“He knew I’d get there.”

So matter-of-fact. So confident. Not cocky, just very sure of his abilities. She wondered what that utter lack of self-doubt was like. She’d sure like to know. “So . . . did you want something?”

“Yes. It’s later. Sorry it took me so long at the station.” He leaned on the doorjamb looking like sin personified. “You going to invite me in?”

“You’re a bad idea. We’re a bad idea, remember?”

He laughed low in his throat. “How could I forget when I’ve told myself the same thing a hundred times?”

So he’d been thinking about them too. There was comfort in that. “I don’t think this is the time or place.”

“I know.” His dark gaze swept over her from head to toe, slowing at some strategic spots that quivered in response. “But you’re standing there wearing my favorite T-shirt from when I was a teenager and near as I can tell, nothing else.”

She tightened her grip on the door because she didn’t trust herself not to give in at his first touch. “It’s your childhood bedroom,” she said. “We can’t do it in here.”

He just smiled.

She gaped at him. “How many girls have you had in this room?” She narrowed her eyes. “And if you tell me you lost your virginity here in this very bed, I’ll—”

“Zero,” he said. “I’ve had zero women in that bed. Hello, you’ve met my nosy-ass family, right?”

“So . . . you didn’t lose your virginity in here?” she asked.

He smiled. “Your fascination with my virginity is cute, but no, the main event happened in my dad’s pickup truck when I was fifteen.”

“By yourself?”

He laughed, the sound dissolving the rest of her resolve. “Trust me, there was plenty of that too, but no, I actually talked my chemistry partner into an experiment of . . . animal magnetism.” He flashed a grin and leaned in to speak softly into her ear. “We did some okay work that night, but I’ve learned a lot since then.” He nipped her earlobe. “Let me in, Lanie.”

He’d most definitely learned plenty, she thought wryly as her nipples tightened and her thighs clenched. “I don’t think so.”

Undeterred, he nuzzled her throat, brushing light kisses along her skin, setting her on fire from the inside out. “You in that shirt,” he murmured. “You’re a fantasy come to life, Lanie.”

She was trying to come up with a brilliant retort for that when he stepped into her and slid his magic hands to her hips. “I really am sorry about tonight.”

She looked into his eyes and saw that actually he wasn’t his usual confident self. He wasn’t sure what she was thinking or what she was going to do, and there was some unexpected power in that. Stepping back, she gave him room to pass. He held her gaze as he came in, his own revealing his surprise. He hadn’t expected her to let him in. Reaching past him, she quietly shut the door and then . . .