“Yeah. I know.”

He bites his lip. “Your ex paid me a visit today.”

“What did he say?” I ask warily. It’s been four days since David found out about Kyle and me, and he has been oddly subdued. He’s made no mention to me about it. He’s walked past Kyle without acknowledging him. All in all, he’s been very un-David-like, and it’s beginning to worry me. “He didn’t say anything. He just stood there and stared at me.”

“Stared at you.”

“For ten or twelve seconds, until Gus stepped in and asked if he was okay. And then he left.”

I roll my eyes. “I’ll see what’s going on in that child’s brain of his.”

Kyle nods slowly. “Are you going to be late again tonight?”

“Probably. I’m sorry. Things are nuts right now.”

“Okay. Just let me know when you think you’ll be home and I’ll come down.”

A forty-five minute transit commute home, only to head back down two hours later? I sigh. “Why don’t you just bring a bunch of clothes with you so you don’t have to keep going back and forth after work? You can use the building’s gym. I’ll give you a key.”

His eyebrows spike. “You’ll give me a key?”

Unease settles in my spine. “Is it too soon?”

He hesitates. His long eyelashes bat as he blinks. “I don’t know. Is it?”

“I don’t know,” I admit, reaching forward to drag my nail along his thigh. “All I know is that I love being with you every night.” There has been no question or hesitation so far. Kyle finishes his shift at six and goes home to work out and change. He’s back downtown by the time I’m home from work. It’s only been a few days and yet the very idea of Kyle not staying a night, of us not waking up with our naked limbs tangled together, makes my chest tighten.

“Same.” His voice is husky.

“Okay. So . . . maybe we shouldn’t worry about moving too fast or too slow. Maybe we should just do whatever feels right.” Because, though it has only been a few days, Kyle and me have been years in the making.

His lips twist into a smile. “I’ll bring a few days’ worth of clothes with me tonight.”

My heart skips a beat. “Good.”

His eyes graze my lips. “It’s killing me not to kiss you right now.”

The tension in my office is escalating quickly. For once, I’m glad I’m in a fishbowl. If this were my father’s office, we’d likely be on my desk by now.

“Think about it all day and save it for tonight.”

His jaw tenses and I chuckle, reaching for my envelope opener, to run it through the sleek brown kraft-paper packaging. “What could Rhett have sent me now, I wonder. Oh, also . . . before I forget, I was asked to pass along this message.” I pause my unwrapping to reach for my phone and find the text from Christa to read aloud: “If your boy toy is going to be wandering around the kitchen in the middle of the night, can you ask him to put on some clothes. Thanks.”

“I had clothes on!”

I give him a look.

He shrugs. “I’ll put on track pants next time.”

“Thank you.” I pick up the note that sits on top of the wrapped gift. A housewarming gift. I pull back the tissue paper. And gasp. “I totally forgot about this!” Inside the box I find a picture of my parents, Rhett, and me, on the bow of my father’s old yacht. I’m around ten, with bangs and a blue ribbon pulled through my hair. Rhett looks like the token prep school student who he used to be. Dad and Mom stand arm-in-arm. We’re all wearing crisp white-and-navy-blue outfits, and grinning.

The frame itself is made of old bicycle chains. Another of Rhett’s creations, no doubt.

I set the frame on my desk and smile at it. “Look how happy we were.” I sigh. “So long ago now.”

“Do you miss having that?”

“Honestly? I forget what it’s like . . . But both of my parents are happy with other people, so I guess I should be thankful for that, right?”

Kyle nods, his eyes on the picture but his gaze far off.

“Do you ever miss your family?”

“I miss certain moments with my mom, yeah,” he admits after a moment. “It took officially cutting them off to really feel it.” He smiles sadly. “Holidays are weird.”

I smooth a hand over his hip. “Well, you and Jeremy are welcome to come out to Martha’s Vineyard to watch my aunt Jackie get bombed and let me kick your ass at Monopoly.”

“Sounds like fun.” His fingers entwine with mine. “Just one kiss and then I’m gone?”

I tsk. “You’re still that same little boy stealing kisses, aren’t you?”

The crooked smirk he gives me sends my blood racing. “Do I look like that same little boy?”

“No. You do not.” And yet he’s still my Kyle.

I’m about to agree to a kiss when Renée breezes in, announcing, “Grande double macchiato!” in that impossibly charming Southern twang.

Kyle steps back, breaking our touch a split second before she looks up.

“Oh! I’m so sorry. The coatrack blocked you.” She cringes. “I should have knocked. That’s a bad habit of mine. Mark had to stop on the third floor, so he asked me to deliver.”

“It’s fine, Renée. Security just came to drop off a package for me.”

“And now I’d better keep doing my rounds.” He clears his throat. “Miss Calloway.” He strolls out, nodding once to Renée.

Her eyes trail him with interest as she watches him go. “So what’s his story?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, is he single? Is he a nice guy? ’Cause dang . . . He’s somethin’ to behold every morning on my way in.”

He’s mine.

Clearly she didn’t notice Kyle pulling away, and didn’t sense the tension crackling in my office. It’s not that my office isn’t electrified by it. But I’d bet money she would never assume that a woman in my position would be with a man in his.

I force a smile. “He has a girlfriend.”

“Is it serious? Like, how long have they been together? Weeks, months . . .”

“Years.” Thirteen years. With a lot of missed time to catch up on.