Serenity had been tempted to lead him to the bedroom to do just what Dana suggested—enjoy every sensual moment until he left. Shaking herself mentally, she stood and exchanged her flip-flops for a pair of low-heeled black sandals. She grabbed her purse and keys, then went back to the kitchen. Gabriel was standing at the sliding glass door with his hands stuck in his pockets, staring outside. She took a minute to study his tall, slim build. The navy tee he wore molded to his well-defined chest, abs, and arms, and his gray basketball shorts accentuated a firm, muscular butt that she could probably bounce a quarter off. As if sensing her presence, he turned and smiled. Her pulse skipped.

“Ready?”

“Yep.” He followed her out the front door, waiting until she locked it, then led her over to his car. Once they were on the road, she asked, “Are you going to be working today? You’ve been putting in a lot of hours.”

“I have been working a lot this past week. I should probably take the day off and pick it up tomorrow.”

“You absolutely should. You can’t keep working twenty-four-seven and not expect to get burned out at some point.”

“You’re right. I’m going to try to decrease my hours this week.”

Serenity patted him on the thigh. “Good choice. You can’t be productive if you’re so tired you can’t see straight, and I suspect with what you do, making mistakes means a redo.”

Gabriel laughed softly. “Okay, you’ve made your point.”

She smiled and resumed staring out the window. Less than ten minutes later, he parked a block away from the shop. As they walked up the street, she was struck by how different they were acting with each other now. Last weekend, everywhere they went, Gabriel held her hand, guided her with his hand on her back, or touched her in some gentle but possessive way. Today he walked at her side with a good foot between them and kept his hands to himself. Serenity knew it was because she’d told him she didn’t want the townspeople in her business or to speculate on their relationship. But she missed the connection. You can’t have it both ways, that irritating inner voice reminded her. She called out and returned greetings to the people she knew and did her best to ignore the speculative glances.

Gabriel opened the door to the shop and gestured her inside. “I guess everybody else had the same idea.” A good fifteen people waited in line.

“It’s been like this on the weekends since I moved here. It’s only one. If we came around dinnertime, there would be twice the number of people here.”

He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “What flavor are you getting?”

She shivered at his closeness. “Um…just vanilla this time to go with the apple pie I made last night.”