He dropped his hands. Pushed up his sleeves. Which meant maybe she wasn’t the only one getting overly warm in this small bathroom and that . . . that was a good sign.

“Is that so?”

So very close to smiling. “You see, it’s getting colder. And since I fully intend to show you that I am capable of milking a cow, I might need something a little warmer like this.”

“Is that so?”

“You’re very repetitive today. Two ‘is that so’s’ and you hmm-ed me three times.” She draped his coat over a towel hook on the back of the door. “Must be what lack of sleep does to you.”

“Some of us fall asleep in treehouses. Some of us get repetitive.” He took a step closer to her. “You said you wanted to talk.”

“Yes, well, it’s just . . . I realized we never had that conversation you said we needed to have. The one where you tell me how you feel about me and I tell you how I feel about you and we figure out where to go from there.” She leaned against the counter, gripping it behind her, as if it could somehow steady her shaking voice. “S-so I thought I’d at least say my part—how I feel about you and where I think we should go from here. Which is nowhere. Because I like it right here. I want to stay right here.”

Finally. Finally, he was smiling, dimples and everything. Enough to make her breath catch as he closed the last inches between them, stretching out his arms to lean on the counter, his hands beside hers, trapping her between them.

“I guess I got that backwards, though, because I haven’t told you how I feel about you.”

“I think maybe I get the general idea.” His voice had turned husky.

“But I still want to tell you because I’ve thought really hard about this.” Although how she was supposed to eke the words out with him standing so close, she couldn’t possibly know. “How I feel about you is that you’re just way too busy. And you don’t know a thing about websites. And you could really use my help to get your rental business off the ground. And I could use the job if I’m not going back to Mezzani’s. But mostly, I could really use being around you every day because I think you’re my favorite person I’ve ever met.”

She barely got out her final words before he swept her away in a kiss she’d been imagining since the moment she’d given her heart the freedom to follow its path and carry her here. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back—never more certain, never more sure she was right where she’d always wanted to be.

Even if she hadn’t known . . . hadn’t been brave enough to dream.