Her suspicion deepened. “And what does Luke think of it being a one-time thing? Because I saw the way he was looking at you, just like I saw you follow him to storage.”

I kept my eyes down, saying matter-of-factly, “I’m telling him tonight.”

A bawdy ha shot out of her. “Oh, Tess.”

“What?”

“You’re going to meet him tonight, alone, to tell him you don’t want to climb him like a jungle gym ever again? Right. Sure. Whatever you say,” she said lightly.

“It can’t ever be anything more than that. You said yourself, I can’t have sex without feelings.”

“Which is exactly why going to see him tonight is a mistake. Unless you really do want to fling again.”

I frowned. “Of course I want to fling again—I’m not dead inside. But I shouldn’t. Honestly, I shouldn’t have last night, but I don’t regret it one bit.”

For a second, she watched me, her eyes assessing and sparkling with an idea. “Then do it again.”

My eyes narrowed. “Just like that?”

She shrugged innocently. “Sure, just like that. Maybe it’s time you learned to fling. Maybe you should exercise your wildness on Luke. I mean, he’s the perfect candidate.”

“What’s your angle, Ivy?”

“No angle,” she lied. “Look, you don’t have to decide now. Wait until tonight.”

Not gonna lie—the thought of flinging another dozen times sounded like exactly the right thing to do even though I knew it couldn’t be more wrong. And as suspicious as I was of Ivy’s intentions, I was happier that she’d told me what I hadn’t realized I wanted to hear.

She didn’t think I could fling. Which sparked a hot desire to prove her wrong.

“Tonight then. I’m a hundred percent sure the wild lifestyle is not for me, but a girl can dream, right?”

Ivy laughed. “I don’t even know who you are right now, but I love it.”

Holding my hands up in display, I said, “It’s the new and improved Tess.”

An undeniably masculine and outrageously cavalier voice said from behind me, “What if some of us like the old Tess?”

I turned, smiling up at Luke. His dark hair was windblown, his smile bright against the tan of his skin. His T-shirt stretched tight over the expanse of his chest, around the curves of his biceps.

It was ridiculous really. Nobody should be allowed to be that hot.

And I had to somehow figure out how to walk away from all that hotness. Suddenly, I understood everything Ivy had just laid on me.

“Man, the store is crazy,” he said, beaming. “Mom’s out there hustling flowers like it’s her full-time job.”

“Well, it kinda is,” I noted.

“So much for retirement,” he said on a laugh.

“I think we all knew she was never gonna retire.”

I didn’t realize we had stepped toward each other until I could smell the sunshine on him. He must have been driving with the windows down. I wondered if he was going to get a sunburn on his left arm, and I fought the impulse to go get the sunscreen out of my bag for him.