Maybe she suspects something? In all fairness, Leanne couldn’t expect Trev to play along with this. He might not have even seen the text yet; she hadn’t gotten the chance to confirm. They’d known each other for like a day, and he had zero reason to go this far backing her up. But for some wild reason, his smile didn’t falter. He ate a little egg drop soup and kept his focus on Leanne.

“It’s not up to me, really. Leanne’s in the driver’s seat, and I’m good with whatever makes her happy.”

Wow. That was smooth as hell, and it made Junie go goofy-eyed. There was nothing she loved more than a man who seemed eager to please. Unfortunately, she wasn’t very good at discerning when it was real and when it was a pretense held up just long to get what they wanted from her, whatever that happened to be.

“You’re so sweet,” Junie gushed. “I see how you swept Leanne off her feet.”

Trev smirked and raised a brow; Leanne tilted her head and jerked her chin. It was a more complete conversation in a look than she’d had with people after dating for months. Whether she liked it or not, she owed him. The debt would be compounded if Junie gave up on the idea of moving in and decided to travel onward, like she usually did.

“I’m just being myself,” he said.

After dinner, she tried to give him an excuse to leave, but Junie wouldn’t hear of it. She grabbed Trev’s arm and guided him to the sofa. “We still haven’t had the chat I was promised before. I have so many questions!”

“He’s self-employed and never been married,” Leanne cut in sharply. “Thirty-three, and he’s got all his hair and teeth. No pets, no dependents. Do you need to ask anything else?”

Junie blinked. “That’s…thorough.”

Trev grinned, nodding along, so she guessed she’d gotten the details right. She’d been pretty sure of Titus’s age, based on Danica’s gushing, and she thought she recalled Danica saying Trev and Titus had gone to high school together. Which should make them around the same age. Normally, she didn’t go out with younger people. Stepdad number three had been closer to her age than Junie’s, and that didn’t work out great for anyone involved.

“Give him a break. I sprang meeting you on him out of the blue.”

Junie sighed. “That’s true. I didn’t give you any notice about this visit. It…never occurred to me that I might be interrupting a serious relationship. I’m so surprised. In a good way,” she hastened to add.