It had been a long time since I’d worn a dress.

It had been an even longer time since I wore a tight dress.

But I was doing it tonight and I thought I looked pretty amazing. Maybe even hot. Like h-a-w-t hot. My hair was down, parted to my left, and fell in cascading waves. My eyeliner was on point and the matte red lipstick promised to stay on for the next hundred years.

I felt good. Great, even.

Stepping away from the mirror, I walked into my bedroom. The only problem with tonight was that when I thought about my date . . . I didn’t feel anything. No nervousness. No anxiety. Definitely not even a drop of anticipation. It was like I was getting ready to go to the grocery store while looking like the bomb diggity.

And that was just lame, really lame of me.

But if I thought about those early, dark moments with Brock, my stomach fluttered like a nest of birds taking flight, and that was wrong, really wrong.

Like so wrong I needed to bang my head on the wall.

I wasn’t giving Grady a chance. I knew this as I slipped a plain gold bracelet on. I’d even thought that he hadn’t been interested and was just coming with excuses, but he obviously had been. Tonight would be different, because I would be a hundred percent focused on him, and if he tried to kiss me, I would let him.

And it wouldn’t be a drunken kiss in the middle of the night either.

Snatching my black purse off my bed, I walked past the small low-back chair by the door, dragging my hand over Brock’s jacket like . . . geez, like a total freak. I hadn’t given it back. I’d totally forgotten about it when he was over last Friday, and he hadn’t asked for it back, so I’d kept it.

Not my proudest moment.

Grabbing the military-style jacket out of the hall closet, I swooped down and scratched Rhage on the top of the head. “I’ll be back soon.” I pulled away before he made mincemeat out of my hand. “Or maybe I won’t be back at all tonight.”

Rhage’s ears flattened.

After making sure there was a bowl of kitty food in the kitchen, I left my apartment. Grady was waiting for me just inside the very same steakhouse Brock and I had been at with the potential investors. There weren’t many options for sort of upscale restaurants in the county.

A wide smile broke out across his face as he opened his arms. “You look amazing.”

“Thank you.” I gave him a quick hug and then stepped back. “So do you.”

He glanced down at the loose khakis with a shrug; they were the kind of pants I couldn’t imagine Brock wearing.

Whoa. Why in the hell was I thinking about that?