A date? Her stomach took a quick tour around her midsection before settling back half an inch higher than it had been before. She pressed a hand to her gut and took a deep breath. A real date. Not one where she waited for a man who wasn’t going to show up and John waited at a dark bar. Not one that was set up by Estrella in the most awkward fancy restaurant of all time. Not one where her friends watched her watch John eat—apparently vegan—tacos.

A date with just John and just Mary and whatever this was that was growing between them.

She let out a long breath through her mouth and lifted her chin on the way out of the bedroom. The first chance she got to catch John, she was just going to ask. Would you want to go on a date with me?

Simple as that. Piece of pie. Easy as cake. Or whatever the phrase was. Her underboob sweat made itself known. So, she was nervous. It was normal to be nervous!

Mary was just about to round the corner into the kitchen when she heard Tyler and John chuckling together over something. John said something in that hoarse voice of his and Mary strained to hear it, out of sight of the men.

“So,” Tyler responded in a decidedly big-brotherly tone. “You’re interested in Mary, then?”

“Ty!” Mary whispered to herself, her hands going to her cheeks as, still hidden, she waited for John’s reply.

“Oh. Ah...”

“Because she was pretty sure you weren’t interested after your date.”

“Our date. Right.”

Silence dragged on. What the heck? That was it? He wasn’t going to actually answer the question? She was dying over here! She would have given her favorite pair of Jimmy Choos to see John’s face right now. Though, an educated guess told her that he was probably frowning, his brows in a V.

“Sorry,” John said after a minute, not sounding sorry at all. “Are you and Mary...?”

“No,” Tyler answered immediately. “She’s my best friend, though.”

Another silence descended. Mary did a frantic pantomime of an awkward, screaming melt against the wall. “Someone say something,” she mouthed to the heavens.

“I’m just looking out for her,” Tyler said after a minute. “Seb and Mary and I, we’ve been through a lot together and she’s been through some pretty miserable dating stuff in the last few years.”

She was going to shave Tyler’s eyebrows while he was sleeping. Why was he saying this to John? Why?

“And I guess I just wanted to say that she’s a great person, and she doesn’t deserve to get jerked around or negged or whatever.”

There was a long pause.

“I agree that she’s a great person,” John said. “I’ve actually never met anyone else like her.”

Long pause.

Mary was actually shocked her heart was still beating.