“Thank you.”

A large kitchen with a bar that could seat up to six. My kitchen rivaled my living room for size and could easily fit five or six adults working at the same time. The best part of it was the view of the backyard through my all-glass and steel door that lifted like a garage door. Beyond my hot tub and pool and cement fence was the golf course. Red Rock State Park viewable in the far distance. Off the second-story balcony of my bedroom, the view was breathtaking. One of my favorite places to hang out.

Sharing my space never felt strange, but today it was different. That unease palpitated every atom in the air and I cursed Heather in my mind for putting me in this position.

Especially with a woman who had an ass that filled out her leggings and couldn’t be hidden by that T-shirt so damn perfectly my mouth watered to take a bite of it.

Too bad I didn’t stay in the bar last night, find one of the puck bunnies for a quick stop in the bathroom before leaving. Maybe now I wouldn’t be acting like such a perverted asshole.

Facing the stove, I gave Emmersyn more space and time to grab her coffee and poured the eggs into my heating pan. I had questions. Bucket loads of them for her and Heather, but they could wait.

A barstool scraped across the floor, telling me Emmersyn had taken a seat, and I grabbed an avocado from a bowl on the counter and turned to start slicing it up.

I caught sight of her looking at it before glancing away and bringing her coffee mug to her mouth.

Don’t stare at her lips.

Right. I was working on not being an under-sexed, overly needy teenage prick.

At the first slice into the avocado, Emmersyn looked at me. “Do you have more of those?”

“I thought you didn’t like vegetables.”

“Avocado grows on trees. So it’s a fruit.”

I glanced up, took in her smile, the sparkle in her green eyes, and almost sliced off a finger. She was so damn pretty.

“With toast?” I asked and grabbed another one.

“Please. And thank you.” She took another sip of coffee while I cleaned out the pit and started peeling the outside. Yeah, you could scoop it, but I preferred slicing. “You’re being very nice to someone you don’t know.”

I shrugged. “Not going to lie, I want to wring my sister’s neck and I have a gazillion questions for you, but I figured you wouldn’t want to share those answers with a stranger.”

My eggs were sizzling, so I slid the spinach and mushrooms into the pan, popped some bread into the toaster, and turned back to Emmersyn.

As I did, my phone rang on the counter, and I grinned at Emmersyn. “Heather must have known we were talking about her.”

Her name was on the screen, and this time I didn’t let it go to voice mail. Two quick presses and I said, “Hey, brat. Aren’t you supposed to be working?”