As he pulled back out onto the road, she considered the implications of what he’d just said. The dash of coldness suddenly turned tingly and warm, spreading over her body from head to toe. He’d told her earlier today that he found her very attractive, but she hadn’t believed him. Guys said stuff like that to reassure a woman even when they didn’t mean it. But Wyatt’s reaction to leg rubbing? That had to be totally genuine. And he’d told her more than he probably knew by revealing his physical reaction to her. Even better, he’d warned her to keep her distance. It told her that he really was hot for her in a way that words could never convey.

When he pulled the truck into her driveway, the headlights cut through the deepening darkness to illuminate her front porch with a quick sweep of the high beams. She’d left a huge mess in front of the door, and now it was too late to clean it up. Like Wyatt, she had to get squared away for work tomorrow.

Leaning forward so the dash lights illuminated her, she signed to him with her hands. “This has been the nicest evening I’ve had in a long time. Thank you so much for inviting me.”

He smiled, a slow transformation of his face that deepened the crow’s-feet at the corners of his compelling eyes and elongated the creases in his lean cheeks. “It was my pleasure. I had a really great time.”

Erin started to open her door and stopped mid-motion when she saw him unfastening his safety restraint. “What are you doing? I don’t need you to escort me to the door, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“What you need me to do and what my father taught me to do may be two entirely different things, and if we’re going to be friends, you need to stop hassling me about it.”

“Do you make a habit of walking all your friends to their doors?”

“As much as this may shock your feminist sensibilities, Erin, I escort all lady friends to their doors. I realize you have two good legs. All right? That you don’t really need me to play watchdog as you walk up your own driveway. But my dad wired me to be a gentleman in certain situations, and taking a woman out to dinner is one of them.” He paused as if to give her a moment to assimilate that. “How is this friendship idea going to work if you get all sensitive over stupid things like me pushing your chair forward when you take a seat? Or when I open a door for you? Can’t you think of it as practice for when the right guy comes along and starts treating you like a lady?”

Erin was more than willing to practice polite behavior, but she wouldn’t be doing it in hope that the right man would eventually enter her life. She had a feeling he’d already arrived. But for reasons beyond her, Wyatt didn’t see how perfect they were for each other.