She knew, coming from him, that was a compliment. His mother might be a homemaker first and foremost, but Alison was one tough woman. Danny appreciated power in a woman. Which was why she didn’t get one thing. “There’s something I’ve always wanted to ask you.”

“Yeah?”

“Why did you date that string of gigglers? You know, the ones who were all, ‘oh Danny, you’re so sweet, just the best,’ giggle giggle.”

Danny groaned, one hand over his eyes.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she added, “I have nothing against women being giggly bunnies.” Catie’s view was that the world should just let women do their thing whether that was slow or hard, giggly or staunch. “I just never saw you being inclined that way.”

Dropping his hand, he grimaced. “It was a phase, okay? I wondered what I was missing when all my mates were heading in that direction—let’s just say my FOMO did not end well and never again mention the subject.” Before she could razz him about that, he pinned her with a sharp gaze. “What about you?”

“What about me?” She turned to the mirror to fine-tune her lipstick with a lipstick brush.

“That puffed-up bodybuilder you got with after dumping Ward the Dickwad,” he said, purposefully drawing out the insult so it rhymed with Ward’s name. “If he has two brain cells to rub together, I’m Albert Einstein.”

Scowling, Catie resisted the temptation to shoot back a snarky response. Fair was fair. He’d been honest with her. “Brax is really nice. You’d like him.”

When Danny made a choking noise, she hunched her shoulders up to her ears. “He’s so nice I couldn’t say no when he asked me out.” Even though she’d known they wouldn’t suit. Brax had agreed with every one of her opinions no matter if it was about food or politics or sports.

It. Had. Driven. Her. Bananas.

Catie felt like a troll for it. “He’ll make some equally nice woman a lovely, lovely boyfriend.”

“You? Feeling guilty crushing a poor helpless guy to mush? Hah.”

Twisting around, she pointed the lipstick brush at him. “I can be super nice, thank you very much.”

He rubbed his clean-shaven jaw. “One time you did give me half your chocolate bar,” he said in a musing tone. “Then you shaved off half my hair while I was asleep!”

A laugh snorted out of her. “You deserved that, you ass. You made fun of my bikini.” It had been the first time she’d worn one, and she’d been self-conscious about it. Danny hadn’t been mean, hadn’t commented on her body at all. All his digs had been about the color of the bikini—a perfectly innocent yellow—and about how she’d wasted good money buying it when he could’ve just cut up his old shirt for her.