If you won’t at least try to win her over, I’m going to be mad.

Sebastian scowled.

His phone chimed again. A text from CeCe.

We’re having a family dinner at our house on Sunday, and I’m making your favorite. Shrimp in butter sauce with mashed potatoes, green beans, and homemade rolls. You’re not allowed to come, though, unless you’ve asked out that woman by that time. I really hope you can come, because I’d hate to give your shrimp to Eugene.

Groaning, Sebastian bent forward and set his forehead on top of his forearm on the desk. He didn’t deserve the things they did for him. He’d never felt that he did. Which was one of many differences between him and them. The things they did had nothing to do with whether or not he was deserving. The things they did were motivated by simple love.

For him, love was not simple.

Another text from Ben.

The PE teacher and the vice principal at Misty River High both have a crush on her. You’re burning valuable time.

And then, from CeCe:

Call her. Or I will.

In his whole life, he’d only formed two deep attachments—with his mother and the Colemans. Loyalty to Ben ran in his blood.

It was difficult to think about acting contrary to that.

It was also difficult to think about how to protect his heart from Leah if she agreed to go out with him.

It hadn’t been difficult to avoid giving women the power to hurt him in the past. But he already felt uncomfortably far gone over Leah, and they weren’t even a couple.

Warnings were stirring inside him. He heard them. Yet they were pitted against his attraction to Leah, and Leah was winning.

She’d told him point-blank that she was not looking for romance. If she did agree to go out with him, she’d want to keep things light. Right? Yes. Which was reassuring. It meant she wouldn’t demand vulnerability from him.

What should he do?

Should he really move forward with this?

He wrote a text to both Ben and CeCe.

Are you sure you’re okay with the idea of me and Leah?

CeCe answered almost immediately.

As sure as God made little green apples.

Then from Ben:

As sure as death and taxes.

Sebastian picked up his phone and selected Leah’s contact. Filling his lungs, he remembered how she’d looked at the football game in her jersey. Her pale hair. Her long eyelashes and straightforward gaze. She was quirky, self-reliant, sacrificial. Her personality entertained him. Talking to her challenged him. He often dialed-in conversations with people. But he’d never be able to dial in a conversation with Leah Montgomery. Keeping up with her demanded his full attention.