Chelle would be lying to herself if she tried to act as if he wasn’t right. He was. Her insides went all gooey at the realization that it was the exact shade she imaged the canopy of trees would be that Hermia walked under before her fateful first meeting with Bacchus in her books. She swallowed past the surprise of emotion that clogged her through at that and turned her head away from him so she could blink the sudden tears out of her eyes (damn pre-menopausal hormones).

She was just getting her shit back together when Nash’s phone started buzzing. He picked it up off the plastic-covered countertop and grimaced at the screen.

“Your cousins?” she asked, because who else would it be?

“Yeah, they are having way too much fucking fun with this.” He looked up and shot her a sheepish grin that only showed off one dimple. “You up for an underground tabletop board game club?”

Okay, that was not the date she expected. Did his cousins not believe in dinner and a movie? “We’re going to play Monopoly?”

“No.” He shook his head. “We’re gonna win Monopoly.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. This man. He really was nothing but trouble—which she needed to remember, because nothing about this situation was real, even if standing in her paint-prepped kitchen felt like it.

“So what about the kitchen color?” he asked. “Do you want me to change it back to yellow?”

Chelle’s first instinct was to push back against the change just for the sake of proving that she could. However, the truth of it was that she hated the yellow—and, no, hate wasn’t too heavy of a word for how she felt. It really was eye-searing.

She gave in with a happy sigh. “I love the green.”

He brushed a kiss across her temple, which sent a lightning bolt of awareness through her.

“You won’t regret this,” he said as he started back toward the paint cans.

Yeah, he was sure of that, but as she snuck a peek at Nash’s muscular forearms as he pulled up the sleeves of his already paint-splattered Henley, it sent her thoughts right back to Midlife Crisis Younger Husband Horny Town, and she wasn’t so sure about that.

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Nash

“I can’t believe you got us kicked out of a tabletop board game club before we even sat down.” Chelle was laughing so hard she could barely get the words out. “What were you thinking?”