“So explain it to me again,” Dean said, eyes still shut. “About how you’ve been blatantly using me for your own nefarious purposes.”

“Football players aren’t supposed to know words like nefarious.”

“I heard it on a beer commercial.”

She smiled and adjusted her sunglasses. “All I’m saying is this. I got myself into a little jam—and, no, I’m not telling you who with. The easiest way to wiggle out was to pretend I’m smitten with you. Which, of course, I am.”

“Bull. You treat me like a kid.”

“Only to protect myself from your glory.”

He snorted.

“Besides, being seen with you raises the profile of my business.” She laid her cheek on her forearm. “It’ll get people talking about Perfect for You, and free advertising is all I can afford right now. I’ll pay you back. I promise.” She reached over and patted one very hard, sun-warmed bicep. “Ten years from now, when we know for sure you’ve made it through puberty, I’m going to find you a great woman.”

“Ten years?”

“You’re right. We’ll make it fifteen just to be safe.”

Annabelle had a crappy night’s sleep. She dreaded the start of Heath’s dating marathon, but it was time to bite the bullet and hit him with everything she had. She arrived at Sienna’s first. When he walked in, her heart gave a dopey little kick before it plunged to her toes. He’d been her lover, and now she had to introduce him to another woman.

He looked as grouchy as she felt. “I heard you played hooky yesterday,” he said as he sat down.

She had hoped word of her outing with Dean would make its way back to him, and her spirits lifted. “Nope. I’m not saying a word.” She made a zipping motion across her lips, turned the lock, and threw away the key.

His irritation deepened. “Do you know how juvenile that is?”

“You’re the one who asked.”

“All I said was that I heard you’d taken the day off. I was making conversation.”

“I’m allowed to take a day off now and then. And Wind Lake doesn’t count because I had to entertain a client. Specifically, you.”

He got that sexy half-lidded look, the one that signaled he was about to say something raunchy. But then he seemed to think better of it. “So how is the course of true love progressing?”

“I think he’s attracted to me. Maybe it’s because I’m not clingy. I could be clingy, but I’m forcing myself to give him plenty of room. Don’t you agree that’s the smart thing to do?”

“You are not sucking me into this discussion.”

“I know he has gorgeous football groupies hanging all over him, but I think he might be growing out of that stage of his life. I get the sense that he’s maturing.”

“Don’t hold your breath.”

“You think I’m being stupid, don’t you?”

“Tinker Bell, you’ve redefined stupid. For a woman who’s supposed to have a head on her shoulders—”