“It’s not far,” Oliver said with a wink. He was clearly loving this air of mystery that shrouded the morning. “Any way I could convince you to give me a sip of that?” he asked, nodding toward my to-go coffee mug.

“Oh, sure.” I nearly flung the mug at him, but thankfully I caught myself and handed it to him with some semblance of grace.

He smiled, unfazed as usual, and took a long sip. “Ahh.” He smacked his lips and handed it back to me. “Needed that. I couldn’t sleep last night.”

“Same,” I said. My eyes widened at the admittance. We both looked at each other, but he tore his gaze away first.

His words lingered in the air as a small explosion of fireworks went off in my gut. Had he struggled to sleep for the same reason I had? Was he nervous about today too? The thought made me want to slap myself for being so foolish—of course, Oliver wasn’t nervous. Just look at him. The guy hadn’t been nervous a day in his life. I was teetering on the edge of complete delusion, and I needed to snap out of it.

I couldn’t sit in the silence any longer. It wasn’t that it was uncomfortable—the opposite actually. It was almost too comfortable.

“How long have you had this car?” I asked, cringing at the lame question. He was going to think I had absolutely zero social skills.

Oliver let out a low chuckle. “You’re really interested in my car, aren’t you?”

“And your house,” I added.

“Are you sizing up my assets? Trying to determine if I could be a good provider?”

The fireworks were now full-on blasting. It was a whole display.

“Of course not,” I said hurriedly.

Had I been doing that? When I’d first met Oliver, I had been attracted to him, but I had written him off as an irresponsible man-child. One who probably didn’t work hard or have any sense of obligation. And while he certainly put on a solid show of not caring, it was clear there was a lot more to him than I initially thought. In fact, he was beginning to feel like a potentially viable option.

I shook the thought from my mind. Because Oliver was definitely not a viable option. Even if he was the absolute perfect guy—like I had crafted him in a lab, perfect—I wasn’t staying in Key Ridge, and he probably wasn’t either. Ski season would be over soon, and then he’d be moving on to some other adventure. On top of that, even if our differences didn’t feel that significant right now, they were still glaringly present. The whole “opposites attract” thing only worked in movies.

“What kind of question could I ask you right now that would make you less nervous?” he asked.

My eyes jerked to his face. He kept stealing glances at me before gluing his eyes back to the road. I thought about lying and telling him I wasn’t nervous, but it felt pointless. Even though we should be nothing more than acquaintances, Oliver already seemed to know me a lot better than anyone else I’d met in recent history.