She felt rather than heard him chuckle. “I asked if I could make one last request of you. I know I have no right to, not after everything you’re already doing for me and Emily, but it’s not a big one, I promise.”

In that moment, with Ford’s long, lean body not quite touching her, her knee-jerk reaction was to deny him anything and everything. She’d only been here one day, and she was already throwing common sense out the window.

She, Lila Vasquez, famed for her level head and propriety.

She, Lila Vasquez, the fortress no man had yet penetrated. Psychologically speaking, that was.

She, Lila Vasquez—

“Sure,” she said, unwilling to indulge in further remonstrance. What was the point? She could make a fifty-page list of all the reasons she should run screaming from this room, but lists hadn’t been doing her a whole lot of favors lately. Sophie didn’t make lists. Dawn didn’t make lists. And look how much better people liked them. “What do you want?”

“Oh, lots of things,” Ford said, his voice rumbling with laughter. “But for now, I’m only hoping you’ll teach me how to braid Emily’s hair like that.”

Chapter 6

“Uh, Lila? Did you fall down a well or something?”

Lila slid into her favorite booth at her favorite restaurant, where she and her sisters had dinner at least three times a week, with her head held high. “I’m fine, thank you.”

Dawn and Sophie shared what they thought was a secret look. It was a thing they’d been doing for at least two decades, a sort of half side-eye that didn’t require them to move their heads. As was usually the case, Lila did them the honor of pretending not to notice. Their hearts—and their pride—would break to know how obvious they were.

“Is it windy outside?” Sophie asked with another one of those looks at Dawn.

“A little.” Lila hung her purse from the hook supplied under the table and started arranging her silverware in front of her. “The weather report says we should be getting a pretty big snowstorm later. Have you already ordered?”

It was too much to hope that her sisters would take the hint and find something else—anything else—to discuss. Skipping the clandestine look this time, Dawn nudged Sophie on the shoulder. “You ask her. She never yells at you.”

“This is Lila we’re talking about. She never yells at anyone. She just uses that icy voice and changes the subject.”

“My voice is not icy,” she protested. “And I can’t change a subject that neither of you has the nerve to broach outright.”

“It’s just that we’ve never seen you look so…askew.”