My feet slid on the last two steps. The cinnamon sugar goodness of my cookies called my name from the kitchen. I thudded on my ass down to the bottom with one hand holding on the railing. I shot a glare at my fingers still wrapped around the smooth wood. Way to drop the ball! You know if you go, I go.

“So graceful. Like I was watching a ballet.” A resonant voice rumbled through the air raising goosebumps all over my arms.

I scrambled off the steps, rubbing my eyes and staring slack-jawed at the intruder in my house. A burglar would’ve been a more welcome find.

Instead, Dare stood in my living room, leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest, legs crossed at the ankles like it wasn’t weird he was there. I got the feeling I might just be the intruder—like maybe this was the hang-out spot behind school where all the guys smoked.

“What—what the hell are you doing in my house?” I stopped myself from rubbing my eyes with my fists. Was this a sugar-induced hallucination?

With bleary eyes and a fitted gray thermal, he was part nightmare, part dream. His jeans hugged his trim waist. Seeing him out of his natural habitat and in mine threw me off center. With two yards between us or a sea of classmates in school, I could pretend his presence didn’t affect me. But, here, my walls weren’t up and armed for a Dare repulsion.

“Thank you so much for your help, Dare.” Mom breezed out of the kitchen holding a Tupperware overflowing with my cinnamon chocolate chunk cookies. “I’ll get the car to the garage as soon as the tow truck company opens.”

Mom turned to me with a bright-eyed smile like she hadn’t just gotten off a twelve-hour shift. “I thought that was you. You’re up early.”

“I thought I…heard the car.” My fingers flew to the hem of my shorts, tugging them down, but that was a losing prospect with the well-worn flannel barely covering my ass. It wasn’t my fault my room was an inferno.

“Dare was driving behind me when my car broke down. He pushed it the rest of the way home, so I’m rewarding him with some of these.” She added another handful to the top of the pile.

“Some? That looks like most of them.” No way in hell was he swooping in and stealing my cookies.

The corner of Dare’s mouth quirked up. He fished one out of the massive container filled to the top and took a bite. “Molly, these are outstanding.” He used her first name. How frustratingly, annoyingly cocky. “You don’t need to call a tow. At least not yet. I can check it out later this afternoon and see if I can fix it.”

My gaze narrowed and my hands curled into fists at my sides. Why was he being nice to my mom? What bizarro game was he playing? And why did his tousled hair make me want to run my fingers through it? Was it silky smooth? Was his jaw as sharp as it looked? And what the hell was I thinking? I shook my head to ward off whatever pheromones he was pumping out into the air.