I sighed. “I just don’t know what to do.”

“Just … think about it. I’m not saying you have to go to Thailand with me, but I’m not saying it would be a bad thing either.” Brendon relinquished a very endearing and maybe even convincing smile.

“I guess I’d feel silly getting an expensive car if I were planning on leaving for six months.”

“Practicality wins.” He winked.

As handsome and flirty as Brendon was, I didn’t care for his winks. Only one man could wink at me and make my insides turn to gooey mush.

“Well, I’ll take you home. How would you feel about going out some night this week?”

“Um …”

He held up his hands. “No pressure.”

“No. I … it … well, you have my number. I guess text me.”

Brendon lit up with satisfaction, a glow of victory. “I’ll do that.”

He drove me home and pulled in the driveway. Fisher and my mom were on the front porch drinking iced tea … or maybe beer. I couldn’t tell for sure.

“We have an audience,” Brendon said.

“Yeah. We do.”

“I guess that means I’ll have to wait to kiss you another time.”

Gulp …

On a nervous laugh, I nodded. “I guess so. Well, thanks for the ice cream. It was fun.” I opened the door.

“Wait! I messed up when I picked you up. I’m not going to screw this up in front of your mom.” Brendon jumped out and ran around the car to open my door.

“Oh.” Another nervous laugh. “Thanks.” I climbed out of his car.

“Reese, introduce me,” Rory called.

Brendon took my hand.

He took my hand!

And we walked to the front porch. A kiss was more than he wanted to do in front of an audience, but he thought hand-holding was okay?

I died a million deaths.

After warning Fisher about Tiffany, after losing hours of sleep from thoughts of kissing or hand-holding, my hand was latched to Brendon’s right in front of Fisher.

“Hi, you must be Rory. I’m Brendon. So nice to meet you.” Brendon released my hand to shake Rory’s hand.

Fisher slowly sipped his drink, his eyes saying everything as he focused on my hand that had just been attached to Brendon’s.

“The pleasure is all mine,” Rory gushed. “Reese told me so much about you.”

I did?

I mentioned him and maybe a few things about him, but I didn’t go on and on about him. Too late. Brendon glanced at me, a huge smile on his face. I returned more of a tight grin. What could I say?

“Well, I think Reese is pretty great. We have so much in common. And it’s easy to talk for hours.”

Rory eyed me. Either she was ready to plan my wedding or she wanted to date Brendon herself. I feared it was the former.