“So?” She looked up expectantly.

He sighed. “You got me with pancakes.”

“Yay!” she said with a little bounce on her toes as she stepped back. “A sleepover.”

He groaned. “People in their thirties can’t have sleepovers. And you can’t paint my toes or curl my hair.”

She smirked. “What about curling your toes?”

The words hit him like a hot gust of wind. “What?”

She laughed. “Oh, don’t look so scandalized, Isaacs. I’m teasing. If I were inviting you in for that, you’d know it, honey. Now come on. The mosquitoes are going to eat us alive if we don’t get inside.”

She turned and left him there, staring after her.

Thirteen

Kincaid sprinkled mini chocolate chips into the pancake batter, popped a few in her mouth, and then stirred, trying to get the batter to the perfect texture. The coffeepot sputtered along, filling the kitchen with its comforting scent, and her mind was drawn back to Ash’s comment last night. You’re baby-fox coffee.

She smiled to herself, a warm feeling spreading through her. She’d been called a lot of things in her life, but that definitely was one of the weirdest…and sweetest. Ash had changed since they’d last been friends. He’d hardened in a lot of ways, but some things had remained the same. The guy still knew how to say the perfect thing to make her feel better. His words had made her cry. They’d also made her want to kiss him, but she’d actively ignored that dangerous impulse. After having a night filled with one of her hookups coming back to haunt her, she definitely didn’t need to make that kind of mistake with Ash. She’d just gotten him back as a friend. She wasn’t going to ruin it just because he said sweet things and looked aggressively hot in a T-shirt.

Kincaid set the batter aside to let it rest for a minute and checked the time. Ash had told her he had trouble sleeping late, but maybe that was because he was sleeping on a thin, old mattress at the apartment. When she’d passed by the guest room at seven, she’d heard the steady sounds of his sleep-heavy breathing still going strong. She’d left him to it, made a few work calls, and returned a slew of emails. She’d also set up some appointments with contractors to come out and take a look at the farmhouse. But now it was almost nine, and she was getting hungry. She’d give him a few more minutes, and then she would start cooking without him. But first, more coffee.

She was reaching for the pot to make herself a fresh cup when a buzzing sounded behind her. She turned. Ash had left his cell phone plugged into her charging station on the counter next to her keys, and the screen had lit up. She set the coffeepot down, walked over to silence the phone, and grimaced when she saw Melanie’s face on the screen. The picture Ash had saved for her number had her blowing a kiss to the camera, the Eiffel Tower rising up behind her. Ugh. Kincaid had never liked the woman, but knowing that Melanie had cheated on Ash made her outright despise her. She knew there were two sides to every breakup, but she drew a hard line at cheating. There were no excuses for that bullshit, especially when you had someone’s ring on your finger.