He grinned. “What are you doing today? We should hang out. My new dog sitter, Joe, is at my house, and he’s agreed to keep an eye on Sunshine, too.”

“Um, okay.” My brain wasn’t working yet and he was all dazzling and bright and I was sure that I looked like a coffin had just thrown me up. “What did you have in mind?”

“I was hoping maybe you could teach me how to drive.”

I blinked slowly. “You don’t know how to drive?”

“My parents didn’t want me to drive, so I never got a license as a teenager. It wasn’t my job to drive in the army and then I was living in New York and didn’t need it there. But I read this script that I’m excited about. I’d be a getaway driver and they would have someone show me how to do stunt driving, but I figured I should probably learn the basics first.” He seemed to think I was reluctant. I was going to do it—I was just still sleepy. “Come on, I teach you something, you teach me something.”

“Kissing and driving are not the same thing. Plus, so far you haven’t really taught me anything.”

“Not yet.” His voice was low and appealing and cut through my tiredness better than a jolt of caffeine.

“Let me get me and Sunshine ready and I’ll come up to your house.”

“Okay. See you soon!”

As I closed the door, I realized that I hadn’t even considered the fact that he might be a morning person, and it was kind of annoying. Good thing he was superfluously handsome.

It didn’t take me long to do everything I needed to, and now it was my turn to knock on his door. When he answered, he leaned down to kiss me hello on the cheek, and my heart sighed a little at the way it felt. He introduced me to Joe, and Sunshine’s and Magnus’s tails were both wagging as they sniffed one another. Joe promised to take good care of the dogs, and I figured if Noah trusted him, then he was probably good at what he did. I wondered how much he charged and decided I should ask him when we got back. For comparative purposes.

Deciding it would be best to get Noah out of the hills and canyons and onto a flat surface, I headed for a church I knew of nearby, figuring the parking lot would be empty. On the way he told me about how he had spent his morning talking to an army friend he liked to keep tabs on because he had been chaptered out.

“Chaptered out?” I asked.

“Basically kicked out. He tried to hurt himself.”

My hand flew to my mouth. “That’s awful!”