“Thought so.” He waited for me to join him on the other side and then we started up a slate pathway that led up to a covered patio at the back of the house. He stopped just outside the glass door, beside a wicker chaise lounge. “You look like you’re about to have a heart attack.”

I winced. “That bad?”

“Close.” He stepped closer to me and his hand moved so fast. Tucking my hair back behind my ear, he lowered his head slightly. A look crossed his face, deepening the hue of his eyes until they were the darkest shade of blue. My stomach fluttered in response. “You have no reason to be nervous, okay? I promise.”

My cheek tingled where his fingers grazed and as close as we were I thought about our kiss that wasn’t a kiss. He hadn’t done anything like that since the night of our first date, but right now, I think he wanted to. “Okay,” I whispered.

He stared at me a moment longer and then shook his head. Dropping his hand, he turned to the door and opened it. A wave of warm air that smell of apple and spice spilled out, an alluring, welcoming scent. I followed him inside, eyes wide as I took the room on the lower floor in.

It was a game room of sorts. A large pool table in the middle, a stocked bar to the right and in the back, near the stairs, was a large TV with several comfy looking chairs in front of it. My parents had something like this, but the pool table had never been used, Mom only drank from the bar when she thought no one was paying attention, and the TV in our basement had never been turned on.

But everything looked… lived in down here.

The balls weren’t racked up in the middle, but spread across the table like someone had stopped in the middle of a game. A bottle of scotch sat on the bar top, beside a glass and the chairs were worn, obviously older furniture that had been moved from downstairs. Unlike my parents who had to have new stuff in every room in the house.

“This is the man cave,” Cam said as he headed for the stairs. “Dad spends a lot of time down here. There’s the poker table he kicked my ass on.”

I looked over to the left and there was just an average card table sitting there. A small smile pulled at my lips. “I like it down here.”

“So do I,” he replied. “Mom and Dad are probably upstairs…”