I moved to get up and the arm he had wrapped around my lower back tightened and his fingers dug into my hip.

“Jesus, what is it with you?” he grumbled.

“It’s morning.”

He opened an eye and glanced at the clock.

Then he closed it.

“Barely.”

“I’m gonna make coffee.”

This was apparently an acceptable reason to move as his arm fell away.

“Do you have an extra toothbrush?”

“Probably.”

That was a stupid question. Lee may not still be the dawg he was in high school, but that didn’t mean he didn’t nail his fair share of anatomically impossible babes. He probably had a box full of extra toothbrushes.

“Do you have two?”

The eye opened again and focused on me.

Yikes part deux.

I jumped out of bed, grabbed my clothes and ran to the bathroom. I located one extra toothbrush still in its packaging and went to town on my teeth.

I took care of my teeth, I made a promise to myself that I’d die with my original set and that’s what I intended to do.

I opened the door to the bedroom. “Do you have floss?” I called.

“For Christ’s sake.”

Obviously, Lee didn’t care that much about his teeth.

That’s okay, Lee seemed to be doing a very good job at taking care of other parts of his body.

I pulled on my jeans and struggled into my bra under the wife beater (because I’d decided to steal the wife beater if I could get away with it, to keep as a little memento) and padded into the kitchen trying to be quiet for Rosie.

Rosie had a big day today and he needed his beauty rest.

The living room, dining room and kitchen were open plan in an L shape. The condo was on a corner, the entirety of it had a balcony wrapped around. French doors from the dining room which was across from the kitchen, French doors from the living room which was an extension of the dining room and French doors in the bedrooms. Big money for this kind of location, the huge, airy rooms and the view afforded.

The kitchen was state-of-the-art and mostly hidden from the living room behind the wall that made up the bathroom and extra bedroom.

Still, I had to be quiet.

Normally, I’d have the coffee ready to roll the night before so I could just flip a switch after I’d stumbled out of bed and down the stairs.

Normally, my coffeemaker had a cup under the spout rather than a pot so I could just stand there and wait until it was done filling the cup and then switch it over to the pot so I didn’t have to wait until the pot was full.

Normally, I didn’t function properly until cup number two.

Caffeine was my drug of choice.

It took me awhile to find all the coffee paraphernalia. I lucked out because obviously Lee liked his coffee and he had a high quality bag of java.

I made it strong and did the cup thing. It was pretty clear from his Mr. Grouch impersonation that Lee wasn’t getting up anytime soon and there was not a sound from the couch so I could be greedy and selfish with the coffee.

I was concentrating on the stream of life-affirming joe filling the cup so I was a little surprised when hands settled on the counter on either side of me and I felt the warmth of a body against my back.

They weren’t Rosie’s hands.

I looked over my shoulder.

Lee had fenced me in.

His dark hair was wild in a very sexy way and his eyes were soft as were his features. His chest was bare. I knew this because I could see his shoulders.

I didn’t dare look down.

After ten years of practice, I was able (barely) to put the wild, sexy hair out of my mind and to ignore (barely) the fact he was bare-chested. However, it was kind of hard to ignore his proximity.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He glanced over my shoulder.

“You makin’ coffee for everyone, or just you?”

There were certain times when honesty was the best policy. In my life, those times didn’t come very often but if there was the possibility that you might not get the first cup of coffee, and brutal honesty would get it for you, you had to be brutally honest.

“Just me, for now.”

I turned back to the coffee, deciding I didn’t want an answer to my question about what he was doing. Something was going on and I was three quarts low on caffeine, not to mention sleep. I could hardly think past the next second, much less figure out what game Lee was playing. Likely he was still pissed at me for bringing trouble to his doorstep and decided to make my life miserable as repayment. I could understand that, I’d probably do the same.

I went back to ignoring him as the coffee cup was full. I expertly switched out the cup for the pot, intent on my first sip all the while wondering why Lee still hadn’t moved.

Then he did, a hand disappeared and a second later I felt my hair being swept off my left shoulder, around my neck and over my right.

I jumped at this intimate gesture and so did other parts of my anatomy. I didn’t even try to ignore it. Any effort would have been futile.

Lee’s chin went to where my hair used to be just as his hand slid across my abdomen and pulled me to him.

My entire body went still.

“We need to talk,” he said into my ear.

I stood there, frozen, coffee cup aloft, nowhere near awake enough to process his extraordinary actions and also in kind of total shock.

I said the only thing I could think to say.

“I need milk.”

Without moving his body or head, his hand left my middle, I heard the fridge open and the glug of milk against plastic and then the fridge closed again.

Lee set the milk in front of me and his hand went back to the counter, keeping me where I was.

Real slick.

My stomach fluttered.

“Thank you,” I said politely, blinking a lot and wondering if I was still asleep and dreaming.

I poured some milk in my joe concentrating on not letting my body tremble. I was trying to be cool but I was confused. This kind of behavior from Lee had never happened before.

As in, ever.

I took a sip of coffee and tried to get my mind in gear.

“Do you want to explain to me why you have me pressed up against the counter?” I asked, using what I hoped was a questioning-yet-diplomatic tone rather than a freaked-out, ohmigod, hell-has-just-frozen-over tone.

This was hard for me. I needed to be alert and aware in any situation involving Lee in order not to snap and declare my undying love for him but I’d only had one sip of coffee.

And somehow, this was definitely a situation involving Lee, in fact, it was more like a dangerous situation involving Lee.

I took another sip, going for the gusto and burned my tongue.

“Yeow!”

While I was recovering, Lee turned me around and moved further into me.

He did this well, considering there wasn’t a lot of space to move and even less space to move into. Not to mention, I had the coffee cup between us. He settled his hands on the counter on either side of me again.

“Why have you been avoiding me?”

Yikes.

Direct shot.

He didn’t even lead into it.

Although his eyes and features were still gentle, it wasn’t from just waking up. I could tell Lee was as alert and aware as you could get. The gentleness was from something else.

Shit, shit, shit.

What in holy hell was going on?

I decided to play stupid.

“What?” I asked.

“You heard me,” he answered.

Then there are those times when honesty was not the best policy.

“I haven’t been avoiding you,” I took another sip thinking I should have put another scoop or two of coffee in the filter.

“You’re lying. The last time we were both at dinner, you got up in the middle of Mom’s fajita presentation and said you forgot to feed your cat.”

Uh-oh.

“So?”

“You don’t have a cat.”

“I was cat-sitting,” I lied.

He smiled.

He smiled The Smile.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Man, Lee could smile.

Then he said, “All right, I’m all out of patience with this one. You have two choices. Either you talk to me about what’s been botherin’ you for the last decade or I tell you how you’re gonna pay me back for this Rosie debacle.”

“Is there a choice number three?” I asked.

He shook his head.

I slid my eyes to the right, chewed the inside of my bottom lip and thought about my choices. I did my best to forget about the glimpse of hard, muscled chest and six-pack I’d seen in the weak moment I allowed myself to look down.

And, he was wearing faded jeans with the top button not done up.

Yikes.

Okay.

Focus.

Choices.

Firstly, I was never, never, never in a million years going to tell Lee Nightingale that I’d been in love with him since I was five and he sat next to me during my Mom’s memorial service and held my hand. I was never going to tell him it was a Bon Jovi-style shot through the heart when he told me he wasn’t interested in me because I was his little sister’s best friend. And I was never, never, never, ever going to tell him that something had changed in him and he scared the pants off me.

Secondly, no matter what he said, he was Lee and he was right all those years ago, in a way, we were family. We did all our holidays together as family and went to Broncos games with our Dads when we were kids. We had barbeques at each other’s houses nearly every Saturday during the summer, even now. Hell, it was mid-June and I’d just had the barbeque at my house two weeks ago and Lee had been there. Even though he’d changed, he would always be Lee. He probably wanted cheap maid service or something. Someone to do his laundry. Take his car to have the oil changed.